Want to hear about one of the most talked about and refreshing weekend destinations from Kolkata? Here in this blog, we are going to talk about our one-day road trip to Ffort Raichok.
The geography: Situated on the eastern bank of Hooghly, Raichak, a small river town is around 20 km from Diamond Harbour and 50 km from Kolkata and is positioned as a bridging link between the port town, Haldia and our city of joy, Kolkata.
The river: Raichok offers a spectacular view of the river; where you can often observe big vessels and ships plying around every now and then. The river here is significantly wide and profound and during night you can also see the glittering dazzles coming out of the port and industrial town of Haldia from the other side of the river. The river has its own charm here and sitting on the bank of it you can have a real break from your hectic busy weekdays just by doing NOTHING and looking into the water flow.
The road : (How to reach Raichak) Raichak is just 2.5 hours drive from Kolkata (50km). Irrespective of where you are starting from, you need to reach Joka and then Diamond harbor road (DH Road) and from there Sarisha in about 30 mins and take a right turn just before Diamond Harbour. Raichak is another 5 km from here
And finally, The resort: Let us now focus on the main aspect of our discussion today, on where we stayed.
We spent our hard-earned day break at Ffort Raichak. Ffort Raichak; as many of you might already know, is a Fort-themed resort, where they have broadly two categories of rooms: garden view and river view.
Ffort Raichak is a 5-star category resort from the house of the Ambuja Hospitality group. Along with Ffort Raichak they also have two other categories of premium resorts here: Ganga Kutir and Anaya. The entire township of resorts, hotels and private bungalows is called “Raichak On Ganges”
The rooms at Ganga Kutir is, are synonymous with uber luxury; where each room costs around Rs 15K per night, and you can swim in your private infinity pool and enjoy the marvelous view of the Ganges from there while sipping from your chilled can of beer. Anaya on ther other hand is not so premium and falls in between Ffort Raichak and Ganga-Kutir.
Upon arrival, you will be greeted with a welcome drink and will be accompanied to your room. We chose the river view room and our room was provided on the 4th floor. The private balcony offers a spectacular view of the river from your room and you can just chill and relax while sitting on the couch at the balcony for the entire evening. The rooms here are big, with maintained, well-decorated and organized cupboards, bed, Television set and a minibar. In short, it offers ample luxury which is worth every penny you spent.
On the cost side, each river-facing room at Ffort Raichak is roughly around INR 7.5k. But wait, did I tell you a secret? The Ambuja group offers a discount package during the month of March – April every year; where you can book 2 nights there at the cost of one. We booked this discounted package and guess what, it comes with a complimentary buffet breakfast too; where you can load your tummy the next morning with the best possible continental and Indian delights; starting from sausages and variety of omelettes to kachori, dal, and dosa. The full-course and delicious breakfast is actually another unique selling point of this resort.
What to do?
What to do at Raichak? Umm !! to be honest a lot or you may choose to do nothing; just sit and relax. The choice is yours. If you want to explore the entire township, we would suggest to go and visit the Raichak Ferry ghat while you are checking in during the first day. Apart from that, you can explore the entire Raichak on Ganges township. You can have a walk along the bank of the river during the evening time and see how the sun sets in. You can roam around and enjoy the scenic beauties and the bliss of solitude at every corner of this place and finally; you can click a lot of pictures.
What did we do ? Oh !! As usual. Went out for an evening stroll, clicked a lot of snaps, went for a long swim break at Ffort Raichok’s well-maintained blue water swimming pool, and then just chilled and relaxed during the rest of the evening.
So, if you are really stressed and want to take a quick break while looking into the setting sun over the flowing river; Raichak should be in your list for a weekend drive. So, pack your sleeves and shorts, take a floater and go out on a weekend ride. Raichak will definitely not disappoint you.
Some useful links:
- Keep an eye on the website of Raichak on Ganges for the amazing voucher (During March-April)
- The FB Page of the resort
Follow us on Insta and FB for more updates. Please feel free to share this blog across. Till then happy holidaying.