Northeast India: Shillong, Cherrapunji, Kaziranga and Majuli

1. Day 1: Arrive at Guwahati, up to Shillong

   Guwahati airport (GAU) to Umiam Lake, then Shillong

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Dinner
   • Stay in Shillong
   Day 1 details

   Your See Sight Tours guide meets you at Guwahati's Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport (GAU), with flights from Delhi, Kolkata and other Indian cities. We drive straight up into the Khasi Hills, about 100 km and three hours on a good highway, climbing from the Brahmaputra plain to Shillong at about 1,500 m. Halfway we stop at Umiam Lake, a reservoir ringed by pine hills, for tea and the view. Shillong is Meghalaya's capital, a hill town of churches, pines and steep lanes, and its cooler air is a relief after the plains. After check-in your guide walks the group round Ward's Lake, a garden lake from the British period in the centre of town, and through Police Bazaar, the busy main square. Dinner is a welcome meal of Khasi dishes, with a vegetarian version on request, while your guide explains the week ahead, including the choice you make for the root bridge day.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Guwahati airport (GAU)
   • Umiam Lake stop
   • Walk round Ward's Lake and Police Bazaar
   • Welcome dinner of Khasi dishes

   Free time: Time to rest at the hotel before the evening walk

   Activity: Plan to land at Guwahati by about noon so we reach Shillong in daylight; later arrivals are met and join at dinner.

   

2. Day 2: Laitlum, Khasi lunch, on to Cherrapunji

   Shillong to Laitlum, back to Shillong, then Sohra (Cherrapunji) and Nohkalikai Falls

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Sohra (Cherrapunji)
   Day 2 details

   We leave Shillong at about 8 am for Laitlum, about 25 km and 45 minutes away, where the plateau ends in a sheer drop into deep, forested canyons. Morning is the time to come, before cloud fills the valleys. We walk along the rim for about an hour on grassy paths, with villages on the valley floor far below. Back in Shillong, lunch is at a Khasi eatery: jadoh, red rice cooked with pork, dohneiiong, pork with black sesame, and tungrymbai, fermented soybean, for those who want to try it, with vegetarian dishes too. In the early afternoon we drive about 55 km and an hour and a half south to Sohra, better known as Cherrapunji, stopping at the Mawkdok Dympep viewpoint over a deep valley. In the late light we reach Nohkalikai Falls, where a single stream drops about 340 m into a green pool. Dinner is at the hotel.

   Included

   • Laitlum canyons and a rim walk
   • Khasi lunch in Shillong
   • Mawkdok Dympep viewpoint
   • Nohkalikai Falls viewpoint
   • Dinner in Sohra

   Easier option: Stay at the first Laitlum viewpoint, a few minutes from the vehicle, rather than walk the rim.

   More active option: Walk part of the way down the steep path below the Laitlum viewpoint with your guide, about 45 minutes down and back.

   Free time: Early evening free in Sohra

   Activity: Three drives of about an hour each. From January to April Nohkalikai carries much less water than after the monsoon.

3. Day 3: The living root bridges, or an easy plateau day

   Sohra to Tyrna and Nongriat and back, or Sohra plateau viewpoints

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Sohra (Cherrapunji)
   Day 3 details

   Today the group splits by choice. Walkers leave at about 8 am for Tyrna village, 20 minutes away, with your guide and a local Khasi guide. From there about 3,500 steep stone steps lead down through forest and over two steel suspension bridges to Nongriat, where the double-decker bridge spans a stream: two tiers grown over generations from the roots of rubber fig trees. The steps are often wet and the gorge is warm and humid even in winter, so we go slowly, with a long rest and a simple lunch in the village before the climb back, about two to two and a half hours up. Allow five to six hours in all. Everyone else spends an easy day on the plateau with the vehicle: Mawsmai Cave, the Seven Sisters Falls viewpoint and Thangkharang Park, which looks straight down over the plains of Bangladesh, with lunch in Sohra. The groups meet for dinner.

   Included

   • Either the double-decker living root bridge trek at Nongriat with a local Khasi guide, village fee and lunch in Nongriat
   • Or Mawsmai Cave, the Seven Sisters Falls viewpoint, Thangkharang Park and lunch in Sohra
   • Dinner in Sohra

   Optional experiences

   • From Nongriat, the walk on to Rainbow Falls, about another 1 to 1.5 hours each way, for strong walkers who start early

   Easier option: The plateau day: Mawsmai Cave (a short lit passage you can skip), the Seven Sisters Falls viewpoint and Thangkharang Park, with short walks only and a free afternoon.

