Assam and Meghalaya Highlights

• Guwahati
• 55 m
• Airport to city 28 km · 1 hr
• Dinner

Arrive at Guwahati airport, where our driver will be waiting at the exit. Check in, rest, and in the afternoon drive up Nilachal Hill to Kamakhya Temple, one of the most visited Shakti temples in India. The general queue is free; a ₹501 special darshan ticket, bookable online, saves hours on busy days. From the temple car park the view over the city and river is wide at around 4 pm. We end at the Brahmaputra riverfront at Uzan Bazar or on a one-hour sunset cruise. Guwahati's light is soft and hazy in winter, good for silhouettes of boats against the water.

• Shillong
• 1,525 m
• 100 km · 3 hrs
• Breakfast, Dinner

A late breakfast and a relaxed drive up the four-lane NH6 to Shillong. We stop at the Umiam Lake viewpoint, where the reservoir spreads through pine hills, and optionally at the lakeside park for a boat ride. Arriving by lunchtime leaves the afternoon for Don Bosco Museum, a seven-storey museum of Northeast cultures with a rooftop terrace over the city, and Ward's Lake. Evening in Police Bazar or a Laitumkhrah cafe. Shillong has a strong live-music scene, and Friday and Saturday nights usually have something on.

• Sohra
• 1,484 m
• 55 km · 1.5–2 hrs
• Breakfast, Dinner

We leave after breakfast on the Sohra road, stopping at Elephant Falls and the Mawkdok Dympep valley viewpoint. By noon you are in Sohra. The afternoon covers Mawsmai Cave, Seven Sisters Falls viewpoint and the Thangkharang Park edge, where on clear days you can see the plains of Bangladesh below the escarpment. Sunset from the edge of the plateau near your resort is often the best light of the whole trip in December and January. Dinner at the resort, as Sohra's restaurants close early.

• Shillong
• 1,525 m
• 60 km · 2 hrs plus stops
• Breakfast, Dinner

Start at Nohkalikai Falls by 8 am, when the gorge is usually clear and the pool below shows its green colour. Then Arwah Cave, a longer walk through fossil-bearing limestone, and a stop at Wakaba or Dainthlen Falls depending on water flow. We drive back to Shillong in the afternoon via Laitlyngkot. The evening is free. Photographers may want to use it for a sunset from the Laitlum road, 25 km from town, which we can add at a small extra cost for the vehicle.

• Shillong
• 1,525 m
• 190 km round trip · 8–9 hrs
• Breakfast, Dinner

A long but worthwhile day. We leave at 7 am for Dawki, about 82 km and two and a half to three hours south, descending through Pynursla to the Umngot River on the Bangladesh border. In the dry months the water is clear enough to see stones on the bed from a country boat, and a 30 to 45 minute ride is usual. Then 30 km to Mawlynnong, a Khasi village known for its tidy lanes, and the nearby Riwai root bridge. The drive back to Shillong takes about three hours. Boating is usually stopped in peak monsoon.

• Kaziranga
• 70 m
• 270 km · 6.5–7 hrs
• Breakfast, Dinner

We leave at 6.30 am and stop at Umiam Lake in the early light, when mist often sits on the water. Then down to Jorabat and east on NH27 through Jagiroad to Nagaon for lunch. After Nagaon the road runs past tea gardens and along the southern boundary of Kaziranga. Arrive at your lodge near Kohora by mid-afternoon. We spend the late light on a short walk through the tea garden next to the lodge, where rows of bushes under shade trees make clean compositions against a low sun.

• Kaziranga
• 70 m
• Local · park roads
• Breakfast, Dinner

Optional elephant ride at dawn from November, at Kohora or Bagori. Then the morning jeep safari in the Central Range, followed by a quick second morning entry into the Western Range at Bagori if slots allow, or save Bagori for the afternoon. Our usual plan is Central in the morning and Eastern Range at Agaratoli in the afternoon, where pelicans, storks and winter ducks gather on the beels. Photographers should bring a 100 to 400 mm lens; rhino are often 30 to 150 metres from the track.

• Departure
• 55 m
• 215 km to airport · 5 hrs
• Breakfast

A final early jeep safari in the Western Range at Bagori from about 7.30 am, where the highest density of rhino in the park and big wild buffalo herds give the best closing images. