Your chauffeur meets you at Bagdogra (IXB) and begins the scenic climb into Sikkim, following the jade-green Teesta river as it winds up from the plains to the state capital at around 1,650 m.

The Premium tier means a private 4x4 rather than a shared vehicle, with unhurried photo stops at the Teesta to Rangeet confluence. You reach Gangtok by evening for check-in and a stroll along the pedestrianised MG Marg.

You spend the day among Gangtok's living Buddhist heritage: Rumtek, seat of the Karmapa and one of the most important monasteries of the Kagyu lineage, and the 200-year-old Enchey Monastery closer to town.

The Hanuman Tok viewpoint on the ridge above the city gives clear-weather views toward the Kanchenjunga range. The pace is deliberately gentle, this is also your body's first full day settling into the altitude.

Today you enter protected north Sikkim, a full-day mountain drive through Mangan and Chungthang along the Teesta gorge, passing waterfalls that tumble straight onto the road.

This is a genuinely long journey on demanding roads, seven hours is honest, not padded, so the Premium tier books an early start and a comfortable Lachung stay at around 2,700 m to reward it. Your protected-area permit is pre-arranged.

An early drive climbs to the Yumthang Valley at roughly 3,600 m, the 'Valley of Flowers', carpeted with rhododendron blooms in April to May and starkly beautiful in the clear post-monsoon months.

You can extend higher to Zero Point (Yumesamdong, ~4,700 m) when the road and weather permit; this is a genuinely high-altitude add-on, so we keep it optional and weather-dependent. Return to Lachung by evening.

You retrace the Teesta valley back to Gangtok. Weather and road conditions permitting, the afternoon adds the glacial Tsongmo (Tsomgo) Lake at 3,750 m and the nearby Baba Harbhajan Singh Mandir on the old Nathu La road.

Because this stretch sits close to the border and above the treeline, access can be closed at short notice, we hold it flexibly and never promise what the mountain won't allow.

You cross to west Sikkim and the hill town of Pelling, famed for its front-row Kanchenjunga panorama. The drive passes terraced hills and forest, a quieter and greener side of the state.

Late afternoon you stop at the Singshore Bridge, one of the highest bridges in the region, spanning a deep forested gorge, dramatic at sunset. Check in to your Pelling stay for the night.

The morning belongs to the 17th-century Pemayangtse Monastery, one of Sikkim's oldest, and the adjacent Rabdentse ruins of the former royal capital, set on a forested spur.

You walk the Pelling Sky Walk to the towering Chenrezig statue for its glass-floor Kanchenjunga view, and stop at the Kanchenjunga (Rimbi) falls. On a clear dawn the peak itself glows pink above your hotel, the tour's signature sight.

After a final Kanchenjunga sunrise, if the sky is kind, your chauffeur begins the descent from the hills back to the plains and Bagdogra airport.

It is a long half-day drive, so we align it with afternoon and evening departures; your driver sees you to the terminal with time to spare.