East India Tour Packages: Tea Gardens, Tribal Heartlands, and the Wettest Place on Earth

East India gets a fraction of the tourist traffic that Rajasthan or Kerala see, which is exactly its appeal for travelers who've already done the standard circuits. This stretch covers Sikkim's Himalayan monasteries, Meghalaya's living root bridges, the Sundarbans' tiger-inhabited mangroves, and Odisha's temple architecture, regions that rarely overlap on the same itinerary anywhere else in India. Driver India Private Tours has been running east india tours since 2013, with a private vehicle and driver suited to each region's specific terrain.

Complete Sikkim Tour: monasteries and mountain towns

Our Complete Sikkim Tour (14 nights, 15 days) starts in Siliguri and works through Gangtok, Lachung, Ravangla, Pelling, Yuksom, and Kalimpong. Lachung sits close enough to the Yumthang Valley for a day trip into its high-altitude meadows, and Yuksom was Sikkim's first capital, with the ruins and monasteries to show for it. At fifteen days, this is the longest single-region route on this page, and it needs to be: Sikkim's mountain roads mean shorter daily driving distances than flatter parts of India, so the itinerary builds in more days to cover comparatively less ground.

Assam and Meghalaya Explorer Tour: rhinos, then the wettest place on earth

Our Assam and Meghalaya Explorer Tour (8 nights, 9 days) starts at Kaziranga National Park, home to the world's largest population of one-horned rhinoceros, then moves into Meghalaya for Shillong, Cherrapunji, Mawlynnong, and Dawki. Cherrapunji held the world record for annual rainfall for decades, and Mawlynnong's living root bridges, trees trained over generations to grow across rivers, are something genuinely unlike anywhere else we run tours. Dawki's Umngot River is clear enough that boats appear to float on glass when the water's calm, usually in the drier months rather than during monsoon.

Eastern Wildlife Trail: three ecosystems most visitors never see

Our Eastern Wildlife Trail (11 nights, 12 days) starts in Kolkata and covers the Sundarbans (the world's largest mangrove forest and the only place tigers are known to regularly swim between islands), Similipal's forest reserve, Bhitarkanika's saltwater crocodiles and mangrove creeks, and Chilika Lake, Asia's largest brackish water lagoon and a major stop for migratory birds in winter. These three reserves rarely appear on the same trip elsewhere, since most India wildlife itineraries default to the central India tiger circuit instead.

Eastern Himalayan Journey: a shorter hill-station route

Our Eastern Himalayan Journey (5 nights, 6 days) is the shortest route here, flying into Bagdogra and covering Darjeeling, Gangtok, and Kalimpong without the longer Sikkim interior loop. Darjeeling's tea estates and the toy train (where running, and it doesn't always run) are the main draw, alongside Tiger Hill's sunrise view of Kanchenjunga on a clear morning. This suits travelers who want a taste of the eastern Himalayas without committing to the full Complete Sikkim itinerary.

Permits for Sikkim's border areas

Sikkim shares borders with Nepal, Tibet, and Bhutan, and several areas close to those borders, North Sikkim including Lachung and Yumthang Valley, and parts of East Sikkim near Tsomgo Lake and Nathu La, require an Inner Line Permit for both Indian and foreign visitors. Foreign nationals from a small number of countries face additional restrictions on top of that. This isn't unique to us, every operator running these routes deals with the same requirement, but it does need a few days' lead time to process, so we ask for ID or passport details earlier in planning a Sikkim trip than we would for most other Indian itineraries. The mountain roads themselves are worth the same advance thought: Sikkim's switchbacks and Meghalaya's narrow hill routes both go more smoothly with a driver who already knows the turns, and a vehicle suited to the terrain rather than a generic highway car.

Food and travel basics worth knowing

Northeast Indian food runs noticeably different from what most travelers expect from "Indian food" generally, momos in Gangtok, fresh fish curries near Chilika Lake, and fermented and smoked preparations across Assam and Meghalaya that lean less on the heavy spice blends common further west. A local SIM card is worth picking up early, since coverage in the hills can be patchy and you'll want it before reaching Sikkim or Meghalaya's more remote stretches. ATMs thin out once you're away from the larger towns, so carrying enough cash for a few days at a time is sensible rather than assuming you'll find one when needed.

Best time to visit, region by region

October to March suits Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, and the wildlife reserves (Sundarbans, Bhitarkanika, Kaziranga), with comfortable temperatures and better wildlife visibility. April to June is best for the hill stations, Darjeeling, Gangtok, Pelling, with clearer mountain views before monsoon cloud cover sets in. July to September is monsoon, and while Cherrapunji and Dawki turn genuinely lush and dramatic during this window, travel slows down and some routes become less reliable. December and January add winter birdwatching at Chilika Lake to the mix, on top of the general October-to-March wildlife window.

Tell us which of these regions you're drawn to, Sikkim's monasteries, Meghalaya's bridges, the wildlife reserves, or a shorter Himalayan taste, along with your travel dates, and we'll send a detailed itinerary and quote within 24 hours.