Lachung Family Packages

It was an amazing holiday. Sai Tours and TT did a commendably good job. Megha from Sai Tours was quick enough to reframe the itinerary when Lachung was closed for Tourist. Hotels were all very good both in Sikkim and Darjeeling. One feedback is that, the driver co-ordination needs to be more proactive. Otherwise it was a great trip Sight of Kanchenjunga from my Resort balcony.

1. Ms Sunita of Bina Travels was nice and soft spoken during the trip. 2. From Bagdogra to Gangtok, vehicle WagonR was 21 years old. AC was not working. When required It could not be used even with extra charges.Bina Travels showed their inabilty to change the vehicle. But its driver Dorjee Sherpa was very nice, polite, punctual and best guide for 4 days. 2. Driver of Xylo car used from Gangtok to Lachung and back was ill informed. Due to him wasted 3 hours while going to Lachung from Gangtok. As per him, he was not informed by the Travel agency about the places to be visited at Lachung. In the process he missed to show us Spring with medical properties at Lachung. When asked he showed his inabilty since the place was left far behind. 3. Driver of WagonR at Darjeeling was not punctual. On first day he reached half an hour late and on Last day he reached more than one hour late to pick us up from hotel. 4. On every station, Bina Travels themselves were not updating the next days programme, instead we had to ask Bina Travels to update us for the same. In view of deficiencies experienced above it is suggested to provide the perfect services to the customers since we chose the trips for our comfort and not for inconvenience. Also it is requested to refund a suitable amount for the above deficiencies experienced. 1. Adventurous journey from Gangtok to Lachung . Yumthang vally was beaitiful. 2. Nathula pass was worth seeing

Overall experience was good. One small improvement would be mentioning what type of vehicle would be allowed to certain places like Nathula pass so can be booked accordingly to avoid any confusion and inconvinience. We faced this as we couldn't visit nathula pass inspite of paying for it due to cab confusion. Also it would be helpful if hotel at gangtok is near main city as cab fares are quite high in gangtok Road to Lachung Zero point Khanda waterfalls Lachung hotel

Travel agent service is good and given nice trip plan and booked flight & entire trip itinerary through same travel agent but unfortunatley AirIndiaExpress flight was cacelled from Hyd - Baghogra and disturbed entire my travel plan, AirIndia arranged alternate connecting flight Hyd- Calcutta- Bagdhogra that lost one day hotel stay amount in Gangtok and Nathula pass also missed, that bit unhappy in the trip and rest all are good service and hotels are good except Lachung. Would have better co-ordination with flight booking agents and hotel agents but not to charge that amount from customers. Zeronpoint was good, Namchi and early morning view of Kanchanjung mountain from peeling hotle was superb.

The trip was very good. Anand arranged everything perfectly and he was always there for any help. The driver was a young guy and he tried to show us maximum view points that he could. He came late the first day and he came early the remaining days The Hotel at Gangtok, the Palri Boutique was very good in terms of confort and hyegene . The hotel at Pelling , the bluben alpine was also good. We didnt eat the breakfast as we had to move out before the breakfast was ready. The home stay at zuluk was also good with minimum amneties. The food was home cooked and felt superb. The hotel i didnt like the most was the one at Lachung, the Apple vally cottage . The food, the rooms and the bath rooms were below standard. Yuma was the hotel at darjiling. I didnt like that hotel too. The bath rooms were not hyegenic and the room was very congested .

Pros : Good arrangement and schedule plan. All permits everything taken care by the Tourepedia. Thanks to Bharat. Good cab and drivers on 3rd day to 5th day, 7th to 9th day. Cons: In Lachung, the hotel is not met my expectations, agent should understand the customer requirement and book. There are other serval hotels which are good than Rufina Deezong(I stayed) , NO hot water in that 9degree weather which is not acceptable. They arranged bucket of hot water from other rooms. I asked cabs in good condition, the cab came on 6th day is horrible. 1 st day - driver was driving very fast in hills. 2nd day - driver dropped didn’t stop for any lunch he dropped in the middle of the road as he has some personal work.

