We stayed three nights in mid-September 2019 at the Lemon Tree Hotel in Gangtok, Sikkim ($121/night including taxes and breakfast). We drove from West Bengal and stopped at the State border to be issued, free of charge, the mandatory Inner Line Permit required for our visit.

Lemon Tree is a well-known brand with hotels all over the country. In our experience, it delivers solid 2.5 to 3.5 star stays. We’ve liked some Lemon Tree properties more than others, [Aurangabad, Maharashtra was fabulous; Bangalore, Karnataka wasn’t.] We usually would rather take our chances with a quirky unknown property with favorable word-of-mouth but there are dependable features that sometimes draw us to the chains like a good bed, hot water or exceptional online reviews about a certain property feature. We like mixing it up.

The Gangtok location falls in the middle of the Lemon Tree pack for us. If going back, we would probably choose a different property — cough, the Elgin. But the biggest selling point was our room had a ridiculously gorgeous view and balcony. Common area touches are chilly — we call it “corporate chilly” — they just aren’t going to try any harder at this price point.