We booked our 6N/7D trip through Pradeep from eSikkimTourism. He is knowledgeable and very helpful in planning the trip so would recommend him anytime.
Overall it was a wonderful experience except for the few things that I had liked to mention here.
We had 2N in Darjeeling, 1N in Pelling and 3N in Gangtok and had specifically asked for rooms with views.
The very first night we checked in into a hotel(Sumi Vista Suites and Spa) in Darjeeling. This was in the middle of nowhere with no views.
The hotel is good from inside but not accessible to any place by walking. The roads leading to this hotel are very narrow and have garbage dumps all over.
We almost missed our trip to see the sunrise next morning trying to get the vehicle out through these narrow streets. Multiple drivers had to shuffle their vehicles back and forth to make way which took several minutes.
I mentioned this to Pradeep and he moved us to another hotel in the same chain for the 2nd night which was easily accessible and had good views.
Our rooms in Sonamchen Pelling had a full view of Kanchenjunga and Ninamma hotel in Gangtok had very good views and accessibility as well.
We learned something about the rental vehicles on this trip.
We paid the parking fee even though it was included in the package.
eSikkimTourism contacts some local vehicle owners, who in turn sends you a driver with a vehicle. For each day it’s a different vehicle and a different driver.
The driver takes all his instructions from the vehicle owner and almost none from you. This is where the problem starts. The drivers are clearly instructed by their owners to cut corners and save on miles, gas and time. They are instructed to rush you to your final destination so that they can pick up the next tourist from there.
While going from Darjeeling to Pelling, the vehicle owner knowingly instructed the driver to take the shortcut and avoid the check post meant for NRI’s as that would have added another hour to the trip. And so we entered Sikkim without collecting the Inner Line Permit(ILP) from check post. We had to put extra effort and managed to get our ILP the next day at Rangpo check post while going from Pelling to Gangtok.
The driver also skipped the Samdruptse Monastery on the way to Pelling which was on our itinerary.
Going from Pelling to Gangtok, the driver skipped the Rimbhi Orange gardens and water falls which was on our itinerary. This saved them two hours for their next pickup.
The driver just pretended that he was not aware of our itinerary.
The tour in Gangtok was supposed to be full day, but ended in just few hours. You may want to make sure it is the 10 point tour in Gangtok which takes the full day.
A small car showed up with the permit for our lake Tsomgo excursion even though we had booked an SUV.
Going from Gangtok to NJP, the driver rushed us very early morning, skipping our paid for hotel breakfast, and refused to give us more than one break on the way even when we warned him several times and asked him to stop.
He was being instructed by his owner to get to NJP three hours before our departure time so that he could do a pickup for another tourist.
This did not end well for the driver or his owner as we refused to let go the vehicle till it was time for our departure.
Not a good way to end the trip though!
It just sucks that to talk to the driver, you have to talk through your agent and the vehicle owner. So when your driver arrives, the first thing you should do is check the itinerary and timeline with him just to make sure. Also do the same with vehicle owners when they call the previous night. Do not be rushed just because they have to go make another pickup.