Explore Darjeeling

Darjeeling sits at 2,042 metres in the Himalayan foothills of West Bengal, at a ridge where on clear mornings the Kanchenjunga massif-8,586 metres, 74 kilometres away-occupies the entire northern sky. Tiger Hill, 11 kilometres from Darjeeling town at 2,590 metres, is the viewpoint from which most of the dawn photographs of Kanchenjunga are taken. On the clearest mornings of October and November, the summit of Everest-226 kilometres distant-is visible as a triangle above the lower Himalayan ridgelines. It is one of the world's most extraordinary morning panoramas. The tea that grows in Darjeeling is produced in some of the most studied and celebrated gardens in the world. Makaibari (established 1859, the world's first biodynamic tea estate), Castleton, Goomtee, and Happy Valley are the most storied. Darjeeling first flush (March-April harvest) is the most sought-after seasonal tea in the global market-the muscatel character that develops in the second flush (May-June) is the flavour most associated with the region. An Alike-curated private tasting at a heritage estate is conducted by a master taster who can explain what distinguishes a first flush from a second flush, and what the terroir of a specific garden produces in the cup. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (Toy Train), inaugurated in 1881 and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999, is the narrowest gauge mountain railway in active operation in India-2 feet wide, running from New Jalpaiguri at the foothills to Darjeeling at 2,042 metres across 88 kilometres of switchbacks and horseshoe curves. The steam engines that operated the line from 1881 still run on the heritage section between Darjeeling and Ghum-the highest railway station in India at 2,258 metres. Alike includes the Darjeeling to Ghum steam section as a curated itinerary element. The Peace Pagoda (Nipponzan-Myohoji, built 1992), the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (established 1954 by Tenzing Norgay and Colonel D.K. Khullar, following the first Everest ascent in 1953), and the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park (which operates the most successful snow leopard breeding programme in India) are the standard Darjeeling inclusions. Alike's itinerary sequence prioritises the tea estate in the morning and the Mountaineering Institute in the afternoon-the most substantive pairing of Darjeeling's two most distinctive cultural assets