The questions guests ask us, answered plainly

Eight nights lets you see Darjeeling, Gangtok and Pelling without rushing, which is why The First Time runs to eight. With five or six nights, choose two bases, such as Darjeeling and Kalimpong, or Gangtok and Pelling. Bhutan deserves five to seven nights of its own. We plan two or three nights per place, because every change of house costs a morning on hill roads.

Fifteen of the forty-one do. The shortest is two nights on a tea estate. At three nights we build round a single base: Kalimpong's ridge, Gangtok with the high lake, a room facing Kanchenjunga, a steam charter weekend, or Kathmandu's three old cities. Four and five nights add the Dooars rhinos, the Old Silk Route, the Singalila Ridge, Tihar week, the Everest flight and Dhulikhel. What it costs prices every one of them.

Yes, and Drukair decides which way round. KB131 flies Bagdogra to Paro on Tuesdays and Saturdays, so a Bhutan-first journey begins on one of those two days. Coming back, KB130 leaves Paro at 16:20 and lands at Bagdogra at 16:35 on Mondays and Fridays from October 2026 to January 2027, which is late for the three-hour climb to Darjeeling, so we usually put a night in the Dooars or below the hills before it. In April and early May 2027 the same flight leaves at 11:50. By road the crossing is Phuentsholing either way, and your Bhutanese guide must be registered 48 hours before it.

Yes, and it costs you nothing to send the flight numbers with your first note. Two things move around them. The first and last drives: landing at Bagdogra by early afternoon leaves the three hours to Darjeeling in daylight, while a flight home before noon usually means the last night lower down, near Bagdogra or in the Dooars, rather than on the ridge. And anything booked on a fixed day, because the border flights into Bhutan and Nepal run twice a week, not daily.

Sometimes. Kalimpong's Haat Bazaar fills on Wednesdays and Saturdays, Nathu La never opens on Mondays or Tuesdays, Jaldapara runs no safaris on Thursdays, and the permit office at Phuentsholing works Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00. Drukair's Bagdogra flights run on the two days in each direction set out above. We set your start day around whichever of these matters to your route.

Yes. Every journey is private, so a single guest has the car, driver and guide alone. The price per person rises, because rooms, cars and guides cost the same for one as for two, and some houses add a single supplement. A foreign national travelling alone should know that Tsomgo and the Goecha La trek require at least two foreign guests together, so we plan around them.

Late October to mid November comes closest. The monsoon has left Darjeeling, Sikkim, Bhutan and Nepal alike, skies are at their clearest, the black-necked cranes return to Phobjikha and the autumn tea flush is in. The catch is demand: Durga Puja, Diwali and Bhutan's festival season fill houses early. March and April come second, with rhododendrons and more haze.

Most follow the Tibetan or Hindu lunar calendar, so they shift by weeks from year to year. Losar usually falls in February or March, Paro Tshechu in March or April, Thimphu Tshechu in September or October, and Dashain and Tihar in October or November; in 2026 Tihar runs from 7 to 11 November. We confirm each year's dates from the almanac before booking.

Five. Tea and Snow runs those three months only, three nights at Glenburn and two at Pelling. The Cranes of Phobjikha runs from November to mid February, while the black-necked cranes are in the valley. Christmas in the Hills is fixed to 22 to 26 December between Darjeeling and Kalimpong. Lower down, Rhinos and Tea opens in the Dooars at 103 m before climbing to Kalimpong and Darjeeling, and Three Royal Cities keeps to the Kathmandu valley. What closes in those weeks is the high ground: the Tsomgo and Zuluk roads, Chele La and the Sandakphu track can all take snow.