A white dog wearing a thick garland of orange marigolds for Kukur Tihar, sitting in sunlit grass with its nose raised

Festival journey · 5 nights

Lights of Tihar

Five days of lamps, marigolds and door-to-door songs, kept the way the Nepali-speaking hills keep Diwali.

  • 5nights, private
  • 2bases
  • 2,590 mhighest point
  • ₹1,10,000from, per person, twin share
Price this journey for my dates See the 6 days

In short

Is Lights of Tihar right for you?

Lights of Tihar is a five-night private journey through Tihar, the festival of lights as the Nepali-speaking hills keep it, from Bagdogra airport (IXB). You spend three nights in Darjeeling for Kukur Tihar and Laxmi Puja, then two in Kalimpong for Deusi and Bhai Tika.

Made forcouples who want the hills in festival dress, families with children over 6, returning visitors who have seen the sights and Nepali-speaking families from the diaspora coming home for Tihar.

Not for you ifNot for anyone who wants quiet hills or minds firecrackers and holiday crowds; for calm and the same views, choose The Quiet Ridge in another week.

In the plains it is Diwali. In the Darjeeling hills it is Tihar, five days that Nepali-speaking families keep in a fixed order: crows on the first morning, dogs on the second, cows and the goddess Laxmi on the third, oxen on the fourth, brothers on the last. Marigolds go up over doorways, oil lamps line the steps, and after dark girls come singing Bhailo, followed on later nights by boys with Deusi and a madal drum. It ends with sisters marking their brothers' foreheads in five colours to keep Yama, the god of death, at bay.

You come as a guest, which is how Tihar is meant to be kept. We ask families to let you in at the right moments and keep you clear of the private ones, put notes and sweets for the singers in your pocket, and tell you each evening what the next day asks of a guest. There is still room for Tiger Hill, because the festival falls in the clearest weeks of the year.

Designed in the Darjeeling hills by the Darjeeling Trips team · Updated September 2026

Length
5 nights, 6 days
Starts and ends
Bagdogra airport to Bagdogra airport
Best months
Tihar week, in late October or November (the dates change every year)
Avoid
All other weeks: the route is built around the festival
Pace
Gentle
Longest drive
About 3 hours, 275 km in all
Highest point
Tiger Hill, 2,590 m
Group
Private, 2 to 6 guests

The route

Why Darjeeling comes first

Darjeeling takes the first three days because the public side of Tihar is strongest there: garlanded dogs on the Mall, the lanes below Chowrasta lit for Laxmi Puja, and Tiger Hill at its clearest in late autumn. The fourth day is quieter, a good one for the 55 km drive across the Teesta. Kalimpong, about 800 m lower and milder, is smaller and more domestic, which suits Bhai Tika in a family home. Ending there also leaves a three-hour run to Bagdogra.

Sikkim Kanchenjunga 8,586 mJomolhari 7,326 m Bagdogra airport 1 Darjeeling · 3 nights 2 Kalimpong · 2 nights
your bases, in orderby roadborders not drawn

Where the nights go

Read the place guidesDarjeelingKalimpong

The shape of the journey

From 126 m to 2,590 m, day by day

You sleep between 1,247 m and 2,045 m. The highest you go is 2,590 m, on day 2 at Tiger Hill, and you come down again to sleep.

Built around

Darjeeling and Kalimpong at their best

  • Kukur Tihar at the Lebong animal shelter, garlanding the dogs it vaccinates for the town

  • Tiger Hill at dawn in late autumn, when Kanchenjunga shows on most clear mornings

  • Sel roti poured by hand in rings into hot oil, in a hill kitchen on the day of Laxmi Puja

  • Laxmi Puja night below Chowrasta: oil lamps on the steps and girls singing Bhailo at the doors

  • A Deusi group at the gate after dark in Kalimpong, the madal drum first and the blessing last

  • Bhai Tika with a Kalimpong family: five colours, a makhamali garland and a walnut cracked at the door

Day by day

Day by day, Darjeeling to Kalimpong

The longest drive is day 1, Bagdogra airport to Darjeeling, about 3 hours with stops.

