The process, step by step
From a first message to the drive home
Nine stages, with the time each usually takes, a sample quote, what we need from you, when money changes hands, and what happens when the mountains change the plan.
In short
How does booking a private journey with Darjeeling Trips work?
You send a note with the month, the party and the passports. A travel designer asks the questions that shape the route, drafts a day-by-day plan with every house, drive, guide and permit priced, and revises it with you until it is right. A deposit of normally 30 percent confirms it, and the balance is due 45 days before travel. We then file the permits, brief every house and kitchen, and your driver meets you at the arrivals exit at Bagdogra.
Nine stages
From first message to home again
The timings are what usually happens. Festival weeks, Bhutan in peak season and permits for foreign passports can stretch them, and we tell you when they will.
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Day one
Your first message
Use the planner, call, WhatsApp or email. The month, the size of the party, passports and pace are enough to start, and a single line will do.
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Within 24 hours
A designer replies
A travel designer from our office at Salbari, below the hills near Siliguri, writes back or calls with the questions that shape the route: who finds stairs or cold hard, what you have already seen, which flights you hold, and whether anyone needs a Sikkim or Bhutan permit.
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Once we know the party
The first draft
A day-by-day plan for your dates: each house and room type, drive times, guides, permits, the meals included and a price per person. Where a season or a road makes a day uncertain, the draft names the risk and the fallback.
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As long as you need
Revisions and the quote
Change houses, nights or pace as often as you like, and ask for two versions side by side if that helps. The final quote is laid out like the sample below and states how long it stays valid.
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When you say yes
Confirmation
Your deposit confirms the journey, and the payment table below gives the amounts and the dates. Railway seats and Bhutan's entry permits can only be filed after this stage, which is why a festival week or a Christmas in the hills rewards an early yes.
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From confirmation
Permits, seats and briefings
We file Bhutan entry permits and visas, Sikkim's online permit for foreign and OCI guests about 30 days before they reach the state, and railway seats on the morning Indian Railways releases them, 60 days out. Every kitchen gets your diets in writing. Day permits such as Tsomgo's are filed the day before.
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45 days before travel
Balance and final papers
The balance falls due. Before you fly you receive your driver's name and number, the final day-by-day plan with timings, what to carry for each checkpost, and a suggested range for tips.
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Every day you travel
On the road
Your driver waits at the arrivals exit at Bagdogra; at Paro your licensed Bhutanese guide and driver meet you, and at Kathmandu a Nepali car and guide. Drivers read the next day's road the evening before and again at first light, and if a day has to move, our team moves it with you.
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Once you are back
After you are home
We ask what worked and what did not, pass your words on to drivers, guides and houses, and settle any supplier difference if a day was rearranged. Your notes stay on file, unless you ask us to delete them, so a second journey starts where the first ended.
A sample quote
How a quote is laid out
A sample layout, not a live quote, drawn from our September 2026 costing of A Himalayan Honeymoon for two. Yours carries your own dates, rooms and a validity date, and every line shows when its rate was checked.
| Line | What it covers | Rate checked |
|---|---|---|
| Nights 1 to 3: Glenburn Tea Estate | Singalila Suite, full board, with laundry, estate walks, the factory tour and a tasting | September 2026; the estate's tariff sheet is still dated 2023 to 2024, so it is reconfirmed before you pay |
| Nights 4 and 5: MAYFAIR Himalayan Spa Resort, Kalimpong | Heritage Room in the original building, breakfast and dinner | 19 September 2026 |
| Nights 6 and 7: Taj Guras Kutir Resort & Spa, Gangtok | Luxury Room King Bed Himalayan View, breakfast, lunch and dinner | 19 September 2026 |
| Car and driver, days 1 to 6 | West Bengal-registered Innova Crysta: Bagdogra to Glenburn, two standby days on the estate, Glenburn to Kalimpong by Durpin, a Kalimpong day, then on to Pangthang | September 2026 |
| Car and driver, days 7 and 8 | Sikkim-registered Innova Crysta: Rumtek and Gangtok, then Pangthang down to Bagdogra | September 2026 |
| Guides | A half day in Kalimpong and a full day in Gangtok | September 2026 |
| Spa and celebration | A green tea oil massage at Glenburn, a long treatment at the Taj's spa, a cake, flowers and a candlelit terrace dinner at Glenburn, and a butter-lamp ceremony at the Taj | September 2026 |
| Meals outside the house plans | Lunches in Kalimpong on days 4 and 5, and in Gangtok on day 7 | September 2026 |
| Fees and permits | Sikkim's ₹50 tourist fee for each guest, the Lepcha Museum, Deolo and Rumtek | September 2026 |
| Total per person, twin share | ₹2,65,000, the journey's September 2026 from-price, with the room taxes included | Valid until the date printed on the quote |
What we ask of you
What we need from you
Most of this comes after you confirm. Each item exists because a permit office, a railway, an airline or a kitchen asks for it.
