Kanchan View Homestay Sittong

Kanchan View Homestay is a small family-run homestay in Upper Sittong, the orange-growing village in the Kurseong subdivision of Darjeeling district. It has just two rooms for up to six guests, so you stay as part of a household rather than one of a crowd at about 4,000 ft, among orange orchards and forest.

Sittong has grown to nearly a hundred homestays, many of them large places with fifteen or twenty rooms. Kanchan View is the opposite: a two-room house where the evenings are quiet and the village walks start at the door. It suits couples, small families and older travellers who want a slow few days in the hills.

There are two Deluxe Rooms, priced at ₹1,500 per person, with stays starting from ₹1,400 per person depending on the dates and the number of guests. Between them they sleep up to six, which makes it easy to take the whole homestay for a family or a group of friends.

Free Wi-Fi and free parking are included. If you need a reliable mobile signal for work, check with us before you travel.

There are no restaurants to speak of in Sittong, so meals at the homestay are part of the experience. The kitchen serves vegetarian food only: breakfast, lunch, dinner and evening tea are all available, charged separately from the room. Let us know your meal plan when you book so the kitchen can prepare for it.

Sittong is a cluster of hamlets rather than a single village. Things worth your time:

• The orange orchards — the reason Sittong is known as the orange village. The fruit ripens from November to January, when the slopes turn bright with it.
• Ahaldara viewpoint — a short walk from where cars stop, with a wide view that includes Kanchenjunga on clear days and the Teesta valley below.
• Namthing Pokhri — a small lake among pines about a kilometre from the Ahaldara road, full in the monsoon and often dry in other seasons.
• Upper Sittong monastery — an old Lepcha monastery on the ridge above the village.
• Mungpoo — about 8 km away, with Rabindranath Tagore's house, now a museum, and the cinchona plantations.
• Latpanchar — about 7 km away, on the edge of Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary and known for birdwatching.
• Jogighat bridge — the steel bridge over the Riyang river that links Mungpoo with Sittong.

At the homestay itself there is birdwatching, village walks and a bonfire on cold evenings.

Sittong is roughly 55 to 65 km from NJP and about 60 to 65 km from Bagdogra airport, depending on the road you take, which usually works out at two and a half to three hours. Kurseong is about 24 km away and Darjeeling about 35 km.

From NJP or Siliguri, drivers climb from the Sevoke road by one of three routes: the Kalijhora road through Latpanchar and Ahaldara, the Birik Dara road, or the Rambi Bazaar road via Mungpoo and the Jogighat bridge. From Kurseong or Darjeeling, leave Hill Cart Road at Dilaram and come up through Bagora. Some of these hill roads are prone to landslides in the rains, so let local drivers choose the route on the day. We can arrange a car if you share your arrival time.

November to January is orange season and the most popular time. October-November and the spring months from March to May give the clearest skies and the best chance of seeing Kanchenjunga. The monsoon, from late June to September, is misty and lush with full waterfalls, but views are rare and roads are slower.

• Check-in from 12 PM, check-out by 10 AM
• Meals are vegetarian and charged separately
• Two rooms, up to six guests in total
• Free parking and free Wi-Fi
• Suitable for families and senior citizens
• Carry cash; Sittong has few shops and no restaurants