Kanchenjunga lit pink and gold at dawn above layers of misty ridges under an orange sky

Private journeys · Darjeeling · Sikkim · Bhutan

The Himalaya, arranged around you

Tea estates, monasteries and the world's third-highest mountain: private luxury journeys planned by people who were born beneath it. One host, one number, from the moment you land at Bagdogra.

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In the Darjeeling hills since 2017 Support 24×7 while you travel No deposit to begin

IThe road up

It begins at 126 metres in the heat of the plains and by dinner you are at 2,042

Darjeeling Trips is a private luxury journey house in the Darjeeling hills, planning tailor-made travel through Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Sikkim, Bhutan and Nepal since 2017. Bagdogra to Darjeeling is three hours and two climates. The road leaves the tea flats of the Terai, crosses the Balason, and climbs through sal forest into cloud. Somewhere above Kurseong the air changes, the tea bushes begin, and the driver switches off the air-conditioning because nobody needs it any more. Every journey we make starts with that road, and every journey ends with the same view of it going down.

A road curving through tea gardens in the foothills below Darjeeling, hazy ridges rising beyond
A road curving through tea gardens in the foothills below Darjeeling, hazy ridges rising beyondAngshu Purkait / Pexels

IIWhere we take you

Five worlds within a day's drive

From the tea gardens at 2,000 metres to Bhutan's dzongs and Sikkim's high lakes. Every road here climbs; every valley changes the language, the food and the light.

Darjeeling's houses spread along the forested ridge with the snow peaks of the Kanchenjunga range rising above the cloud
27.04° N 88.26° E · 2,042 m

Darjeeling

Tea, the toy train and a colonial town that still wakes to the Kanchenjunga.

Explore Darjeeling
The view from Deolo Hill above Kalimpong, tall firs framing forested ridges and a faint rainbow over the valley after rain
27.06° N 88.47° E · 1,250 m

Kalimpong

Orchid nurseries, Bhutanese monasteries and the quietest hill town in the district.

Explore Kalimpong
The great courtyard of Rumtek Monastery near Gangtok, the Karmapa's seat, its red and gold main temple under a wide blue sky
27.33° N 88.61° E · 1,650 m

Gangtok & East Sikkim

A capital of monasteries and momos, and the road to the high lakes.

Explore Gangtok & East Sikkim
First sunlight turning the summits of the Kanchenjunga range gold above the dark ridges of West Sikkim, seen from Pelling at dawn
27.30° N 88.24° E · 2,150 m

Pelling & West Sikkim

The closest bed to the Kanchenjunga, and the oldest monasteries in the state.

Explore Pelling & West Sikkim
Paro Taktsang, the Tiger's Nest, its white walls and golden roofs clinging to the cliff above pine forest and drifting mist
27.47° N 89.64° E · 2,320 m

Bhutan

Dzongs, cliff monasteries and a kingdom that measures happiness. Two hours from Darjeeling's airport by road to the border.

Explore Bhutan
Patan Durbar Square in the Kathmandu valley, the stone Krishna Mandir between carved pagoda temples, people resting on the steps
27.72° N 85.32° E · 1,400 m

Nepal

Kathmandu's temples, the Everest flight, and the far side of the same mountains.

Explore Nepal

IIISignature journeys

Start with one of ours and finish with yours

Each route below has been driven, slept and eaten by us many times. Take it as it is, or tell us what to change: every journey is private and priced for your dates.

Tea garden workers carrying the day's pluck in sacks along an estate road at dusk, hills falling away behind Signature journey

The Planter's Week

BagdograKurseongDarjeeling tea estateDarjeelingBagdogra

Six nights inside two working tea estates, with the planters who run them. The Kanchenjunga from your veranda, the factory at first flush, dinner at the manager's table.

6 nights Mar to Apr, Oct to Nov from₹1,60,000per person, twin share, two guests travelling together
First light turning the Kanchenjunga range orange under a dark cloud bank, seen from Darjeeling above blue ridges Signature journey

Kanchenjunga at First Light

BagdograDarjeelingPellingKalimpongBagdogra

Three ridges, three angles on the same mountain. Darjeeling for the classic view, Pelling for the closest, Kalimpong for the quietest.

7 nights Oct to Dec, Mar to Apr from₹1,55,000per person, twin share; the Windamere's 25 per cent surcharge on 24 to 26 and 31 December is extra
Lingdum Monastery in Sikkim, its gold roofs and white walls rising in tiers above a painted stair and forest Signature journey

Monasteries of the East

Bagdogra airportGangtokRavanglaPellingBagdogra airport

Seven nights from the Karmapa's seat at Rumtek to Dubdi, the oldest monastery still standing in Sikkim. Morning prayers, a Bon house, Tashiding's chortens, and three nights at a king's retreat facing Pemayangtse.

