Glenburn Tea Estate
An eight-room lodge on a working tea estate above the Rungeet River.
- Neighbourhood
- Rungeet River valley, near Darjeeling
- Status
- Open
Why we recommend it
Glenburn is one of the few places where a traveller can stay inside a functioning Darjeeling tea garden rather than visit one for an afternoon. The estate still produces tea, and guests are shown the whole process, from the slopes to the factory to the tasting table. With only eight rooms, it runs more like a private house party than a hotel.
The estate has been in the hands of the Kolkata-based Prakash family for several generations; its development into a place to stay was led by Husna-Tara Prakash. Locally the garden is still known as Kimble, after its first manager, Kimble Murray. The family’s Glenburn Welfare Trust, set up in 2005, supports education and health in the surrounding community.
It suits walkers, tea enthusiasts and travellers who want quiet and landscape more than a town. Those who prefer to be in Darjeeling itself should look at Windamere Hotel, the heritage hotel on Observatory Hill.
Rooms & Suites
The eight rooms are divided equally between two bungalows linked by a stone staircase. The Burra Bungalow is the original planters’ house, restored in 2001, with four individually themed rooms, a main verandah, a sitting room with fireplace and library, and a dining room. The Water Lily Bungalow, added in 2008, has four suites on two levels, furnished with antiques and free-standing bathtubs, each with a private balcony or bay window.
The rooms are named rather than numbered: the Kanchenjunga, Planters’, Rose, Camellia, Rangeet, Rung Dung and Singalila suites, and the Simbong Butterfly Room. Down in the valley, the Glenburn Lodge and campsite stand beside the River Rung Dung.
Dining
There is no restaurant in the usual sense. Meals are served to house guests and draw on Indian, Oriental and Western cooking, with candlelit dinners in the Burra Bungalow’s dining room. Cookery classes are offered, and tea, naturally, is the estate’s own.
Wellness & Spa
Glenburn has no formal spa, but massage and beauty treatments are available. Most of the activity is outdoors: guided walks through the tea and the forest, a hike down to the River Rung Dung, a walk to the suspension bridge that crosses the Rungeet to Manjitar in Sikkim, fishing, and longer hikes between the estate and Darjeeling town.
Location
The estate lies in the Rungeet valley in Darjeeling district, West Bengal, at an altitude of roughly 300 to 900 metres, with the Rangeet and Rung Dung rivers running through it. Bagdogra Airport and New Jalpaiguri station are each about 75 kilometres away, a drive of around three hours. Day trips are arranged to Darjeeling town and to Kalimpong; in Darjeeling, the mountain railway is the obvious excursion, covered in OKYTO’s guide to riding the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. More on the area is on the Darjeeling destination page.
- Website
- Official website