Our Tour Itinerary
Our tour is designed to provide you with the best Nepali village cultural experience.
We offer tailor-made trekking packages which can vary between 1 and 3 days, depending on your preferences.
The difficulty of the trek can also be adjusted to your needs.
A benefit of these tailor-made experiences is that each village you visit will have a different lifestyle and traditions.
An example of a 3-day trekking tour is given below.
Day One
You will be picked up from your hotel in Kalimpong at 8 am. (we can arrange your pick up from Bagdogra Airport/NJP Train station and accommodation in Kalimpong if you wish). We will then drive you to the first village, Kashyem. After breakfast in Kashyem, we walk around the village then trek along a hillside path to the village of Baranumber. This is a stunningly beautiful Himalayan stroll, on fairly level terrain with a view down into the Rangpo valley. Baranumber stretches up the hill and contains some 98 households. The villagers are mostly field workers of the local quinine plantation and the hillside is terraced with small plots growing many kinds of crops. The afternoon will be spent exploring the village and the surrounding area including a visit to a small Gumba (Monastery).
It is our pleasure to let you have an experience of cooking in a typical village kitchen. You can learn to make traditional Nepali food. Eating and drinking will be sitting on the floor in the true Nepali style (unless you prefer to sit at a table!).
Baranumber village
A stunning view of Kanchenjunga from Sillery hill
Traditional Nepali kitchen
What you need to bring
-
A pair of hiking trousers and walking boots
-
A backpack to carry your essentials
-
A bottle of water (boiled water is provided throughout the tour)
-
A warm jumper for the evening - the villages can be cool from October to February
-
A rain jacket especially if you come from April to September
-
A sense of adventure!
Note: Our accommodation provides blanket, sheets and towel. No need to bring a sleeping bag.
Day Two
After breakfast at one of the Baranumber village houses where you were accommodated, you will take the high road to Sillery village through Sillery forest to a viewpoint overlooking the confluence of the Teesta and Rangpo rivers, as well as a stunning view of Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world. The morning ends with a stroll down to the village of Sillery, virtually hidden on the upper slopes where you will have lunch. In the afternoon, you will walk up to Damsang Fort, a ruined 17th Lepcha walled palace after which you descend and take tea at a local handmade paper co-operative. After having tea, you will be taken by our vehicle back to your hotel in Kalimpong at around 3.30 pm. This ends the Two Day package tour.
If you wish to do the Three Day and two night tour, then instead of going back to Kalimpong after the end of the Day Two walk, you will be taken to Newan Gaon by our vehicle and spend the night there. The village is surrounded by terraces of paddy field. In the village you will get to experience an unique traditional rural life style. People are mostly farmers and the way of farming is still very basic. Use of animals and primitive tools are still the norm.
Day Three
After breakfast in Newang Gaon, you will walk to Algarah via Sakyong about 7 Km along terraced paddy fields. Alternatively you can take a walk to Pedong, a small market town about 4 Km away. From there you will be picked up and driven to Kalimpong. This completes your Three Day tour.
Alternatively, we can drive you down to Baradigi, Malbazar (closer to NJP train station and Bagdogra Airport) via Lava forest and Minglass tea garden where you will spend the night. This whole region is flat plain land and the culture is completely different from any of the villages around Kalimpong.
A terraced paddy field
Kalimpong Villlage Discovery Tour guide map
Click to enlarge
Our Recommendation - Extra Services
We offer you multiple choices of walk in and outside the villages. We have multiple routes ranging from 3 Km to 12 Km per day, easy to medium level trekking. We can also offer a riverside camping for 1 night to experience a local barbeque picnic which would be completely different from village experience. It is little adventurous but of course good fun. For this package, a minimum of 6 people in the group is required. If you wish, this package can be integrated into your Three Day tour at some modest additional cost. Besides, we can also arrange pick up and drop off to and from the nearest airport/train station including hotel booking in Kalimpong. The best time of the year for touring is from October to January and mid March to mid May. However, we take bookings throughout the year.
Another possible attraction of our tour is that you can visit the schools that we support and meet the lovely and extremely friendly children.
You can visit our Facebook page for more photos of our villages and views.