Papers to pack for a hill holiday
Photo ID, permit copies, passport photos, tickets and medical notes: a checklist for Sikkim and Darjeeling trips.
A tour manager’s night before departure
Phone calls, permits, hotel checks and a printed folder for every family: what happens at our desk before your trip begins.
Our tour managers are the people you call at midnight when a road closes or a child falls ill. Fewer people see the work they do before you even leave. Here is what Rupa, who manages our Sikkim departures, does the evening before a group leaves Kolkata.
She starts with a list of every family in the group, their train coach and berth numbers, ages, health notes and food preferences. She calls each hotel on the route to reconfirm room numbers and meals, and tells them who is vegetarian, who needs a ground-floor room, and whose birthday falls on the trip. She then calls the car operator in Siliguri to confirm the drivers, their vehicles and their phone numbers.
Next come the permits. For North Sikkim and Tsomgo Lake, she checks that every traveller’s permit has been issued, with names matching their ID cards exactly, and prints copies. A single misspelt name can hold a whole car at a checkpost.
She also checks the weather and road reports for the next three days. If heavy rain or a landslide is forecast on a key road, she prepares a second plan and tells the hotels. Finally, she prints a folder for each family: tickets, vouchers, permits, driver numbers, a day-by-day plan and a list of nearby hospitals at every stop. She sends the same details on WhatsApp, then sets two alarms and keeps her phone on. She will be at the platform at Sealdah forty minutes before the train leaves.
