Book Cafes are emerging destinations for urbane readers, foodies and travelers in India, replacing the age-old habit of reading books in silent libraries on weekends with the trend of reading over cups of coffee or platefuls of snacks in homely environment at any time. These are the places where both food for the stomach and food for the mind are enjoyed peacefully in company of like-minded folks and in seclusion from outer hustle-bustle. The popularity of book cafes in India has recently paced up from metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore to small cities like Lucknow, Gangtok, Chandigarh and Shimla. Indian Eagle penetrates through the changing socio-cultural fabric of India to list 10 best book cafes where you can enjoy yourself over reading, writing, drinking, munching and eating.

Café Story in Kolkata 

Of the few Indian cities where reading is a favorite pastime, Kolkata is known for its traditional “reading and writing” culture. Needless to say, the city houses several book cafes. Among the hangouts for coffee and book aficionados in Kolkata, Café Story is a special mention for its graphic novel and comic theme. Café Story boasts a huge collection of books of different genres and serves a fair spread of snacks to readers. The beauty of the place may inspire you to pen a story. You never know!

Coffee Cup in Hyderabad   

If the area around the Charminar in Old City is an ideal destination for foodies and those looking to sip the best Irani Chai on summer evenings, wintry nights and monsoon days, Hyderabad has a few hangouts like the Coffee Cup for not only foodies but also bookworms, art lovers and coffee addicts. Both the sheesham wood interiors and the sit-out terrace with potted plants are cozy places to indulge in reading. With posters of cartoon characters and cinema stars on inner walls, the atmosphere of this book café in Hyderabad is high on the fun quotient.

Kitab Khana in Mumbai

Kitab Khana is one of the few places in Mumbai City where the tempo of life becomes slow for readers. With readers flipping the pages of books, toying with story ideas, and sipping coffee, Kitab Khana may seem offbeat to those on the run around the clock. It is not just a book café but also a boutique bookshop. You can try a number of desserts besides sipping coffee in peace here.

Literati in Goa

Reading books while sipping coffee at a quaint bungalow of the Portuguese style in Goa may sound offbeat to those who travel to Goa for beaches and water sports. Housed in a 100-year-old bungalow, Literati Bookshop & Café is one of the places to visit in Goa for the pleasure of reading, which is accompanied by sipping of Karnataka coffee and munching of homemade sandwiches. If you feel like spending some time with your favorite authors, there is no other place as cozy as Literati Bookshop & Café in Goa.

Café Turtle in Delhi

Delhi is next to Kolkata when it comes to claiming the title “the city of book lovers.” Among the book cafes across the cityscape, Café Turtle in Delhi is an ideal place for reading in solitude.  The book café boasts cheerful atmosphere and serves gastronomical delights. There is such a huge collection of books that you may feel spoilt for choice. No matter which book you read, make sure to have a slice of the date cake with toffee sauce.

Atta Galatta in Bangalore 

In Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India, where everyone lives, breaths and dreams technology, a place like Atta Galatta for creative activities including reading, writing, painting and playing music is a surprising bliss. One of the best book cafes in India, Atta Galatta in Bangalore is a meticulously designed cultural space with vibrant ambience, where there is a treasure of bestselling titles in English and popular Indian languages as well. The café owns an in-house bakery and serves yummy cookies during book launches and art workshops.

Café Fiction in Gangtok

Reading books and writing stories over cups of smoking hot Sikkimese tea is a pure bliss at Café Fiction in Gangtok. Scenic surrounding, serene atmosphere and availability of books on the Tibetan history make Café Fiction a must visit among the places to see in Gangtok. This book café serves a few authentic Sikkimese dishes as well. Both the reader and the foodie in you will be flattered at the treatment here.

Café Bookworm in Lucknow

Lucknow is a city of biryani and kebab for foodies. A place like Café Bookworm is a new-age hangout for creative and gastronomic recreation on the cityscape of Lucknow. Café Bookworm offers good books and great dishes with equal care. Visit the book café to enjoy the company of books and catch up with other book lovers and have fresh snacks or sweets when you need fuel to get charged.

