Sandakphu Trek on the Singalila Ridge

In short

Is The Singalila Ridge right for you?

The Singalila Ridge is a private five-night walking journey from Bagdogra airport (IXB) to Sandakphu, 3,636 m, on the Nepal border. After a night in Darjeeling you walk the India and Nepal border from Manebhanjan to Tumling, go on to Sandakphu for two nights, and return by Land Rover for a last night in Darjeeling.

Made forfirst-time trekkers who walk well, couples and friends, families with active teenagers, photographers after Everest and Kanchenjunga in one frame and walkers short of time.

Not for you ifyou need a hotel bathroom every night or cannot walk 15 km on a hill day, choose Kanchenjunga at First Light, which sees the range from Darjeeling and Pelling by car.

From Darjeeling you see Kanchenjunga. From Sandakphu, 58 km away by road and trail, you see the rest of the family too: Everest, Lhotse and Makalu to the north-west, and to the north the long reclining line of peaks that people here call the Sleeping Buddha. Sandakphu is the highest point in West Bengal, a small village on the Nepal border at 3,636 m. The way there is the Singalila Ridge, walked by Joseph Hooker in 1849 and protected since 1992 as a national park where red pandas live among the bamboo.

This journey walks it honestly. The lodges on the ridge are simple, family-run and warm: thick quilts, plain rooms, hot water that comes sometimes from a geyser and sometimes in a bucket, dal and rice from the lodge kitchen. There is no luxury up there, and pretending otherwise would waste your money. What we add is everything around it: a guide from these hills, an old Land Rover that carries your bags and any tired legs, two nights at the top so a cloudy dawn costs you nothing, and a spa at either end.

Designed in the Darjeeling hills by the Darjeeling Trips team · Updated September 2026

Length: 5 nights, 6 days
Starts and ends: Bagdogra airport to Bagdogra airport
Best months: October and November, and March to May
Avoid: 16 June to 15 September (Singalila National Park is closed); December to February only for hardy walkers, when snow can
Pace: Active
Longest drive: About 3.5 hours, 245 km in all
Highest point: Sandakphu, 3,636 m
Group: Private, 2 to 6 guests

The route

Why Darjeeling comes first

Darjeeling comes first because 2,045 m is a gentle height after the plains and the trailhead at Manebhanjan is only 26 km away. Tumling, at about 2,970 m, is the second night by design: high enough to start adapting, still below 3,000 m. Sandakphu is third, about 670 m higher, and you stay two nights so your body settles and you get two dawns. You walk south to north so the peaks grow ahead of you, and the Land Rover brings you down in a single morning.

your bases, in orderby roadborders not drawn

Where the nights go

1Darjeeling1Tumling2Sandakphu1Darjeeling

Read the place guidesDarjeeling

The shape of the journey

From 126 m to 3,636 m, day by day

You sleep between 2,045 m and 3,636 m. The highest you go is 3,636 m, on day 3 at Sandakphu, and you come down again to sleep.

1,000 m2,000 m3,000 m 3,636 m2,258 m

Arrive126 m
Day 12,045 m
Day 22,970 m
Day 33,636 m
Day 43,636 m
Day 52,045 m
Day 6126 m

Built around

Darjeeling, Tumling and Sandakphu at their best

Dawn at Sandakphu, 3,636 m: Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Kanchenjunga on a single horizon
Two nights at the top, so one cloudy morning never costs you the view
An old Land Rover from Manebhanjan carrying your bags, with room for tired legs at any bend
Singalila National Park on foot: bamboo, rhododendron and red panda forest along the Nepal border
Sunset at Aal, 1.3 km from the lodges, the one spot near the summit that faces it
A guide from these hills and a road down within reach every single night

Day by day

Day by day, Darjeeling to Sandakphu

The longest drive is day 5, Sandakphu to Darjeeling, about 3.5 hours with stops.