- Names exactly as printed on your IDFlights, railway seats and permits are issued to named travellers and cannot be transferred. Send each name as it appears on the passport or voter ID you will carry.
- Clear scans of the right documentIndian guests: a passport or original voter ID covers every border we cross, and inside Sikkim a driving licence also serves; Sikkim's protected-area permits do not accept Aadhaar. Foreign and OCI guests: passport, and Indian visa or OCI card.
- Passport photographs on paperBring two each for Sikkim's protected areas and Bhutan's entry permit, and four each for the East Sikkim permit that covers Zuluk and the Old Silk Route.
- Flight numbers and timesWe plan every road day backwards from them, so a long mountain drive never meets a tight departure. Getting here lists the flight windows that work from each town.
- Health, mobility and diet, in a lineHeart or lung conditions, pregnancy, knees that dislike steps, allergies, Jain or vegetarian meals. We pass on only what each house or guide needs to know.
- Insurance that covers the mountainsOur terms ask for cover against cancellation, medical care and evacuation. Treks, helicopter flights and days above 3,500 m need the policy to name them.
- Ages, and weights when we askAges decide permits and fees: Tsomgo and North Sikkim permits go only to children over five, and Bhutan's nightly fee changes at 6 and at 12. Helicopter operators balance seats by weight, so we ask before booking one.
- Early word on celebrationsTell us a week ahead about a cake, flowers or a private dinner, so each house can prepare. Glenburn embroiders pillowcases with your initials, but asks for three months.
What we promise
What we promise, and nothing more
Five commitments, the same for a weekend on a tea estate as for fourteen nights across three countries. We keep the list short so that every line on it holds.
- A reply within 24 hoursFrom the designer who will plan your journey, with real questions about your party rather than a brochure.
- No deposit to begin, and nothing booked until you say yesNot a room, a car, a permit or a railway seat is booked in your name before you confirm, and the payment table below shows the one moment at which money changes hands.
- A quote you can check line by lineEvery house, drive, guide and permit on its own line, with the date each rate was checked, as in the sample above.
- Support 24x7 while you travelOur team answers by phone and WhatsApp at any hour, from your first pickup until your flight home leaves.
- Terms written down before you payOur booking terms are published, and your quote repeats every part that applies to your dates, including each house's cancellation policy.
Payment
How and when you pay
These are the stages in our booking terms, in the order you meet them. Your quote repeats whatever applies to your dates and houses.
| Stage | When | What you pay | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planning and quotes | From your first message | Nothing | Drafts, revisions and re-quotes are free |
| Confirmation | When you say yes | A deposit, normally 30 percent | We book everything and send the written day-by-day plan |
| Balance | 45 days before your first day | The rest of the total | By bank transfer or card |
| Late confirmation | Inside 45 days of travel | The full amount | Paid at confirmation |
| Exchange rate | On the day you confirm | Nothing extra | Any supplier's foreign-currency rate is fixed that day; What it costs explains how |
| Our planning fee | Inside the journey price | No separate bill | The design, service and support share already inside your price, not an extra bill; not refundable once the journey is confirmed |
| Houses with their own terms | As each house sets | Shown in your quote | Cancellation follows each house's policy; Glenburn takes full payment 30 days out |
| Extras on the road | As you go | Drinks, spa time, tips, shopping | Paid to the house or person directly |
If plans change
When plans change, on either side
Mountains, airlines and families all change their minds. This is how each case is handled under our terms; the questions at the foot of the page go into the detail.
