Sandakphu: the trek, the Land Rover road, the snow and the best months

From the highest point in West Bengal you can see Everest. That point is Sandakphu, 3,636 m up on the Singalila Ridge, where Darjeeling district meets Nepal, and two very different trips lead to it. One is a walk of several days from Manebhanjan through Singalila National Park. The other is a long, rough ride up the jeep road in an old Land Rover. Either way, what you go for is a clear morning. The district administration's own notes call November generally dry, with excellent visibility, and November is our pick. December adds a chance of snow, but the snow at Sandakphu is not a postcard, as March 2026 showed.

Where is Sandakphu, and how high is it?

Sandakphu is 3,636 m high, the highest point of the Singalila Ridge and of West Bengal. The district administration's trek notes give that figure, and so does Wikipedia's list of states by elevation. You will see other numbers. The Singalila park pages say 3,630 m, and Bengali Wikipedia prints 3,665 m, though its own figure in feet, 11,930 ft, works out to 3,636 m. Wikipedia, in both languages, also gives the name Sandakpur. The top sits right on the border: the western part of the summit, Wikipedia records, lies in Nepal's Ilam district.

The ridge is the spine of Singalila National Park, which was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1986 and a national park in 1992. Sikkim lies to its north and Nepal to its west. The park is run by the Darjeeling Wildlife Division of the West Bengal Forest Department, whose office is in the Bengal Natural History Museum on Meadow Bank Road in Darjeeling. Red pandas live in these forests, and the park counts more than 120 species of birds. The name Sandakphu is usually glossed as the peak of poisonous plants.

Best time to visit Sandakphu: November for the view

The best months for Sandakphu are April and May, and October and November, according to the district administration's trek notes. Of those, November is the one to aim for. It is generally dry, the notes say, and visibility is excellent. Early October can still bring some rain after a long monsoon. The first half of December, the notes add, is also good though rather cold, with occasional snow.

Spring is the other season, for a different reason. The rhododendrons along the ridge bloom from April into May, and Wikipedia and the Forest Department's old park page both count spring as one of two flowering seasons. Expect cold nights: the Forest Department told people coming to its April 2024 rhododendron and bird festival on the ridge that a sleeping bag was a must.

November for the mountains, spring for the flowers. December only if it is the snow you want, and with a spare day in hand.

When does it snow at Sandakphu?

It snows at Sandakphu in winter. The district's notes mention occasional snowfall in the first half of December, and in the late winter of 2026 the ridge got far more than usual. On Sun 22 Mar 2026, Akashvani News reported six to ten feet of snow at Sandakphu and Phalut. A few tourists were stuck, the district police began rescue operations, and they asked visitors to stay away until the way up was open again. The same report said the hills had not had such heavy snow at the end of March in two decades, after a winter with very little.

So nobody can promise snow on a given date, and nobody official publishes a snow calendar for the ridge. If snow is why you are going, aim for December or January (we name January on the strength of the snow picture above, taken on a 25 January), keep a day or two spare, and ask at Manebhanjan and with your hut or lodge the day before you go up. If the police or the district have put out a warning, take it. Think of the tourists who were stuck up there in March.

Sandakphu weather: what the figures say

Sandakphu has no weather station of the India Meteorological Department, so there are no official 30-year averages for it. The nearest IMD station with them is Darjeeling town, at 2,128 m, about 1,500 m lower, and its month-by-month figures are in our guide to the best time to visit Darjeeling. Expect the ridge to be much colder than the town.

For the ridge itself, the only figures are the district administration's approximate ones. They put Sandakphu at about 12 °C by day and 6 °C at night in April and May, and about 6 °C by day and 1 °C at night in October and November. The notes call the first half of December rather cold. IMD's forecasts cover the hills as a whole, as Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim, not Sandakphu by name, so read them for warnings of heavy rain, hail or fog, not for a summit temperature.

How to reach Sandakphu: train, road, bus and air

Every way to Sandakphu runs through Manebhanjan, and every way from Kolkata to Manebhanjan runs through the plains around Siliguri: New Jalpaiguri (NJP) station if you come by train, Bagdogra if you fly, and Siliguri's bus terminus for the buses into the hills. This section gets you to Manebhanjan; the next one takes you up the ridge.

