Chiabari: The Tea Retreat - Locations

High up in the Eastern Himalayas, nestled next to the Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain peak in the world, Darjeeling is about more than a brand of tea or a holiday in a hill town: it's an experience best savoured when the tea and holiday come together – in a Chiabari Tea Retreat.

This unique region, located at the northern tip of the state of West Bengal in India, is famous throughout the world for the teas produced in the 80 odd gardens here. Some 5000 feet above the sea level, the landscape turns magical. The pure air, the crisp breeze, the soft, misting rain all come together in a wonderland where the tea grows with a finer flavour than anywhere else in the world.

Many of our Chamong Group gardens are already 100% bio-organic in their cultivation methods; many of them are heritage retreats.

Tumsong, the first of the Chiabari Tea Retreats to be open to the public, started out as a tea garden back in 1867 when J. A. Wernicke, the German owner the nearby Lingia estate (now a part of the Chamong Group) planted the estate around a temple to Tamsa Devi, a local deity. The temple stands on a steep slope that rises sharply from 2700 ft to 5500 ft and offers fantastic views of the majestic Kanchenjunga and the Golden Valley of Darjeeling. The tea plants here grow very slowly and flavour the entire estate with their aroma. The locals believe that the goddess Tamsa presides over this serene landscape and in fact, the locals refer to Tumsong as the Garden of Happy Hearts. Come find out why.

Other Chiabari – literally, "tea house" – Retreats on the cards are:

• Pussimbing – entirely bio-organic and an herbalist's delight
• Lingia – a heritage garden and one of the oldest in the region
• Chamong – of our trademark tea fame
• Marybong – the highest tea garden in the area and a photographer's dream