Glenburn, Darjeeling district
A private long weekend on one working tea estate, with no sightseeing at all. Glenburn has eight suites, two rivers and a factory a short walk from your door, and it has been making tea on this spur since 1859.
Photo: Mosharraf Hossain / Unsplash
Day 1 · about 85 km
Flying from the US, you change once, in Delhi or Kolkata. At Bagdogra the estate's own car meets you for about 3 hours: across the plains, up the Teesta gorge, through the Peshok tea and down, the last quarter hour on a bumpy estate track.
Photo: Angshu Purkait / Pexels
Day 1 · evening
We ask for the estate's 15-minute film, The Glenburn Experience, by the Living Room fire: 1859 to now in the time it takes to finish a drink. Dinner is at 19:30 at the long table. Tell the staff tonight what you do not eat, and it shapes tomorrow's picnic.
Photo: Unsplash
Day 2 · 08:30
Bed tea at your hour, breakfast in the Morning Room, then the factory at 08:30, because the leaf is processed in the morning. A tasting of the estate's teas ends it. From about 10:30 the day is in your hands.
Photo: Sayan Samanta / Pexels
Day 2 · the fields
A guide walks you to a section being plucked, and one of the pluckers shows you the cut, dropped into the basket on her back faster than you can follow. Plucking runs late February to November; in winter you see pruning. Wear a hat and long sleeves.
Photo: Unsplash
Day 2 · lunch
Somewhere down the slope a tray of nimboo pani, the estate's fresh lemonade, appears among the bushes. The walk runs mostly downhill for 1.5 to 3 hours and ends at lunch on the sand by the Rung Dung, or at Coffee Bari when the river runs high.
Photo: Sajal Devnath / Pexels
Day 3 · 05:30
Every suite in the Water Lily Bungalow faces the Kanchenjunga range, and from October to December the snows usually show at first light. Ask for bed tea at 05:30. If cloud hides them, sleep on and try the verandah after breakfast.
Photo: Aritra Roy / Unsplash
Day 3 · 08:30
You leave at 08:30 for flights from 13:00; a flight after 16:00 buys the walk up to Ramitay Daara. From ₹75,000 per person, twin share, with meals, the car and the tea tour. Go March to May or October to November, and send us your flight times.
Photo: Daniel Dara / Unsplash