The founding journey
20 to 24 August 20264 nights12 travellersOne private house
The journey
Not an itinerary. The shape of the thing: where you will be, and roughly when.
Thursday, from about 6 PM
The Urbania collects every traveller from their own address across Kolkata through the evening, working out a sensible loop once we know where all twelve of you live. There is no meeting point to find and no cab to book. We aim to be clear of the city by around nine.
Thursday night, on the road
Roughly 12 hours of driving, most of it while you are asleep. Reclining seats, a blanket and a reading lamp each. Two drivers who swap, so nobody is ever tired at the wheel. We stop every two to three hours at proper highway plazas with clean washrooms.
Some people sleep straight through. Some don’t, and arrive knowing three strangers rather well.
Friday, first light
We stop where the plains give up and the hills begin. Everyone gets out stiff and cold and drinks the best tea of the trip standing at the side of the road. The timing is deliberate: it puts the landslide-prone mountain stretch of NH10 in full daylight, which for us is not negotiable.
Friday morning
Three hours of climbing beside the Teesta, then the turn up towards Kalimpong. Tea gardens, pine, and fog that arrives and leaves within a minute. This is the part people photograph, and it is in the price rather than endured on the way to what was.
Friday, around midday
Lunch is waiting. Rooms are ready. After that there is nothing scheduled, on purpose, and most people find they need the whole afternoon simply to stop moving. The veranda tends to fill up by four.
Saturday and Sunday
Walk into town or don’t. There is a monastery, a handful of famous plant nurseries, a cheese-making tradition, an old bookshop, and a viewpoint that earns the walk. Your curator will offer all of it and schedule none of it. The vehicle stays with us, so a plan can change at breakfast.
The fire gets lit most evenings. That is the closest this journey comes to a fixed appointment.
Monday
Down through the hills and across the plains, and back to your own door on Monday the twenty-fourth. You will be at your desk on Tuesday, which is the entire point of a Thursday departure.
The Force Urbania is the most comfortable thing on Indian mountain roads that still fits down a Kalimpong lane. We book the whole vehicle for our group, and it stays with us the entire time.
Five seats deliberately left empty. Everyone gets space to spread out, and nobody has to share a row unless they want to.
Reclining push-back seats, a blanket and pillow each, individual reading lamps, curtains, charging points and air conditioning. Luggage rides in a separate compartment, not on your feet.
Both experienced on NH10 and the hill sections. They swap on the long plains run so that neither is ever driving tired, and the mountain stretch is always done in daylight.
Parked at the house for four days. If six people want to go into town after breakfast and the rest want to stay on the veranda, that works. No booking a cab, no negotiating a fare.
A heritage property on a ridge above Kalimpong, taken entirely for our twelve. Fireplaces, a veranda facing the range, gardens, deep sofas, and rooms with the particular light you only get at altitude.
Every photograph of the house, the vehicle and the road is of the actual journey. A few atmospheric images, like the roadside chai and the bonfire, are illustrative.
Twelve travellers across the house, in twin-sharing rooms with attached bathrooms and running hot water. Couples and friends travelling together get a room to themselves. Solo travellers are paired with someone of the same gender, and we tell you who before you arrive, never on the doorstep.
If you would rather not share at all, ask us. A single-occupancy room is sometimes possible for an additional charge, depending on how the group fills up.
All meals are included from the first roadside chai on Friday to dinner on Sunday, plus breakfast and lunch on the way home. Cooking is done at the house: local Himalayan and Bengali home food, a lot of it grown or bought nearby, served at one long table rather than a buffet.
Vegetarian, vegan, Jain, allergies, anything at all. Tell us on the form and it is simply handled. Nobody has to explain themselves at the table.
Tea and coffee run all day and are included. Alcohol is not included, but you are welcome to bring your own or pick something up in town, and there is no corkage or fuss about it. Most evenings around the fire involve a bottle that somebody carried up.
That is the complete list. If something is not on it, it is included.
Per person, all inclusive
₹22,500There is no second number.
No fuel surcharge on arrival, no entry tickets extra, no optional-but-actually-mandatory add-ons, no service charge, no tipping expectation. The figure above is the figure.
A refundable hold, not a purchase. A seat is offered, not sold. If we don’t invite you, it comes back to you in full.
Pay ₹2,899 to join the waitlist.
If we invite you, it counts towards your journey.
If we don’t, it comes back to you in full.
Only twelve places exist. We would rather leave one empty than fill it badly.
Kalimpong, 20 to 24 August 2026
We would honestly rather you read the right-hand column and decide against it than spend ₹22,500 and spend five days wishing you were somewhere else.
August in the Kalimpong hills sits at roughly 15 to 24 degrees, wet and green, with mist that comes and goes several times a day. Pack for warm days, cool evenings and rain.
If your question is not here, message us on WhatsApp and a person will answer it properly.
Yes. It covers travel from your door, the house, every meal, tea and coffee, the vehicle for the whole trip, local transport, the curator, the bonfires, tolls, driver allowances and every other cost we incur. The only things you might spend on are alcohol, personal shopping, and travel insurance if you choose to take it.
