North sikkim trip 4 days please advice

sandypleaselie

Hello ppl I am new to this forum . But I have been a travel freak from childhood . made couple friends during our college days.Who belong to the same category . We believe in not planning any tours at all . But this time We had to , bcz everyone of us were clueless . We are bunch of 8 guys who would like to get some advice from you trip expert on north sikkim tour . We usually get frustrated time to time from our jobs . And plan to visit places .
We have only four days in november to plan for . And we need to badly visit North sikkim . And touch the main points of sikkim .
We are reaching bagdogra on thursday noon and leaving by monday 2m .
And after going through different website , I had to agree to take some advice finally .
We need to visit yumthang , pelling if possible and Nathu la ....
Please advice ....

sagarneel

You are sqeezing too much I guess. Looking at your tight schedule and the places you would like to visit, I can suggest the following:
Thursday noon- Reach Bagdogra, hire a car and reach Gangtok by night (it takes ~4-4.5 hrs from Bagdogra to Gangtok). Night stay at Gangtok.
Friday - Gangtok-Nathula-Gangtok by evening.
Saturady- Leave for Lachung very early and reach by afternoon.
Sunday - Lachung (early morning)-Yumthang-Lachung-Gangtok (by late evening)
Monday - Back to Bagdogra.
Even if you follow this schedule, you can't make to Pelling. Pelling would require (and deserves) another couple of days.
Regards,
Sagarneel.

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sandypleaselie

hummm hey thanks for your reply . We could only wish we had more time . But we have made innovative excuses to our boses . So we could only get these days . Is there anyways we can reach yumthang direclty from bagdogra .
I feel somehow yumthang is worth the trip . So we are cancelling most of gangtok . Since we arent inetrested in any monastery and flowers and zoological gardens . I heard in Gangtok the journey itself is the destination , so our plan is too keep moving .
Any idea of the hotel rates and etc . We might have to skip nathu la . If gangtok is also beautiful .

sagarneel

Yumthang is definitely worth it and is probably the most beautiful place of your trip. However, its not possible to reach Yumthang from Bagdogra in a single day. A night halt at Lachung (which too is very very tight to manage on a single day from Bagdogra) is a must. Whether you are intereseted or not, you have to make Gangtok your base for the entire trip. The road to Gangtok is indeed beautiful, with the lovely Teesta by your side. However, I am not too sure about the last part of your question, are talking of skipping Nathula and include a full day Gangtok sight seeing trip??

sandypleaselie

yeah tht was my question . Because we want to visit as much of beautiful places as we can . So Nathu la , is it worth a visit .
if yumthang is 2day 1 night . Then we would be missing Nathu la .

sagarneel

Tthe itenerary that I suggested is a 2 days 1 night (for Yumthang) plan. If you follow this plan, you will have an extra day (Friday) for Nathula. You can either spend Friady by going to Nathula/Tsomgo lake, or move to North Sikkim. Just for my understanding, by what time do you need to reach Bagdogra on Monday?

sandypleaselie

2:45 is our flight .... sunday we hv to be at gangtok under wtvr circumstances ...

sagarneel

In that scenario, I would suggest that you follow my itenerary! I repeat:
Dont try to Bagdogra-Lachung in one day (specially as you are reaching Bagdogra in the afternoon).
As you have a Friday in hand, go for Nathula, instead of wasting the day in Gangtok. Its worth the visit (you can consider adding Tukla in the same journey)

sandypleaselie

Well ok taking ur advice .... this is what i squared on

1 pm reaching bagdogra ... move to gantok .
if posibl get a look of hanuman tok and ganesh tok in the evening .
friday push off for yumthang
friday night stay .
saturday night would be reaching gangtok .
sunday push off to nathu la .
monday morning depart to bagdogra .... hummm i think tht sums it
Is it fine ...

sagarneel

This plan is absolutely fine!
All the best!

sandypleaselie

Thanx for all the support .... nice forum . Would write a travelogue when i come back ... Now of to do some official work ..
Thanks for all the support .
woh
One important question . Any idea about the budget in hand . for a single person . We are good at bargaining . Ultimately we have to take the help of guides . But any idea about the hotels and everything ...

sagarneel

This area, thankfully is not prohibitively expensive. Gangtok has a lot of hotels, the tarrifs ranging from Rs 200/day to Rs 5000/day..make your choice. For the North Sikkim tour, I would suggest that you get in touch with a travel agent. They will make the bookings for cars and hotels on your behalf. A good and reliable travel agent for North Sikkim is MarcoPolo tours and travels. You can check thire website for details. Apart from this, there are a lot of other travel agents in Gangtok who offer Yumthang packages of various expenses.

sandypleaselie

hey thanx .. umm lemme check tht .... Thnx for everything

sagarneel

My pleasure!

roj,roy

Dear Sandy,
Please check whether Nathula is permisible on that day. Recently I went there but could not get Nathula's permission.
Else you can go to Gurudongmar lake in North Sikkim which is similar kind of lake as Kailash mansarovar and you can witness the cold desert and Tibetan Plateu .
So the itinerary may b
Day 1- Gangtok
Day 2- Lachen
Day 3- Gurudongmar lake and transfer to Lachung
Day 4- Yumthang valley, 0 point and back to Gangtok
Day 5- Transfer to Bagdogra.

The package of North Sikkim cost us Rs 22000 for 9 of us.