01
Day 1 · Bagdogra airport Darjeeling

Bagdogra to Darjeeling and a kit check before dinner
- 70 km, about 3 h
- High point 2,258 m
- Sleep at 2,045 m
- Easy
Your guide waits for you at the arrivals exit, and the car climbs 70 km by Kurseong and Ghum, about three hours with a tea stop. You reach MAYFAIR Hill Resort, opposite Raj Bhawan, by mid-afternoon. At 16:30 your guide comes to your room with a luggage scale and a list. Boots are examined properly: soles, laces, how they feel on stairs. Your walking kit goes into one soft duffel of up to 15 kg each, which rides in the Land Rover; everything else stays in the hotel's luggage room until day 5. You receive a headtorch and a first oxygen reading at 2,045 m, a number worth remembering later. At 18:00 walk the Mall up to Chowrasta while its lamps light up in the mist. Dinner is at 19:30, early for a reason. Lights out by 21:30: the car leaves at 07:00, and breakfast is laid for 06:15.

The momentThe lamps of Chowrasta coming on through the mist, the last town lights you will walk under for four nights

InsiderTest your boots on Darjeeling's lanes this evening, not on the trail. The short steep lane from the Mall up to Observatory Hill is a fair judge.

If the weather turnsIf your flight lands late, the kit check moves to breakfast at 06:30 and we leave at 07:45. The trail day still fits, with lunch taken at Meghma.

Tonight
MAYFAIR Hill Resort, Darjeeling, Darjeeling

Meals
Dinner
02
Day 2 · Darjeeling Tumling

Manebhanjan to Tumling along the border
- 26 km, about 1.5 h
- High point 2,970 m
- Sleep at 2,970 m
- Active
The car leaves at 07:00 through Ghum and Sukhiapokhri and reaches Manebhanjan, the trailhead, by about 08:30. Three things happen quickly: photo ID is checked at the border post, your Singalila National Park permits for the days ahead are issued at the forest office, and a registered local guide joins yours, as the park requires. The next Land Rover in the association's queue takes the duffels. You walk from about 09:00. The first 3 km to Chitrey and its small monastery is the steepest of the day, on concrete and stone; then tea at Lamaydhura, 3 km on, and 3 km more to Meghma, named for the cloud that often sits on it. From Meghma it is 2 km to Tumling, about 2,970 m. Around 11 km, five to six hours. Tea and hot water wait at Shikhar Lodge, and at 16:30 you walk to the viewing ground to watch the range at dusk.

The momentTea by the earthen stove in the lodge kitchen at dusk, where drivers and neighbours gather to warm their hands

InsiderTumling lies just inside Nepal, so guests on foreign passports may not sleep there. We book them the government lodge at Gairibas, 2,620 m, a short Land Rover ride on.

If the weather turnsIf rain sets in, you walk as far as Meghma and ride the last 2 km. If there is snow above Chitrey, we keep to the road and skip the steep short cuts.

Tonight
Shikhar Lodge, Tumling

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
03
Day 3 · Tumling Sandakphu

Through Singalila National Park to Sandakphu
- 6 km, about 0.5 h
- High point 3,636 m
- Sleep at 3,636 m
- Active
Breakfast at 07:00 and away at 07:30. A kilometre past Tumling you enter Singalila National Park under its arched gate, where the forest staff check permits. Road and trail run together and apart through bamboo, oak and rhododendron, mostly downhill, to Gairibas, about 2,620 m, by 10:30. Tea at a stall, and your guide's talk on red pandas, since this is their forest, though sightings are rare and never promised. Here the concrete ends. The Land Rover carries you the next rough 6 km to Kalipokhri, about 3,170 m, where a small dark lake sits under prayer flags. Lunch at 12:00. Then the real climb: about 6 km and 470 m, the last stretch from Bikheybhanjang the steepest on the ridge, taken slowly. You reach Sandakphu around 15:30. Riding one stretch is deliberate: it keeps your legs for the climb that matters and gets you in before the cold. Oxygen readings at 18:00, water all evening, no alcohol.

The momentThe dark water of Kalipokhri under its prayer flags, a lake the villagers say never freezes

InsiderTake the climb from Bikheybhanjang at half your usual pace: twenty steps, one breath, repeat. It is the steepest 4 km on the ridge and the one that brings on headaches.

If the weather turnsA headache that will not settle at Kalipokhri means no higher: the Land Rover takes that guest down to Tumling. Snow on the boulder road means a night at Gairibas.