By train

The overnight train from Sealdah to NJP is the easiest way from Kolkata, and three trains suit a trek because they reach NJP in the morning, which leaves you the day for the road to Manebhanjan. The times below are Indian Railways' own, as listed on NTES on 23 October 2026. Timetables change, so check your train under Train Exception Info on NTES the week you travel.

The Uttar Banga, the Darjeeling Mail and the Padatik all carry first AC, AC two-tier, AC three-tier and sleeper. NTES lists other afternoon and evening trains as well, but the 12345 Saraighat Express (Howrah 16:05), the 27575 Vande Bharat Sleeper (Howrah 18:20, not on Thursdays) and the 13141 Teesta Torsha (Sealdah 15:00) put you down at NJP between 01:05 and 02:15 in the morning, a poor start for a mountain day.

Coming back, the same three overnight trains leave NJP in the evening and reach Sealdah early the next morning. The Uttar Banga is the first to leave, at 18:05, and the Padatik the last, at 20:30.

By road: car and bus

By car, Manebhanjan is about 80 km from NJP on OpenStreetMap's router, by way of Mirik, a little under an hour and a half of driving on an empty road, or about 100 km if you go up through Darjeeling. From Bagdogra Airport and from Siliguri's Tenzing Norgay Bus Terminus it is about 70 km. The router assumes empty roads, so leave with time to spare. Driving the whole way from Kolkata means about 585 km of road to Siliguri alone, about seven and a half hours with no traffic before the hills even begin, which is why the overnight train is the better choice. Past Manebhanjan the router cannot follow the ridge road at all; that last stretch is the next section.

If you stop in Darjeeling first, and for the altitude you should, Manebhanjan is about 26 km away by the district's figure (28 km on the router). The district says jeeps and buses run to Sukhiapokhri, about an hour, and on to Manebhanjan in another half hour, or you can walk the last 4 km. For a slower way into these hills, our posts on Darjeeling's offbeat villages and on Sittong cover the lower valleys.

By bus, the Darjeeling district administration says buses for the hills leave from the Tenzing Norgay Bus Terminus in Siliguri, and that smaller vehicles run shared or on hire from the airport, the railway station and the motor stands. No official page gives times, fares or operators for these hill runs. Nor does any official page give a timetable, a fare or a starting point in Kolkata for a bus to Siliguri, so from Kolkata take the train, and ask the North Bengal State Transport Corporation (NBSTC) if you want to try a bus.

By air

Bagdogra Airport (IXB), near Siliguri, is the nearest airport in India, and the district says flights reach it from major cities such as Kolkata, Delhi and Guwahati. From Bagdogra, Manebhanjan is about 70 km by road on the router, and NJP about 21 km. The Airports Authority of India, which runs the airport, and the district both say there are pre-paid taxis at Bagdogra, and the district lists a pre-paid stand at NJP station too. Neither publishes the fares, so ask at the counter.

Two ways up from Manebhanjan: on foot, or in an old Land Rover

Manebhanjan is a small town at about 1,500 m on the Nepal border, and it is where both journeys begin. Walkers follow a trail along the ridge; drivers take a stony jeep road that also passes Tumling and Tonglu. From Tumling, Wikipedia notes, a shorter trail cuts through Nepal.

On foot, the district's trek notes lay the climb out stage by stage. The first leg, to Meghma, is 7 km and steep, about three and a half hours; Wikipedia puts Chitre on the way. Tonglu, which the notes also call Tumling, is 2 km on, at 3,070 m, with a trekkers' hut. Wikipedia lists Tonglu and Tumling as two places, so expect both names on the trail. From there the path drops 9 km to Gairibas (2,621 m), climbs 6 km through rhododendron forest to Kalipokhri, at about 3,200 m, whose pond the notes say never freezes, and dips to Bikheybhanjang. The last 4 km up to Sandakphu are steep and take more than an hour.

In the district's own reckoning, Darjeeling to Sandakphu and back by the same trail is 118 km and four days, counting the drive to Manebhanjan. Adding Phalut, 3,600 m, at the meeting point of Sikkim, West Bengal and Nepal, makes it 160 km and six days. Coming back, you can walk down to Manebhanjan in a single day, starting by 7 a.m. for about eight hours on the move, or break the descent at Gairibas or Tonglu. The other way down goes by Gurdum and Srikhola to Rimbik. The district times its three legs separately; added up, they come to about six and a half hours of walking, and from Rimbik a road runs back to Darjeeling.

