Recently I have been to my maternal grand-father's house and visited North Bengal. As I had time of 1 full day in hand, thought of exploring a bit. West Bengal government till yet could not promote its tourism extensively and more truthfully, effectively. If I discuss places to visit in Bengal with other travellers hailing from other parts of India, people tend to point out only Darjeeling. But there are many places other than darjeeling (which is definitely stunning).
One has to take a flight till Bagdogra airport ie silliguri from kolkata and from there you can easily hire car to these places namely Murti River, Gajaldoba and Mal Bazar. Since I was at jalpaiguri, I have rented the cab from there.
You can reach new jalpaiguri station also via train from kolkata and rent a jeep from there. Please bargain properly with jeep guy and let him know beforehand what are all the places you are planning to visit so that no confusion begins later.
It will take around 1 hour and 45 minutes to reach murti river, further more 30 minutes to mal bazar which has a beautiful Mal Park showcasing various medicinal plants and flowers. You can make it a pit-stop for your lunch also and then proceed towards Gajaldoba where you will see a beautiful dam. If you have time in hand, you can stay here at gajaldoga, there are many resorts now and tourist lodge too. These places are not touristy and even in early winters, you wont find much crowd which makes the place calming.
Murti river also has beautiful small resorts around it, you can easily go for a picnic on the pebbled shores of murti river and spend a sunny sunday lazily here, contemplating the laid back life.
Rooms are budget friendly and food is cheap too. Try visiting these places in winter as the weather remains very pleasant.
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