Storm light over the hills above a grassy ridge lined with cypress

PKG-06 · G2>K1>D2

6 Days Gangtok · Kalimpong · Darjeeling

5 nights / 6 days

Bagdogra / NJPGangtok, 2 nightsKalimpong, 1 nightDarjeeling, 2 nightsBagdogra / NJP

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The journey

Day by day

Three hill towns in six days, with a night in Kalimpong breaking the drive between Gangtok and Darjeeling.

The Tista, on the road up

We meet you at Bagdogra Airport or New Jalpaiguri station and head north. The road follows the Tista almost the whole way — river on one side, terraced hillside on the other — and climbs steadily out of the plains into Sikkim.

You'll reach Gangtok in the late afternoon. After check-in the evening is yours; M.G. Marg is pedestrianised, lined with cafés, and a ten-minute walk from most hotels in town.

124 KM · 4 HRS · GANGTOK 1,650 M
Tsomgo Lake · 3,753 m

An early start east towards the Nathu La road. Tsomgo sits at 3,753 m, an oval glacial lake about a kilometre long that freezes over in winter and changes colour with the season. We continue to Baba Mandir, then turn back down the same road.

This is the highest you'll go on most of our routes, and it is felt — take it slowly for the first hour up there and drink more water than you think you need. Nathu La can be added if permits are available; ask us at least two days ahead.

55 KM EACH WAY · 3,753 M · PERMIT REQUIRED
Down to the river on the Kalimpong road

The morning goes to Gangtok — Banjhakri Falls, the Flower Exhibition Centre, the Ropeway, the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology and Do Drul Chorten — and then we drive south to Kalimpong.

It is a short run, down to the river and up onto the ridge on the far side. Kalimpong sits lower and warmer than Darjeeling, and feels like a town that works for a living rather than one that receives visitors.

MORNING IN TOWN · THEN 75 KM · 2.5 HRS
The Tista gorge

A morning in Kalimpong: Deolo Hill for the view down both valleys, Durpin Monastery on the ridge, Science City, and one of the orchid nurseries the town has traded on for a century.

After lunch we climb to Darjeeling — fifty kilometres, but two hours of it, and the last stretch through tea gardens. Early night; Tiger Hill means a four o'clock start.

MORNING IN TOWN · THEN 50 KM · 2 HRS
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
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