Tour packages from Kolkata: the eastern Himalaya, the Northeast and the Odisha coast

The season

Why the east runs on a different calendar

The eastern Himalaya get considerably more rain than the western, and that shapes everything. The monsoon here runs from roughly June to September and is heavy enough that landslides regularly close hill roads in Sikkim and north Bengal. It is the one window where we will actively advise against a circuit rather than simply flag the risk.

October and November are the best months by a clear margin: the rains have gone, the air is washed, and Kanchenjunga is visible from Darjeeling and Pelling on most mornings. December to February is cold, clear and very quiet, with snow above Gangtok. March to May brings rhododendron flowering and a building haze that makes the mountain less reliable.

Kaziranga follows its own calendar again: the park closes for the monsoon from about mid-May to the end of October because the Brahmaputra floods it, and February and March are the best months for viewing. Odisha is comfortable from October to March and hot thereafter. If your dates are fixed, the desk will say which of the four directions actually suits them.

How it works

What a flight-plus-car booking covers

The travel desk books the flight and the chauffeur meets you in the arrivals hall with a name board, with the flight tracked so a delay costs nothing. From there it is one car and one chauffeur for the whole circuit, with the chauffeur’s own meals and accommodation on outstation nights inside the rate.

The transport is priced at the published charter-day rate multiplied by the days of the circuit — the same figure whether you flew or drove, because the car is assigned at the far end either way. The flight is a separate line at cost and you can book it yourself if you prefer. Permits, park fees and safari slots are government charges billed at cost.

Hotels, entries and guides are quoted separately on request through the contact page. On the Sikkim and Kaziranga circuits that is worth taking rather than booking blind, because permits, safari slots and hill-station properties all have lead times and limited capacity.

One more thing about the east that is worth saying plainly. Distances on a map understate the time these roads take. Bagdogra to Darjeeling is about 70 kilometres and around three hours, because the last stretch climbs some 2,000 metres through tea gardens on a single-lane road; Gangtok to Pelling is 115 kilometres and five hours. Our itineraries are written to those real times rather than to an average speed, which is why the days look shorter than you might expect.

The chauffeurs on these routes drive them year-round and hold hill endorsements. They will stop for the view at Batasia Loop and at the Teesta confluence without being asked, and they will refuse a stretch they judge unsafe after heavy rain. That judgement is the service, and it is worth more on these circuits than on any other in the programme.