India West Bengal Complete Guide 2026: Kolkata, Sundarbans, Darjeeling, Shantiniketan, Bishnupur
Browse more guides: India travel | Asia destinations TL;DR West Bengal packs four UNESCO sites, a tiger-bearing mangrove, a colonial hill station with a steam railway, and the cultural capital of eastern India into one 88,752 km² state. I spent three weeks moving from Kolkata's Park Street through the Sundarbans, up to Darjeeling, and across the Shantiniketan and Bishnupur heritage belt. This guide covers costs, permits, transport, and Bengali food. Why Visit West Bengal in 2026 Four UNESCO inscriptions sit inside this state. Sundarbans National Park entered the World Heritage list in 1987 for the largest mangrove ecosystem on Earth and its swimming Royal Bengal Tigers. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway joined in 1999 as part of the Mountain Railways of India, an 1881 narrow-gauge line still pulling steam carriages up to 2,257 metres. Shantiniketan, the open-air university town founded by Rabindranath Tagore, was inscribed in September 2023. Durga Puja in Kolkata was added to ...