A frozen high-altitude lake below snow peaks in North Sikkim, prayer flags along the shore

PKG-09 · G3>L1>D2

7 Days Gangtok · Lachung · Darjeeling

6 nights / 7 days

Bagdogra / NJPGangtok, 3 nightsLachung, 1 nightDarjeeling, 2 nightsBagdogra / NJP

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The journey

Day by day

Everything we run, in one week: Tsomgo Lake, North Sikkim as far as Yumthang, and Darjeeling to finish.

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
North Sikkim, above the treeline

North Sikkim proper. Six hours for a hundred and twenty kilometres, which tells you what the road is like — Singhik for the view up the Tista gorge, then the Seven Sisters and Naga waterfalls, both of them right beside the highway.

Lachung is a village at 2,700 m where two rivers meet, and it gets cold after dark in every season. Bring a layer more than you think you need. Rooms here are simple by design; the valley is the point.

120 KM · 6 HRS · LACHUNG 2,700 M
Yumthang Valley · 3,564 m

An early run up to Yumthang, the Valley of Flowers, at 3,564 m — a wide flat-bottomed valley with a river down the middle and peaks on three sides. Between April and June the rhododendrons make the name obvious; the rest of the year it is bare and quiet and just as good.

There are hot springs a short walk across the river. We come back down to Lachung for lunch and continue to Gangtok, arriving in the evening.

25 KM UP · 3,564 M · THEN 120 KM BACK
A hill town above the cloud line

A compressed morning in Gangtok before you leave it: Banjhakri Falls, the Flower Exhibition Centre, the Ropeway, the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology and Do Drul Chorten. Enough to know the town rather than pass through it.

We set off for Darjeeling after lunch, down to the Tista and across at Melli. You'll arrive with the evening free — and an early night is a good idea, because tomorrow starts at four.

MORNING IN TOWN · THEN 100 KM · 4 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