The Trigger
Bengali kids who have not been to Darjeeling are kept in a polite shame. My defence: I had been there, age two, no memory at all. April 2022 came with an unusually long weekend (Ambedkar Jayanti Thursday, Good Friday, Saturday-Sunday) and the gap suddenly felt fixable. We booked.
Travel
Outbound: Kanchenjunga Express, 6:35am sharp out of Sealdah. The 3AC was fine. The food was a disaster — pre-booked breakfast and lunch, 1 of 4 attempts actually delivered, and the rest was pantry no-shows. Other passengers reported the same. Despite that, NJP arrival was on time, 6:10pm.
Return: Teesta Torsa Express, 45 minutes late at NJP, no signage on coach positions, a frantic boarding scramble. The 2AC was a step up — proper linen, pillows, ticket-checking staff at the doors keeping the unticketed out, toilets in better shape. Departure 4pm. Sealdah by 5:30am.
Day Zero
NJP at 7pm. The hotel’s pickup driver was waiting at the gate. 20 minutes through traffic to VIP Hotel Olive Siliguri (pure veg). The pickup ride: 500 INR.
Two rooms at 3200 INR, no breakfast (add-on rate 150 INR per head). The wall signs forbid outside food but in practice the staff lets in delivery orders. The kitchen was actually good. Location is dead-centre Siliguri, which keeps the place full.
Single complaint: the bathroom floor uses non-anti-skid tiles. Watch your step. Check-out: 11am.
Day One
Driver and guide for the trip: Edward Chetri, recommended via my cousin’s previous trip. Deal: 3500 INR per day for transport plus sightseeing. Pickup at 10:30am, on Darjeeling soil by 2pm with one stop on NH 110 for tea.
Pre-checkin detour at Ghum Monastery. To enter you cross the railway track and drop down to the premises. Small gift shop and cafe alongside the monastery. The drizzle started without warning, the way it does on the hills. We moved on.
Past Mall Road. At Bhanu Bhawan we took the steep motorable cut down to Hotel Himalayan Retreat. Check-in was clean, the welcome warm.
Second-floor rooms, spacious, well-equipped. The hotel’s angle and the cloud cover meant no mountain view from our window. Room service is slow; the basement restaurant is faster and the cook is the reason to skip room service.
After lunch and a nap, we walked up to the Mall complex at 7pm. The path is short, ~10 minutes, but the crowd thickens around Glenary’s. We took tea at the shop directly opposite, then thrift-shopped first-copy garments inside Mahakali Market on the left side of Mall Road.
Dinner back at the hotel. Standout: the homemade curd. Lights out early. 3am wake-up alarm set.
Day Two — Tiger Hill
Out the door 3:45am. Reception: a column of a hundred cars already on the road. The Senchal Forest Reserve gust hit us full in the face on the way down. Local women work the parking with flashlights, selling 25 INR hot coffee. We were at the summit by 4:30am with an unobstructed line of sight in every direction.
North Star and a gibbous moon, sharp against the dark. Then blue hour rolled in, sun creeping up the eastern horizon.
Golden hour gave way to the actual sun: a red disc clearing the ridgeline.
North face: Kanchenjunga lit up. Locals said this was the clearest visibility they had seen in weeks. We took the gift.
The viewpoint has an arena seat-out for those who want to settle in, and locals running paid telescope time on the peak.
Tea break at 8am on the way down, then back to the hotel for a clean-up and a 11am check-out. Bags into the back of the car.
Next: Darjeeling Zoo, 50 INR entry. The mountaineering institute on the back of the property is only accessible through the zoo.
The path inside is steep — challenging for older visitors. The zoo holds a strong roster: mountain goat sub-families, snow leopard, black leopard, pheasants, macaws, Bengal tiger, black bear. The headline animal here is the red panda.