Cafe Illiterati McLeod Ganj    

Even a hill station like Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh has a book café for book-loving urban travelers. Cafe Illiterati McLeod Ganj at Dharamsala commands breathtaking views of the Dhauladhar Mountains, which makes readers bury themselves in books with indifference to worries and cares of the outer world. You can warm up yourself with sips of masala chai whenever the blows of icy wind disturb your pace of reading.

Book Café Ssong in Pune      

Visit Book Café Ssong in Pune if you feel like breathing in some air of relaxation over reading after a road trip from Mumbai to Pune. Book Café Ssong is a cozy place having reading-friendly ambience where you can quietly spend some time leafing through the pages of your favorite books. Decorated with tasteful Korean artifacts and eased with soft music, this Pune based book café is the right place for pursuing the passion of reading books over sips of creamy coffee.

About Indian Eagle Travel

Indian Eagle, a leading online travel booking organization, offers the cheapest air tickets for flights to Indian cities. If the pleasure of traveling to India comes at the lowest airfare in all seasons, Indian Eagle is your best travel partner.

The post 10 Best Book Cafes in India for Reading over Coffee & Snacks appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.

Life in Sikkim is a never-ending festivity. Sikkim, a hilly abode of the Hindus, the Buddhists and the Nepalese in northeast India, celebrates its rich cultural heritage through festivals round the year. The celebration of Sikkim festivals blurs the line of socio-religious distinction between the three different communities. Most of the festivals are unlike those celebrated in the rest of India, which highlights the uniqueness of the Sikkimese life and culture. IndianEagle takes on the most popular festivals of Sikkim in a bid to promote the tourism of northeast India.

Saga Dawa

Saga Dawa is one of the most important religious festivals in the calendar of Sikkim. Held on full moon night by May end or early June, Saga Dawa is a celebration of three significant events in the history of Lord Buddha’s life. The events are his birth, enlightenment and ‘parinirvana’. The celebration begins with offering of prayers in all monasteries. The holy books which the teachings of Buddha are compiled in are taken on a procession in and around Gangtok.

Pang Lhabsol

The consecration of Mount Kanchenjunga as the guardian deity of Sikkim by the third Chogyal of the state is commemorated through the celebration of Pang Lhabsol, a prayer festival. Held on July 15 according to the Tibetan calendar, the celebration continues for three days. The greatest attraction of Pang Lhabsol is the masked dance which is performed by Lamas sitting on a snow lion. This festival celebrates the brotherhood between the Lepchas and the Bhutias too.

Losar New Year

The Tibetan New Year Festival is popularly known as Losar in Sikkim. The people of Sikkim celebrate Losar in the month of February. The festivity continues through different culture performances for as long as one week. The merriment of the people knows no bound.

Tharpu Monsoon

Let monsoon arrive, Sikkim springs into festivity. Tharpu, the monsoon festival of Sikkim, is celebrated in the month of August every year. That is why Sikkim tourism goes high during the monsoon season. Special cultural performances and regional art exhibitions are organized to entertain tourists at this time.

Losoong

Losoong refers to the New Year in the calendar of Sikkim. It is also known as ‘Sonam Losar’ meaning the Farmer’s New Year. Evidently, Losoong is celebrated as the harvest festival of Sikkim as well. Archery competition among the youth is the mainstay of this festive celebration. Some monasteries organize lama dances which symbolically drive away the evils of the year to end and welcome the good vibes of the year to begin.

Gangtok Winter Festival

Not only monsoon but also winter is given a warm welcome by the people of Sikkim in a ceremonious manner. The winter festival is largely celebrated in the capital city Gangtok. It is a 4-day long celebra-tion which falls in between December 9 and January 11. Tourists can taste the seasonal cuisine of Sikkim during the Gangtok Winter Festival.

Mangan Music Festival

December is the month of festivals in Sikkim. Mangan Music Fest is among the winter celebrations that take the locals and tourists on a ride of merriment. This music festival enlivens the ambience, uplifts the mood and represents the cultural heritage of the state.