  1. Day 1 · Bagdogra airport Darjeeling

    Kag Tihar: up the hill as the first lamps appear

    • 70 km, about 3 h
    • High point 2,258 m
    • Sleep at 2,045 m
    • Easy
    Darjeeling's houses stacked down a forested ridge, lit by a shaft of low sun beneath dark cloud

    Your driver waits at the Bagdogra arrivals exit, and the 70 km up take about three hours. Today is Kag Tihar, the day of the crow, Yama's messenger: this morning hill families set out rice and sweets on their roofs for the birds, and you may still see the offerings on the ledges. At Kurseong, where you stop for tea at about 14:00, the first marigold garlands are going up on the stalls, and orange and yellow strings hang from the shop fronts all the way to Darjeeling. You reach The Elgin by 16:30. The house dates from 1887 and first belonged to the Maharaja of Cooch Behar; a fire is laid in your room. At about 17:00, as the light goes, your guide for the week walks you up to Chowrasta, where the first oil lamps are appearing on steps and window ledges. Dinner is at 19:30 in the Orchid Dining Room, and over it your guide explains the five days ahead and what each one asks of a guest.

    The momentThe first diyo of the week, flickering on a stone step off Chowrasta while the ridge turns blue and the cold comes down.

    InsiderKag Tihar opens Yamapanchak, the five days of Yama: crows first, then dogs, cows, oxen, and on the last day, brothers.

    If the weather turnsShould slides close the climb, your driver switches to whichever hill road is open that day. Land after 14:00 and the Chowrasta walk moves to the next evening.

    Meals
    Dinner

  2. Day 2 · Darjeeling

    Kukur Tihar: Tiger Hill, then garlands for the dogs

    • 40 km, about 2 h
    • High point 2,590 m
    • Sleep at 2,045 m
    • Moderate
    A white dog wearing a marigold garland and a red tika for Kukur Tihar, sitting in sunlit grass in Nepal

    Before dawn there is Tiger Hill, if you want it: the car's token came yesterday, the sky is read at 03:30, and on a clear morning you stand at 2,590 m by 05:15 and are back for breakfast at 07:45. Today is Kukur Tihar, when dogs across the hills, pets and strays alike, are given a marigold garland, a red tika and a proper meal. At 09:30 the car takes you down to the Darjeeling Goodwill Animal Shelter at Lebong, whose clinic sterilises and vaccinates the town's street dogs. We ask the shelter each year whether guests may come, and bring the food on its list. With the staff, you garland a dog or two, and hear why the dog follows the crow: Yama, the god of death, is said to keep two four-eyed dogs at the gates of the underworld. Lunch in town at 12:30. In the afternoon, walk the Mall and count the garlanded dogs asleep in the sun. Dinner at The Elgin.

    The momentA street dog on the Mall asleep in the afternoon sun, a marigold garland round its neck and a smudge of red on its brow.

    InsiderIn 2021 the Darjeeling police marked Kukur Tihar by garlanding vaccinated street dogs on the Mall, each given a collar saying so.

    If the weather turnsIf cloud is forecast, we cancel Tiger Hill at 03:30 and you sleep on. If the shelter cannot host visitors that day, we deliver your food and walk the Mall instead.

    Meals
    Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

  3. Day 3 · Darjeeling

    Laxmi Puja: cows at morning, sel roti, lamps at dusk

    • 15 km, about 1 h
    • High point 2,134 m
    • Sleep at 2,045 m
    • Easy
    A hand lighting white candles on a stone ledge after dark in Darjeeling, wax pooling around their bases

    The morning belongs to the cows. At 08:30 your guide takes you to a village below town, where we ask a family each year to let you watch them wash their cow, hang marigolds on its horns and feed it the best from the kitchen for Gai Tihar. By 11:00 the same kitchen is making sel roti: rice soaked overnight, ground into a batter with sugar and ghee, poured by hand in a ring into hot oil. You try a ring or two of your own and eat the rest with pickle and tea. Back at The Elgin by 15:00 to rest. Laxmi Puja begins at dusk. From about 17:00 oil lamps go on along doorways and windows, marigolds hang over the thresholds, and rangoli of coloured rice and petals appears on the steps. After dark, small groups of girls come singing Bhailo at the doors; we hand you notes and sweets to give them. Walk the lanes below Chowrasta with your guide until the cold sends you in.

    The momentA doorway below Chowrasta ringed with oil lamps, girls singing Bhailo on the step, and a plate of sel roti passed out to them.

