The Jain Family's Sikkim Trip with Thrillophilia

Thrillophilia Verified Booking
PNR: BKDTZLLL9SG
Travellers: Ashok Kumar Jain, Preeti Jain, Akshit Jain and Ruchika Jain
Trip Duration: 10 Days | 9 Nights
Date Of Travel: 13 January 2026 - 22 January 2026
Package Booked: Tales of Sikkim | Discovering Himalayan Highlands

A short Sikkim trip review often says more than a long one.

Ashok Kumar Jain and his family of four came back from ten days across Sikkim and Darjeeling with four words.

"Totally trip was good."

That brevity is the entire point of any Sikkim trip story where the planning has actually worked. When the SUVs arrive on time across nine straight days of mountain roads, when the permits are sorted before the family even sees them, when the hotels in every town are exactly what the booking said they would be, the traveller does not have anything left to write about. Ashok had booked this trip for his wife, Preeti and their two grown children, Akshit and Ruchika, and the plan was straightforward. Cover Sikkim properly, then loop down through Darjeeling, then home.

That is exactly what the ten days delivered.

Gangtok Eased the Family Into the Mountains

The arrival at Bagdogra ran on time. A private SUV was waiting, and the drive up to Gangtok followed the Teesta River for most of its length. The family checked in by mid-afternoon, and the evening went to MG Marg.

MG Marg is the kind of pedestrianised stretch that most state capitals could learn something from. Clean paving, no traffic, fairy lights strung between buildings, and Sikkimese cafes and souvenir shops lining both sides. The family walked it slowly that first evening, picked up a few small things, and called it an early night.

Day two was Tsomgo Lake and Baba Mandir. The drive up climbed steadily through alpine forest, and the lake itself sat at over 12,000 feet, still partly frozen at the edges in mid-January. Baba Harbhajan Singh's shrine sits a little further on, and the local belief that his spirit still watches over the Indian soldiers stationed in the Eastern Himalayas gives the place a quiet weight that nothing on the tourist circuit quite matches.

Lachung Was the Quietest Part of the Trip

The drive north to Lachung on day three was the longest single road day of the trip, and it was the leg where the family first noticed how much the driver was actually carrying. The roads to North Sikkim are not for the inexperienced. Narrow sections, landslide-prone stretches, and military checkpoints every few kilometres. The Inner Line Permits had been sorted in advance by the planning team, so the family never had to step out of the SUV at any of the checkpoints.

Lachung itself is a village pressed between two rivers, with a few hotels and not much else. The kind of stop where the point is the quiet, not the activity.

Day four was Yumthang Valley, the Valley of Flowers. In January, the valley is not in bloom, but the snow-covered ridgelines and the hot springs at the base of the climb make for a different kind of mountain morning. Zero Point, further up, was an optional add-on that the family chose to do. The kind of place where the road quite literally ends and the Indo-China border sits just beyond the snowline.

Pelling, Ravangla and the Long Climb Back

The drive back from Lachung was a long one, with a night halt back in Gangtok before the next leg west to Pelling. The Buddha Park at Ravangla was the en route stop, and the 130-foot Buddha statue there sits in landscaped gardens that the family walked through slowly in the late afternoon.

Pelling itself was a one-night halt. The Pelling Skywalk, the Chenrezig statue, Khecheopalri Lake (the sacred wish-fulfilling lake), and the Rimbi and Kanchenjunga waterfalls were the morning's stops before the drive down to Darjeeling.

Darjeeling Closed the Trip Properly

Three nights in Darjeeling was the right amount, and the family used every day of it.

Tiger Hill, before sunrise on the second morning, was the standout. The 4 AM pickup is the kind of timing nobody enjoys at the moment of getting into the car, but the view of the first light hitting Kanchenjunga from the viewpoint settles the argument. Batasia Loop, Ghoom Monastery, the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Tenzing Rock and the Japanese Peace Pagoda filled out the rest of the day.

The Mirik excursion the day after was the quieter day of the leg. The drive down through Darjeeling's tea estates is one of the most photographed in the country, and Sumendu Lake at Mirik gave the family time to slow down before the trip ended.

The final morning was the drive back to Bagdogra. The SUV pulled up at the airport on time, the trip closed without any fuss, and the family boarded the flight home.

What He Said When It Was Over

His review afterwards was four words.

Totally trip was good.

That is the kind of Sikkim trip review the planning team probably keeps a copy of. Four words for a ten-day, six-destination, multi-permit, mountain-road family circuit, where the only thing the traveller had to say was that everything had worked. The SUVs ran on time across nine straight road days. The permits were sorted in advance. The hotels were as promised. Tiger Hill happened at 4 AM, the way it was supposed to. Yumthang Valley landed despite the season. The long detour through Pelling on the way to Darjeeling held together without fuss.

A ten-day trip across the Eastern Himalayas in winter, with two grown children and parents in the same SUV, that ends with the traveller writing exactly what we wanted since the start of the trip.

That is the kind of Sikkim trip review that does not need any dressing up.