Calcutta

Calcutta Travel Guide

Calcutta is a dynamo-exhausting and exhaustive-and a visit here is essential if you really want to experience India. It's the country's best city for walkers, with streets that tell stories: Old mansions, dripping with moss and spotted with mildew, remind us of its affluent history tied to cultures and people-Armenians, Bengalis, the British, and Marwari merchants from Rajasthan; vast bazaars reveal clues to today's Bengali culture; and the pavement dwellers show the daily rhythm and rigors of their own difficult lives.