Yumthang in flower and a lake at 5,430 metres
This is the trip people mean when they say they want to see Sikkim. The road north from Gangtok follows the Teesta up past waterfalls that land on the tarmac, forks at Chungthang, and delivers you into two valleys that have almost nothing in common except altitude.
Lachung is orchards and wooden houses, and above it the Yumthang Valley turns into a floor of rhododendron in April and May. Lachen is starker, and the pre-dawn run from there to Gurudongmar at 5,430 m is the highest most travellers will ever drive.
We build the ascent deliberately. Two nights in Gangtok at 1,650 m before going up, then Lachung at 2,750 m, then Lachen at 2,750 m, and only then the run to 5,430 m and straight back down. It costs a day and it is the difference between a great trip and a headache at altitude.
This is the plan as we would run it. Days can be swapped, dropped or added — say what you want changed and we will rebuild it before you pay anything.
Day 1
Met at Bagdogra or NJP and driven up the Teesta into Sikkim, roughly four and a half hours with a tea stop. Permits are checked at Rangpo. The rest of the day is deliberately empty: you are starting an altitude trip and the best thing you can do today is walk MG Marg slowly and drink more water than you want to.
Day 2
Up to 3,780 m and back, which is exactly the acclimatisation day your body wants before Lachen. Tsomgo is a glacial lake in a bowl of bare ridges, frozen in winter, ringed with prayer flags all year. Baba Mandir beyond it. Back down to sleep low in Gangtok.
Day 3
A long and spectacular drive north, six to seven hours. The road holds the Teesta the whole way, past the Seven Sisters and Naga waterfalls, through Chungthang where the river splits. Lachung by late afternoon, at 2,750 m, in a valley of apple orchards under a wall of rock. Evenings here are cold and the power is intermittent, and both of those are part of it.
Day 4
Early up the valley to Yumthang at 3,575 m. Between late March and May the slopes on the way are solid rhododendron, twenty-odd species of it, and the valley floor is meadow with the Lachung river through the middle. There is a hot spring across a footbridge. From Yumthang the road continues to Zero Point at 4,700 m, where the road simply ends in snow, and that is an optional extra everyone in the region charges separately for.
Zero Point is an optional add-on paid locally. It is often closed by snow between January and March.
Day 5
A short transfer across to the other fork of the Teesta, back down through Chungthang and up the Lachen valley. Short day on purpose: Gurudongmar starts before dawn tomorrow and the body needs the afternoon. If there is light left, walk up to Lachen Monastery above the village.
Day 6
Leaving around 4 am, because the wind at Gurudongmar gets up later in the morning and the army post has its own timings. The road climbs onto the Tibetan plateau proper, bare and enormous, and the lake at 5,430 m is a hard blue against brown rock. You stay perhaps twenty minutes; that is what the altitude allows. Then back to Lachen for breakfast and on down to Gangtok, arriving in the evening.
Gurudongmar is open to Indian nationals only. Foreign nationals travel as far as Chopta Valley instead, which is beautiful and considerably warmer.
Day 7
Down the Teesta to the plains. Five hours to the airport. Take a flight after 1 pm.
Hotels are named on your written itinerary before you pay. The properties below are the ones we normally use in this band; if one is full on your dates we substitute a hotel of the same standard and tell you which, rather than leaving you to find out at check-in.
A private vehicle for the Bagdogra and Gangtok legs. North of Chungthang the law and the road both require a permitted local Bolero, Sumo or Scorpio with a local driver, and that is included. Those are the only vehicles allowed up, for everybody.
Up to 4 travellers normally ride in a Wagon R, Swift Dzire or similar; 5 to 7 in an Innova, Xylo or Scorpio; 8 and above in a Tempo Traveller or a second vehicle. On the North Sikkim and Silk Route legs the vehicle is always a Bolero, Sumo or Scorpio, because that is what those roads take.
Your written confirmation carries the exact advance, the balance date and the cancellation schedule for your trip. Those numbers, not this page, are the ones that apply. Full terms are on the booking conditions page.
General questions: permits, seasons, packing and how to get here
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Fill this in and we will come back with a proper day-by-day itinerary for your dates, with named hotels and one all-in price. No payment is taken at this stage and nothing is confirmed until you say so.
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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.