After you confirm
Changes that alter what suppliers charge us are passed on at cost, with no margin added. Your designer shows you the new figures line by line.
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If you cancel
There is no single company rule: cancellation follows each house's own policy, and the ones on your route are quoted to you by date. The questions below set out what that means for the deposit and the planning fee.
If the mountains cancel
When a landslide, a grounded flight or a withheld permit breaks a day, we rearrange the journey with no fee of our own.
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If someone falls ill
We turn back, rest a day or reach a doctor first, and sort the plan afterwards. Before you travel names the hospitals on each route.
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Weather on the big mornings
Sunrise on Kanchenjunga or the Everest flight depends on the sky. Where a journey turns on one, it carries a spare morning, and we cancel a pre-dawn start when the forecast is cloud.
Standards on the road
The standards we keep on the road
Each of these is written in full in one place, so it stays current. Follow the link for the whole of it.
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Road rules
How long we drive in a day, how departure days are planned backwards from your flight, and what happens when NH10 slides.
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Altitude rules
Where you sleep, where you only visit, and how the high days such as Tsomgo are paced.
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Leaving the hills better
Refillable water instead of plastic, fewer drives and longer stays, and hosts paid at their own rate.
Questions
How it works, answered straight
How long does the whole booking process take?
It depends on you more than on us. A first draft follows once we know the party, and some guests confirm the same week; others take a season to decide. Festival dates and Bhutan in peak season are best confirmed months ahead, because rooms go first. After confirmation we need ID scans in time for permits: about 30 days ahead for Sikkim's online permit on a foreign or OCI passport, and about six weeks for Bhutan.
Is the deposit refundable if we cancel?
That depends on the houses on your route. Each property's cancellation policy is written into your quote before you pay, so you can see the cost of cancelling on any date; Glenburn, for one, takes full payment 30 days before arrival. Our planning fee, which sits inside the journey price, is not refundable once a journey is confirmed. Insurance with cancellation cover is the protection we ask every guest to hold.
Who pays if a landslide or cancelled flight changes the plan?
You pay only any difference in what suppliers charge, and we add no fee of our own, as our booking terms say. In practice that might be a room near Bagdogra, charged at cost, when the road forecast is bad before a flight, or a Paro or Bhadrapur flight rebooked with the nights around it moved. Monsoon journeys carry a spare day so that a closed road costs time rather than a ticket.
Which payment methods do you accept?
Bank transfer or card, for both the deposit and the balance. Extras on the road, such as drinks, spa time and shopping, are paid to each house or shop as you go; Before you travel covers cards, cash and UPI in each of the three countries.
Do you need our passports before we confirm?
No. To plan and quote we need only nationalities and ages. After confirmation we ask for clear scans of the ID each guest will carry, because permits, visas and railway seats are issued to named travellers. We use them for your journey alone, and hotels, guides and drivers receive only the names and dates they need.
Can we change the plan once we are travelling?
Small changes, such as a longer lunch, a skipped sunrise or an extra monastery, are settled with your driver and guide on the day. Changes that add nights, rooms, flights or permits go through our team, which checks availability and tells you the cost first. Anything that alters what suppliers charge is passed on at cost.
Sources we checked for this page (4)
- Indian Railways advance reservation period of 60 days from 1 November 2024
- Foreign nationals apply for PAP and RAP on e-FRRO; permits are issued electronically only; approvals should be in place at least 30 days before the visit
- Indian nationals entering Bhutan: original passport or voter ID, birth certificate for children, two passport photographs, SDF ₹1,200 a night, children 5 and under exempt, travel insurance for the trip, a guide mandatory
- SDF: children from 6 until their 12th birthday pay half, under-6s pay none
Checked September 2026. We confirm every rule, fee and flight again for your dates.
Plan my journey
Stage one is one line from you
Everything above follows from it, and every stage stays yours to change until you have a plan you want.