Traveling with parents
West Sikkim asks for more climbing than the photographs suggest, and December nights on the Pelling ridge average about 3 °C (37 °F). Both are easy to plan around once you know where they are.
Photo: Lay Naik / Unsplash
Winter nights
Pelling averages about 3 °C at night in December and 1 °C (34 °F) in January. Heated rooms, hot-water bottles and extra quilts are requested before you arrive; The Elgin Mount Pandim heats the house in winter and lights fires in the cottages.
Photo: Sahil Pandita / Unsplash
Which room
The Elgin's cottages sit downhill on a steep garden path, so parents get rooms in the main building, close to the dining room, confirmed in writing before you travel.
Photo: Andrew Lamb
How much climbing
Rabdentse is fifteen minutes on a forest path from its gate. Sanga Choeling is a climb of 45 minutes to an hour, and Dubdi above Yuksom about 3 km up through cardamom and oak, an hour at a steady pace.
Photo: Arjis Kundu / Pexels
Yuksom
At Yuksom, the coronation ground at Norbugang is a short level path, with the car kept close. The hour's climb to Dubdi stays optional: anyone keen walks up, and everyone else keeps the garden at Norbugang.
Photo: Arijit Dey / Pexels
Khecheopalri
Khecheopalri Lake's boardwalk is flat, the gentlest walk in West Sikkim. Shoes come off before the boards, which are cold on a winter morning, so put a pair of thick socks in a pocket.
Photo: Sahil Pandita
The road in
Bagdogra to Pelling is about 135 km and 5 to 6 hours of river gorge and hairpins. Two nights in Darjeeling first leave about 70 km to Pelling. Take any motion-sickness tablet at the airport, not after Legship.
Photo: Arto Suraj / Pexels
How the days are built
Each day is shaped so that anyone who would rather sit has somewhere worth sitting, and the mountain can be watched from a heated room. Mention knees, stairs and medicines when you first write, and the plan starts from there.
Photo: Harsh Suthar / Pexels