Because we curate the group rather than sell twelve tickets to whoever clicks first. The ₹2,899 tells us you are serious, which is what makes curation possible at all. If we do not invite you, you get all of it back, without conditions and without having to ask twice.
More than 30 days before departure, you get a full refund less the ₹2,899. Between 30 and 15 days, half of the total. Inside 15 days we cannot refund, because the house and vehicle are booked and paid for by then, though if we manage to fill your seat we will refund you what we recover.
If your reason is a genuine emergency, talk to us. We are twelve people, not an airline.
You get every rupee back, immediately. If we cannot form a group of twelve we will tell you at least 21 days before departure rather than run a half-empty journey.
Bank transfer or UPI, to an account in the name of the business. We send a written confirmation and a receipt for every payment. We never ask for money over a phone call and we will never ask you to pay a personal account.
No. The price is the same for everyone, which is part of why there is no negotiation and no second number. What two people travelling together do get is a room to themselves.
Roughly 12 to 14 hours each way, depending on traffic out of Kolkata and conditions on NH10. Going up, most of it happens while you are asleep. Coming back, it is a daytime and evening drive.
It is designed around that question. Two drivers who swap, so neither drives tired. The flat, well-lit plains section is the part done at night. The mountain section of NH10, which is the part that deserves respect, is always driven in full daylight. We do not run to a schedule that would require rushing either.
Tell us on the form. We will put you in a front row, which is noticeably better for motion sickness, and carry medication in the kit. Mountain roads are winding by nature, so if you know you struggle badly with them, please factor that in honestly before applying.
This is the fair question about an August departure, and we will not pretend otherwise. Late monsoon is when the hills are at their greenest and emptiest, and it is also when NH10 occasionally closes for a few hours after a slide.
What we do about it: we drive the hill section in daylight only, we build slack into both travel days rather than a tight schedule, we track road conditions daily in the week before departure, and the vehicle and curator stay with the group throughout so we can wait somewhere comfortable rather than somewhere roadside. If the route is genuinely closed we use the alternative road via Sevoke and Gorubathan. If the whole journey becomes unsafe, we cancel and refund in full.
The vehicle departs from Kolkata and the price is built around that. If you are coming from elsewhere, you are very welcome to make your own way to Kolkata and be collected from wherever you are staying. We cannot reduce the price for a shorter leg, because the seat and the vehicle cost the same either way.
Every two to three hours, at highway plazas chosen for having clean washrooms rather than for being convenient. If you need to stop sooner, you say so and we stop.
Mostly working professionals and couples from Kolkata, broadly late twenties to late forties. We build the group deliberately for a mix that will get along over five days. Before you pay the balance we tell you roughly who is coming.
Yes, and a good share of the group usually does. The whole structure, one long table, one house, one vehicle, is built so that a solo traveller is not left standing at the edge of somebody else’s holiday.
It is something we take seriously rather than a box we tick. Rooms are shared only with the same gender, and you are told who before you arrive. The curator travels with the group the entire time and is contactable at any hour. Drivers are people we have worked with and vetted, not a vehicle hired off an aggregator. The house is taken entirely for our group, so there are no other guests. If you want to speak to a woman who has travelled with us before booking, ask and we will arrange it.
This particular journey is designed for adults, and the overnight drive is genuinely hard on young children. Children above about fourteen are usually fine. Talk to us and we will give you an honest answer rather than a policy.
It is a large house with a garden, a veranda, a sunroom and several rooms with doors. Nobody is obliged to be sociable for five days. Meals are shared, everything else is optional.
Not on this one. The house is not set up for it and a 12-hour road journey each way is unfair on an animal.
Rooms are twin-sharing with attached bathrooms. Couples and friends travelling together share with each other. Solo travellers share with someone of the same gender, and you know who in advance. Single occupancy is sometimes possible for an extra charge, depending on how the group fills.
Running hot water in every bathroom. August does not need heating, though there are extra blankets and the fireplaces get used on cool evenings. The house has a generator backup, which matters in the hills.
Yes to both, with honest caveats. Jio and Airtel work well in Kalimpong town and reasonably at the house. There is wifi at the property. It is good enough for messages, calls and email, and not always good enough for a video call in heavy rain. If you need to take one important meeting, it is usually fine. If you need to work all week, this is the wrong trip.
Kalimpong is in West Bengal, so Indian nationals need no permit at all. Carry an original government photo ID, which every property in the hills is required to record. Foreign nationals need a passport and visa, and no additional permit for Kalimpong itself.
Not very. Nothing on this journey is compulsory and nothing involves a trek. There are optional walks with some uphill, and the house itself has stairs. If you can manage a flight of stairs comfortably you will be fine.
Kalimpong sits at about 1,250 metres, which is low enough that altitude sickness is very unusual. You may notice the air is thinner on a steep walk. That is all.
The curator carries a stocked first-aid kit and knows the route to the nearest hospital, which is in Kalimpong town, roughly twenty minutes from the house. Larger hospitals are in Siliguri, about three hours away. The vehicle is with us at all times, which is precisely why we do not send it away. Please tell us about any condition on the form, in confidence.
For four nights, most people do not need it. If something needs washing, the house will handle it.