Glenburn · seven nights
Most itineraries in these hills are a run of check-outs. This one is a week at Glenburn, a tea garden on a spur above the Rangeet and the Rung Dung, with eight suites, a kitchen garden, a library and some 1,000 acres of its own forest.
Photo: Achintya Bala / Pexels
Day 2
An unhurried factory hour from 08:30 and the tasting table, then a walk down through the sections and a dim thicket of bamboo to No. 10 Bamboo Grove, a bank of pale sand beside the Rung Dung. Lunch is laid there. The jeep comes down for you at 15:00.
Photo: Sayan Samanta / Pexels
Day 3
The gardener walks you through the kitchen garden and you pick what goes into lunch. The cooks keep an open kitchen: tea-leaf pakoras, momos, Burmese khow suey if you ask. Bring a family recipe; the estate cooks it, names it after you and serves it to later guests.
Photo: Unsplash
Day 4 · 985 m (3,230 ft) to 245 m (800 ft)
A naturalist leads you past Bora Gaon and the Sim Jhora waterfall, all downhill, 1.5 to 4 hours. The Glenburn Lodge is simple and says so: two rooms, hot water by the bucket, kerosene lamps, and dinner by lantern with the Rangeet loud in the dark.
Photo: Sajal Devnath / Pexels
Day 5 · 07:00
Walk the bank with the naturalist: cormorants drying their wings on the rocks, plumbeous water redstarts flicking from stone to stone and, with luck, a hornbill crossing the valley. Back up by noon for a green tea oil massage and an early night.
Photo: Deepak Nautiyal / Unsplash
Day 6 · Ramitay Daara
Set off at 08:45 to reach Glenburn Primary School for its 09:00 assembly, in term time. The track climbs through Bhalukop to the top fields, where lunch is laid among the bushes facing the Kanchenjunga range. The afternoon is left empty on purpose.
Photo: Monojit Dutta / Pexels
Day 7 · only if you want it
Darjeeling is 28 km and about 75 minutes away: the toy train to Ghum and back, the Bengal Natural History Museum, lunch at Glenary's, then home through the Ging and Badamtam gardens past a Buddha about 4.3 m (14 ft) tall, its eyes open to the snows.
Photo: Omkar Giri / Unsplash
Day 8
The estate car leaves at 08:30 and reaches Bagdogra around 11:30. From ₹2,65,000 per person, twin share, nearly everything included. Go October to December or February to April, and ask us whether seven nights in one suite are free on your dates.
Photo: Daniel Dara / Unsplash