Darjeeling Tea Estate Heritage Stay

Kathmandu → Darjeeling

Highlights

• Live in a colonial tea bungalow, pluck leaves with estate workers, and learn why Darjeeling is called the Champagne of Teas.
• Tea Tourism · 5 Days
• Small group, guide-led

Day-by-day itinerary

1. D1

   Arrival & Estate Welcome

   Arrive at Glenburn Tea Estate or similar heritage property. Your host — often a descendant of the original planting family — welcomes you with afternoon tea and explains the estate's 150-year history. Evening walk through the tea fields as the mist rolls in from Kanchenjunga.

   Darjeeling As per plan

2. D2

   Plucking to Cup: The Full Process

   Rise at dawn to join tea pluckers in the fields, learning the 'two leaves and a bud' standard that defines quality. Follow fresh leaves to the factory to see withering (air-drying), rolling (breaking cell walls), oxidizing (chemical transformation), and firing (halting oxidation). Taste tea at each stage.

   Darjeeling As per plan

3. D3

   Professional Tea Tasting

   Learn professional tea tasting — the slurp, the swish, the spit. Evaluate liquor color, aroma, body, and astringency. Blind-taste first flush (spring), second flush (summer muscatel), autumnal, and green Darjeelings. Receive a personalized tasting journal.

   Darjeeling As per plan

4. D4

   Workers' Village & Culture

   Visit the tea workers' village to understand the human side of the industry. Meet a third-generation plucker who shares stories of estate life. Learn to cook traditional Nepali dishes using estate-grown vegetables. Evening Nepali folk music and dance.

   Darjeeling As per plan

5. D5

   Tiger Hill Sunrise & Departure

   Pre-dawn drive to Tiger Hill for sunrise over Kanchenjunga (world's third-highest peak) and, on clear days, Everest. Final tea tasting at Nathmulls, Darjeeling's oldest tea shop. Transfer to Bagdogra airport.

   Darjeeling As per plan

Price includes

• Local storyteller guide
• Stays as per itinerary
• Daily breakfast
• All ground transfers

Make it yours (upsells)

Everything apart from the trip itself is an upsell — tick what you want.