A travel agency built
at the gate itself.
Jaigaon, Alipurduar, West Bengal. Five people, four languages, and eleven years of walking travellers across the Indo-Bhutan border.
Bhutan begins at a gate. We work at that gate.
Ayansh Holidays was started in 2015 by Rajesh Sha, at the Indo-Bhutan border in Jaigaon. Not in a city office selling a country from a distance — at the crossing itself, where the paperwork happens and the road into Bhutan starts.
That accident of geography turned out to be the whole business. A traveller flying into Bagdogra is five hours from the border and eleven from Thimphu. Someone has to meet them, get the permit filed, know which queue moves and which does not, and put them in the right vehicle. Being here means we do all of that in person.
For eleven years almost every booking has come by referral — one family telling another. This website is the first time we have asked anyone we have not already met.
An address you can walk into.
Indo-Bhutan Border, Jaigaon, Alipurduar, West Bengal 736182. Open on working days. If you are in Jaigaon, come in and ask — that is how most of our first customers started.
A physical office at the border is not a marketing line. It is the difference between a business that can be found and a phone number that can stop answering.
Five people, four languages.
Hindi, Bengali, English and Nepali. Enough that nobody has to explain their trip in a language they are uncomfortable in — which matters more than it sounds when something needs sorting out at ten at night in Punakha.
Being a local business on both sides of the gate means a wide network of contacts across Bhutan and North Bengal. When a hotel, a vehicle or a road creates a problem, a backup already exists rather than being improvised.
Rajesh Sha
Rajesh started Ayansh Holidays in 2015 at the Indo-Bhutan border in Jaigaon, and has run every trip from there since. For eleven years the business grew almost entirely on referral — one family telling the next.
He is at the office on working days, and travellers are welcome to walk in and ask before booking anything. If something needs sorting out mid-trip, his is usually the phone that rings.
Three things, and none of them are slogans.
- Permits prepared and handed over in person at Jaigaon — not emailed as a PDF.
- We collect you from wherever you arrive in North Bengal, and bring you back there.
- One quoted price. Hotels named before payment. Nothing added at the end.
We start where you land, not at the border.
An operator based in Thimphu can meet you in Thimphu. We are at the gate, which means we can collect you from wherever you arrive in North Bengal and take you the whole way — and bring you back.
The Dooars, on the drive up from Bagdogra.
- Bagdogra Airport
- New Jalpaiguri
- Hasimara
- Siliguri
- Alipurduar
- Cooch Behar
- Jaigaon
Hasimara is the nearest railway station, about an hour from Jaigaon. We can also arrange flight and train tickets if you cannot source them.
Three things worth reading first.
The permit rules catch people out, the cost of a trip is rarely stated honestly, and the shape of a six-day itinerary explains why we recommend the length we do.
- The Bhutan permit for Indians — which documents work, and why Aadhaar does not
- What a Bhutan trip actually costs — line by line, including the SDF
- The 5 nights 6 days itinerary — day by day, with real drive times
Come and find us, or just call.
The office is at the border gate in Jaigaon. The phone is answered, usually within the hour.