Tihaar Festival

Tihaar is the festival of lights in Sikkim. It corresponds with the celebration of Diwali in the rest of India. Though the lighting of lamps is a usual tradition to mark the celebration, the natives of the state observe the Tihaar Festival in their own cultural way.

Dasain

Dasain is the major festival of the Hindu Nepalese community in Sikkim. The Nepalese population of Sikkim observes Dasain to celebrate the victory of good over evil in the first half of the Aswin month that spans from mid-September to mid-October. Goddess Durga is invoked in the Nepalese households on the first day of the festival. They sacrifice goats to please the Goddess on the eighth day of the festivity, and put a red power mark on the forehead of each other on the tenth day or Vijaya Dashmi (Dussehra).

Kanchenjunga Tourism Festival

Kanchenjunga Tourism Festival is the festival of adventures in Pelling, Sikkim. The festival continues from December 24 to 26 adding to the festive ambience of Sikkim during winter. The celebration rocks with adrenalin-driving activities such as water rafting, kayaking, trekking, mountain biking, etc. The Kanchenjunga Tourism Festival fetches hundreds of young tourists to Pelling every year.

Gangtok is an 8-hour drive from Guwahati Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi Airport which is a short flight away from Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata. IndianEagle.com books international trips to Kolkata at the lowest airfare throughout the year.

The post Sikkim Festivals are Celebrations of Life, Culture & Nature in Northeast India appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.

Nature is calm somewhere and wild somewhere. It provides space both for romance and adventure – the most popular holiday activities that quench vacationers’ thirst for excitement. If you are looking to visit such a tourist destination that offers equal opportunities for romance and adventure, our recommendation is Gangtok, one of the Himalayan hill stations in India.

A prime destination on the map of India tourism, Gangtok the capital of Sikkim embodies mesmerizing Himalayan beauty in forms of natural artifices. With Kanchenjunga, the world’s third highest mountain, as the backdrop, this hill station in north-east India is alive and kicking for romance seekers as well as adventure freaks. Feeling itchy to know why we are so eloquent about Gangtok?

You might have read many poems and written paragraphs on mountain. You might have learnt lessons on strength and determination from mountains. The snow-covered Kanchenjunga is no exception when it comes to learning forbearance from it. You can take lessons on romance by admiring the snowy beauty of Kanchenjunga and meditating on the point where the mountain peak touches the sky.

Wake up just before the first light of the sun hits earth, feel the serenity of nature, breath in freshness of the environment, listen to soft music of the cool breeze, watch the gradual rise of the sun, penetrate the veil of mist to catch glimpses of the hilly green, and drink to the romance of the moment. Live the moment with your spouse sitting together and holding each other’s hands!

The harmony of beauty and romance and joy is deeply felt in the serenity of Gangtok. The gripping glimpses of such rare harmony hang over Changu Lake on Gangtok Nathu La Pass. At the height of 12,000ft, the lake is the place to feel romantic at heart and rejuvenate romance with your spouse, regardless of age. 1 km long and 15 meters deep, the lake is a beauty spot on the scenic landscape.

Gangtok is full of kicking as one of the best adventure destinations in the Himalayan region. The thrill of touring this city springs from indulgence in adventure activities such as trekking, water rafting, yak safari, mountain biking and hang gliding. Wake up the adventure freak in you, make adventurous escapes and feel the adrenalin rush.

White river rafting is a thrilling sport on the Teesta River for the adventuresome. When the Teesta is in full swing, river rafting gives unlimited thrill. Mountain biking to reach Lachung at the altitude of 9600 ft while exploring Gangtok all the way is an ultimate adventure. Hang gliding is another source of enthrallment for adventure-loving travel enthusiasts. With many trekking routes, Gangtok is next to no other hill station in India.

Don’t you envy those who have been to Gangtok in India? If yes, plan a trip to India and book a flight to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata where Gangtok is just a short flight away. IndianEagle.com books flights to India at cheap airfare.

The post Adventure & Romance are Two Reasons to Visit Gangtok in Summer appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.