By road, the ride is the one Manebhanjan is known for: an old fleet of Land Rovers that carries people up the ridge. We give no count or model here, because the published ones disagree. Wikipedia puts the ride at about four hours. Nothing official gives a time, and OpenStreetMap's router cannot route the ridge road, so treat four hours as a guide and expect the day to go slower in bad weather.

Which to choose? Walk if you have five or six days and fit legs, because the stages are what make the view earned, and the huts break the climb. Ride if you are short of days, travelling with older parents, or going in winter, when less time out in the cold is the safer choice. One warning from the district for walkers going on to Phalut: the long trail from Phalut down to Srikhola should not be tried in winter, it says, naming November and March, because it is dark by 4 p.m.

Permits, guides and the monsoon closure

The trail and the jeep road from Manebhanjan both run through Singalila National Park, and Wikipedia places a park checkpost at Tumling. No official page gives the permit fee. The Forest Department has a centre at Manebhanjan, the Manebhanjang Nature Interpretation Centre. In the town, ask what permit you need and where it is issued, the current fee for each person and for a camera, and whether you must take a local guide. No official page gives the rules for vehicles inside the park either, so ask about those too if you plan to ride up.

The park closes for the monsoon. The Forest Department's Wildlife Wing page put the dates at 16 June to 15 September every year, in the copy of 2018 that survives in the web archive. No newer official notice is online. For a trip between October and May it changes nothing; for anything in June or September, check with the Forest Department's Darjeeling Wildlife Division, at the Bengal Natural History Museum in Darjeeling, before you book a train.

What you see from the top

On a clear morning Sandakphu shows four of the five highest mountains in the world: Everest, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse and Makalu. Only K2 is missing from the top five. Kanchenjunga fills the north, with the long line of peaks that people here call the Sleeping Buddha, and the district's notes add Kabru, Jannu and Pandim beside it. Everest stands well to the west, about 160 km away by the district's figure, with Lhotse and Makalu in the same group.

In the picture above, Everest is small, a cluster of white far off on the skyline with Lhotse and Makalu. From here it is the Kanchenjunga range that fills the view, as the photograph at the top of this page shows. Be outside before sunrise.

Before you go: altitude, cold and ID

Altitude is the first thing to plan for. When it invited people to its April 2024 festival on the ridge, the Forest Department asked them to reach Darjeeling a day early, because a sudden move from the plains to high altitude can bring on altitude sickness. Take that day, whichever way you go up. It matters most if you ride: if the drive takes the four hours Wikipedia gives it, the Land Rover lifts you from about 1,500 m to 3,636 m in a single day.

For the cold, the district's notes ask for a heavy pullover and a wind-cheater, call a down jacket very useful, and say a woollen cap and gloves are a must in winter. Add extra thick socks, a light raincoat in any season, some food of your own and water-purifying tablets. Before you leave Manebhanjan, tell someone at home your plan.

Stories for the long nights up there

Winter evenings come early on the ridge, and an evening in a hut or lodge is a long one. Fill it with a story. Start with Feluda in the same hills, on the train up or the night before you climb.

▶2:19:54Play: Darjeeling Jomjomat, Feluda

Darjeeling Jomjomat, Feluda

Mirchi Bangla

Satyajit Ray takes Feluda to Darjeeling with a film unit. Two hours and twenty minutes, about right for the overnight train to NJP.

▶ Play hereWatch on YouTube · Mirchi Bangla

▶3:17:28Play: Paharchuray Atanka, Kakababu

Paharchuray Atanka, Kakababu

Mirchi Bangla

Sunil Gangopadhyay's Kakababu; the title means terror on the mountain top. Three hours and seventeen minutes, a whole hut evening and more.

▶ Play hereWatch on YouTube · Mirchi Bangla

▶2:28:52Play: Tushar Manober Khonje

Tushar Manober Khonje

Sudhu Golper Jonno

Picked for its title, a hunt for the snowman, which is hard to resist on a ridge where it snows. Two hours and twenty-nine minutes.

