4 Days Darjeeling (PKG-01)

The journey

Day by day

The shortest way to do Darjeeling properly — Tiger Hill at sunrise, the town over a full day, and Mirik and the Nepal border on the third.

Tea pluckers in the Darjeeling hills

We collect you at Bagdogra or NJP and start the climb through Kurseong, where the tea estates begin and the plains drop away behind you. It is a short drive by Himalayan standards but a steep one, and the temperature falls noticeably as you go.

Check in with the afternoon still ahead of you. Chowrasta and the Mall are walkable from most of the town, and worth an hour before dinner.

70 KM · 3 HRS · DARJEELING 2,042 M
Khangchendzonga at dawn, from Tiger Hill

We leave at four. Tiger Hill is 2,590 m and about forty minutes out, and on a clear morning Khangchendzonga catches the light a good while before the valley does — first pink, then white. On the clearest days you can pick out Everest to the west.

Coming back we stop at Ghoom Monastery and at Batasia Loop, where the toy train turns a full circle around the Gorkha war memorial. After breakfast: the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, the Padmaja Naidu zoological park next door, the Ropeway, Tenzing Rock, a working tea garden, and the Japanese Peace Pagoda to close the day.

DEPART 4:00 AM · TIGER HILL 2,590 M
Mirik Lake · 1,495 m

South through pine forest and tea estate to Mirik, where the lake sits in a bowl of cypress with a footbridge across the middle and a path all the way round it.

We carry on to the Simana and Gopaldhara viewpoints, then to Pashupati Market, which is over the line in Nepal. Carry cash and a photo ID; crossing is routine but the shops are not set up for cards.

50 KM · 2 HRS · MIRIK 1,495 M
The ridge above the tea slopes

Down through Kurseong and the tea gardens to Bagdogra or NJP. Give us your flight or train time the night before and we will set the departure with real margin — the descent is quicker than the climb, but not by as much as people expect.

70 KM · 3 HRS · ALLOW MARGIN