    InsiderLaxmi Puja falls on the same new-moon night as Bengal's Kali Puja, so the town's Bengali families keep their own puja alongside.

    If the weather turnsIn years like 2026, when Laxmi Puja falls on the dogs' day, we walk the lamps on day 2 and move Tiger Hill to day 3. If rain comes, the lamps go indoors and so do we.

    Meals
    Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

  4. Day 4 · Darjeeling Kalimpong

    Goru Tihar: down to Kalimpong as the Deusi begins

    • 55 km, about 2.5 h
    • High point 2,258 m
    • Sleep at 1,247 m
    • Easy
    An ivy covered colonial stone bungalow in Kalimpong at the top of a hedge lined drive under grey cloud

    A slow start after a late night. On the fourth day farming families honour the oxen that plough their terraces, and Newar households keep Mha Puja, a ritual for the self. Away from The Elgin at 10:00, down the Peshok road through the tea gardens towards the river, 55 km and about two and a half hours. If you pass a farm where the oxen wear garlands today, the driver slows so you can look without walking into anyone's yard. You cross the Teesta and climb to Kalimpong for lunch at 13:00 at the MAYFAIR, where your Heritage Room has its own fireplace. At 15:30 your Kalimpong guide takes you into the market to order makhamali garlands, walnuts and the tika colours for tomorrow, to be collected in the morning. Tonight belongs to Deusi: from about 19:00 groups of young men with a madal go door to door, and we ask the hotel to call us when one reaches the gate.

    The momentA Deusi group at the gate after dark, the madal leading, one voice calling each line and the rest answering it.

    InsiderDeusi is call and answer: the leader sings a line about the household and the group replies with the refrain. Stay to the end; the blessing comes last.

    If the weather turnsShould the Peshok road close, the driver goes round by Sevoke and NH10 and lunch waits. If no Deusi group reaches the gate, your guide takes you into town to find one.

    Meals
    Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

  5. Day 5 · Kalimpong

    Bhai Tika in a Kalimpong home

    • 15 km, about 1 h
    • High point 1,372 m
    • Sleep at 1,247 m
    • Easy
    A sister in red bangles pressing tika onto her brother's forehead during Bhai Tika in a Nepali home

    If you are up early, the car climbs at 06:30 to Zang Dhok Palri on Durpin for its morning prayers. Breakfast at 08:30. At 09:30 your guide collects the garlands, walnuts and colours you ordered yesterday. A family's own Bhai Tika comes at the auspicious hour its almanac gives, and that hour is theirs, so we keep you away. We ask a Kalimpong family we know to receive you at about 13:30, once its own tika is done, and tell you when you book whether one can that year. Sisters seat their brothers, trace a ring of mustard oil and water around them, crack a walnut at the threshold, hang a makhamali garland on each and press the five-coloured tika onto their foreheads. Brothers answer with gifts, and then everyone eats. If you travel as brother and sister, the family can guide you through your own tika with what you bought. Back at the MAYFAIR by 16:30, with a fire lit and the last Deusi still to come.

    The momentA sister's thumb pressing five colours onto her brother's forehead, the makhamali round his neck, the walnut cracking on the step.

    InsiderDarjeeling district's own festival page calls it the panch rangi tika, five colours. In Nepal the same mark is usually the saptarangi, seven, although scholars there differ over which number the texts prescribe.

    If the weather turnsIf no family can receive guests in your year, we say so when you book, and your guide walks you through a tika of your own with the colours you bought. If rain sets in, Durpin moves to the afternoon.

    Meals
    Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

  6. Day 6 · Kalimpong Bagdogra airport

    Down to Bagdogra with a garland that will not fade

    • 80 km, about 3 h
    • High point 1,247 m
    • Easy
    The green Teesta running out of its forested gorge at Sevoke, seen from the Coronation Bridge under a pink evening sky

    The last morning of Tihar is a travelling day for the whole hills: people who came home for the festival start back to the plains, so the car leaves at 08:30, after an early breakfast, and your driver has already asked the drivers on NH10 how the Sevoke stretch looks. From Teesta Bazaar the river keeps you company the whole way south, and at Sevoke it leaves the hills for the flat country. Keep the makhamali garland on the seat beside you: it dries without losing its colour, which is the whole reason the flower is chosen. Any sel roti the family pressed on you keeps well for a day wrapped in paper, and it is at its best with a cup of tea at the airport. You reach Bagdogra near 11:30, early enough for any flight leaving after 13:00. If you want Tihar again next year, tell us before you board, and we will ask the houses for festival week as soon as the new dates are known.