We skipped the mountaineering institute and exited downhill, where Edward met us. Past the ropeway and rock-climbing stops to Happy Valley Tea Estate. The estate was on labour strike for a minimum-wage hike but the tea-garden walk was open.
Tibetan Refugee Camp and museum after that. Photographs document the displacement story; carpets are sewn live in the camp and sold by the artisans.
Final stop of the day: the joint Japanese Monastery and Peace Pagoda complex.
Hermitage Resort check-in window opened at 2pm. Verification was elaborate.
Day Three
Hermitage is built down a slope, not up. Every room gets a mountain view because the floors descend the gradient. We took the cheapest tier, Daisy, three floors down at the bottom.
Toy train tickets booked on IRCTC: 1000 INR each for the diesel joyride round-trip, departing Darjeeling station 9:45am. The day before, most seats were still open. By boarding time, sold out.
The other option is the steam ride — coal-powered, the original 1881 mechanism, no concession to the environment. 1500 INR each round-trip.
From Darjeeling station you can see Hindu Dhirdham Temple, accessible down a small winding path.
The diesel toy train clears the city in 35 minutes and stops at Batsia Loop. Many travellers get off here. The train holds 10 minutes before continuing.
Total run time to Ghum Station: 25 minutes from the loop.
At Ghum you can do the train museum, continue onward, or take the return ride. We took the return.
Edward picked us up post-return for Rock Garden. The road in is in poor shape, with caved-in sections that have been waiting for repair. The garden is essentially a stack of rocks flanking a small waterfall, with stairways built in for the climb.
We pushed further to Gangamaya Park (920 INR entry), a flat expanse of flowering trees, cherry blossoms, and a small lake for boating.
Lunch at the famous Glenary’s. Per-head average around 400 INR (without alcohol). Bakery downstairs, pub in the basement, dining on top, with an open-air section that allows smoking.
Evening shopping: Darjeeling tea from Nathmull’s Tea Room, the original at the entrance of Mahakali Market on Mall Road. Non-negotiable stop.
Day Four
Different route up to Mall this morning, through New Mahakali Market on the right. Longer walk, much gentler slope. Breakfast attempt at Keventers at 8:15am — they open at 8 — found a 50-deep queue. We bailed, packed breakfast elsewhere, left by 9am.
First stop on the way to Takdah: Rangli Rangot, a viewpoint where wild strawberries grow.
Takdah Orchid Centre, 20 INR entry, forest-division-maintained, basic washroom. They sell low-maintenance plants — cacti, succulents — at the gate from 50 INR.
Onward to the Tinchuley tea garden, which gives you a panoramic of Teesta and Kalimpong from one frame. Rain clouds closed the view by mid-day. Heavy haze.
Lamahatta Eco Park (20 INR per head) was the next stop, a garden inside a pine forest with a wooden elevation built for a top-down view of the area.
For the adventurous: a 750-metre uphill walk through the forest to a sacred lake. The map prints on the back of the entry ticket.
Final dinner at Glenary’s. Bakery cakes packed for the return train.
Field Notes
- Phone hotels before booking online. Direct deals beat aggregator rates. Our Siliguri hotel handled the entire negotiation over WhatsApp.
- Toy trains: book day-before on weekdays. Weekends and holidays, book a week or more ahead.
- Darjeeling Mail sells out months ahead for any holiday window. Book very early.
- Check the weather forecast before locking dates. Mountain visibility is the variable that determines whether your photos work. Snow runs through winter.
- Darjeeling tea and Glenary’s. Both earn the hype. Do not skip either.
- Mall Road horse rides in the morning if you are with kids.
- Tiger Hill: leave very early. The road is one-way and the daily car cap is real. Late arrivals get the inferior viewpoint, not the summit.
One Recommendation
Tiger Hill at 4:30am on a clear day. Watch the spectrum shift across the Kanchenjunga face: blue, gold, red, white. The moment is short. The visibility is conditional. Take the gamble.
Queening out,
Sayantan