A capital built down the side of a ridge, with a pedestrian high street, serious food, and a glacial lake an hour above it.
Altitude
1,650 m
Getting there
Bagdogra (IXB) 124 km / NJP 120 km, about 4 to 5 hours by road
Best time
March to May and October to mid-December
How long it needs
2 to 3 nights
About Gangtok & East Sikkim
Gangtok is the most comfortable base in the Eastern Himalaya. MG Marg, the main street, is closed to cars and to litter, and on any evening half the city is out on it. The hotels are good, the restaurants are genuinely good, and everything works.
The day trips are what people come for. Tsomgo Lake sits at 3,780 m an hour and a half above the city, frozen in winter and ringed with prayer flags all year. Beyond it the road runs to Baba Harbhajan Singh Mandir and, with the right permit, to the Nathu La pass on the Indo-Chinese border.
East Sikkim also holds the Old Silk Route: Zuluk, Thambi View Point and the thirty-two hairpin bends that made it famous.
What people come for
Tsomgo Lake and Baba Mandir at 3,780 m
Nathu La pass, permit and weekday permitting
MG Marg in the evening
Rumtek Monastery, seat of the Karmapa
Hanuman Tok and Ganesh Tok viewpoints
Banjhakri Falls and the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology
Know before you go
Tsomgo, Baba Mandir and Nathu La need a protected-area permit arranged a day ahead with your photo ID and photographs. We handle it.
Nathu La is not open every day of the week and closes without notice for weather or for military movement. It is never guaranteed, by anyone.
Foreign nationals cannot visit Nathu La at all, and need a separate permit for Tsomgo. Tell us your nationality when you enquire and we plan around it.
Packages
7 trips that include Gangtok & East Sikkim
Each of these can be lengthened, shortened or recombined. If you want Gangtok & East Sikkim on its own, or bolted onto something else entirely, just ask.
Tell us roughly what you want. We will send back a real itinerary.
Dates, how many of you, and anywhere you have your heart set on — that is enough for us to start. You will get a day-by-day plan with named hotels and one all-in price, in writing, before you pay anything.
