North East India Tour

DAY 01 kolkata
Arrive Kolkata
You will be met on arrival and transferred to your hotel.

DAY 02 kolkata
Enjoy a sightseeing of the metropolis.
Kolkata is a city of glaring contrasts: a curious blend of the old and the new, partly feudal, partly born out of growing urbanization, partly un-definable. It is a medley of the east and the west, a graft of a European city imposed on the Asian scape that gives Calcutta its bewildering charm, confusion and excitement. Being just about 300 years old, Calcutta hardly has many great historical monuments. Perhaps, the oldest remembered is the site where the Kalighat Temple now stands. Today Calcutta is the largest city in India with a population over 10 million and boasts of India's first ever Metro rail system. It is a city that shocks on first impression but eventually the visitor falls in love with it. The sightseeing of the city includes a visit to the Victoria Memorial, Calcutta's most imposing and monumental dream in marble opened by the Prince of Wales in 1921 and often called the "Taj" of the British Raj, St. Paul's Cathedral and the Indian Museum, the largest in India, with one of the best collections of Indian art.

DAY 03 kolkata - Bangdogra - Kalimpong
Enjoy a sightseeing tour of the city in the morning.
Later transfer to Kolkata airport
You will be met on arrival and driven to Kalimpong (about 2 hours drive) Check in at your hotel for one night

Kalimpong, a remote hill station, has the beautiful mountain scenery, oak forests and the abundance of flowers, which makes Kalimpong an attractive resort. It has been a meeting point of the once "Three Closed Lands" on the trade route to Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal.

The place of interest in Kalimpong are Nurseries, it excels in producing Orchids, Amaryllis, Roses, Dahlias among others for export. One of the oldest monasteries is the Thongsa Gompa, which is brightly painted. Another monastery, Tharpa Choling houses a library of Tibetan manuscripts and Tankhas. Lepcha Museum, Bag Dhara has an ethnology collection. Rest of the day is at leisure.

DAY 04 Kalimpong - Gangtok
Drive from Kalimpong to Gangtok (about 4- 5 hours drive)
Check in at your hotel for two nights
Rest of the day is at leisure.

DAY 05 Gangtok
Enjoy an excursion to the Rumtek monastery followed by a sightseeing of Gangtok.
Gangtok  is the capital of Sikkim, a tiny Himalayan  state  known for  its  orchids  and flowers and for  the  heavy  influence  of Tibetan  culture. It is the best base from which to explore Sikkim. Once a sleepy little town and considered "very remote", Gangtok is fast expanding from a busy, bustling town towards the status of a city. However, the bustle of busy market areas and busy thoroughfares contrast sharply with quiet and serene spots -within minutes of each other.

In an around Gangtok are places of special interest, such as the Handicrafts and Handloom Industries, the Research Institute of Tibetology, the Orchid Sanctuary.

The Rumtek Monastery is a structure of great beauty - situated in the one of the lower Valleys. It is Sikkim's largest and most active monastery with a complement of some six hundred monks. The 16th Gwalpa along with  his followers took refuge in Sikkim after the Chinese invaded Tibet. On the invitation of Chogyal, the Karmapa settled in Rumtek with the statues, Thangkas and Scriptures, which they had brought with them, and the Lamasery was built. The Research Institute of Tibetology was built in 1958 by the last Chogyal (King) of Sikkim.  It has a faculty of eminent scholars, a library with a large collection of documents and rare books on Buddhism and an attached museum with a rare collection of antiques, coins and Tibetan paintings (Thankas). It is world famous for its research activities on the language and culture of Tibet.

DAY 06 Gangtok - Pelling
Drive from Gangtok to Pelling (about 3- 4 hours)
Check in at your hotel for one night

Standing at a height of 2805m and enclosed on two sides by snow-capped mountains, Pemayangtse is one of Sikkim's oldest and most important monasteries. Founded in 1705, it belongs to the Tantric Nyingmapa sect, which was established in the 8th century. The monastery is a three-storey structure filled with wall paintings and sculpture, and includes a magnificent seven-tiered painted wooden model of paradise and hell, complete with rainbows, angels and the whole panoply of Buddhas and bodhisattvas. The model was built by the late Dungzin Rinpoche over a period of five years.

DAY 07 Pelling - Darjeeling
Drive from Pelling to Darjeeling (about 3- 4 hours drive)
Check in at your hotel for one night
Rest of the day is at leisure.

DAY 08 Darjeeling
Early morning drive to Tiger Hill (approx an hour) to witness the sunrise and view the snowy peaks of Kanchenjunga
Visit Senchal Lake and Ghoom Monastery on your way back to hotel.

With the backdrop of the mighty snow clad Himalayan Peaks; Darjeeling is the most important hill resort in Eastern India. The mighty Kanchenjunga peak overlooks the town from where one can get a clear view of the peak on a sunny day. The world's highest peak - The Mount Everest can also be seen from near the town.  Darjeeling is famous for its tea, which is the most expensive tea in the world.

On a clear day Mount Everest with two other peaks of the three sisters are also visible - a Magnificent Sight.  Ghoom Monastery - a yellow hat Buddhist Monastery is the most famous in the area. It was built in the year 1875.

Tea-drinkers all over the world must be constantly blessing the memory of the person who decided around 1840 that the climate of the Darjeeling region was very conductive to the growth of the tea. Huge forest areas were cleared and tea planted.  Chinese experts were called in to teach the art of tea making and thousands of Nepalis were hired to work in the tea gardens. Darjeeling Tea had such a premium value in the Western markets that it was soon considered to be one of the finest teas in the world when it came to aroma and delicacy of taste. Not only has tea formed the backbone of the economy in the region, but "Darjeeling" and "excellent tea" have become synonymous. Out of over seventy tea gardens in the area, Happy Valley Tea Estate is the nearest to Darjeeling town and a view of its gardens has been included in the sightseeing tour.

DAY 09 Darjeeling
Day is at leisure. Over night Hotel Darjeeling

DAY 10 Darjeeling - New Jalpaiguri - Kolkata
Transfer New Jalpaiguri railway station to board the train to Kolkata
Overnight on board

DAY 11 Arrive Kolkata
Arrive Kolkata at 0615 hours
You will be met on arrival and transferred to Airport for onward travel.
Our tour concludes: We thank you for your patronage & look forward to serve you again in near future.