Before you travel
Seasons, permits, and the things that catch people out
Most trips that go wrong in this region go wrong for one of three reasons: the wrong month, a missing document, or an assumption about a road. All three are avoidable.
When to come
The four seasons, described honestly
Season decides more here than budget does. A cheap trip in the right month beats an expensive one in the wrong month, every time.
March to May · Spring
The best all-round window. Rhododendron from late March through May on the high ridges, from Yumthang to Singalila to the Silk Route. Days are comfortable, mornings are often clear, and the high passes are open. It is also busy: April and May are peak season and hotels are booked well ahead.
June to September · Monsoon
Green, cheap and genuinely beautiful in the Dooars and the lower hills, but the high roads are landslide-prone and views are unreliable. The West Bengal forests close for breeding, roughly mid-June to mid-September, and Kaziranga is shut for the floods. We will take your booking for this period, but we will tell you what you are trading away.
October to December · Autumn
The clearest skies of the year. If you want Kanchenjunga sharp from Tiger Hill or the whole range from Sandakphu, this is the window, and mid-October to early January is our busiest and tightest period for hotels. Cold at altitude, but dry.
January to February · Winter
Snow in the high passes, frozen lakes, very few people, and the lowest prices of the year. Zero Point and parts of the Silk Route may be closed by snow, and homestays at 4,000 m are seriously cold. A wonderful time to travel if you pack for it.
Permits
Who needs what, and where it is issued
We arrange every permit listed here. What we cannot do is change who is eligible — several of these rules differ by nationality and are set by central government, not by us. Tell us your nationality at the enquiry stage and we plan around it.
Permit rules, fees and office timings change by government notification. We check the current position for your dates before confirming anything, and the requirement list on your written itinerary is the one that applies.
Getting here
Two doors into the whole region
Bagdogra (IXB) is the only airport serving Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Sikkim, the Dooars and the Bhutan border, with direct flights from Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Guwahati and Ahmedabad. It is a small airport; allow time.
New Jalpaiguri (NJP) is the railhead, with direct trains from Kolkata, Delhi, Guwahati and much of eastern India. It sits inside Siliguri, twenty minutes from our office.
Sikkim now has an airport at Pakyong (PYG) near Gangtok, but the schedule is thin and weather-dependent, so most trips still route through Bagdogra.
For Meghalaya, Assam and Arunachal the gateway is Guwahati (GAU) instead — a different flight in a different state, and the single most common booking mistake we see on those trips.
One rule worth keeping: book the return flight after 1 pm. Every descent from the hills is four to five hours and the road does not care about your schedule.
What to carry
Packing for a hill trip
- Layers, not one thick coat. Hill weather changes through the day and you will be getting in and out of a vehicle constantly.
- A windproof outer shell. Wind at 4,000 m does more than cold does.
- Proper closed shoes with grip. Monastery steps, wet stone and loose gravel are the three things that hurt people here.
- Sunscreen and sunglasses. Snow glare at altitude is much stronger than the temperature suggests.
- Any regular medication in its original packaging, plus a basic kit. Pharmacies thin out fast above Gangtok.
- A power bank. Power in Lachung, Lachen and the Silk Route homestays is intermittent by design.
- Cash. ATMs exist in Gangtok, Darjeeling and Shillong and are unreliable everywhere above them.
- Original photo ID and several photocopies, plus four passport photographs per person for permits.
Altitude
The one thing worth taking seriously
Several trips on this site go above 4,000 m, and Gurudongmar is 5,430 m. Most people are fine. The ones who are not are usually the ones who went up too fast.
- Our high-altitude itineraries build in acclimatisation nights on purpose. They cost a day and they are not padding.
- Drink far more water than you feel like, and go easy on alcohol the night before a high day.
- Headache, nausea and breathlessness at rest mean descend, not push on. Your driver knows this and will act on it.
- Anyone with a heart or lung condition, uncontrolled high blood pressure, or who is pregnant should speak to a doctor before booking a high-altitude trip, and tell us so we can suggest an alternative.
This is general travel guidance from a tour operator, not medical advice. For anything about your own health, ask a doctor.
Questions
Everything else people ask
How do I reach you from outside the region?
Do I need permits for Sikkim, Bhutan or Arunachal?
What documents should every traveller carry?
When is the best time to travel?
Is the price per person or for the whole group?
Can you change an itinerary I have found here?
What happens if a road or a pass is closed?
How do I book, and what do you need up front?
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.