After a maddening week of battling work pressure, traffic jams, deadlines and assignments, a relaxing weekend is called for. The trend of going away for a weekend is on the rise among people in metropolitan cities and Kolkata is not behind them. Thanks to the efforts made by the tourism department of the state, a number of places have emerged as popular weekend getaways among people. Gadiara in Hooghly, Noorpur, Diamond Harbour, Raichak, Falta, Deulti and Kolaghat are some of the popular spots for holidaying in the weekend.
Infrastructure Connecting These Places
The above mentioned places are within 3 hours of drive from Kolkata and they are connected via state and national highways. These places can be reached via railways as well. However, given the timeliness and reliability of railways, it is better to have one’s own transport when travelling to these places.
Most of these Kolkata Hotels-Resorts are situated on the banks of the Hooghly and its distributaries. Boating facilities are offered at most of these places. However, it is advisable to avoid going to these places during the monsoon because the water level in the river increases which leads to a lot of accidents. The resorts have a lot of open space and swimming pools are there as well.
In Ffort Radison at Raichak, special cuisines are served for lunch and dinner and special massages are also offered to guests. Parking facilities are also offered within the compound of the resorts and hence your vehicle will be completely safe.
Beach Tourism Around Kolkata
Earlier, Digha was the only place for a weekend getaway at a Beach in West Bengal. However, infrastructure has been developed in places like Junput, Mandermoni, Sankarpur, Tazpur, Bokkhali and Henry Island. The beaches are not very crowded and the resorts present here offer all amenities that one would want on a weekend. Junput, Tazpur, Mandermoni and Sankarpur are connected via the SH 4.
To reach any of these places from Kolkata, one would have to drive around for 4 hours. It is better to travel during day time because there is not sufficient light on the highways and the signalling system is also not as well developed as it should be.
The popular resorts in Mandermoni are Rose Valley and Sana Beach Resort. In Tajpur, Nature Camp and Green Earth are popular resorts.
Booking a Room at a Resort
One needs to book in advance at these resorts because a lot of people want to spend their weekends here. Most of these resorts have an office in the city where the bookings can be done. Car facilities are also offered by the resorts and they can pick you up from a pre-determined point. Bookings can also be made over the telephone.
Contact information of these resorts is available online on Hotels-Resorts classifieds. If one cannot get through to the resort directly, they can contact them through some agent in the city. Listings of agents are also available online.
Even though Kolkata is known to be a tea drinking city, with numerous tea stalls in every neighbourhood and a cup costing less than Rs 5, the citizens don’t fall behind when it comes to enjoying a cup of coffee. These tea stalls are numerous with adda among the residents in a neighbourhood. The adda or meeting session starts from early morning and goes on till late night even. However, little do people know that the average Kolkatan loves his coffee as much as he loves his tea. Coffee is not as easily available as tea in the city. There are very few shanties that sell coffee in the city. Moreover, the shanties that do, sell the instant varieties manufactured by Bru and Nescafe. You cannot find a cup of Mocha or Espresso coffee at these places.
Coffee has always been a drink for the elite in most parts of India. In the early 1900s, the famous coffee joints in the city were the Indian Coffee House on Chittaranjan Avenue and Bankim Chatterjee Street, an offshoot of College Street. Flurys, the famous bakery in Park Street, also serves a good cup of coffee and so does Kwality, again in Park Street.
Café Coffee Day and Barista were the two coffee chains that took a quality cup to different neighbourhoods. You can find different brews of coffee in these joins- Espresso, Cappuccino, Mocha, Latte etc. They use beans that have been procured from different parts of the world to prepare a brew. These brands have outlets in every locality in the city and they have taken the common man in Kolkata closer to a hot cup. Along with coffee, they sell other drinks like milk shakes, sodas and lemonades. Small bites like sandwiches and cakes are available.
Café Coffee Day, for example, sells tins of coffee to customers as well. You can buy ground coffee or beans from them. The coffee is packed in tins of 100g, 250g and 500g even. They cost anything between Rs 100 and Rs 200.
Patisseries have come up in the city that offers good food along with a good cup of coffee. The Paris Café, Rouge, Mrs. Magpie and Wise Owl are some of the new joints that have opened up in the city and they serve a good cup of coffee along with delectable confectionaries like waffles, crepes, cup-cakes and coffee cakes. A mean for two will cost you around Rs 500.
Kolkata is a city with refined taste among citizens and good food will always attract them. You too can start your own coffee shop in a corner of the city. It might appear to be a big investment to make. You can cut it a little short by buying second hand crushers and grinders for coffee beans and espresso machines. Many coffee shops want to get rid of older equipment and they sell it off at a reasonable price. You can pick up equipment from there for your Restaurants & Coffee Shops. You can find sellers of such equipment by logging on to free online classifieds.
Dabbawalah System: Mumbai is already well-known for its unique dabbawalah service offered by hundreds of such service providers and is a source of employment for many of the illiterate and semi-literate population of India. The magnitude of the dabbawalah business, the way it has expanded over the years since it was first started during the British rule and how it is still run with precision by the literate and semi-literate workers has captured the interest and curiosity of people worldwide. It has been estimated there are about 4000 dabbawalahs who deliver home-made lunch to working professionals to over 1,60,000 people everyday. The food carried by these tiffin carrier systems contain a two-course meal and carried via buses, trains and carts all across different parts of Mumbai, reaching food on time every day. Many housewives are known to run the dabbawalah systems as well thus giving people the benefit of having hygienic home-made food without spending unnecessary money on unhealthy junk food everyday. It has thus become a regular source of income for the many housewives of Mumbai and a source of employment to the people who deliver these tiffin boxes. The precision, coordination and system with which they work have fascinated people all these years. The people who deliver the tiffin boxes must also follow a strict code of conduct as not being able to consume alcohol during duty hours and wearing Gandhi caps for recognition by people in public places like stations.
Demand for Health Food: In recent years, people have started becoming more and more conscious about their health and the diet they follow. Especially youngsters today want to avoid any unhealthy food as a part of their daily diet thus raising the demand for healthy food. A lot of the catering services in Mumbai have been running their business for all these years with their typical meals that are home cooked and delivered through the dabbawalahs. However, many a time people have raised concern over the food quality and type of food because people these days prefer specific dishes based on their personal diets and cuisines. While this has become slightly difficult for some of the tiffin services offered, other businesses have tried to adopt this trend and help benefit their business positively.
Fast Food Joints vs. Tiffin Services: Although there is considerable competition with upcoming food joints and fast food joints in malls and places around offices in Mumbai, the cost of daily food makes tiffin services a more favourable option for most people. With meal boxes priced at around Rs.200-250 per month, this is much more cost effective when considered taking into factor costs and health.
Special Schemes Offered by Some Tiffin Services: Some of the tiffin and dabbawalah Mumbai services who have established them well enough have started adopting technology to benefit their business. Online menus and meal schemes are advertised through websites which becomes easier for people to look up and choose from. Some agencies have even come up with refer-a-friend scheme for greater discounts and deals on their meal plans. Online classifieds have become a favourable place for many enabling entrepreneurs and buyers to post free classifieds through this medium. One can sell or buy anything: find jobs, look for Mumbai retail services, sell a bike, buy a second hand car, and get information on educational institutes and other requirements.
