Places to visit in Kalimpong, and the order to see them

The highest point of Kalimpong, with a garden park on top. On a clear day you see Kanchenjunga to the north, the Teesta river far below and the town spread along its ridge.

A tall Hanuman statue on the hill past Deolo, reached by a flight of steps, with a small Durga temple by the entrance. It looks out over the valleys east of Kalimpong.

A boarding school founded in 1900 by a Scottish missionary for children who had no one to look after them. Its cottages, old stone chapel and wide lawns are spread over the slope below Deolo.

A Tibetan Buddhist monastery on Tirpai hill, just above the town. It has a calm prayer hall with large statues and paintings, and a small museum of old books and objects.

A large, modern Krishna temple and memorial to Guru Mangaldasji, a few minutes from the town centre. The halls are bright and well kept, with scenes from Krishna's life along the walls.

A small museum about the Lepchas, the first people of these hills, in a house about a kilometre below the town centre. It has old tools, clothes, musical instruments, books in the Lepcha script and a lot of stories from the people who run it.

The biggest monastery in Kalimpong, on top of Durpin hill at the south end of town. The Dalai Lama blessed it in 1976. The walls of the prayer hall are covered in bright paintings, and the hilltop looks over the Relli and Teesta valleys.

A stone and ivy bungalow from the 1930s on Durpin hill, built for a British jute trader. It is now a government tourist lodge, with lawns and old trees round it.

Rishop (also Rishyap) is a tiny village of homestays above Lava, at about 2,600 m. From the road below it, the whole Kanchenjunga range stands up across the valleys on a clear morning.

A large monastery of the Kagyu school at the top of Lava village, opened in 1990, with about a hundred monks. Lava itself is a small market village in the forest at about 2,100 m, and the gateway to Neora Valley National Park.

Lolegaon (also called Kafer) is a Lepcha village on a ridge, with a patch of old forest of tall cypress and oak trees. Paths run through the forest to viewpoints over the hills.

A tall waterfall in the forest beyond Kolakham, about 10 km past Lava. It is not to be confused with the Changey Falls near Pelling in Sikkim.

A small village of homestays on a ridge near Pedong. From Ramitey Dara, a viewpoint above it, you can see the Teesta river winding through the valley in many bends, with Kanchenjunga behind on a clear day.

The ruins of a Lepcha hill fort from about 1690, in the forest above Pedong. Only low stone walls are left, but it is a quiet place with views over the hills towards Bhutan and Sikkim.

A small market town on the old trade road from Kalimpong to Tibet, close to the Sikkim border. The old Sangchen Dorjee Monastery, from the early 1700s, and Cross Hill, a sunset point with a cross put up in 1882, are both near the bazaar.