Tonight
Sunrise Hotel, Sandakphu, Sandakphu

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
04
Day 4 · Sandakphu

Four of the five highest, then Sabargram and Aal
- 21 km, about 2 h
- High point 3,636 m
- Sleep at 3,636 m
- Moderate
Your guide wakes you at 05:10 with a pot of Darjeeling tea. A few minutes up the slope behind the lodges you stand at 3,636 m as the light comes. Kanchenjunga, about 68 km to the north, colours first, with its neighbours laid out as the Sleeping Buddha: Kumbhakarna the head, Kabru the face, Kanchenjunga the body, Pandim the feet. Then turn north-west. Everest, with Lhotse beside it and Makalu to the right, stands about 145 km away and looks small only because it is so far; Chamlang shows as a flat white wall. Breakfast at 07:30. At 08:30 the Land Rover takes you north along a boulder track to Sabargram, about 3,540 m, and you walk back over open grass to the Thakum meadow, 7 km, where the car waits. This is your acclimatisation day, spent at the same height you sleep. Afternoon rest. At 16:15 walk 1.3 km to Aal for the sunset Sandakphu itself cannot give you.

The momentEverest, 145 km off and no wider than a thumbnail at arm's length, taking the sun at the far western end of the horizon

InsiderMost people watch Kanchenjunga and stop. The light reaches Everest in the west a few minutes later, so keep looking left after the Sleeping Buddha colours.

If the weather turnsIf this dawn is cloud, tomorrow's is your spare. If snow closes the Sabargram track, you walk the ridge south towards Bikheybhanjang and back instead.

Tonight
Sunrise Hotel, Sandakphu, Sandakphu

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
05
Day 5 · Sandakphu Darjeeling

The second dawn, then down to a Darjeeling spa
- 52 km, about 3.5 h
- High point 3,636 m
- Sleep at 2,045 m
- Moderate
One more dawn, from 05:15. If yesterday was clear, this is the morning to watch without a camera. Breakfast at 07:00, and the duffels go into the Land Rover. You walk the first part down: the old stone steps from Sandakphu to Bikheybhanjang and on to Kalipokhri, about 6 km and two hours, easy on the lungs and hard on the knees, so poles out and short steps. At 10:00 the Land Rover collects you for the ride back along the ridge through Gairibas, Tumling and Meghma to Manebhanjan, about 26 km and two hours of bumping, with lunch at Tumling on the way. Your Darjeeling car waits at the association stand in Manebhanjan. By about 14:30 you are back at MAYFAIR, where your stored luggage is already in the room, and at 16:00 a 60-minute massage is booked in the spa. Dinner is unhurried, and the bath is as hot as you like.

The momentWalking down the old stone steps below Sandakphu with the whole ridge you climbed laid out ahead in morning light

InsiderSeal one clean layer and a pair of socks in a bag at the bottom of your duffel for today. Changing at Manebhanjan makes the drive home a different journey.

If the weather turnsIf ice makes the steps unsafe, you ride from Sandakphu. If snow blocks the road down, we wait at the top, and the extra night comes out of Darjeeling.

Tonight
MAYFAIR Hill Resort, Darjeeling, Darjeeling

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
06
Day 6 · Darjeeling Bagdogra airport

A last look from the Mall, then Bagdogra
- 70 km, about 3 h
- High point 2,258 m
- Easy
No alarm, unless you want one more look. From the Mall at about 06:00, on a clear morning, Kanchenjunga stands north of town: the same mountain you watched from 3,636 m, now seen from some 1,600 m lower and smaller in the sky. Breakfast at 07:00. The hotel porters bring down the luggage you left on day 1 while you eat, and the car leaves at 08:30: 70 km and about three hours by Ghum and Kurseong, reaching Bagdogra around 11:30 for flights from 13:00. Your guide rides with you to the terminal with the oximeter log from the ridge: the reading you gave at 2,045 m on the first evening, the dip at Sandakphu, and how far it has climbed back since. It explains the Bikheybhanjang climb better than your legs can.

The momentThe oximeter log handed over at the terminal door: four days on the ridge written as a column of numbers.

InsiderBuy tea in town rather than at the airport: shops near Chowrasta sell estate teas labelled by flush, and your guide knows one that brews a cup before you buy.

