Who looks after you once you land

Your driver from the hills stays with you on most days, and meets you at Bagdogra arrivals. Local rules bring in other cars for three things: a Sikkim-registered permit vehicle for Tsomgo, Nathu La and the north; a Pelling car for sightseeing there, through the local taxi syndicate; and a Bhutanese car and driver from the Phuentsholing gate or Paro airport, which Bhutan's rules require beyond the Rinchending checkpoint. Tiger Hill needs a vehicle token, which your driver collects the afternoon before. Each handover is planned for a hotel door or a border gate rather than a roadside, and your quote names every one of them with the day it happens.

A Toyota Innova Crysta takes three or four guests with luggage in comfort, with the front seat kept for anyone who feels the bends. Five or six travel in two cars, which also means nobody lifts a case at an airport kerb. In Bhutan it is a Land Cruiser Prado class SUV, or a Toyota Hiace for five or six. The Singalila Ridge is different: only the local association's Land Rovers and Boleros run on that track, with their own drivers.

Yes. Gangtok to the Bhutan gate is 230 km and about seven hours, and a night in the Dooars splits it, leaving you at the gate by lunch the next day. It is the choice we put to anyone over 65, and to anyone who would rather not give a whole day to the car. It is the longest day we plan: every other day is built under six hours unless your itinerary names it as a transfer or border day.

They are slower and less predictable. From mid June to mid September, slides can close NH10 along the Teesta or the climb to Darjeeling for hours or days. The climb has three ways up, Rohini Road, Pankhabari Road and the Hill Cart Road through Tindharia, so one closure rarely stops the day, and NH10 is diverted through Gorubathan and Lava. We ask for a spare day in any monsoon plan, and we do not drive past a closure the police have not opened, whatever the queue behind us is doing.

In Bhutan, yes, by law: a licensed Bhutanese guide travels with you from arrival to departure, and since September 2026 a guide meeting you at the Phuentsholing land border must be registered 48 hours before the crossing, so a road entry cannot be arranged at the last minute. Elsewhere we add local guides on the days that reward one, such as monasteries, Tsomgo, the railway and tea gardens, and the Kathmandu valley, plus the registered local guide the Singalila park requires. Drive days and slow days need only your driver.

Tell your driver or guide at once. At altitude the remedy is height lost, not rest, so we turn back rather than push on: a headache at Tsomgo means we stop at the lake and leave Nathu La for another journey, and the car carries the oxygen, water and blankets named above. On the road we stop, rest and reach a doctor if needed. An evacuation is paid by your travel insurance, which is why our booking terms ask for cover that includes it, and our altitude rules explain how the days are built to avoid the question.

Yes. The car is yours for the day, so a tea stall, a viewpoint or a village shop is a word to your driver, not a change to the plan. Two exceptions: landslide stretches, where stopping is unsafe, and the army camps and convoys on the Zuluk, Nathu La and North Sikkim roads, where photography is not allowed at all. Your driver will say which is which before you reach for the camera.