India's second-smallest state and one of its highest — monasteries on ridge tops, a lake at 5,430 metres, rhododendron forest in April, and a border road that still runs on permits and paperwork.
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Sikkim is small enough to look like a two-day trip on a map and slow enough to eat a fortnight. Almost everything starts in Gangtok, and from there the state splits three ways.
Head east and you are on border roads — Tsomgo Lake, Nathu La, and the old Silk Route switchbacks above Zuluk. Head north and the valleys narrow and climb until you are on a high plateau at Yumthang and Gurudongmar, where the air is thin and the permits are strict. Head west and south for the quieter half: Pelling under the Kanchenjunga wall, Yuksom where Sikkim's first king was crowned, and Ravangla's ridge.
Two things shape every Sikkim trip and neither is scenery. The first is permits — Indian nationals need protected-area permits for North Sikkim and Nathu La, foreign nationals need an Inner Line Permit for the state and are barred from some areas entirely. The second is altitude: Gurudongmar sits at 5,430 m and people go straight there from 1,650 m in Gangtok, which is how the day goes wrong.
Twelve months, honestly. Green means go, amber means it depends, rust means don't.
Half the Sikkim itineraries sold online quietly skip the paperwork and the acclimatisation days. Tell us your dates and where you want to go and we will tell you what is genuinely allowed, and what it takes to do it safely.
Sikkim is the newest cluster on the site. The main guide is written; the rest is being walked and typed up.
The rest of the set — best time to visit, how to reach, where to stay, where to eat, top places and a day-by-day itinerary — is being written for Sikkim now, and each one will appear here as it goes live.
Eight places worth building a Sikkim trip around. None of these has its own full guide yet — they are what we are writing next, in roughly this order.
Everything below is either half-drafted or already travelled and waiting to be written up.
Permits filed in the right order, altitude gained at a sane rate, and a route that does not put you in a jeep for nine hours a day. No packages, no commission.