If the weather turnsIf a landslide closes Rohini Road, we drive down by Pankhabari Road or NH110 via Tindharia and leave at 08:00 to protect your flight.

Tonight
Homeward

Meals
Breakfast

Where you will stay

Where you sleep, three houses

MAYFAIR Hill Resort, Darjeeling, Shikhar Lodge and Sunrise Hotel, Sandakphu. Prefer a different house on any night? Say which and we re-price it.

The MAYFAIR at Darjeeling, above its garden opposite Raj Bhawan.Mr. Debapriya Hore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

2 nights
MAYFAIR Hill Resort, Darjeeling

Darjeeling

Spa, library, a doctor on call and a luggage room: you leave your cases here, walk light, and come back to a massage and a fire.

Ask for A Heritage Room, listed by the hotel with a fireplace: welcome after four nights of quilts and hot-water bottles
- WarmthHeritage Rooms come with fireplaces, described as keeping occupants warm and cosy.
- Getting inDoctor on call, described as a physician ready at all times.
Shikhar Lodge at Tumling, on the Singalila ridge.Matt Stabile, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

1 night

Shikhar Lodge

Tumling

Run by the Gurung family since 1993, with a newer building of attached bathrooms and geysers, and a kitchen stove the village gathers round.

Ask for The newer building, with an attached western bathroom; we book a room heater, charged extra
Dawn over the Darjeeling hills, the hour the lodge is there for.Monojit Dutta / Pexels

2 nights

Sunrise Hotel, Sandakphu

Sandakphu

The largest lodge at the summit and the one with running water in its bathrooms; its roof terrace looks straight at the range.

Ask for A deluxe double with attached bathroom, on the upper floor if one is free

Price and what it covers

from₹95,000

Per person, twin share, for Indian nationals. Guests on foreign passports sleep in government lodges on the Indian side, which changes the cost slightly; we quote them separately.. How our prices are built

About £740 or US$990 at the rates of 19 September 2026.

Price my dates

Less time?Christmas in the Hills4 nights More time?The Planter's Week6 nights

Included

Your car and driver for the four road legs: up from Bagdogra, out to the Manebhanjan trailhead, back from it, and down to the airport
A Land Rover or Bolero from the Singalila association with its driver for days 2 to 5, including night halts and the Sabargram run
Our senior guide from Darjeeling for all six days, plus the registered local guide the park requires
MAYFAIR Hill Resort, 2 nights with breakfast and dinner, and one 60-minute spa treatment each
Shikhar Lodge, 1 night, and Sunrise Hotel, Sandakphu, 2 nights, with all meals (government lodges at Gairibas and Sandakphu for foreign passports)
Every meal from breakfast on day 2 to lunch on day 5, with trail snacks, fruit and Darjeeling tea
Singalila National Park entry, camera and vehicle fees, and all permit formalities at Manebhanjan
Oxygen saturation checks morning and evening, a first-aid kit and a small oxygen cylinder in the Land Rover
Trekking poles, sleeping bag liners and hot water bottles on loan
24x7 support from our Darjeeling team

Not included

Flights to and from Bagdogra
Travel insurance covering trekking to 4,000 m
Tips for the guides, Land Rover driver and lodge kitchens
Alcohol and bottled drinks bought on the ridge
Lunch on day 1
Personal kit: walking boots, down jacket, gloves and daypack
Extra nights or vehicle charges caused by snow or road closures

Make it more Arranged on request, priced in your quote

Walk down by Gurdum and SrikholaDescend on foot through Gurdum to Srikhola, sleep by its river, and drive to Darjeeling the next day. Adds one night.
A Land Rover day to PhalutA third night at Sandakphu and a day along the ridge to Phalut, 3,600 m, where the Sleeping Buddha stands closer still.
An extra night in DarjeelingA slow day after the ridge: the steam joy ride to Ghum and back, a tea tasting, and the Mall at dusk.
A tea tasting on the way downOn day 6 we book a tasting at a Kurseong tea garden before the airport. It needs a flight home leaving after 15:30.