   More active option: The double-decker root bridge at Nongriat: about 3,500 steps down and back up, 5 to 6 hours with rests, in humid heat.

   Free time: Afternoon free for the plateau group; the trekkers rest from late afternoon

   Activity: Choose the trek only if you can climb stairs for two hours with rests; there is no vehicle access to Nongriat and no way out except the steps. Wear shoes with grip and carry water. Everyone sees a living root bridge at Riwai tomorrow.

   

4. Day 4: Mawlynnong and the Riwai root bridge

   Sohra to Mawlynnong and Riwai, then Shillong

   • Drive about 5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Shillong
   Day 4 details

   This day runs about five hours on the road, an hour over our usual cap, because Mawlynnong sits on the southern edge of the plateau near the Bangladesh border, south and east of both Sohra and Shillong, a detour off the road between them with no shorter way to reach it; we break it in the middle with about three hours on foot. We leave Sohra at about 8:30 am and drive about two to three hours east to Mawlynnong, a Khasi village known for its clean, flower-lined lanes, where we walk with a local guide and have lunch in the village. Nearby at Riwai, a short walk down steps leads to a single living root bridge over a stream, so the whole group sees one, trekkers or not. In the afternoon we drive about two to three hours back up to Shillong and arrive by about 5 pm. The evening is free, with dinner on your own around Police Bazaar.

   Included

   • Guided walk in Mawlynnong village
   • Lunch in Mawlynnong
   • The Riwai living root bridge

   Easier option: See the Riwai bridge from the top of the steps and wait in the village.

   Free time: Evening free in Shillong, with dinner on your own

   Activity: Two drives of about 2 to 3 hours on winding hill roads, with about three hours on foot between them. If you get car sick, sit at the front and tell your guide.

5. Day 5: Down to the Brahmaputra plain and Kaziranga

   Shillong to Jorabat and Nagaon, then Kaziranga (Kohora)

   • Drive about 6.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Kaziranga
   Day 5 details

   This is the longest road of the trip, about 265 km and six to six and a half hours, over our four-hour cap because there is no shorter road from the Khasi Hills to Kaziranga and no useful flight; we break it twice. We leave Shillong at about 8 am and drop back past Umiam Lake to Jorabat on the edge of Guwahati, then turn east across the Assam plain, with a tea stop on the way. Lunch is a sit-down Assamese thali near Nagaon: rice, dal, fish curry, greens and a sour tenga, with vegetarian plates as well. The last stretch follows the national highway along the southern edge of Kaziranga, with tea gardens on one side and the park's grassland on the other, where rhinos and deer are sometimes seen from the road. We reach our lodge near Kohora by about 4 pm, with time to settle in before dinner and a briefing on the safaris.

   Included

   • Tea stop on the road
   • Assamese thali lunch near Nagaon
   • Dinner at the lodge

   Free time: Late afternoon free at the lodge

   Activity: About 6 to 6.5 hours on good highways with two long stops. The road is busy with trucks near Guwahati and Nagaon; your guide may vary the stop times with traffic.

   

6. Day 6: Kaziranga: the Central and Western ranges

   Kohora to the Central range, then the Western range at Bagori

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Kaziranga
   Day 6 details

   Kaziranga National Park, a World Heritage Site since 1985, protects grassland, swamp and forest on the south bank of the Brahmaputra and holds about two-thirds of the world's greater one-horned rhinos, along with wild water buffalo, swamp deer, wild elephants and a few tigers that are rarely seen. We take the first morning jeep safari into the Central range from the Kohora gate, when the light is soft and the animals are out on the grassland, in open jeeps shared only by our group, no more than four guests to a jeep, with the forest guard the park requires. Back at the lodge for lunch and a rest through the midday heat. In the early afternoon we drive about 15 km west to Bagori for a second safari in the Western range, where the short grass and pools usually give close views of rhinos and buffalo. Dinner at the lodge.

   Included

   • Morning jeep safari in the Central (Kohora) range
   • Lunch at the lodge
   • Afternoon jeep safari in the Western (Bagori) range
   • Dinner at the lodge

   Easier option: Skip the afternoon safari and stay at the lodge.

   Free time: Midday free at the lodge between safaris

   Activity: Each safari is about 2 to 3 hours seated on dusty tracks; bring a scarf, a hat and binoculars. Ranges are allotted by the forest department and may be swapped between days. Elephant-back rides are offered in the park; we do not include or arrange them.

