They say that India lives in her villages – and I couldn’t agree more! I’ve done several road trips over the last two years – from driving all through Himachal, between Mumbai to Goa, Chennai to Pondicherry, Bangalore to Pollachi, Ooty to Bangalore… I’ve lost count, however, I’ve documented only a few here on my travel blog since there’s already plenty of information on many short road trips in India online.
WHY WE CHOSE TO DRIVE 700 KM
If you follow me on Instagram and Facebook, you’ll know that my latest escapade was from Kolkata (West Bengal) to Sikkim. Why did I choose to do a 2-day road trip of 700 km, a distance that’s even more than that of Mumbai to Goa?
- When I travel, I usually fly into the nearest metro city and rent a self-drive car, an option sadly not available in Tier 2 cities (like Siliguri, which borders West Bengal and Sikkim.) If rental cars were available in Tier 2 cities, the drive to Pelling, my destination in Sikkim, would have been reduced to merely 3-4 hours
- Self-drive cars are also not available in Bagdogra in West Bengal, and the place where the airport is located. If you want to skip the road trip to Sikkim, Bagdogra is where you will need to book flight tickets to.
- I’ve been using self-drive cars for dozens of trips per year and I find that it’s a great way to explore beyond the must-see sights and find the *picturesque* roads not taken. It saves me from the hassle of finding and relying on cabs/autos/buses every day, and if I do hire a cabbie on a per-day basis in my destination, they’d only take me to the must-see spots, something I wouldn’t be content with. Apart from them charging an arm and a leg, of course.
KOLKATA TO SIKKIM ROUTES
So to travel from Kolkata to Sikkim by road, you have 3 options:
- From Kolkata, take NH19 (formally known as NH2) until you get to Bardhaman. From there, take the right on to NH114A towards Pakur and Farakka. The road will merge into NH34 after Farakka. Continue on NH34 via Malda, Raiganj and finally, Siliguri. You will enter Sikkim by crossing Siliguri.
- Take NH34 directly to Siliguri via Ranaghat, Krishnapur, Behrampore, Malda, Raiganj, and Islampur.
- The third route is longer, and you would be required to enter Bihar in order to reach Sikkim. This road is the best one of all, but I didn’t take it as it would have added over 100 km to the already long journey. In addition to the longer time it would have taken, commercial vehicles need to pay tax for every state border they cross. Since I was using a rental car, that would have meant another state tax for me. If you choose this route, from Kolkata, take NH2 until Asansol, then a right towards Dumka and Purnia. Continue towards Kishanganj and Islampur to Siliguri and then to Sikkim.
MY ROAD TRIP FROM KOLKATA TO PELLING
On my onward journey, I took the first route. From Kolkata to Bardhaman, the roads are as good as you would expect National Highways to be, with plenty of eating spots along the highway. There is not much traffic until Bardhaman, and that will give you a good opportunity to cruise and get ahead of schedule.
But as soon as you take the left on NH114A, the road becomes a two-lane one with no divider in between. You’ll find on-coming traffic zig-zagging into your lane, significantly reducing your speed. You’ll find people casually sitting on the road, cattle and goats galore darting out from nowhere or blocking traffic – and it all seems perfectly normal. This goes on for the next three hundred kilometers!!
The road is smooth for the most part, until you reach Farakka. Here, there are two flyovers, both of which are have been under construction/repairs for months, and hence all surrounding roads are shut. Unfortunately, Google Maps isn’t aware of this not-so-tiny development and tells you to go ahead without a care in the world. You will need to turn around and go back a few meters and ask around for the road to Malda – and people will direct you to a mud-road through fields and rural villages.
Of course, this road will have crater-sized holes and you will constantly need to reverse for an oncoming tractor. After a grueling 2-hour detour, you will again merge onto NH34 at Malda. The roads from here to Siliguri are still under construction and are riddled with potholes. Expect bad stretches and the occasional good road for a kilometer or two in between. Your average speed will be 30 kms for the rest of the journey.
