Darjeeling

Top things to do in Darjeeling

1. 01

   Tiger Hill - sunrise on Kanchenjunga from the ridge above Ghoom

   scenic 👍 Popular

   The classic Darjeeling outing: a convoy of jeeps leaves town in the dark for the viewpoint at about 2,590 m, where first light catches the summit ridge long before it reaches the valleys. On the very clearest mornings people pick out Everest and its neighbours as a low serrated line far off to the west. It is crowded, cold and entirely dependent on the air being clear - if the range is in cloud there is nothing at all to see, and the early start buys you a car park.

2. 02

   Darjeeling Himalayan Railway - the 2ft-gauge line that climbs the hill

   history scenic 👍 Popular

   Opened in 1881 to move tea and people up from the plains, the line gains around 2,000 m over roughly 88 km using loops and Z-shaped reverses instead of tunnels, and for long stretches it simply runs down the middle of the road. UNESCO inscribed it in 1999. What actually operates has changed repeatedly over the decades - the full climb from the plains, the short hop between the town and Ghoom, steam on some workings and diesel on others - and landslides have closed sections for long periods, so check what is running rather than building a day around it.

3. 03

   Batasia Loop - the spiral below Ghoom with the Gorkha war memorial

   history scenic

   A complete circle of track laid so the line can shed height quickly on the way down from Ghoom, with a terraced garden and a memorial to Gorkha soldiers killed since Independence at its centre. Cars stop here on the standard sightseeing circuit whether or not a train is due, and on a clear morning the loop frames the town below with the range standing behind it.

4. 04

   Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park - red pandas and snow leopards on Jawahar Parbat

   nature wildlife 👍 Popular

   A high-altitude zoo running serious conservation breeding programmes for red panda, snow leopard and Tibetan wolf, laid out along a wooded hillside so the enclosures sit under real oak and rhododendron rather than concrete. It shares a gate with the mountaineering institute, which is why almost everyone does the two together.

5. 05

   Himalayan Mountaineering Institute - the Tenzing Norgay legacy

   history culture arts

   Founded in 1954, the year after Tenzing Norgay, a Darjeeling resident, reached the summit of Everest with Edmund Hillary, and set up to train Indian climbers with Tenzing himself running field training for decades afterwards. The museum holds gear from the early British Everest attempts onward, his memorial stands on the grounds, and the practice faces the students learn on sit just down the road at Tenzing and Gombu rocks.

6. 06

   Happy Valley Tea Estate - the working garden below the town

   food culture arts ⭐ Highly recommended

   Planted in the 1850s and close enough to walk down into from the bazaar, this is where most visitors first see how the leaf is actually handled: plucking on the terraces, then withering troughs, rolling and firing in a timber factory that has not changed shape much in a century. The machinery only runs when leaf is coming in, so a visit outside the flushes finds it silent and the guide talking you through it instead.

7. 07

   Chowrasta and the Mall Road circuit - the level walk around Observatory Hill

   scenic ⭐ Highly recommended

   Chowrasta is the flat pedestrian square at the top of the town, and from its far end Bhanu Bhakta Sarani runs right around Observatory Hill as an almost level loop under deodar and prayer flags - half an hour, no climbing, and the northern side opens straight onto the range. In a town where every other route is stairs, this is the walk anyone can do, and the last hour of light is when to do it.

8. 08

   Observatory Hill and Mahakal Temple - the shrine both faiths use

   culture arts history

   The knoll above Chowrasta held the Buddhist monastery that gave Darjeeling its name, destroyed in the early nineteenth century, and the site has been shared ever since: Hindu priests and Buddhist lamas both officiate, bells and prayer flags cover the summit, and Shiva and the Buddha are venerated in the same cave shrine. Keep a hand on your food and sunglasses, because the resident monkeys are practised thieves.

9. 09

   Ghoom Monastery (Yiga Choling) - the Maitreya hall on the high ridge

   culture arts history

   The best known of the Ghoom gompas, a nineteenth-century Gelug monastery built around a tall clay figure of Maitreya, the Buddha still to come, with butter lamps burning in front of it and old thangkas darkening on the walls. Small, working and usually quiet, a short way off the road at the highest point on the railway.

10. 10

    Bhutia Busty Gompa - the monastery on the slope below the square

    culture arts off beaten path

    Moved down off Observatory Hill in the nineteenth century after the original was destroyed, this red and gold Nyingma gompa sits a steep ten minutes below Chowrasta with Kanchenjunga standing directly behind it on a clear day, which is the photograph everyone comes down for. The walk is half the point; remember you have to climb back up.

11. 11

    Darjeeling tea - the flushes, and tasting across the gardens

    food shopping

    The first flush picked after the spring rains is pale, sharp and floral; the second flush in early summer carries the muscatel note that made the name, which comes from leafhoppers chewing the young leaf and the bush answering; the autumn flush after the monsoon is darker and rounder. Darjeeling was the first Indian product granted a protected geographical indication, so the name belongs by law to leaf grown in these hills. Tasting rooms in town will pour several gardens side by side, which is the only way the differences make any sense.

12. 12

    Momos, thukpa and the bazaar kitchens - the town's Nepali-Tibetan cooking

    food

    Everyday food here is hill food, not Bengali: steamed or fried momos with a fierce tomato chutney, thukpa noodle soup, aloo dum for breakfast, chewy churpi sold by the stick, and sel roti at festival time. The Mall runs the other tradition alongside it - Keventer's, a dairy from the early 1900s whose rooftop is the standard Darjeeling breakfast, and Glenary's bakery and tearoom a short walk along the same road - and both are as much about the terrace as the plate.

13. 13

    Japanese Peace Pagoda - the white stupa on the Jalapahar ridge

    culture arts scenic

    A Nipponzan Myohoji peace pagoda south of the centre, white and tiered, with gilded reliefs from the Buddha's life set around it and a temple alongside where visitors at the morning and evening prayers are handed a drum and invited to join in. The terrace looks north to the range and it is one of the quietest corners of the town.

14. 14

    Singalila Ridge - the trek to Sandakphu

    hiking adventure scenic

    From the trailhead at Manebhanjan the trail runs north along the ridge that carries the Nepal border, climbing through rhododendron and bamboo to Sandakphu at about 3,636 m, the highest point in West Bengal. The reward is a skyline holding Kanchenjunga's Sleeping Buddha silhouette and, far to the west, Everest, Lhotse and Makalu in the same view. Guides are compulsory and arranged at the trailhead, the rhododendrons flower in spring, the clearest air comes after the monsoon, and the park has closed to walkers for stretches of the wet season.

15. 15

    Darjeeling Ropeway - the cable car toward the Rangeet valley

    scenic

    One of India's oldest passenger ropeways, dropping from North Point over tea gardens and forest toward the Rangeet valley far below, with the cars hanging a very long way above the slope. It has been suspended for extended periods more than once in its history, so treat it as something to check on arrival rather than to plan around.

Getting to & around Darjeeling

Know before you go