Travel agent could have been more helpful instead of just focusing on money.. expectations are to explain trip end to end with all pros and cons. Had lot of challenges in this trip . Not a hassle free.. but could have been better.. Lachung driver ,though young , but still jolly and full timepass. Lachung stay ok . Food quality almost good in all of the stays.. gangtok stay was way far from the market even after asking nearest one...

After much research and discussion, we decided to do a Sikkim Darjeeling family trip in April. I decided to use travel triangle to find good quotes and finally went with an 8 day/7-night package from an agent called Dream Destinations/Sikkim Hills Travels. I specifically asked for a good comfortable SUV since we will be spending a lot of time on the road. I also requested that the hotels be 3 or 4 stars with deluxe rooms since there were kids and elderly. I also asked 100 times about travelling during elections. I was assured that everything will be taken care of and there was nothing to worry about. Here is our experience Hotels - The first hotel we stayed was Mandarva in Gangtok and it was good and just what we asked for. Clean, neat and good breakfast. We also had a lovely view of the city from our window. Unfortunately, it was in a residential area with no hotels or anything else nearby. It was too far from the shops/restaurants like MG Marg. In Sikkim, the sun sets by 5.30 pm and in the summer, it also rains heavily in the evening. So, taking a taxi and going out in the wet, dark hilly area is not really an easy option. So, we asked for a hotel that was close to MG Marg. They changed it to Pearl Retreat which was an older/ok ok hotel. However, they were kind and accommodative of my request to keep food ready on a day when we got stranded and returned pretty late. The worst hotel we stayed was a place called ‘Daksha’ in Pelling (Naming and Shaming here very intentionally). It was dirty, unhygienic and chaotic with clueless staff and run like a hostel forget deluxe standards here. Basic was also so terrible. We found out bed linen had hair, dirt marks and dust all over. They gave us a room without dusting, same old linen and a wet bathroom. Also, on the 3rd floor and no lift. I didn’t even want to stay there for 1 night! The other hotels were passable or okay. Cab and Driver – Spending a minimum of 4-5 hours in the car is unavoidable in Sikkim. As per our request we were given a nice SUV (a XUV 700 with sun roof) The car was comfortable most of the time and our driver was also a young local who drove really well and carefully in the mountain roads. However, on day 3, while returning to Gangtok from Lachung, the vehicle had some challenges with pickup/driving up the hill and we got delayed very badly. We had been awake from 6 am that morning visiting Zero point/Yamthang valley which were at high elevation and 3 of us had altitude sickness and had not eaten anything for hours. We found that the driver and the travel agents were more interested in sorting their vehicle rather than helping us figure out a way to get to Gangtok. I finally had to intervene ask for another vehicle to pick us up. Keep in mind, Sikkim is sparsely populated. The place we were stuck had no humans, lights and it was raining making the roads very muddy and dangerous. We got back late to the hotel after spending nearly 16 hours that day in the car with a very sick child. A nightmarish night ride where I was hoping and praying my child doesn’t get severe dehydration. Our driver for Darjeeling local sightseeing was another local driver and he refused to come to our hotel (Taksa Retreat) and wanted us to climb up the road. We explained to him that my mom and child were tired after climbing and walking so much every day. He was very reluctant, unhappy and had to be coerced by the travel agent to pick us up at the lobby. Our last leg of the journey was travel to Bagdogra from Darjeeling. Our flight was at 2.45 pm and we left Darjeeling at 10 am. It was the last day of election campaigning in WB and there were 2 massive political rallies at Darjeeling District and Siliguri. Neither us nor our driver had any clue about this. We got redirected by the police and paramilitary personnel multiple times and we had to take different diversions in the hills. Then as if the cup of woe has not run over, our SUV got a flat tire. By them time we repaired it and reached the airport, the staff refused to board us as they had closed the gates. But this is what disappointed me the most - I had requested our driver to wait for few mins after dropping us, in case I need help with getting dropped at a hotel. We were 3 women alone in an unfamiliar place and I was getting stressed about the possible options/safety in case we miss the flight. Our driver chose to leave, and he gave my number to a random driver in the taxi stand to help us. This guy was with us for a whole week, and we treated him well, but I guess he was in a hurry to go back to Gangtok rather than worry about people whose trip and tips are done. Luckily, the taxi driver turned out to be a nice person and dropped us at the hotel as requested. He mentioned that most taxis/drivers cancelled their trips to Darjeeling because of the political rallies. They also informed their clients who wanted to leave Darjeeling to leave early in the morning to avoid road closures and diversions. I really wish our Driver/Travel agent had done some check on this and updated us. Travel Agent – As soon as we landed, our travel agent mentioned that they had made some changes in our itinerary and that instead of Nathula Pass, we will be doing Yumthang Valley first. We were okay with that since we knew that traveling in Sikkim means being flexible and being okay with unpredictability. However, this seemed to be only applicable for tourists and not the travel agents. I requested that we post pone Nathula pass for a day after our nightmarish road travel back from Lachung and since everyone was sick. They expected us to do 2 consecutive days of heavy road trips to high altitudes. They made a huge fuss about cancelling and changing hotel plans and basically put all the extra charges on us. The manager Mr. Deepak was extremely rude and told me “You are already getting so much personalized services for the money you paid”. I really think that the package (which was hotels + ground Transport + personalised service) was not value for money especially the hotel accommodations. Not to mention the goof ups in getting permits to Northern Sikkim. My name was conveniently left out of the permit, and we could go only because of the military personnel being accommodative. (So much for personalized service!) However, Mr. Abhishek Thapa who was my SPOC and coordinated the whole trip for me was always polite, helpful and checked in on us morning and evening every day. I really appreciate that he was able to keep his composure and help us in the best way he can. May be in couple of months, all that has happened might become an interesting titbit/travel anecdote to share with others. But right now, I am quite bugged and feel very unhappy that we had to get so distressed during the holiday, especially at the end of it. Not to mention the extra money that we had to shell out again for tickets and accommodation. As for the travel agent/package we took – I am not so sure. I would have liked to give them the benefit of doubt, but in my interactions with them, I sensed that they were more interested in making their profit than worry about the customer’s well-being or experience.