    The momentThe purple makhamali on the seat beside you, as bright at the airport as it was on the step in Kalimpong.

    InsiderMakhamali, the globe amaranth, barely wilts. On Bhai Tika the flower that will not die is the sister's answer to Yama.

    If the weather turnsWith NH10 shut near Sevoke, the Lava and Gorubathan road adds about two hours, so we leave at 06:00. A flight before 13:00 moves the usual start to 07:00.

    Tonight
    Homeward
    Meals
    Breakfast

Where you will stay

Where you sleep, two houses

The Elgin, Darjeeling and MAYFAIR Himalayan Spa Resort. Prefer a different house on any night? Say which and we re-price it.

  1. The white and green colonial building of The Elgin in Darjeeling among tall trees, seen over a gilt topped railing
    The Elgin at Darjeeling, the 1887 Cooch Behar house near the Mall.Adam Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
    3 nights

    The Elgin, Darjeeling

    Darjeeling

    An 1887 house of the Cooch Behar royal family near the Mall: fires, hot water bottles, and the lamp-lit lanes a short walk away.

    Ask for A Deluxe Double/Twin with a fireplace, laid before you come in each evening.

  2. Dawn light on the snow peaks of the Kangchenjunga range seen from Kalimpong, above a level sea of cloud
    The snows at first light from Kalimpong, the range the house looks to.Devashish Marwah, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
    2 nights

    MAYFAIR Himalayan Spa Resort

    Kalimpong

    The old Himalayan Hotel: seven Heritage Rooms with fireplaces in the original house, lawns for a Deusi group, and a spa after late nights.

    Ask for A Heritage Room in the original building; there are only seven, so we ask for one the day you confirm.

    • WarmthHeritage Rooms and the Heritage Suite each have a fireplace.

Price and what it covers

from₹1,10,000

per person, twin share; festival-week hotel rates confirmed once the dates are set. How our prices are built

About £860 or US$1,150 at the rates of 19 September 2026.

Price my dates
Less time?Christmas in the Hills4 nights More time?The Planter's Week6 nights

Included

  • Three nights at The Elgin, Darjeeling, in a Deluxe room with a fireplace, with breakfast and dinner
  • Bhai Tika week in Kalimpong: two nights in a Heritage Room with its own fireplace at the MAYFAIR, breakfast and dinner included
  • Lunch on days 2 and 4, sel roti and tea with a hill family on Laxmi Puja, and the Bhai Tika meal in Kalimpong
  • Six days with one private Innova Crysta or similar and a hill driver, the pre-dawn Tiger Hill run among them
  • A guide from the hills in Darjeeling on days 1 to 3 and a Kalimpong guide on days 4 and 5
  • Tiger Hill at dawn: the vehicle token, Senchal entry and a seat in the viewing pavilion
  • A Kukur Tihar visit to the Darjeeling Goodwill Animal Shelter at Lebong, with dog food bought in your name
  • The festival kit: marigold and makhamali garlands, diyos, walnuts and tika colours
  • Notes and sweets to give Bhailo and Deusi singers, and a gift to each family that receives you
  • Our team in the hills on call through the festival nights as well as the days

Not included

  • Flights to and from Bagdogra
  • Travel insurance
  • Drinks from the bar and laundry
  • Tips for drivers, guides and hotel staff
  • Any festive supplement the hotels set for Diwali week
  • Clothes, gifts and shopping of your own
  • Add-ons such as the steam train or extra nights

Make it more Arranged on request, priced in your quote

  • Steam to Ghum on day 3A first-class seat on the steam joy ride in the afternoon, before the Laxmi Puja lamps are lit.
  • Dress for the festivalWe find you a daura suruwal or a gunyu cholo to buy in Darjeeling, fitted before Laxmi Puja.
  • Two quiet nights afterStay on at Glenburn Tea Estate below Darjeeling once the festival ends, with tea in the fields.
  • A spa morning in KalimpongA treatment at the MAYFAIR spa on the morning after the Deusi, booked with the room.

