Darjeeling and Sikkim: Tea Hills, Gangtok and Khangchendzonga

Arrive at Bagdogra, up to Darjeeling

Bagdogra Airport (IXB) to Darjeeling

• Repas du soir
• Nuit : Darjeeling
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Soir

Darjeeling sits at about 2,050 m on a ridge facing the Khangchendzonga massif, and the first evening is kept gentle on purpose. After you check in, your guide walks the group up to Chowrasta, the open square at the top of town, and along the Mall, where Darjeeling's families take their evening stroll. Your guide explains how the week runs, what the permits for Sikkim involve and what to wear for the 4 am start tomorrow, then we sit down to a welcome dinner.

Compris

• Pick-up at Bagdogra Airport (IXB)
• Evening walk to Chowrasta and the Mall
• Welcome briefing and dinner

Tiger Hill dawn and the toy train

Darjeeling to Tiger Hill, Ghum and Batasia Loop, then the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Darjeeling
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

This is the one very early morning of the trip, because the light is the point. Jeeps leave at about 4 am for Tiger Hill, at about 2,570 m, about 11 km above town, to watch the first sun turn Khangchendzonga pink and then gold; on a clear day you can also see the tops of Everest and Makalu far to the west. On the way down we stop at the Ghoom monastery, then go back to the hotel for breakfast and a rest. Late morning we ride the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, part of the Mountain Railways of India World Heritage site, on its joy ride from Darjeeling to Ghum and back, looping through Batasia with the war memorial and the mountains behind.

Après-midi

After lunch in town we visit the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, founded in 1954 after the first ascent of Everest, whose museum tells Tenzing Norgay's story, and the high-altitude zoo beside it with its red pandas and snow leopards.

Compris

• Tiger Hill at dawn by jeep, with the viewing ticket
• Ghoom monastery
• Darjeeling Himalayan Railway joy ride, Darjeeling to Ghum and back via Batasia Loop
• Lunch in Darjeeling
• Himalayan Mountaineering Institute museum
• Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park

Darjeeling town to a tea estate

Darjeeling to a tea estate in the Darjeeling hills

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Tea estate, Darjeeling hills
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

A slower morning after yesterday's dawn start. We walk the old town with your guide: the bazaar below the Mall, St Andrew's Church, and the Tibetan Refugee Self Help Centre, set up in 1959, where you can watch carpets being knotted.

Après-midi

Lunch is in town, at one of the old tea rooms if the group wants the full Darjeeling ritual.

Soir

In the early afternoon we drive about an hour into the hills to a working tea estate, where we spend the night. The estate's staff take us through the gardens, explaining how the leaf is plucked by hand on these steep slopes, and through the factory, where it is withered, rolled, oxidised and dried. Then comes a guided tasting of the estate's teas, the clearest way to taste why first flush and second flush differ. The late afternoon is yours on the bungalow verandah, looking over the gardens, before dinner at the estate.

Compris

• Guided walk through Darjeeling's old town and bazaar
• Tibetan Refugee Self Help Centre
• Lunch in Darjeeling
• Tea garden walk, factory visit and tasting at a working estate
• Dinner at the tea estate

To Kalimpong

Tea estate to Kalimpong, then Durpin and Deolo

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Kalimpong
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Matin

A quiet breakfast at the estate, then we drive about two and a half hours east, down to the Teesta river and up the other side to Kalimpong, at about 1,250 m. Kalimpong was the old trading town on the route to Tibet, and it is calmer and warmer than Darjeeling.

Après-midi

After lunch in town we visit Zang Dhok Palri Phodang on Durpin hill, a Gelugpa monastery consecrated by the Dalai Lama in 1976, with its rare collection of scriptures and wall paintings.

Soir

Then we stop at one of the town's flower nurseries, for which Kalimpong is known, and climb Deolo hill, the highest point of the town, for the late view down into the Teesta valley and, on a clear evening, across to the Sikkim hills where we go next. This is the one single night of the trip, placed here so tomorrow's road to Gangtok is short.

Compris

• Lunch in Kalimpong
• Zang Dhok Palri Phodang monastery on Durpin hill
• A Kalimpong flower nursery
• Deolo hill viewpoint

Into Sikkim: Gangtok

Kalimpong to Rangpo, then Gangtok

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Gangtok
• Environ 3 h de route

Après-midi

After lunch in town and check-in we walk MG Marg, the car-free main street, then climb to the Do Drul Chorten, a white stupa ringed by prayer wheels, built in 1945. Your guide explains how Sikkim, a Buddhist kingdom until 1975, became India's 22nd state, and what the permits and the next two days involve.

Soir

Dinner tonight is together, and your guide confirms the Tsomgo Lake permit for tomorrow.

Compris

• Sikkim Restricted Area Permit, applied for online before arrival
• Lunch in Gangtok
• Walk along MG Marg
• Do Drul Chorten
• Dinner in Gangtok

Tsomgo Lake

Gangtok to Tsomgo Lake and back

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Gangtok
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

We leave Gangtok at about 7:30 am with the Protected Area Permit arranged in advance through a registered Sikkim agent, because the lake is clearest before the midday cloud rolls up the valley. The road climbs about 38 km and some 2,100 m in roughly two hours, past waterfalls and army posts, to Tsomgo (Changu) Lake at about 3,750 m, a glacial lake held sacred by Sikkimese Buddhists and Hindus. At this height we walk slowly. Your guide leads a short walk along the shore, about 30 to 45 minutes, and explains why the lake changes colour with the seasons and why Nathu La on the China border, a little further up, is closed to foreign visitors. Yak rides on the shore are offered locally. We stop for a hot lunch at one of the lakeside cafes, then drive back down to Gangtok by mid afternoon. The rest of the day is free.

Compris

• Tsomgo Lake Protected Area Permit handled by us
• Guided walk along the shore of Tsomgo Lake
• Lunch at the lake

Activités en option

• A short yak ride on the shore (paid locally)
• The Gangtok ropeway in the late afternoon (paid locally)

Rumtek and Gangtok's monasteries

Gangtok to Rumtek, then Enchey Monastery and the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Gangtok
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

We aim to arrive in the morning, when the monks gather for prayers and the main hall is busiest with chanting and horns; passports are checked at the gate, and your guide explains the school and the Golden Stupa holding the 16th Karmapa's relics.

Après-midi

Back in Gangtok we have lunch, then visit the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, founded in 1958, whose museum holds thangkas, masks and old Buddhist texts, and Enchey Monastery on the ridge above town, a small 19th-century Nyingma monastery surrounded by prayer flags and pines. The afternoon is then free: a walk back down to MG Marg, the handicrafts centre, or a rest before the long road west tomorrow.

Compris

• Rumtek Monastery and the Golden Stupa
• Lunch in Gangtok
• Namgyal Institute of Tibetology
• Enchey Monastery

Across Sikkim to Pelling

Gangtok to Ravangla, then Pelling

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Pelling
• Environ 5 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal here, and we walk through the Buddha Park of Ravangla, with its tall statue of the Buddha set against the mountains and a quiet museum of his life in the base. Then the road winds down across the Rangit and up to Pelling, at about 2,150 m, which faces Khangchendzonga across a single valley.

Soir

We arrive in the late afternoon, in time to see the light go off the snow from the hotel, and have dinner together.

Compris

• Sit-down lunch in Ravangla
• Buddha Park of Ravangla (Tathagata Tsal)
• Dinner in Pelling

Khangchendzonga, Pemayangtse and Rabdentse

Pelling to Pemayangtse Monastery and the Rabdentse ruins, then back to Pelling

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Pelling
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

Wake early, if you like, for the first light on Khangchendzonga, at 8,586 m the world's third-highest mountain, straight across the valley from Upper Pelling; on a clear autumn morning it fills the horizon. After breakfast we walk to Pemayangtse, one of Sikkim's oldest and most important Nyingma monasteries, founded around the turn of the 18th century, where the top floor holds a seven-tiered painted wooden model of the Buddhist heavens. From there it is a short drive and a 15-minute forest walk to the ruins of Rabdentse, Sikkim's second royal capital from 1670 until 1814, with chortens and the view the kings had of the same mountains.

Après-midi

Lunch is back in Pelling.

Soir

The afternoon is free, or walk up to Sanga Choeling, then the group meets for a farewell dinner.

Compris

• Pemayangtse Monastery
• Rabdentse ruins and forest walk
• Lunch in Pelling
• Farewell dinner

Activités en option

• Khecheopalri Lake, a sacred lake in the forest about an hour away (we arrange it for a share of the vehicle cost)

Back to Bagdogra

Pelling to Bagdogra Airport (IXB)

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Environ 6 h de route

Matin

A last look at the mountains at breakfast, then the long road out. West Sikkim is a long way from any airport: Bagdogra is about 145 km and five and a half to six hours away, the second day over our four-hour cap, because there is no shorter route.

Après-midi

We leave Pelling at about 7:30 am, drop through Legship and Jorethang to the Teesta, and stop for a sit-down lunch on the way down before the road flattens into the tea gardens of the plains. We reach Bagdogra Airport by about 2 pm.

Soir

Book a flight leaving after about 4 pm, or ask us to add a night in Siliguri near the airport and fly the next morning. If you want to stay in the hills, we can quote extra nights in Pelling or Darjeeling, or a connection to Bhutan or Nepal.

Compris

• Lunch on the road
• Drop-off at Bagdogra Airport (IXB)