The Queen of Hills — the British Raj hill station at 2,000 metres where the world's finest first-flush tea grows on fog-wrapped terraces, the Himalayan Railway toy train loops through cloud, and Kangchenjunga dominates the northern horizon
Darjeeling is India's most celebrated hill station — a colonial-era town at 2,042 metres in the Himalayan foothills of West Bengal, famed for producing the tea that defined an entire global category. Darjeeling tea — grown at high altitude (1,800–2,100 m) in cool, misty conditions — is sold at auction at prices that rival Champagne; the first flush (March–April first harvest) commands the highest prices. Over 80 working tea gardens (Happy Valley, Makaibari, Goomtee, Castleton) ring the town and accept visitors. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway — a 2-foot narrow-gauge steam railway snaking 88…
The Darjeeling area was part of the Kingdom of Sikkim before the British East India Company obtained it as a health sanatorium site from the Sikkimese Chogyal in 1835, after a treaty in which British political officer John Grant pressured the Chogyal to cede the territory. The British built the hill station rapidly — by 1857, Darjeeling had a European population, military sanatorium, roads, and the characteristic bungalow-and-church architectural style of British Indian hill stations. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway was constructed between 1879 and 1881 by British engineer Franklin Prestage…