Gulmarg or Kolkata?

1,868 km apart, both in India. Each is scored month by month on the same ten years of climate readings, the public holidays that crowd it, and what the flight costs. This is where they part, and when.

• GulmargIndia · best Feb, Jun, Sep
• KolkataIndia · best Jan, Feb, Nov

Month by month

• Sweet spot
• Good
• OK
• Avoid
• Busy

Each cell is that destination's own verdict for the month — sweet spot, ok or avoid — with its typical daily high and its rainy days ("11d": days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them). The pick goes to the better verdict; with the same verdict, to the higher score, unless the two are within a whisker of each other, when it is either. A month both would avoid is neither. A dot marks a busy month. Fares are the typical return from Bengaluru, in INR.

Before you go

Both are in India, so the currency, the plugs and the travel advice are the same: type C and D plugs, driving on the left, paying in the Indian rupee. Everything for India.

On arrival

• Apps — Rides: Ola, Rapido, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: WhatsApp. The apps also book auto-rickshaws, and bike taxis where these are allowed.
• Paying — Cards are taken at larger hotels, chain stores and many restaurants; small shops and family-run businesses rarely take them, so carry some cash.
• Getting around Kolkata — Buy a token or a paper QR ticket at the station, or a mobile QR ticket in the Aamar Kolkata Metro app; regulars use a Metro smart card.
• Tipping — Not traditional; up to 10% is usual only in smarter restaurants. Taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers do not expect a tip.
• Emergency — 112 (any emergency).
  TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 3 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Between them

1,868 km as the crow flies, about 3h 12m in the air.

The flight time is estimated from the distance. A nonstop or a road is named only where a record has it — nonstop routes from Wikipedia's airport articles (CC BY-SA 4.0), roads from openrouteservice.org by HeiGIT — and none of it is a fare; the searches on each destination's page are where prices live.

Also compared

• Gulmarg or Ahmedabad
• Gulmarg or The Andaman Islands
• Gulmarg or Bengaluru
• Gulmarg or Chennai
• Gulmarg or Colombo
• Gulmarg or Delhi
• Gulmarg or Goa
• Gulmarg or Hyderabad
• Gulmarg or Jaipur
• Gulmarg or Kathmandu
• Gulmarg or Kochi
• Gulmarg or Leh

Every verdict here is the destination's own: ten years of climate readings, the public holidays that crowd it, and what the flight costs. The comparison is the difference between two pages, not a third opinion.