▶ Play hereWatch on YouTube · Sudhu Golper Jonno

▶51:05Play: Dow Hill er Atonko, Bhuban Thakur episode 2

Dow Hill er Atonko, Bhuban Thakur episode 2

THRILLER LAND

A teenager goes missing on Dow Hill in Kurseong, in these same Darjeeling hills. Fifty-one minutes, short enough for the drive.

▶ Play hereWatch on YouTube · THRILLER LAND

And for the jeep road out of Manebhanjan, one song from our Long Drive mood.

3:34

Ei Path Jodi Na Shes Hoy, Hemanta Mukherjee and Sandhya Mukherjee

Saregama Bengali

From Saptapadi: if this road never ended. On a jeep road that Wikipedia reckons at four hours, the title is the point.

▶ Play hereMore in the Long_drive mood

If you can choose only one week, choose mid-November, spend a night in Darjeeling first, and be outside before sunrise on your morning at the top. From Darjeeling town you see Kanchenjunga. From Sandakphu you see Everest as well.

Questions people ask

Is Sandakphu in India or Nepal?

Sandakphu is in India, in Darjeeling district of West Bengal, and it is the state's highest point. It sits right on the border, though: Wikipedia records that the western part of the summit lies in Nepal's Ilam district, and a shorter trail on the way up cuts through Nepal.

Is the Sandakphu trek difficult?

The Sandakphu trek is hard mainly because of the height: it climbs from about 1,500 m to 3,636 m. The district's notes also call two of its climbs steep, the first 7 km from Manebhanjan to Meghma (about three and a half hours) and the last 4 km from Bikheybhanjang to the top, and nights are cold even in spring.

When does it snow at Sandakphu?

Snow at Sandakphu falls in winter, with occasional snowfall in December in the district's notes. It can come late, too: Akashvani reported six to ten feet of snow at Sandakphu and Phalut on 22 March 2026. No official calendar of snow dates is published.

Is Sandakphu open in December and January?

Sandakphu has no published closure in December or January. The park's recorded closure is for the monsoon, mid-June to mid-September. Heavy snow can still cut the way up, as in March 2026, when the police asked tourists to stay away until it was open again. Ask at Manebhanjan the day before you go.

Which is the nearest airport to Sandakphu?

The nearest airport in India to Sandakphu is Bagdogra (IXB), near Siliguri, about 70 km by road from Manebhanjan, where both ways up begin. The Darjeeling district administration says flights reach Bagdogra from cities including Kolkata, and that there are pre-paid taxis at the airport.

How do I reach Sandakphu from Bagdogra?

To reach Sandakphu from Bagdogra, take a taxi about 70 km by road to Manebhanjan, by OpenStreetMap's router, then go up the ridge on foot or in one of the old Land Rovers. For the altitude, the Forest Department's own advice is to reach Darjeeling a day early, and Darjeeling is only about 26-28 km short of Manebhanjan.

How do I reach Sandakphu from Kolkata by train?

To reach Sandakphu from Kolkata by train, take an overnight train from Sealdah to New Jalpaiguri (NJP): as listed on NTES on 23 October 2026, the Uttar Banga Express leaves at 19:40 and reaches NJP at 06:15, the Darjeeling Mail leaves at 22:15 and arrives at 07:50, and the Padatik Express leaves at 23:20 and arrives at 09:05, all daily. From NJP, Manebhanjan is about 80 km by road.

How do I reach Sandakphu from NJP?

From NJP, Sandakphu is reached by road to Manebhanjan, about 80 km by Mirik or about 100 km through Darjeeling on OpenStreetMap's router, and then on foot or by Land Rover up the ridge. The district lists a pre-paid taxi stand at NJP station, and from Darjeeling it says jeeps and buses run to Manebhanjan by way of Sukhiapokhri.

How far is Manebhanjan to Sandakphu by car, and how long does it take?

Manebhanjan to Sandakphu by car is about a four-hour ride by Wikipedia's figure, in one of the old Land Rovers on the jeep road through Singalila National Park, and no official page gives the distance or the time. OpenStreetMap's router cannot follow the ridge road either, so treat four hours as a guide and allow longer in bad weather.

Pictures: The Kanchenjunga range from Sandakphu, behind a timber building on the ridge: Photo: Amey Meher, Unsplash

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