Advantages: Amazingly hospitable, Great people, Historical British architecture, Great transport links, Good food .
Disadvantages: Racist overcharging of foreign visitors. Third world government for a first rate people .

...Calcutta. A city of 14,000 000 people, and one of the most vibrant and interesting cities in the world, and typically for India very hospitable too. Indians are beautiful people. If you like architecture, its a living museum of British architecture with Howrah railway station and bridge, the biggest lighthouse(Shahid Minar) I've ever seen, slap bang in the centre......Tagore House, The amazing Marble Palace(free entrance), the old writers building on Dalhousie Square and best of all the Victoria Memorial. A huge white building not too dissimilar to the White House in size and in looks. Then there's the Birla Planetarium, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Kali and Paresnath Temples, and numerous other mosques and temples to visit. Never been so enthralled with the buildings of a city as I was with Calcutta. There are just too many... Read review

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Advantages: many connection
Disadvantages: crowdy, no facilities for passengers

...well I had been twice on Calcutta, now kolkatta airport, when I was going and coming back from Ranchi. It is very crowded with not much facilities for passengers. As it is main hub of eastern India so many passengers rushing here and there. Flight schedules often changes without notice. No good facility of drinking water or food. No Television sets out side of security check in. safety issues are there. we have to be cafefull all time for our luggage. staff is friendly though over loaded. Calcutta has many connected flights for eastern part and north eastern part of India. Any holiday to north east India has almost unavoidable stop over at Calcutta. So it is better to get ready for crowdy and mismanaged airport before landing there.... Read review

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Advantages: BEAUTIFUL, CHEAP, helpful people, cultural, colourful
Disadvantages: dirty, crowded, old. hot and humid.

...Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta) is the capital of the state of West Bengal located in East of India. It’s a very populated city but filled with culture, tradition and history. It has many of it buildings crumbling and streets smelling, which might make you think that it is a filthy city. But after you spend some time, you’ll realise that the city has been unfairly defamed. If you try to know it deeper, you’ll realise why it has been accredited as the cultural capital of India. It has some of the finest remnants of British Raj in India being the capital of British India till the beginning of 20th Century, but it still has a strong Bengali heart. It is also considered as the India’s friendliest metropolis. It is the birthplace of several famous people like Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore, novelist William Thackeray... Read review

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Advantages: The cities outskirts are beautiful, cheap to travel
Disadvantages: pollution, electricity failures, language barrier

...Never been abroad to a developing country? After having recently visited Calcutta, I recommend this city to be visited by all who feel they need a new challenge, and at the same time wish to revel in the sunshine and, for once, smile when it rains cats and dogs. The challenge? Whilst many of the shops and services are labelled in English, many people of Calcutta prefer to speak the language of Bengali although many will understand English. The taxi is possibly your best method of transport, and the value of the rupee to the pound allows you to travel across the city for less than 10 pounds. Taxi rides can be fun what with pot-holed roads or flooded streets but if you have back problems this place is not for you. Be prepared for many mosquitoes and insects....the more on the outskirts of the city you are, the more insects... Read review

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Advantages: Lovely food, lovely people, a shoppers paradise...
Disadvantages: Too hot at almost any time of year & traffic's a nightmare

...A born and bred Londoner (British Indian) I visited Calcutta as a child and remember disliking it immensely because of the heat and apart from being spoilt by relatives I couldn't wait to get back to London. I didn't visit again till January 1998 for 2 weeks when I enjoyed my trip and with one thing and another didn't get to go back until December 2003 and since then I've been back in 2004, 2005 and 2007 usually for 2 or 3 weeks. Are you sitting comfortably? This is a long one… Some facts for you to digest firstly, to give you an idea about Calcutta in general: • It was renamed Kolkata in January 2001 (Kolkata is how native Bengali people pronounce Calcutta). • Calcutta was the capital of India until the British changed it to Delhi in 1911. Mother Teresa, after coming to Calcutta in 1929, was a permanent resident... Read review

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Advantages: see text
Disadvantages: see text

...Calcutta.......a wonderful city, with every kind of person you could wish to meet and some of them whom you wouldn't, and plenty of them! I spent some time here about 4 years ago and my first impression on landing at the airport, was the SMELL. There is nothing quite like it on earth. It hits you before anything else, including the heat, when you step out into the street! Imagine your nostrils being assaulted by the worst and the best smells you can imagine and multiply that by a thousand, and you are somewhere near to the smell that greeted me on my arrival. The second thing to strike me on emergence from the airport building were the beggars.......from the very very old to the very very young they were there en masse. They will do anything for a few rupees and it is especially heartbreaking to see the amputations that have been... Read review

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Advantages: You'll never forget it
Disadvantages: You may never want to remember it

...There are 15 million people in Calcutta, and they all seemed to be in my train carriage when I took the underground there recently. Often neglected by visitors coming to India, too afraid to brave it's chaos, poverty and pollution, Calcutta is the kind of place that will tattoo itself to the inside of your eyeballs, and stay in your sub-conscious for ever. Once the epicentre of the British Empire in Asia, Calcutta has a jaw- dropping architectural heritage. Crumbling colonial buildings gather moss and squatters, in a state of collapse amongst the millions who scratch out what appears to be a miserable existence on its pavements. Men pulling rickshaws clatter over victorian cobble stoned streets. Battered trams fight for an inch of space amongst the congested streets, surrounded by decaying Georgian architecture reminiscent... Read review

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Advantages: A friendly megapolis
Disadvantages: Overpopulation

...This big city,which has nursed me since my childhood,is my favourite and I always cherish to get back here quickly whenever I am on a tour.We are displaced from East Pakistan,now Bangladesh,who got a warm shelter in Calcutta and got mingled in the sea of humanity here. Calcutta was the seat of Government during the days of British Rule till 1911after which the Capital was shifted to Delhi.It had the illustrious presence of Clive,Dalhousie,Hastings,Canning etc., during British days as rulers of India.Their very presence in this city ,as representatives of East India Company ,flourished this city in becoming the second city of the British Commonwealth,next only to London.Beautiful buildings,dotted with Lawns and statues,built by the British and the local rich earned the name 'City of Palaces' for Calcutta.Though ruthless modernity has... Read review

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