After four decades rooted in southern India, CGH Earth is venturing into new territory with its first property in the Eastern Himalayas. The Singell Tea Estate in Kurseong, West Bengal, marks the hospitality group’s debut beyond its traditional footprint, with a second property in Kalimpong also in the pipeline.
Set within a working tea estate established in 1871, the property offers eleven rooms across a restored heritage bungalow and a contemporary wing. Plantation walks, tea factory tours, village trails, riverside picnics, and storytelling sessions shape the guest experience, alongside some of India’s finest Himalayan birdwatching, with species such as rufous-necked hornbills and broadbills among the resident wildlife.
The kitchen draws deeply from the hills, using seasonal and indigenous ingredients including fermented gundruk, Himalayan nettles, and buckwheat, prepared through traditional methods of foraging, fermentation, and slow cooking. The result is honest, place-specific food that reflects the rhythms of life in the Darjeeling highlands.
For CGH Earth, the expansion is less a departure than an extension of its core philosophy: hospitality that leaves a destination richer than it found it, rooted in conservation, community, and cultural authenticity. Kalimpong, with its colonial heritage and Himalayan vistas, will be the next expression of that vision.