7 nights October to mid December, March to May from₹1,40,000per person, twin share
Kanchenjunga turning soft pink at sunrise above a pale blue haze, the view from the hills of the Eastern Himalaya Honeymoon or anniversary

A Himalayan Honeymoon

Bagdogra airportGlenburn Tea EstateKalimpongGangtok (Pangthang)Bagdogra airport

Seven nights for two across three houses: a planter's bungalow on a working tea estate, the old Himalayan Hotel in Kalimpong with a fire in your room, and a Taj spa resort in the forest above Gangtok. Short drives, late breakfasts.

7 nights October to April, clearest October to December from₹2,65,000per person, twin share
The Paro valley in Bhutan at harvest, rice fields and farmhouses on the floor below Rinpung Dzong and the Ta Dzong on the slope Signature expedition

Two Kingdoms: Sikkim to Bhutan by Road

Bagdogra airportGangtokPhuentsholingThimphuPunakhaParoParo airport (PBH)

Eleven nights from Gangtok to Paro by road: Rumtek and the high lake at Tsomgo, the Phuentsholing gate, Thimphu and Punakha, then the Tiger's Nest as your last climb before the flight home from Paro.

11 nights October to December, March to May from₹5,30,000per person, twin share, on Indian passports, with Sikkim's permits and a one-way flight home from Paro included
A row of golden prayer wheels on monastery steps above the wooded hills at Gangtok in Sikkim Signature journey

The First Time: Darjeeling and Sikkim

Bagdogra airportGangtokPellingDarjeelingBagdogra airport

Eight nights for a first visit to the hills. Gangtok and Tsomgo Lake while you are fresh, two dawns facing Kanchenjunga at Pelling, then Darjeeling's tea, Tiger Hill and steam, with the shortest drive saved for the flight home.

8 nights October to early December, March to May from₹1,75,000per person, twin share

Or describe the trip you picture and we will draw it from scratch

Where you sleep

Six houses we send guests to

Each appears on the journeys that pass its way, with the room to ask for.

  • Dawn light on the snow peaks of the Kangchenjunga range seen from Kalimpong, above a level sea of cloud
    MAYFAIR Himalayan Spa ResortKalimpongThe snows at first light from Kalimpong, the range the house looks to.
  • Wicker chairs and a low table on the lawn at The Elgin Mount Pandim in Pelling, with cloud on the wooded ridge behind
    The Elgin Mount PandimPellingThe lawn at Mount Pandim, looking into the cloud on the Pelling ridge.
  • Gangtok seen from above, coloured buildings stacked down the ridge with a footbridge over the road and hills beyond
    The Elgin Nor-KhillGangtokGangtok from above, the town the Nor-Khill sits in the middle of.
  • The Burra Bungalow at Glenburn Tea Estate, its green roof above a lawn set with white garden umbrellas and tables
    Glenburn Tea EstateGlenburn Tea Estate, Glenburn Tea Estate (Darjeeling district)The Burra Bungalow at Glenburn, with the lawn laid for tea.
  • The Windamere Hotel in Darjeeling seen from its terraced garden, with white painted railings and the hotel signboard
    Windamere HotelDarjeelingWindamere from its garden on Observatory Hill.
  • A carved Newar door with an iron bolt and wooden lock at the Dwarika's hotel in Kathmandu
    The Dwarika's HotelKathmanduA rescued Newar door at the Dwarika's, carved lattice, iron bolt and wooden lock.

IVHow it works

Three steps between an idea and the road

No forms to fill in twice, no call centres. You speak with the person who will design your journey and who will still be on the phone while you are travelling.

First conversation · 20 minutes

Tell us the picture

Who is travelling, the month, the pace you like, and the one thing you would regret missing. Ideas are welcome; certainty is not required.

Usually within a few days

We draw the route

A day-by-day sketch with the exact houses, drives and views, and one honest price. We revise until it is right; there is no charge for the drawing.

On the road

One team, one number

Your driver meets you at Bagdogra, and local cars and guides join where Sikkim and Bhutan rules require them. Our office answers 24x7 while you travel.

