Shankarpur

Shankarpur (শঙ্করপুর Shonkorpur) is a beach town in Purba Medinipur, West Bengal.

Shankarpur is about 185 km from Kolkata

Buses go to Shankarpur from Esplanade Bus Terminus in Kolkata.

Shankarpur is near Digha and can be reached by taking any bus going to Digha. You need to get off the bus at Choddomile or Chaulkhola between Contai and Digha and just before Ramnagar. The sea beach is a 15-min ride by a car from Choddomile. You need to book a car to pick you up from Choddomile. Ask the hotel to do the car booking.

Otherwise, you can go straight to the Digha Bus stand (a further 25- to 30-min ride) and then hire a cab from there.

There is also a direct bus to Shankarpur.

The best bus to take is the airconditioned 7:30AM bus run by the West Bengal Transport Corporation (WBTC). It starts from Esplanade Bus Terminus near the Maidan market. You must book in advance: the earlier you do so the better. Another good bus is the Ex Armyman's Service. This has reclining seats and a video screen. This service starts from Golpark at 6:30AM and is convenient for those travelling from South Kolkata. Again, an advance booking advisable.

Travel time by bus: 4½-5 hr (including a 30- to 40-min snack break).

If you want to drive down to Shankarpur from Kolkata (Kolkata) - the directions are as follows. Take the Second Hooghly Bridge then follow Kona expressway (a 4-lane road). At the Bombay Road crossing take a left turn. Follow Bombay Road (4-lane road). You can break at the A1 Plaza inside the Reliance petrol station. It would be to your left around 30- to 40-min drive time from the Kona Expressway-Bombay Road junction. Keep straight till you cross the Rupnarayan river (the bridge is 1-way and the river is wide). After you cross the river you will see the Kolaghat Thermal Power Station to your left. Immediately after the Power Station is a junction, turn left towards Haldia. You have now entered the Haldia Highway (NH41). Some of this road is 4 laned, but most of it is still a 2-lane road. Keep straight till you arrive at the Nandakumar crossing, you can identify it easily as the crossing has a wide round circle. Turn right at this crossing, you have now entered the Digha Road. Digha Road is a 2-lane road, the road is smooth but narrow and the buses drive at very high speed, so be extremely careful when overtaking. Follow Digha road, you will cross Narghat Bridge and pass through Chandipur, Bajkul, Heria and Kanthi (Contai). At Choddomile before Ramnagar take a left towards Shankarpur, This road is bad. You will have a river for company, it will be to your right. The first hotel to come up is Hotel Nest. After Nest you come to a junction where the road splits, the right road leads to the Joar and Matsyagandha tourist lodges. The left road takes you to the Shankarpur beach. Just before the beach a narrow unpaved road leads to the other hotels.

After you get on the beach, you will see an endless stretch of sea meeting beach. On the left side, about a 45-min walk, you will reach Tajpur, a small beach. But do not take your car on the beach because you may get trapped in the quicksand. At night the normally deserted beach is quite tranquil.

• 21.63802787.5804811 Shankarpur Beach (near Hotel Sandy Bay). Well-developed beach with a park.  (updated Sep 2026)
• 21.64206587.5700592 Shankarpur Fishing Harbour.  (updated Sep 2026)
• 21.6361687.5689793 Benfish Beach (near Kinara and Tatini).  (updated Sep 2026)
• 21.64311887.564824 Nyaykali Temple (নায়েকালী মন্দির Nāyekālī Mondir).  (updated Sep 2026)

Conch shell trinkets as souvenir.

• Hotel Sandy Bay serves good Bengali cuisine. Try their sea food - prawns, pomfret, bhetki, parse (a small sweet water fish - cooked whole with the bones - so you must use your hands to eat), rohu (a form of carp). Vegetarian food such as mochar ghonto (spicy young green bananas), aloo posto, aloor dum (Bengali style), Kashmiri aloo dum and cholar daal is also available.

No one should leave Shankarpur without relaxing on the beach on a full moon night with a glass of vodka topped up with coconut water. The ambience is mesmerising. The bar at Hotel Nest is good. But from Sandy Bay you can face the sea directly. A liquor shop has opened just 50 m outside the gates of the fisheries premises on the right fork from Hotel Nest. A variety of medium grade whiskies, rum and other spirits are available.

On the beach there are some shacks selling green coconut and tea. Bottled beverages like Coke and Pepsi are also available.

Kinley can be had from the hotel or the small shops near the beach.

• 21.63870887.5812841 Ashoka Hotel, ☏ +91 3220 264 275. ₹250-700.  (updated Feb 2026)
• 21.63975887.5788242 Golden View Resort.  (updated Sep 2026)
• 21.645187.57223 Hotel Nest, ☏ +91 98745 34777, info.hotelnest@gmail.com. Good hotel but away from the beach. Has a 24-hour fitness centre. The distance from the beach won't really matter since they have a jeep standing by at all hours to ferry guests to and from the beach. The restaurant has seafood such as prawn and topshe. Non-guests are welcome to use the restaurant. The hotel also has a boating park. ₹800-3,500.  
• 21.63855687.5800054 Hotel Sandy Bay.  (updated Sep 2026)
• 21.639487.57155 Kinara and Tatini (Benfish Tourist Lodges), ☏ +91 3220-264577 (Kinara), +91 3210-225225 (Tatini). Both are near Shankarpur Fishing Harbour.  
• Sweet Home, ☏ +91 3220 265988. Check-out: 11:30AM. All sea-facing rooms. Authentic Bengali cuisines available for those who stay. ₹600-1200. 

• Digha is about 14 km from Shankarpur
• Junput
• Mandarmani