The team
Five people run Darjeeling Trips, and about twenty drivers and guides travel with guests through the season. There is no sales desk and nobody whose job is to chase you: the person who answers your first email is still answering in month four.
Photo: Subhrajyoti Paul / Pexels
Since 2017
The idea came in 2016 and the company opened in 2017, started by the family that still runs it. The first plan fitted on a page: put travelers in touch with the drivers and guides who knew the hills, and be answerable for it.
Photo: Arto Suraj / Pexels
The years
That was 2017, with a list of families in the hills who could be rung. The hundredth guest traveled in 2021; Sikkim, Nepal and the long road east followed in 2022; tea estates, monasteries and family kitchens joined the list in 2023.
Photo: Ankit / Pexels
2026
The 2026 relaunch was not a new logo. Every journey is now written out day by day with a dated list of sources, every quote dates each rate, and the booking terms are published in full, so you can check them before you write.
Photo: Arto Suraj / Pexels
Stage by stage
The designer who replies to your enquiry writes your plan and stays with it until after you are home. Behind them, the operations desk books and re-checks houses, cars, guides and permits; you need never speak to it.
Photo: Subham Shome / Unsplash
At 6 a.m.
The number in the footer is answered here in the hills. Before you are rung back, the driver is reached, tonight's house is told, and the road is checked with people standing on it. Then one call: what is open, what is not, and two options.
Photo: Shibaji Mondal / Pexels
In the hills
Most live a few valleys from the roads they drive and the trails they walk. Beyond a border, or where a state asks for a local operator, the car and the guide change, and in Bhutan a certified Bhutanese guide is required at all times.
Photo: nur alam / Unsplash
No portraits yet
The team page has no portraits yet: rather than show somebody who does not work there, it waits for its own. You can speak to the team before deciding anything; it costs nothing, and nothing is booked until you say yes.
Photo: Vinayak Khithani / Pexels