Darjeeling's rooftops stacked down the ridge with the snows of Kanchenjunga on the skyline
Ganesh Kumar / Unsplash

VWhy travel with us

Born under the view, not drawn here by it

Most luxury operators sell the Eastern Himalaya from London or Delhi. Our office is in the Darjeeling hills, a morning's drive from every house we book. The planters, lamas and drivers in your itinerary are people we call by name.

Read our story

Drivers who know the diversions

Your driver is from these hills and checks the next day's road with the police, the district notices and the drivers coming the other way, the evening before and again at dawn. When a slide shuts NH10, the longer way round through Gorubathan and Lava is a road he has already driven.

Every change of car named in advance

Sikkim keeps its sightseeing, Tsomgo and the north for Sikkim-registered cars, Pelling for the local syndicate, and Bhutan requires a Bhutanese car and licensed guide from the gate or Paro. Your quote names each one, the day it takes over, and the hotel door or border gate where it happens.

A quote you can check line by line

Every house, drive, guide and permit sits on its own line, with the date each rate was checked and the date the quote stands until. Festive supplements, and the few old hill houses that charge for a lit fire or a room heater, are named before you pay anything.

Asked for in good time

Indian Railways opens steam seats 60 days out and we book the morning they open. Sikkim's online permit for foreign and OCI guests goes in about 30 days ahead, Bhutan's festival rooms nine to twelve months, and Glenburn will embroider your initials on the pillowcases given three months.

VIGuest words

What people say on the drive back

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 / 5 on Trustpilot · 17 reviews

Every review below is on Trustpilot under the guest's own name, from guests who travelled with us before our 2026 relaunch. We have not edited them, only shortened a few.

★★★★★
Had an amazing trip to Gangtok and Darjeeling last week. Thanks to Darjeeling Trips for their service and for accommodating some last-minute changes too, driven by the unforeseen closure due to elections.
Anirudh PanwarIndia · June 2022 · via Trustpilot
★★★★☆
We had so much back and forth in customising our itinerary and they did it so professionally every time. They took care of everything that we needed to make it a complete trip. It was a very comfortable trip where we didn't really have to bother much since the team had taken care of everything.
Saakshi MaheshwaryIndia · April 2022 · via Trustpilot
★★★★★
Thank you Darjeeling Trips for making our trip so smooth and hassle free. We were overwhelmed by your hospitality. Wish we stayed for a little longer.
Snigdha DhaliIndia · April 2022 · via Trustpilot

VIIOne day, Darjeeling

What a day here actually looks like

Not an itinerary. A Tuesday in late October, with the mountain out.

  1. Kanchenjunga lit rose at first light above a haze filled valley, the lights of the hill towns still on below
    Prakrit Ghosh / Unsplash

    First light on Kanchenjunga

    The vehicle token was collected yesterday afternoon, so the car goes up at 04:00 and a guide keeps your place at the rail. The summits turn rose, then gold, while the valleys underneath stay black.

    Tiger Hill, 2,590 m
  2. The painted facade of Ghoom Monastery at Ghum strung with prayer flags under a clear blue sky
    Ankan Sarkar / Pexels

    The monastery at Ghum on the way down

    Yiga Choeling, begun in 1850, is dark inside but for rows of butter lamps before a Maitreya 15 feet high. Juniper, wax, and the prayer wheels turned clockwise on the way out.

    Yiga Choeling, Ghum, 2,225 m
  3. Steam and coal smoke rising around Darjeeling Himalayan Railway engines being readied at the station
    Trishik Bose / Pexels

    Steam up to Ghum and back

    Breakfast in town, then the station. The steam joy ride climbs to Ghum and back in about two hours, ten minutes of it at Batasia Loop, where the line spirals over itself. We ring the station the evening before.

    Darjeeling to Ghum, by rail
  4. Fresh green tea leaf heaped on a cloth in a tea factory, workers at the drums behind
    Quang Nguyen Vinh / Pexels

    The day's leaf in at the factory

    Three km below Chowk Bazaar, a garden planted in 1854 is still working this year's autumn leaf. The factory runs Tuesday to Saturday and rests from November, which is why today is a Tuesday in October.

    Happy Valley Tea Estate
  5. Street lamps glowing through thick fog above the signs of a Darjeeling street at night

    Mahakal, then the lamps on Chowrasta

    Ninety metres of steep lane climb from the Mall to Mahakal on Observatory Hill, where a Hindu priest and a Buddhist monk keep their rituals side by side under the prayer flags. Then down for the town's evening walk.

