💎 Hidden Gem🏞️ Lake📍 Boating📍 Nature💎 Hidden Gem

Aritar Lampokhari Lake

Aritar, Sikkim, India

4.3 (0)

Overview

Sikkim's oldest natural lake, boot-shaped and pine-ringed at Aritar — the state's only boating lake, gateway to the Silk Route.

Why visit: Paddle a Himalayan lake, then climb to Mankhim's viewpoint.

Things to do

›Paddle boating
›Mankhim temple viewpoint
›Aritar Gumpa

BoatingNature Walk

Location & MapDirections

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Travel Information

Best time

Mar–Jun, Sep–Dec

Entry fee

~₹20 + boating

Est. budget

₹300–800

Duration

Half day

Nearby attractions

Within

9.9 km

💎 Hidden Gem📍 Village

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Rishyap

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Oct–Dec, Mar–MayOvernightExplore

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Lava

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Oct–May (Dec–Jan for snow chance)1–2 daysExplore

12.7 km

📍 Village

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Zuluk Old Silk Route

Zuluk, Sikkim

The hamlet on the historic Lhasa trade road whose 32 hairpin loops stack up a bare mountainside — India's most photographed zigzag.

Apr–Jun, Sep–Dec (permit)2 daysExplore

13.2 km

📍 Monastery

4.5

Ranka Lingdum Monastery

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A vast, cinematic Zurmang Kagyud monastery in forested Ranka — sweeping courtyards and gilded halls familiar from many film shoots.

Mar–Jun, Sep–Dec1–2 hrsExplore

13.9 km

📍 Garden

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Saramsa Garden

Ranipool, Sikkim

Sikkim's oldest garden (1922) at Ranipool — orchidarium lawns, a convention pavilion and picnic greens by the Rani Khola.

Mar–Jun, Sep–Dec1–2 hrsExplore

14 km

🌄 Viewpoint

4.6

Thambi View Point

Zuluk, Sikkim

The 11,200-ft balcony above Zuluk's loops — sunrise firing the whole eastern face of Kanchenjunga down the Silk Route valleys.

Apr–Jun, Sep–Dec1 hrExplore

15.4 km

📍 Museum

4.5

Namgyal Institute of Tibetology

Gangtok, Sikkim

The world-renowned centre of Tibetan studies — thangkas, ritual objects, rare manuscripts and human-bone trumpets in a Sikkimese-style hall.

Year-round1–2 hrsExplore

15.7 km

📍 Stupa

4.4

Do Drul Chorten

Gangtok, Sikkim

Sikkim's most important stupa (1945), ringed by 108 prayer wheels and gold-topped against deodars — built to subdue the valley's spirits.

Year-round1 hrExplore

15.8 km

💧 Waterfall

4.3

Banjhakri Falls

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A 70-ft falls in a landscaped energy park themed on the Banjhakri shaman legend — statues of the forest healer amid swirl pools.

Mar–Jun, Sep–Dec1–2 hrsExplore

16.4 km

📍 Cultural

4.6

MG Marg Gangtok

Gangtok, Sikkim

India's first litter-free, traffic-free promenade — Gangtok's flower-boxed boulevard of cafés, momo joints and evening crowds under fairy lights.

Mar–Jun, Sep–DecEveningExplore

16.6 km

📍 Monastery

4.3

Tsuklakhang Palace Monastery

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The Chogyal kings' royal chapel on the palace ridge — coronations, royal weddings and the Kagyed dances still happen beneath its murals.

Mar–Jun, Sep–Dec; Kagyed Cham (Dec)1 hrExplore

16.7 km

💎 Hidden Gem📍 Valley

4.6

Nathang Valley

Gnathang, Sikkim

The 'Ladakh of the East' — a 13,500-ft treeless bowl of yak pastures on the Silk Route, golden in autumn, white for five months.

May–Jun, Sep–Nov (snow Dec–Apr)OvernightExplore