Luxury: Mayfair Gangtok Spa
For a town that’s six hours away from the closest airport, Gangtok has a fair share of luxury hotels. Mayfair is the newest on the block. Planted in a bowl of blue-green hills (en route to Rumtek), it’s comfortably distant from the downtown bustle, yet close enough to see the smoke curling from the home fires. A casino — the country’s first on-shore den — has also added to its fortunes lately. Tariff from Rs 12,000, inclusive of breakfast and dinner Contact 03592-250555, mayfairhotels.com
Homestay: The Shire
Small, family-run hotels are hardly uncommon here. But with three guest rooms, the Shire is closer to the idea of a homestay than most others in town: read elaborate dinners with the Kazis, cane chairs in an overgrown garden, well-thumbed albums and a prayer room draped in heirloom thangkas. A short walk from and antipodal to the town centre at M.G. Road, this is as personal and private as it can get. Tariff from Rs 1,550 Contact 9647872371, shiresikkim.com
Character: Mintokling
Run like a homestay, this friendly twelve-room property with timbered ceilings and cheerfully painted low stools and tables is a pleasant stroll away from the palace gates. Expect clean,spacious rooms coddled by rambling grounds. And lots of gossip. Owned by a family related to the erstwhile royals, dinner conversations here are often as colourful as Sikkim’s contentious political history. Tariff Rs 1,650 Contact 204226, mintokling.com
Mid-range: Hidden Forest Retreat
Set in three acres of what is virtually a thirty-year-old orchidarium, the Hidden Forest Retreat has a bird’s-eye view of the many-tiered Gangtok valley — a view that makes it well worth the ride uphill from the main bazaars and the mall road. Managed by Kesang and her family (just as charming as the place they run), the Retreat is overrun by flowers and butterflies through spring and summer. Tariff from Rs 2,000 Contact 205197, hiddenforestretreat.org
Budget: Sonam Delek
An old favourite — popular even in the pre-Internet 90s — Sonam Delek scores on two important counts: great views of the Kanchen-dzonga (unless you book the cheapest ‘standard’ rooms, which lie in a dank basement) and great service. Almost equidistant from the mall road and the quiet colonial neighbourhood called the Ridge, Sonam is neither too backpacker-ish nor too plush. Tariff from Rs 1,100 Contact 202566, hotelsonamdelek.com
Heritage: Elgin Nor-Khill
The era of monarchy still walks the corridors of this ‘house of jewels’. Once a royal guest house — built in the 1930s by the last Chogyal of Sikkim — it’s quite unlike those minor palace hotels of Rajasthan that try hard to retain a sense of stateliness with liveried butlers and rusty armour. Nor-Khill’s carved wooden artefacts and elaborate set menus are fit for a king and the Dalai Lama. Tariff Rs 7,929, includes breakfast, lunch/dinner Contact 033-40646300, elginhotels.com