I should also mention that you will not find ANY hotels, restaurants, washrooms etc. from Bardhaman onward. We went hungry (read – snacked on chips for dinner), and slept in the car at a petrol pump, exhausted after Google directed us to shut down hotels. After driving from 1 PM to 1 AM, we had had enough and rested for a few hours until we continued to Siliguri.
Siliguri to Pelling
From Siliguri, it is a 140 km drive to Pelling but as the roads are bad, it will take a minimum of 4 hours. Drive towards Meli from Siliguri and take a sharp right to enter the state. Continue to state highways towards Pelling via Gyalshing.
We made it to Pelling at 3 PM, a journey of 26 hours, with a 5 hour stop to sleep in between (and no other breaks, because no places to stop at). Also important to mention, is that in this part of the country, the term ‘hotel’ is used for both hotels AND restaurants. So just when you think you’ve found an actual hotel, its a restaurant. Ugh!!
WHERE TO STOP ON YOUR JOURNEY FROM KOLKATA TO SIKKIM
For the first 100 km until you get to Bardhaman, you will find lots of roadside dhabas where you can stop for typical roadside meals but don’t expect any clean toilets here. Once you exit NH19, the quality of dhabas drops as they only cater to truck drivers. When you cross Malda and merge on to NH34, towards the end of your journey, that’s when you would find places you could stop at.
As I said, the journey is of 700 km which takes over 24 hours to complete and you won’t find food or toilets for over 15 hours of the journey. Stock up on snacks and keep an eye out for Reliance Petrol Pumps, which SOMETIMES have really really clean loos. Since the roads are not well maintained, I’d suggest spreading your journey out over 2 days, like we did.
Malda is the ideal place to stop for the night. There are a few hotels where you can stop at, but don’t expect anything good. It is recommended to book a place before you go, as we couldn’t find a single one that was ready to take a walk-in guest at midnight when we decided to stop. Either the doors were shut or the prices quoted were extremely high, as they knew there were no other options available to us.
Siliguri is the last town in West Bengal and is a metropolitan city, hence you will find a variety of great hotels, good food, malls, and more. The moment you cross Siliguri, Sikkim (and the hilly roads) begins. But the contrast here is stark as compared to West Bengal. Walk into the tiniest of dhabas and you can be assured of clean toilets, fresh food, and delicious tea/coffee. One of the first restaurants you will see, called Chaasum is one such place. This is where I stopped and had a great breakfast, my first proper meal after a day.
ROADTRIP FROM SIKKIM TO KOLKATA
Let’s talk about heading back! From Pelling, I travelled to Ravangla and this was the starting point for our journey from Sikkim to Kolkata. We learned from our mistakes on the journey and booked an OYO Room at Mayaban Resort on a highway in Malda for our return. I found the place to be quite creepy, but since we checked in at 11 PM and checked out the next morning at 9 AM, it was manageable. We had a good, clean bed, an okay-ish shower and a terrible meal.
On checking out and crossing Malda, we were supposed to take NH114A, which Google showed as the correct route. Again, two flyovers were under construction and there was no way to go around the second one. We wasted a good 3 hours by going back 80 km to find an alternate route and finally reached NH34. While we had anticipated reaching Kolkata at 4-5 PM, here we were, at the same time, over 200 km away, and we hadn’t even had lunch yet as there were no restaurants in sight for miles.
At around 6 PM, we got to NH34 and spotted a restaurant that not only had great washrooms, but excellent food as well – literally the only place we found that had these amenities. As the name was in Bengali, I couldn’t read what it said, but it should be easy to spot once you cross Behrampore and drive for the next 30-40 kms.
For the last 150 km of your journey back to Kolkata, GPS will guide you through narrow single-lane roads through villages and open spaces. It is better to follow the map as the main highway is riddled with potholes, traffic-choked due to an endless number of trucks, and is overall a very unpleasant stretch. Food-wise, there are 2-3 eating joints, but it is better to carry your own as these are easy to miss.
Hope this post gave you all the info you needed on driving from Kolkata to Sikkim and back. If you have any other Qs, hit me up in the comments below.
Bye!