Places to visit in West Bengal
79 places to visit in West Bengal, each with LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own: Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, Santiniketan, Sundarbans National Park and more. Stand at any of them with the app open and the stamp is yours, confirmed on site, in your West Bengal volume.
3 UNESCO World Heritage sites · 8 National monuments · 2 State heritage sites · 28 Famous places to visit · 7 Offbeat places · 31 Hidden gems
UNESCO World Heritage sites in West Bengal (3)
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Darjeeling Himalayan Railway
Two foot gauge climbing to twenty three hundred metres by loops and zigzags, running since 1881.
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Santiniketan
Tagore's school, inscribed in 2023.
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Sundarbans National Park
The largest mangrove forest on earth, shared with Bangladesh, and where the tigers are strong swimmers.
National monuments in West Bengal (8)
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Adina Mosque
Once the largest mosque in the subcontinent, built for the Bengal Sultanate at Pandua, with its builder buried inside it.
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Chandraketugarh
A mound north of Kolkata with two thousand years in it, and terracotta nobody has fully published.
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Cooch Behar Palace
Modelled on Buckingham Palace in 1887, with a dome twenty four metres above a marble floored durbar hall.
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Hangseshwari Temple
A temple at Bansberia with thirteen lotus-bud towers, laid out as a body in tantric anatomy.
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Hazarduari Palace
A thousand doors, nine hundred of them false.
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Karnasuvarna
The capital of Shashanka, king of Gauda, now mounds and a monastery under excavation.
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Katra Masjid
Murshid Quli Khan is buried under the steps.
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St John's Church, Kolkata
The city's oldest church, 1787, with Job Charnock's mausoleum in the yard.
State heritage sites in West Bengal (2)
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Buxa Fort
A fort at 867 metres inside the Buxa forest, thirty kilometres up from Alipurduar.
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South Park Street Cemetery
Obelisks and pyramids over people who died at thirty.
Famous places to visit in West Bengal (28)
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Ajodhya Hills
An extension of the Eastern Ghats in Purulia, with a hydel reservoir at the top and climbers on the rock.
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Alipore Zoological Gardens
India's oldest zoo, open in Kolkata since 1876.
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Belur Math
One building holding a temple, a mosque and a church.
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Boro Maa Kali Temple, Naihati
Naihati's Boro Maa, begun in 1923 after a young man came back from Nabadwip and dreamed of her.
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Chandannagar Strand
French India on the Hooghly, and the jagaddhatri lights.
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Dakshineswar Kali Temple
Built in 1855 by a woman the priesthood tried to refuse, and where Ramakrishna spent thirty years.
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Digha
Bengal's first sea, for most of Bengal.
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Eden Gardens
Sixty eight thousand, and the sound they make.
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Farakka Barrage
A barrage across the Ganga in Murshidabad, built through the 1960s, eighteen kilometres short of the Bangladesh border.
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Fort William
The star fort the East India Company built after Calcutta fell, still an army headquarters and still closed.
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Gour
A sultanate capital gone back to fields and brick.
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Howrah Bridge
A cantilever bridge carrying a hundred thousand vehicles a day on no bolts, riveted throughout, opened in 1943.
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Indian Museum
The ninth oldest museum in the world, opened in 1814, holding the Bharhut railings and an Egyptian mummy.
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Jorasanko Thakur Bari
Where Tagore was born and died.
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Kalighat Temple
The Shakti Peetha the city is named for.
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Kalimpong
A former trading post on the Tibet route at twelve hundred metres, now known for nurseries and cheese.
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Kurseong
Halfway up the Darjeeling line, where the toy train runs down the middle of the bazaar and the orchids are white.
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Maidan
A thousand acres of open ground kept clear since 1758 so the fort's cannon would have a field of fire.
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Mandarmani
Thirteen kilometres of hard flat sand that vehicles drive on, and red crabs that move in sheets.
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Mayapur
The birthplace of Chaitanya on the Ganga, and the international headquarters of the Hare Krishna movement.
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Park Street
Christmas, and the cemetery at the other end.
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Rabindra Sarobar
An artificial lake and park in south Kolkata, known before as Dhakuria Lake.
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Sagar Island
An island in the Ganga delta a hundred kilometres below Kolkata, where the river finally reaches the sea.
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St Paul's Cathedral
Indo Gothic of 1847, its spire rebuilt after an earthquake on the model of Bell Harry tower at Canterbury.
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Tarapith
Bamakhepa's seat, and the cremation ground behind.
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Tiger Hill
People drive up before dawn to watch the sun strike Kanchenjunga, and on a clear day Everest is visible too.
