Darjeeling

Darjeeling sits at 2,100 metres on a ridge in the Himalayan foothills, and from Tiger Hill at dawn the view across to Kangchenjunga — the world's third highest mountain at 8,586 metres — is one of the clearest demonstrations of Himalayan scale available from a road-accessible point anywhere in India.

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway — the Toy Train — has been running on 2-foot gauge track since 1881 and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The steam engine that pulls the tourist service between Darjeeling and Ghum, the highest railway station in India at 2,258 metres, climbs through the same loops and spirals through the same tea gardens it has been climbing for 140 years, occasionally being cleared off the track by a cow. The loop at Batasia, where the track does a full circle to manage the grade, offers a view of Kangchenjunga that is the most efficient use of fifteen seconds of travel time available anywhere in India.

The first flush tea of Darjeeling — the spring harvest of late March and April, made from leaves so tender they yield a tea of extraordinary delicacy and complexity — is to tea what Beaujolais Nouveau is to wine, except that tea connoisseurs take it considerably more seriously. The Happy Valley tea estate, the oldest in Darjeeling, still operates original withering troughs and allows visitors to follow the processing from leaf to cup during the first or second flush when the estate is in full production.

Places to Visit in Darjeeling

• Tiger Hill sunrise viewpoint
• Darjeeling tea estates
• Darjeeling Himalayan Railway
• Peace Pagoda

Things to Do in Darjeeling

• Toy train ride
• Tea estate tours and tastings
• Sunrise viewing at Tiger Hill