📍 Village📍 Scenic Drive🪂 Adventure💎 Hidden Gem

Zuluk Old Silk Route

Zuluk, Sikkim, India

4.6 (0)

Overview

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

Why visit: Drive the loops, sleep in homestays, watch dawn from Thambi.

Things to do

›32-hairpin zigzag view
›Homestay thukpa nights
›Winter snow drives

Scenic DriveHomestayPhotography

Location & MapDirections

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Travel Information

Best time

Apr–Jun, Sep–Dec (permit)

Entry fee

Protected Area Permit

Est. budget

₹2,000–4,000

Duration

2 days

Nearby attractions

Within

1.4 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

4.3 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

11.3 km

📍 Monastery

4.5

Ranka Lingdum Monastery

Gangtok, Sikkim

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

11.8 km

💎 Hidden Gem🏞️ Lake

4.4

Kupup Elephant Lake

Gangtok, Sikkim

Bitan Cho — an elephant-shaped sacred lake at 13,000 ft on the Old Silk Route, beside the world's highest golf course at Kupup.

May–Oct (permit)En route stopExplore

12.7 km

💎 Hidden Gem🏞️ Lake

4.3

Aritar Lampokhari Lake

Aritar, Sikkim

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

Mar–Jun, Sep–DecHalf dayExplore

13.6 km

🏞️ Lake

4.6

A sacred glacial bowl at 3,753 m on the old Nathula road — mirror-still between snow slopes, ringed by prayer flags and yak bells, frozen solid in winter and rimmed with primulas in June. Sikkim's beloved high-altitude day trip from Gangtok.

Mar–MayFull dayExplore

14.2 km

📍 Memorial

4.5

Baba Harbhajan Singh Mandir

Gangtok, Sikkim

The shrine of the 'Hero of Nathula' — a soldier believed to guard the border beyond death, his boots polished and bed made daily by the army.

May–Oct (permit route)En route stopExplore

15.6 km

📍 Snow

4.5

Nathula Pass

Sikkim

The historic Silk Route gate to Tibet at 4,310 m — Indian and Chinese posts face each other across a saddle of snow and wind, reached past Tsomgo Lake and Baba Mandir on one of the world's highest motorable border roads.

May–OctFull dayExplore

18.1 km