Before you go

Before you go on this route

Choose another journey ifNot for anyone who wants quiet hills or minds firecrackers and holiday crowds; for calm and the same views, choose The Quiet Ridge in another week.

  1. Dates: tell us your year early. The five days follow the lunar calendar, so we fix your journey once the almanac is out and tell you which days fall together.
  2. Diwali week brings holidaymakers from the plains, and the MAYFAIR has only seven Heritage Rooms. For 2026, write now: a designer replies within 24 hours and tells you which houses still have rooms.
  3. No permit is needed on this route. Indian guests bring photo ID for the hotels, and foreign passports need an Indian visa; details are in our Permits and visas guide.
  4. Clothing: late October and November run about 6 to 19 °C in Darjeeling and 11 to 24 °C in Kalimpong. Bring a warm jacket for dawn and the late nights outdoors, and shoes you can slip off at a family's door.
  5. At a family's door, take your shoes off before the puja room, walk round the rangoli on the step rather than across it, and ask before you raise a camera at a tika. Give to the singers with your right hand.
  6. Noise: firecrackers go on late on Laxmi Puja night. Bring earplugs, and tell us about anyone with asthma or a fear of loud bangs so we choose the quieter side of each hotel.
  7. Money: carry small notes for the singers and stalls; hotels take cards. For tips, the Before you travel guide gives a sensible range.

Questions

Six questions about Lights of Tihar

Ask on WhatsApp
When is Tihar celebrated in Darjeeling?

Tihar falls in the Hindu month of Kartik, usually in late October or November, and its main night, Laxmi Puja, is the same night as Diwali in the rest of India. The five days move each year with the lunar calendar: in 2026 they run from 7 to 11 November, with Kukur Tihar and Laxmi Puja both on 8 November. When two days share a date like this, we reshape the days around them.

What is the difference between Tihar and Diwali?

They share the new-moon night of lamps and the worship of Laxmi, but Tihar runs for five days with its own order. It honours crows, then dogs, then cows, then oxen, and ends with Bhai Tika, when sisters give their brothers a many-coloured tika and a makhamali garland. Girls sing Bhailo and boys sing Deusi from door to door. In the Darjeeling hills, the Nepali-speaking majority keeps Tihar.

Can visitors join Deusi, Bhailo and Bhai Tika?

Yes, as guests. Bhailo and Deusi singers come to houses and hotels, and you join in by listening and giving money, sweets or fruit. Bhai Tika is private family time, so we never place you in a stranger's home at the auspicious hour. Instead we ask a family we know to receive you after its own tika, when visitors are welcome to eat and watch, and tell you when you book whether one can.

How loud is Laxmi Puja night?

Loud from dusk until late, in both towns. Firecrackers go off all evening on Laxmi Puja night, which is also Kali Puja for Darjeeling's Bengali families, so the bangs come from two festivals at once. If anyone has asthma or a fear of bangs, tell us: we ask for the quieter side of each hotel and pack earplugs.

What should we give the Bhailo and Deusi singers?

Notes, sweets or fruit, given with your right hand once the song is done; households also hand out sel roti. Your guide keeps a pocket of small notes and sweets for you, so you are never caught short at the gate. Give after the last verse, not during it: the singers end with a blessing on the house, and leaving before it is the one real rudeness.

How busy is Darjeeling in Tihar week?

Busy in the hotels, quieter in the lanes. Diwali week brings holidaymakers from the plains, Tiger Hill needs a vehicle token, and good rooms go early. The festival itself happens on doorsteps and in family homes, where the crowds never go, and that is where we spend most of the week on foot. Kalimpong, smaller and lower, is calmer again for the last two days.

