Seven nights from the toy train to the rhododendron valleys, Darjeeling, Gangtok and Yumthang in April, when the hillsides do something unreasonable.
For three weeks in spring, the Yumthang valley turns into something you would not believe from a photograph, forty species of rhododendron, whole hillsides of them, at their loudest in April. Most of India has never heard of it. The Bengalis have, and book early, which tells you something.
We pair it with Darjeeling done properly: the toy train's steam section rather than the whole crawl, tea at a working estate with the planter and not a gift shop, and Tiger Hill only if the forecast earns it, a 4 a.m. start for cloud is a bad trade and we will tell you so the night before.
Kanchenjunga decides when to appear. When it does, everything stops, and it should.
Eight days, start to finish. The route, then the rhythm of it.
Arrive Bagdogra, up the hill to Darjeeling. Mall Road stroll before dinner.
Steam toy train to Ghum in the morning, Himalayan Mountaineering Institute after. Momos where the drivers eat.
A working tea estate morning, plucking, withering, tasting. Afternoon free for the bakeries.
Tiger Hill if the sky agrees, then the road to Gangtok along the Teesta.
Rumtek monastery and MG Marg's unhurried evening. Permits sorted for the north.
North to Lachung through waterfall country. Village walk before dinner.
Yumthang valley among the rhododendrons. Zero Point if the road is open. Back to Gangtok.
Down to Bagdogra, depart.
The facts most itineraries leave out. We print them because they are what decides whether this trip suits your family.
A colonial-era hotel in Darjeeling that still does high tea properly, a comfortable central hotel in Gangtok with a lift, and the best available family-run lodge at Lachung, simple, warm and generous at dinner.
Families, tea lovers and photographers. The Lachung leg involves winding roads and modest lodges; the rest is easy. Fine for grandparents who tolerate hill roads well.
Journeys that suit the same travellers.
Six nights across Srinagar, Gulmarg and Pahalgam in the fortnight the tulips are actually out, with a houseboat night your children will talk about for years.
Nine days over the high passes to Nubra and Pangong, at a pace that lets everyone sleep well at altitude, oxygen in every vehicle, doctors' numbers in every driver's phone.
Seven unhurried nights from Kochi through Alleppey to Kumarakom and the hills, a houseboat, a spice garden, and afternoons with nothing in them, on purpose.