We just finished a six day trip to sikkim , which included visit and stay in gangtok, lachung and pelling . Stay provided in gangtok and pelling (udaan group of hotel) was comfortable , however the hotel stay in lachung ( divine elite zong hotel ) was very average without even basic amenities like electricity . On the day of pelling visit we requested the cab to be sent early as we wanted to cover char dham as well , still they sent the cab two hours late and also a smaller vehicle when i had specifically requested to be given bigger vehicle on all days . because of which we missed sight seeing in pelling . Despite their shortcoming the local agent ( Rapti ) demanded extra payment at the end of the day and threatened us that she will not send the cab for our airport drop the next day . it was very difficult for us as pelling is not a place to get alternate cab easily . And i had to contact their manager at the head office to sort out the issue , i am thankful to mr surath mukherjee for the same . the cab given to lachung was very dirty also .destination was wonderful , trip was good however this incident with the local agent left a bitter taste in our experience .

I think Travel agency should be more transparent and inform travellers in advance about the local road conditons. Somethings were not informed in advance 1. Lachung road conditions and closure timings from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm for civilians. 2. Not sending the car as per pre agreed in last day. 3. Daily changing the cab inspite of advance booking. 4. Cab interchange in mid way of the route. Nathula Pass Visit, Tsongmo Lake, Baba Mandir, Ravangla Buddha Park, Zero Point Lachung