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Straddling on the flank side of the ridge, Gangtok at a comfortable altitude of 5500 ft, spreads within the radious of almost 5 kilometers. This small but vibrant town provides an access to all modern facilities, delightful shopping places, good restaurants and entertainment places. Having been declared as a polythene free state—Gangtok bears a strong civic awareness and maintains a pleasantly clean public facilities. People are unfailingly courteous and helpful, traffic is busy but highly disciplined, roads are narrow but clean. Most of the restaurants and shopping places in Gangtok will be within a walking distance from your hotel unless you are you are staying on the outskirts.

MG MARG: The Mall. Centrally located , MG Marg is the exact heart of town and a main shopping area. This stretch of flat road starting from the office of Tourism Department is lined up with major showrooms, hotels, restaurants, and fancy stores on either sides . MG Marg is a strictly “Litter and spit free zone”. Evenings are most suitable time to spend in MG Marg. A leisure walk through MG Marg will give you an exact pulse of life in Gangtok. You can engage in brief shopping here as you will find plenty of curios and souvenir shops selling local handicrafts, painting, and small curio items to take back home. If you get hungry in between, no worries, MG Marg has some of the best restaurants in town. (Note: M.G Marg is closed on Tuesday)

NEW MARKET: New Market is only an extension of MG. Marg further inside. However it is not a -no traffic zone unlike MG Marg. The shopping characteristics and options are almost the same as MG Marg. There are couple of good restaurants here, Glenarie’s Buzz, Oberoi’s Barb’q, the Oriental and China Palate are worth a try. If you are looking for luxury dining then you can walk into Hotel Tashi Delek. (New Market is Closed on Tuesday)

THAADO LINE: Exactly from the traffic point in between MG Marg and New Market, you will find a flight of stairs that decends downward till Denzong Cinema. This 100 meters long staircase lined up with colorful stalls and petty shops on either side is called Thaado Line. Starting with few tea shops selling flavored teas from Sikkim and Darjeeling on the top, you will pass by couple of haircutting saloons, garment shops and a row of small road side stalls selling cheap sunglasses, mufflers, gloves, jackets and pullovers. If you are heading for higher altitudes and you need to pick some cheap woolen stuffs, you could probably try this lane.

LAL BAZAAR : The end of Thaado line in front of Denzong Cinema marks the beginning of Lal Bazaar. Lal Bazaar is a major shopping place for the local residents as well as tourists. Lal Bazaar has two individual shopping areas. One is the Old Supermarket or Sypraz Plaza. A concave building exactly opposite to Denzong Cinema is particularly a foreign goods market. You will mostly find stuffs like imported garments, shoes imported crokeries and small utility articles that are usually made in China, Thailand or Korea and comes in a pretty decent prices. The other complex is a massive five storied Kanchenjunga Shopping Complex. Originally built in 1956 and named after the first Dewan of Sikkim JS Lal, Lal

Bazaar was restructured in 2006 to its current form and the newly constructed building was named as Kanchenjunga Shopping Complex. The area in general however still retains its older name—Lal Bazaar.
Of the five stories, the basement floor is a share taxi stand (Vans/Cars) for Tadong, 5th Mile, 6th Mile and Ranipul areas as well as a car park for private vehicles who come for shopping. On the first floor is the only Vegetable Market of Gangtok.– recommended for a visit on Sunday mornings. It is a sure discovery of traditional Sikkim where you get to see endless variety of local delights from bamboo shoots, fermented soya beens and local cheese to fermented spinaches from various corners of the state that draws thousands of urbanites for weekly shopping every Sunday.

2nd /3rd and 4th Floor– here you find mostly foreign goods shop selling imported jeans, tshirts, sneakers and other fashion stuffs . Recommended a pick– great shopping in great prices. A pair of jeans would cost you anything between Rs.500 to Rs 700, Sneakers usually fall on range from Rs.800. to 1400 and tshirts about Rs.250 to Rs.400. The stuffs are highly finished and trendy and to your sweet surprise they are all tagged international brands like Levi’s , Lee, Armani, to addidas, reebok and all foreign brands you’ve heard of. There are also couple of traditional handicraft shops selling bamboo crafts, traditional musical intstruments dresses and utility articles. Tribes India –a government store selling handicrafts of various tribes of India in the first floor is worth a visit.

NH-31 A: The road that heads out of Lal Bazaar towards an over bridge lane will bring you to busy NH 31 A . This area is mostly lined up with medium and budget range hotels, few good restaurants, Travel Agents and couple of banks.

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