    Observatory Hill and Chowrasta, 2,134 m
  6. A Nepali thali of rice, greens and fritters on a brass plate with clay bowls of curry around it
    VipinVihari Murari Das / Pexels

    Supper by the fire

    A Nepali supper in a family house we know: gundruk soup from last year's jar, while this autumn's leaves are still being pressed for the next one. Or the long table at your hotel. Tomorrow starts at a kinder hour.

    Darjeeling

VIIILeaving the hills better

Luxury here is light on the land

We are a small company in a fragile place. We do not have certificates to show you. We have a short list of things we do on every journey, and we would rather be judged on those.

Bhutan charges every visitor a Sustainable Development Fee that funds its forests and schools. How the fee works.

Two or three nights in most places

We plan two or three nights a house as a rule, and break it only for a border or a trail night. Fewer changes burn less fuel, and they leave you a morning that is not about packing.

Estates and gompas paid their own rate

Tastings, factory mornings, time in a monastery and lunch in a family kitchen are paid to the estate, the gompa or the family at the rate they set, never slipped to a gatekeeper as a tip.

All six practices

IXField notes

Read before you decide

Straight answers on seasons, permits, tea estates and the difference between a good hotel and the right one. Written in Darjeeling, updated when the roads change.

A painted stupa and tall prayer flags in Yuksom, with the snow summit of Kabru rising at the head of the valley
Culture

Lepcha, Bhutia, Limbu, Gorkha and Tibetan: who lives in these hills

Five communities, one common language and four new years. Who was here first, who came over the passes, who came for the tea and who came in 1959, and where each life shows itself on a journey through Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Sikkim.

8 min read · Sep 2026
A red panda walking along a mossy branch among green leaves, photographed at the zoo in Darjeeling
Wildlife

Red pandas near Darjeeling: where you might see one wild, and where you certainly will

Two national parks near Darjeeling hold the animal the hills call habre, and the forest department counted 75 of them in July 2026. Where they live, when they move, what you are scanning for, and why the zoo still earns a morning.

8 min read · Sep 2026
A village of red roofs among tea slopes in the Darjeeling hills, monsoon cloud pouring over the ridge above
Planning

Mirik, Sittong, Lepchajagat and Tinchuley: the quieter places near Darjeeling, and whether they suit a luxury trip

Search for offbeat places near Darjeeling and you get budget listings. Here is the grading we give on the telephone: which of the four is worth a night, which is a morning, what the beds are really like, and when to go.

8 min read · Sep 2026

XPlan my journey

Tell us the month and we will do the rest

Five questions are enough to start. A travel designer in Darjeeling replies within 24 hours with a first sketch and a straight price.

  1. We read it properlyA real person, not an auto-reply. If the dates are tight we will say so.
  2. A first sketch within 24 hoursRoute, houses, drives and a from-price for your party.
  3. Refine togetherChange anything. Nothing is booked and nothing is paid until you say yes.
+91 86178 24110 Message a designer Support 24×7, every day of your journey
With country code if outside India. Either this or email is enough.
Who is coming, the pace you like, the occasion. A sentence is fine.
Add more detail
Their ages help: add them in your note
Permits in Sikkim and fees in Bhutan depend on it
A week in the hills starts around ₹1.4 lakh per person, and Bhutan around ₹3.25 lakh.
Calls from our office, 8am to 9pm IST (GMT+5:30)
Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Gangtok, Pelling, Bhutan, Nepal

No deposit to begin, and nothing is booked until you say yes.

Before you ask

The questions every first-timer has

Who will design our journey, and who looks after us on the road?

Most of our journeys are designed by Manish Giri, who also writes the field notes. Gourav Giri runs the drivers, houses and permits day to day, and Purusottam Upadhaya the monasteries, tea gardens and the walks between villages. On the road your driver and every local guide work from the same written plan, and our team answers 24x7 by phone or WhatsApp while you travel. The five of us are named on Our story.

If a landslide shuts the road or the mountain stays in cloud, what changes?

Every day of the plan carries a written alternative, and every drive day carries the road report our drivers call in at dawn. A morning lost to cloud becomes a tasting, a kitchen or a monastery at prayer, and a blocked highway becomes the long way round, which your driver has driven before. If a road, flight or permit fails outright, we rearrange with no fee of our own and pass on only any difference in supplier costs. How it works sets out each case.

When do we pay, and how much?

Nothing until you say yes: drafts and revisions are free, and no house, car or permit is booked in your name before you confirm. A deposit, normally 30 percent, confirms the journey, and the balance is due 45 days before your first day, by bank transfer or card; inside 45 days you pay in full at confirmation. Any supplier rate in a foreign currency is fixed on the day you confirm. How it works has the table.

Every planning question, answered