Top choice in Kolkata (Calcutta)
The Sunflower is what all budget hotels in Kolkata should strive to be. It's housed in a grand 1865 residential building – take the vintage lift to the top then climb one floor to check in. Rooms can be slightly spartan but they’re assiduously cleaned, with high ceilings. Pleasant communal spaces are available, and the rooftop garden at dusk is delightful.
A few triple rooms (with/without air-con ₹2250/1950) are also available. Discounts for long stays if you let staff know in advance.
5.46 MILES
Set very attractively amid palms and manicured lawns, this large religious centre is the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission, inspired by 19th-century…
0.94 MILES
The incredible Victoria Memorial is a vast, beautifully proportioned festival of white marble: think US Capitol meets Taj Mahal. Had it been built for a…
4.23 MILES
Despite being an awkward journey by public transport, Kolkata’s lovely 109-hectare Botanical Gardens makes for a great place to escape from the city’s…
3.26 MILES
Countless clay effigies of deities and demons immersed in the Hooghly during Kolkata’s colourful pujas (offering or prayers) are created in specialist…
2.03 MILES
Built in 1835 by a raja from the prosperous Mallick family, this resplendent mansion is as grand as it is curious. Its marble-draped halls are overstuffed…
0.4 MILES
India's biggest and oldest major museum celebrated its bicentenary in February 2014. It's mostly a lovably old-fashioned place that fills a large…
2.2 MILES
The stately 1784 family mansion of Rabindranath Tagore has become a shrine-like museum to India’s greatest modern poet. Even if his personal effects don’t…
2.42 MILES
This ancient Kali temple is Kolkata’s holiest spot for Hindus, and possibly the source of the city’s name. Today’s version is the 1809 rebuild, with…
0.24 MILES
Opened in 1842, this understated Catholic church has a Doric-columned portico topped by a short octagonal spire. It was here that the body of Mother (St)…
0.4 MILES
India's biggest and oldest major museum celebrated its bicentenary in February 2014. It's mostly a lovably old-fashioned place that fills a large…
3. Harrington Street Arts Centre
0.42 MILES
Exhibitions of contemporary artworks by Indian and international artists in diverse media are spread through four spacious rooms of this classic Kolkata…
0.45 MILES
New Market has a grand colonial clocktower, but by day it's a nest of handicraft touts. Come before 8am, while the touts are sleeping, to calmly…
0.48 MILES
Marked by a distinctive red-brick clocktower, this enormous warren of market halls dates to 1874, but was substantially rebuilt after a 1980s fire. By day…
0.59 MILES
Active from 1767 to about 1840, this historic cemetery remains a wonderful oasis of calm, featuring surreal mossy Raj-era graves from rotundas to soaring…
7. Mother Teresa's Motherhouse
0.59 MILES
A regular flow of mostly Christian pilgrims visits the Missionaries of Charity’s 'Motherhouse' to pay homage at Mother (and now Saint) Teresa’s large,…
0.62 MILES
Revolutionary nationalist-turned-guru Sri Aurobindo – who later went on to establish the famous ashram at Auroville near Pondicherry – was born in…