Sources we checked for this itinerary (22)
  1. Tihar in the Darjeeling and Kalimpong hills: crows, dogs, cows and Laxmi, oxen, Bhai Tika; Bhailo by girls, Deusi by boys with madal, chyabrung and jhyamta; sel roti (19 October 2025)
  2. Tihar days, Yama's messengers, lamps at doorways and windows, rangoli of coloured rice and petals, makhamali garlands, Mha Puja
  3. Bhai Tika in the Darjeeling hills: paanch rangi (five-colour) tika, oil circles around brothers, makhamali garlands, walnuts broken
  4. Bhai Tika sequence: water and mustard oil around the brother, flowers, multi-coloured tika, gifts in return
  5. Bhailo sung by women on Laxmi Puja night, Deusi by men on the following evening; hosts give fruit, sel roti and money; makhamali does not easily wilt
  6. Tihar 2026 (2083 BS patro): Kag Tihar 7 November, Kukur Tihar and Laxmi Puja together 8 November, Gai Tihar 9 November, Govardhan and Mha Puja 10 November, Bhai Tika 11 November
  7. Kali Puja takes place on the same night as Diwali
  8. Darjeeling police garlanded vaccinated stray dogs on the Mall for Kukur Tihar with 'I am vaccinated' collars (November 2021); Darjeeling Animal Goodwill Shelter at Lebong
  9. Darjeeling Animal Shelter at Kothi Gaon, Harsing Hatta, Lebong; clinic 09:00 to 14:00, seven days
  10. Darjeeling Goodwill Animal Shelter runs animal birth control and anti-rabies vaccination for street dogs
  11. Sel roti is made during Dashain and Tihar
  12. The Elgin, Darjeeling: built 1887, owned by the Maharaja of Cooch Behar, fireplaces and hot water bags, Orchid Dining Room, near the Mall
  13. The Elgin, Darjeeling room rates checked for 2025-26
  14. MAYFAIR Himalayan Spa Resort: 68 rooms; fireplaces listed only in the seven Heritage Rooms in the original building and the one Heritage Suite
  15. MAYFAIR Kalimpong room rates checked for an October 2026 date
  16. Tiger Hill 2,590 m; daily vehicle tokens issued to drivers the day before; Senchal road
  17. Zang Dhok Palri, Durpin, Nyingma monastery founded 1957 by Dudjom Rinpoche
  18. Car and driver rates checked, 2026
  19. Day 3 photograph: candles lit after dark in Darjeeling (Pexels, Avishkar Darjee, April 2024)
  20. Nepal public holidays 2026: Laxmi Puja 8 November, Gobardhan Puja 10 November, Bhai Tika 11 November
  21. Only ticketed passengers enter the Bagdogra terminal; drivers wait at the covered pick-up area outside the ground-floor exit
  22. In Nepal the Bhai Tika mark is commonly the saptarangi tika of seven colours, while Darjeeling district's own festival page gives five; a Nepali scriptural scholar holds that five (red, white, yellow, green, blue) is the prescribed number

Checked September 2026. We confirm permits, fees and flights again for your dates.

Journeys like this

Also through Darjeeling and Kalimpong

All journeys
First light turning the Kanchenjunga range orange under a dark cloud bank, seen from Darjeeling above blue ridges Signature journey 7 nights

Kanchenjunga at First Light

Darjeeling3Pelling2Kalimpong2

Oct to Dec, Mar to Apr from₹1,55,000
Kalimpong town spread along its green ridge in West Bengal, cloud lying low over the hills behind it Short break 3 nights

The Quiet Ridge

Kalimpong3

October to December, March to April from₹60,000
A red panda walking along a mossy branch among green leaves at the Darjeeling zoo, its ringed tail hanging behind Family journey 6 nights

The Hills with Children

Darjeeling3Kalimpong3

March to May, October to mid December from₹1,10,000

Part ofMonasteries and festivalsDarjeeling and Kalimpong

Plan my journey

Lights of Tihar, shaped around you

At its best Tihar week, in late October or November (the dates change every year). Tell us your month and who is travelling, and we reply within 24 hours with this journey priced for your dates.

Length
5 nights
From
₹1,10,000 per person
At its best
Tihar week, in late October or November (the dates change every year)
Bases
Darjeeling, Kalimpong
+91 86178 24110 Message a designer Support 24×7, every day of your journey

AboutLights of Tihar, 5 nights

With country code if outside India. Either this or email is enough.
Who is coming, the pace you like, the occasion. A sentence is fine.
Add more detail
Their ages help: add them in your note
Permits in Sikkim and fees in Bhutan depend on it
This journey starts at ₹1,10,000 per person. Your band tells us which rooms to price.
Calls from our office, 8am to 9pm IST (GMT+5:30)
Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Gangtok, Pelling, Bhutan, Nepal

No deposit to begin, and nothing is booked until you say yes.