Travel style
Village homestays
Sleep in family homes, eat from the farm
Homestays are the fastest-growing kind of stay in these hills and often the best value. A family lets two to six rooms, cooks for guests and knows the trails. Prices usually include all meals.
Expect clean but simple rooms, shared tables, hot water by geyser or bucket, and patchy mobile signal. We choose homestays where the family runs the place, not a city operator, and tell you plainly what the bathroom is like.
Journeys
Routes in this style
per person, twin₹13,000
per person, twin₹20,500
per person, twin₹14,500
per person, twin₹15,500
per person, twin₹21,000
per person, twin₹19,500
per person, twin₹12,500
per person, twin₹17,000
per person, twin₹13,500
per person, twin₹10,000
per person, twin₹12,000
per person, twin₹17,000
per person, twin₹12,000
per person, twin₹33,500
per person, twin₹37,500
per person, twin₹13,500
per person, twin₹10,000 Build your own route Tell us your dates, who is coming and what you want to see. We draw the route and price it three ways. Start Working to a budget? Give us a number per person. We will tell you honestly what it buys, and where to save. Start Ask someone who has been A first plan and price within one working day. No payment to start. Start
Places
Where it fits best
An eco-village inside Senchal forest, above Sonada
Tea gardens, Netaji's house and the train in the bazaar
A pine-forest hamlet past Ghum, quieter than Darjeeling
A lake, a monastery and orange orchards near the Nepal border
Tagore's hill retreat among the cinchona plantations
Orange orchards and hornbill forest below Kurseong
The road junction above Kalimpong, with Damsang Fort in the forest
A small homestay village of forest trails, birds and mountain views
Homestay village on the edge of the Neora forest
Pine-forest bazaar at the gate of Neora Valley
Canopy walk, cypress forest and a Jhandi Dara sunrise
A small town on the old mule road to Jelep La
A pine-ridge homestay village above the Teesta, close to Kalimpong
The widest Kanchenjunga panorama in the Kalimpong hills
A ridge-top homestay village above Pedong with big Kanchenjunga views
Lampokhari Lake, an 1895 dak bungalow and a gentle Silk Route start
A yak herders' valley at about 4,000 m, and the 1888 Gnathang fight
Border bazaar on the old Kalimpong–Jelep La road into Sikkim
Old trade bazaar on the Rangpo River and the Silk Route permit gate
Silk Route village above the zigzag road to Thambi
The Lepcha reserve across the Teesta from Mangan
District town of cardamom, with Kanchenjunga from Singhik
The wish-fulfilling lake where, legend says, birds clear every leaf
Sherpa homestays on the road to Barsey's rhododendrons
A 1730 monastery, a windy ridge and Kangchenjunga at breakfast
A Limbu border village under the Singalila Ridge
Sikkim's first capital and the start of the Goecha La trail
Four high valleys and the oldest temples in Bhutan
Hot springs and a frontier dzong at the top of the Mo Chhu
A quiet valley over Chele La, opened to tourists only in 2002
Tiger's Nest, the airport valley and Bhutan's red rice fields
A wide glacial valley where black-necked cranes spend the winter
A rebuilt 17th-century dzong on the ridge above two rivers
A Bhutanese fort, a freedom fighters' jail and a forest that climbs to Bhutan
A wide riverbed at the foot of the Bhutan hills, inside Buxa
The Jaldhaka valley on the Bhutan border, river and forest
Where the plains end: tea slopes, river stones and a hanging bridge
Home of the Toto, one of India's smallest communities
Build your own route Tell us your dates, who is coming and what you want to see. We draw the route and price it three ways. Start Working to a budget? Give us a number per person. We will tell you honestly what it buys, and where to save. Start Ask someone who has been A first plan and price within one working day. No payment to start. StartStays
Rooms that suit it