7. Day 7: Kaziranga's eastern wetlands and a tea garden

   Kohora to the Eastern range at Agaratoli, then a tea garden near Kohora

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Kaziranga
   Day 7 details

   A third safari, this time in the Eastern range from the Agaratoli gate, about 20 km east. This side of the park has more water: beels, the shallow lakes left by the floods, where in winter you see pelicans, storks, ducks and other birds along with rhinos and buffalo at the edges. We go in the first morning slot, when the birds are most active, and are back for lunch at the lodge. In the afternoon we walk through one of the tea gardens that border the park with a local guide, among shade trees and rows of bushes, hearing how Assam's strong, malty tea is grown, then sit down to a tasting. Whether we see plucking or the factory at work depends on the month. Late afternoon is free: a rest, a walk to a nearby village, or a drink on the lodge verandah. Dinner is at the lodge.

   Included

   • Morning jeep safari in the Eastern (Agaratoli) range
   • Lunch at the lodge
   • Tea garden walk and tasting (plucking and factory work depend on the month)
   • Dinner at the lodge

   Free time: Late afternoon free at the lodge

   Activity: Tea is plucked roughly March to November; from December to February the bushes are pruned and factories may be idle, so the visit focuses on the garden and the tasting.

8. Day 8: Across the Brahmaputra to Majuli

   Kaziranga to Nimati Ghat near Jorhat, ferry to Majuli, then Kamalabari and Samaguri

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Majuli
   Day 8 details

   After breakfast we drive about 100 km and two and a half hours east along the plain to Nimati Ghat, near Jorhat, where the state ferry crosses the Brahmaputra to Majuli in about an hour to an hour and a half, carrying people, motorbikes and cars. Majuli is a large, low river island and the centre of Assam's neo-Vaishnavite satras, monasteries in the tradition of the 15th and 16th century saint Srimanta Sankardeva. After lunch on the island we visit Uttar Kamalabari satra, where the monks keep the dance, music and drama of the tradition, and then Samaguri satra, where a family of mask makers builds large masks of bamboo, clay and cloth for the bhaona plays, and shows how they are made. Late afternoon we walk down to the riverbank for the sunset over the water. Dinner and the night are in a simple stay on the island. Sailing times are confirmed at booking; if the ferry is suspended, we keep the group in a hotel on the Jorhat side and visit the satras on a revised day.

   Included

   • Ferry from Nimati Ghat to Majuli
   • Lunch on Majuli
   • Uttar Kamalabari satra
   • Samaguri satra and its mask makers
   • Sunset on the Brahmaputra
   • Dinner on Majuli

   Free time: Late afternoon free by the river

   Activity: Ferry times vary with the river; low water or morning fog can delay sailings, and we adjust the day around them. If the ferry is suspended, we stay on the Jorhat side and see the satras on a revised day. Majuli's rooms are simple, with private bathrooms.

9. Day 9: Satra prayers, back to Jorhat

   Majuli to a satra and a Mising village, ferry to Nimati Ghat, then Jorhat Airport (JRH)

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   Day 9 details

   An early start, if you like, for the morning prayers at one of Majuli's larger satras, with chanting, cymbals and drums in the prayer hall; your guide explains how a satra's monks and lay families live together. After breakfast we walk through a village of the Mising people, who build their houses on stilts against the floods and weave on looms under them. Late morning we take the ferry back across the Brahmaputra to Nimati Ghat, then drive about 20 km to Jorhat for lunch and on to Jorhat Airport (JRH), arriving by about 2:30 pm. Book a flight leaving after about 4 pm, or ask us to add a night in Jorhat. If you want to see more of India, we can quote a connection to Darjeeling and Sikkim or to Delhi for the Golden Triangle.

   Included

   • Morning prayers at a Majuli satra
   • Walk in a Mising village
   • Ferry from Majuli to Nimati Ghat
   • Lunch in Jorhat
   • Drop-off at Jorhat Airport (JRH)

   Activity: Book a flight out of Jorhat after about 4 pm; the ferry depends on the river, so leave a margin.

Wildlife and weather: November to April is the dry season and the only time Kaziranga is open to visitors; the park closes for the monsoon, broadly May to October, as the Brahmaputra floods the grasslands. November and December are clear and mild, with fresh green after the rains and still-full waterfalls. From January the grass is burned in patches, which makes rhinos and swamp deer easier to see, and winter brings migratory birds to the wetlands, but Meghalaya's waterfalls thin out and morning fog on the Brahmaputra can delay the Majuli ferry; if it is suspended we keep the group on the Jorhat side and see the satras on a revised day. March and April are hot and humid, with the first pre-monsoon storms.

• Shillong1 night
• Sohra (Cherrapunji)2 nights
• Shillong1 night
• Kaziranga3 nights
• Majuli1 night