Rock Garden and Ganga Maya Park, Darjeeling

The Rock Garden is a terraced picnic garden around the Chunnu Summer Falls, with Ganga Maya Park nearby. It is one of the more scenic day trips from Darjeeling.

The Rock Garden, also known as Barbotey Rock Garden, is about 10 km from Darjeeling on a side road that turns off Hill Cart Road before Ghum and descends steeply into the valley. Wikipedia says the tourism department of the Gorkha Hill Council built it as a terraced picnic area around a natural waterfall, the Chunnu Summer Falls, with flower gardens and sitting areas on several levels, a small lake, and tea and snack stalls.

It was one of the attractions created after the Darjeeling Gorkha Autonomous Hill Council was formed in 1988, to revive tourism after the unrest of the 1980s. Ganga Maya Park lies about 3 km further down the road, with a mountain stream, gazebos, flowering shrubs, boating and performances of Gorkha folk dance.

The drive takes about 30 minutes and the road is steep, so a taxi with an experienced driver is recommended; a guide site notes that return transport can be hard to arrange. The same site lists Rs 20 per person for each park, Rs 50 per person for 15 minutes of boating at Ganga Maya, and hours of about 10 am to 4 pm, but marks the fares as updated in March 2022. No fees are given on the district website.