West Bengal

Few states change so completely end to end. In the north, Darjeeling sits at about 2,050 metres, with the toy train of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway still hauling up through Batasia Loop and Tiger Hill offering a dawn line of Kangchenjunga; Sandakphu, the state's highest point at 3,636 metres, shows Everest and Kangchenjunga on the same horizon. The Dooars below hold rhino at Jaldapara and elephant at Gorumara. In the south, the Sundarbans spread the world's largest mangrove forest across tidal creeks where Royal Bengal tigers swim between islands. Between the two lies Kolkata, a city of Victoria Memorial marble, the 1943 Howrah Bridge, Kumartuli's clay idol workshops, College Street's second-hand books and an unbroken adda culture. Durga Puja, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021, turns entire neighbourhoods into commissioned art for five days each autumn. Bishnupur's terracotta temples, Murshidabad's Hazarduari and Tagore's Shantiniketan fill the middle of the map. Signature journeys pair Kolkata with Darjeeling, or Kolkata with the Sundarbans and Bishnupur.