Kolkata Tours & Hooghly River Cruises

Your Kolkata cruise on the Hooghly or Lower Ganges River will take you through the lush countryside of West Bengal past culturally significant towns crammed with temples and palaces. This pretty journey starts or ends in Kolkata, India’s third-largest city, which still retains much of its colonial-era architecture; its crumbling, weather-beaten buildings contrasting starkly with its air-conditioned shopping malls, hip cafés and restaurants.

The river is spanned by the remarkable cantilever Howrah Bridge, an engineering marvel that links the city with the magnificent Howrah Railway Station, the tranquil Botanical Gardens, and the eclectic Indian Museum housing one of the largest collections in Asia. Other important sights in Kolkata include the grand white marble Victoria Memorial, St Paul’s Cathedral with its tall Gothic spires, and the famous Writers’ Building, built in 1780 and the seat of state government, which originally housed the junior clerks or “writers” of the East India Company.