Before you go

Before you go on this route

Choose another journey ifIf you need a hotel bathroom every night or cannot walk 15 km on a hill day, choose Kanchenjunga at First Light, which sees the range from Darjeeling and Pelling by car.

Documents: bring original photo ID and two copies, or your passport with its Indian visa; both are checked at Manebhanjan and at posts along the ridge. Foreign and OCI guests, send passport scans when you confirm, so we can book the government lodges in person in Darjeeling.
Season: Singalila National Park closes from 16 June to 15 September. From December to February the ridge is for hardy walkers only, and snow can shut the road for days.
Clothing: nights at Sandakphu fall to around freezing in October and November and well below it in winter. Bring thermal layers, a down jacket, gloves, a warm hat, a rain shell in every season and walking boots already broken in.
Altitude: you sleep at 3,636 m for two nights after a night at 2,970 m. Skip alcohol on the ridge, drink about three litres of water a day, talk to your doctor before the trip about altitude medicine, and report a headache to your guide the hour it starts.
Signal and power: Indian networks work only in patches, and phones may switch to a Nepal network, so turn off data roaming. Power at the lodges is limited; bring a power bank.
Water: water is scarce at Sandakphu. Our lodge has running water in its bathrooms, but in hard frost it can fail, so pack wet wipes and a quick-dry towel.
Cash: carry small notes from Darjeeling for tea stalls, phone charging and any fee collected on the Nepal side at Kalipokhri. Nothing on the ridge takes cards.
Tipping: the local guide, the Land Rover driver and the lodge kitchens are thanked on the last day on the ridge; the tipping table in Before you travel, our planning guide, gives ranges.

Questions

Six questions about The Singalila Ridge

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How much of Everest will we really see?

On a clear dawn you see it, but small: Everest stands about 145 km to the north-west, no wider than a thumbnail at arm's length, with Lhotse beside it and Makalu to the right. Kanchenjunga, about 68 km to the north, fills far more of the sky and takes the light first. October and November give the best odds; spring brings more haze. Two nights at the top mean two dawns, so one cloudy morning costs you nothing.

Can a steady walker manage day three?

Most can. Day three is about 15 km on foot: nine mostly downhill through the forest from Tumling to Gairibas, a Land Rover over the rough 6 km to Kalipokhri, then 6 km and about 470 m of climbing to Sandakphu, the last stretch from Bikheybhanjang the steepest on the ridge. Take it at half your usual pace. The harder part is height, so your guide checks oxygen readings each evening, and a headache that will not settle means no higher.

What changes if one of us holds a foreign passport?

Where you sleep. Tumling and most Sandakphu lodges stand on the Nepal side of the border, and since 2022 guests on foreign passports entering from India may not stay in them, so we book the government lodges at Gairibas and Sandakphu instead. They are plainer and can be booked only in person at the GTA office in Darjeeling, which we do for you. No Nepal visa is needed on the ridge, and OCI cardholders plan as foreign guests.

Can one of us ride while the other walks?

Yes, at any point. Only the Singalila association's Land Rovers may carry visitors up from Manebhanjan, about 32 km on concrete and then boulder road, and on this journey one travels with you for days two to five with the duffels. Anyone can climb in at a bend and rejoin the walkers at the next stop. Riding the whole way is possible too, about two and a half to three hours to the top, but you lose the forest.

What are the lodges like at Tumling and Sandakphu?

Simple, clean and warm rather than comfortable in a hotel sense. Expect heavy quilts, little furniture, limited power and meals of dal, rice, vegetables, eggs and sometimes chicken. At Tumling we book the newer building at Shikhar Lodge, run by the Gurung family since 1993, which has geysers; at Sandakphu the Sunrise Hotel, the one with running water. Nights below freezing are normal from November, so we add hot-water bottles.

The Singalila Ridge or Goecha La, Privately?

Choose the ridge for a first taste of height, or if you want a real bed each night. It is five nights, two walking days and lodges, with the highest bed at 3,636 m and a Land Rover alongside. Goecha La, Privately is ten nights with eight days on foot from Yuksom, private camps up to 4,150 m at Lamuney, and View Point 1 at about 4,600 m. The ridge shows you Everest; the trek takes you to Kanchenjunga's face.

Sources we checked for this itinerary (19)