How it works
Booking a private journey here runs in nine stages, from your first message to the week after you are home. The month, the size of the party, passports and pace are enough to begin, and a single line will do.
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Within 24 hours
A travel designer from the office at Salbari, below the hills near Siliguri, writes back or calls: who finds stairs or cold hard, what you have already seen, which flights you hold, and whether anyone needs a Sikkim or Bhutan permit.
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The first draft
The draft is a day-by-day plan for your dates: houses and room types, drive times, guides, permits, meals and a price per person. Where a season or a road makes a day uncertain, it names the risk and the fallback. Revise it as often as you like.
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When you say yes
Nothing is booked in your name before you confirm. The deposit confirms the journey, and only then can railway seats and Bhutan's entry permits be filed, which is why a festival week or a Christmas in the hills rewards an early yes.
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From confirmation
Sikkim's online permit for foreign and OCI guests is filed about 30 days before they reach the state. Railway seats are booked the morning Indian Railways releases them, 60 days out. Every kitchen on the route gets your diets in writing.
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45 days before travel
The rest of the total falls due 45 days before your first day. Before you fly you receive your driver's name and number, the final plan with timings, what to carry for each checkpost and a suggested range for tips.
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Every day you travel
Your driver waits at the arrivals exit at Bagdogra; at Paro a licensed Bhutanese guide and driver meet you, and at Kathmandu a Nepali car and guide. Drivers read the next day's road the evening before and again at first light.
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Once you are back
Afterward the team asks what worked and what did not, and passes your words to drivers, guides and houses. Your notes stay on file unless you ask for them to be deleted. Stage one is still just a line from you.
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