Darjeeling

For many, this high-perched mountain town in the far reaches of West Bengal is synonymous with tea, and Darjeeling really doesn’t disappoint on that count. Just to arrive travellers need to journey through the verdant tea terraces where pickers with baskets on their back meander through the green hills picking what many call ‘the champagne of teas’. And once there, be prepared to face countless leaf houses, boutiques and roadside holes-in-the-wall, all vying for the title of best brewer accompanied with the drinking recommendations of your Darjeeling tour guide. When you’ve identified that perfect brew, why not looks upwards, to the looming peak of Kunchenjunga, a member of the world’s elite club of soaring 8,000-metre mountains. Its rugged silhouette does well to represent the facets of Darjeeling’s wilder side; the less-trodden trails of the magnificent Singalila National Park; the endless biking tracks that criss-cross the valleys of West Bengal; the mouth-watering panoramas of the Lesser Himalayas from Tiger Hill. Of course, there are also plenty of places in town to kick-back and relax, with Buddhist monasteries and Zen pagodas to boot, while Darjeeling is also home to the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, which chronicles some of the most daring expeditions ever undertaken in these hills.