Choosing your moving date
Two festival seasons shape this route. In Kolkata, Durga Puja, usually in September or October, fills the city with pandals and crowds for several days, and many roads close. In Varanasi, Dev Deepawali, usually in November, and other festival days crowd the ghats and the old city. Plan the move well away from both.
Kolkata's monsoon, from about June to September, is heavy, and low-lying roads can flood. February and March are usually the most comfortable window for both ends.
Leaving Varanasi
If your home is in the old city's lanes behind the ghats, goods have to be carried by hand or cart to the nearest road, which takes more people and more time. Ask the mover to see photos or visit before quoting. Homes in Sigra, Lanka, Bhelupur or the Cantonment usually have room for a truck, though stairs and gates still need checking.
Start early, before the lanes fill, and keep a list of anything precious, such as pooja items and heirlooms, so you can check them first in Kolkata.
Along the Grand Trunk Road
NH 19 runs east from Varanasi across Bihar through Sasaram and Aurangabad, then through Jharkhand past Dhanbad and into West Bengal via Asansol and Durgapur before Kolkata. It's a busy freight corridor, and stretches through the towns and the industrial belt near Dhanbad and Asansol can be slow.
On longer routes a truck usually covers about 400 km a day after dispatch, so two days is a sensible expectation. Ask whether your goods travel alone or in a shared truck, and whether they'll be moved between vehicles at any point.
Into Kolkata
North and central Kolkata have old houses on narrow lanes where a truck may need to stop well away from the door, while Salt Lake, New Town and the towers along the EM Bypass usually have room but ask for notice, permitted hours and a lift booking. Tell the mover which part of the city you're moving to, and share the building's rules before loading day.
City traffic is heavy through the day, so ask the mover when they expect to unload and whether that fits your building's hours.
Damp and the monsoon
Kolkata is humid for much of the year, and the monsoon is heavy. If you arrive between June and September, ask for plastic over mattresses, sofas and wooden furniture, and keep fans running after unloading. Open cartons of books, clothes and bedding early, and use silica gel in drawers and cupboards.
Polished wood and leather can react to the damp, so keep them away from walls that get wet.
Two river cities
Both cities live by a river: the Ganga at Varanasi and the Hooghly at Kolkata, and both have old neighbourhoods, deep religious traditions and famous sweets. Many families on this route are moving for work, study or to join relatives, and Hindi is widely understood in Kolkata, though Bengali is the main language.
Kolkata is far bigger, with heavier traffic, so check your commute at peak hours before signing a lease.
Settling in
Register with your building or society for parking and visitors on the first day, and find out how water and power backup work. Book internet as soon as you have the address. Update your bank, employer and delivery apps with the new address; our guide to address changes after moving covers the main official updates.