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Victoria Memorial
White marble beside the Maidan, holding the paintings and the ghosts of the Raj.
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Writers' Building
Built in 1777 for the Company's junior clerks, the seat of Bengal's government for two centuries, and the scene of the 1930 raid.
Offbeat places in West Bengal (7)
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Bibhutibhushan Wildlife Sanctuary
A small sanctuary in North 24 Parganas, a hundred kilometres out of Kolkata.
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Joychandi Pahar
A hill in Purulia, two kilometres out of Raghunathpur.
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Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary
Forest in the Himalayan foothills between the Teesta and the Mahananda.
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Motijhil
A horseshoe shaped lake at Murshidabad, long known as the Company's lake.
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Neora Valley National Park
Red panda country, and almost no roads.
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Raiganj Wildlife Sanctuary
Kulik, near Raiganj, where a hundred and sixty four kinds of bird have been counted.
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Sandakphu
Four of the five highest peaks on earth from one ridge.
Hidden gems in West Bengal (31)
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Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Botanic Garden
Holds the Great Banyan, over two hundred and fifty years old, with a canopy wider than any other tree on earth.
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Bakkhali
Sand, casuarina and no hawkers.
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Bandel Church
Portuguese, and the oldest church in Bengal.
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Batasia Loop
The toy train turns a full circle around a war memorial.
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Bishnupur Terracotta Temples
Malla dynasty temples built from brick because there was no stone, their walls covered in fired clay panels.
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Buxa Tiger Reserve
A fort used as a prison, deep inside the forest.
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Cathedral of the Most Holy Rosary
The Portuguese church at Murgihata, Calcutta's oldest Catholic cathedral.
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College Street
A kilometre and a half of secondhand booksellers, said to be the largest such market in the world.
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Coronation Bridge
The bridge over the Teesta at Sevoke, carrying the road from the plains up into the hills.
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Falut
The second highest point in West Bengal, on the Nepal border, with Everest and Kanchenjunga from one spot.
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Garh Panchkot
A ruined fort at the foot of Panchet hill, whose name means the fort of the five clans.
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Gorumara National Park
Watchtowers over salt licks in the Terai.
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Gurusaday Museum
A folk art collection of Bengal in a garden south of Kolkata, gathered by one district officer.
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Happy Valley Tea Estate
The second oldest garden in Darjeeling.
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Hooghly Imambara
A clock wound by hand every week.
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Jaldapara National Park
Rhino in the dooars, seen from an elephant.
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Kamarpukur and Jayrambati
Where Ramakrishna and Sarada Devi were born.
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Kumartuli
The potters' quarter where the Durga idols are built on straw and clay from the river, then given away to the water.
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Lava and Lolegaon
Canopy walk, and the Kanchenjunga through fir.
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Marble Palace
A private nineteenth century mansion of a hundred and twenty six kinds of marble, still lived in by the family.
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Mirik
A lake, a bridge and tea all around.
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Mukutmanipur
Where the Kangsabati and Kumari are held back.
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Nakhoda Masjid
Calcutta's principal mosque, of 1926, its gate modelled on Akbar's tomb.
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Netaji Bhawan
The house on Elgin Road Subhas Chandra Bose left in disguise in January 1941.
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Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park
Darjeeling's zoo at seven thousand feet, open since 1958.
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Prinsep Ghat
The Palladian portico under the Vidyasagar Setu.
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Senchal Lake
A lake above Darjeeling that supplies the town, with a sanctuary round it.
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Singalila National Park
The ridge along the Nepal border where the trek to Sandakphu runs, red pandas in the rhododendron.
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Susunia Hill
Rock climbing, and a fourth century inscription.
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Tipu Sultan Mosque
Built in 1832 by Tipu's youngest son, who was exiled to Calcutta and stayed.
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Vivekananda Setu
A truss bridge over the Hooghly finished in 1931, running from Bally across to Dakshineswar.
Collecting in West Bengal
What are the best places to visit in West Bengal?
LOQAH lists 79 places in West Bengal. The best known include Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, Santiniketan, Sundarbans National Park, Adina Mosque and Chandraketugarh. Each has a stamp of its own to collect when you are there.
How many LOQAH stamps are there in West Bengal?
79, and more are added over time. Each place has LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own.
How do I collect a stamp in West Bengal?
Open LOQAH at the place and get its stamp. LOQAH checks where you are once, at that moment; at the place itself the stamp is confirmed on site, with a gold badge.
I have been to places in West Bengal before. Can I add them?
Yes. In Earlier trips, choose West Bengal and swipe through its stamps, or import your Google Timeline. Each one goes into your volume with the date, if you know it.
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