Sikkim & Darjeeling with a Night in Lachung — Seven Nights

Your driver meets you at Bagdogra airport and the road leaves the plains almost at once, following the Teesta into the hills and up to Gangtok. The transfer is the day’s only plan. Check in, have dinner at the hotel and take the evening slowly; tomorrow goes considerably higher.

The day’s excursion climbs east of Gangtok towards the border ranges, to the glacial lake of Tsomgo and on to the shrine of Baba Harbhajan Singh, kept by the army in memory of a soldier. This is a protected area: the permit and the local vehicle it requires are charged separately, and the road can close in bad weather, in which case we rearrange the day.

A long mountain drive into North Sikkim, and the scenery is the sightseeing. The road passes the Seven Sisters falls not far out of Gangtok, then Naga waterfall, and later Bhim Nala, with a stop at each. Lachung, a village strung along its river between steep slopes, is where the day ends. Dinner is at the hotel.

The car retraces the valley road south to Gangtok. No sightseeing is scheduled on this itinerary for the morning in Lachung or for the journey back, so the day is a transfer. It ends back in Gangtok for a third and final night in Sikkim’s capital, with the evening free.

The route now turns west across the state. The day’s stop is Ravangla, a small town on a ridge between the Teesta and Rangit valleys, which breaks the journey neatly. From there the road continues to Pelling in West Sikkim. No sightseeing is scheduled in Pelling itself; it is a one-night stop.

Leaving Pelling, the car heads south to Namchi for the Char Dham complex, also called Siddhesvara Dham, a hilltop pilgrimage site crowned by a tall statue of Shiva. After the visit the road leaves Sikkim for the tea country of Darjeeling, where the last two nights are spent.

An early start for Tiger Hill and first light on the Kangchenjunga range, with Ghoom Monastery on the way down. The rest of the day covers the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute and the zoological park beside it, the Forest Museum, Tenzing Rock, the Tibetan Refugee Self-Help Centre, Happy Valley Tea Estate and, to close, the Japanese Temple and Peace Pagoda.

After breakfast and check-out the car descends from Darjeeling to Bagdogra airport for your flight. The hill road can be slow, so we agree a departure time from the hotel that leaves a comfortable margin, and an afternoon flight is the sensible choice.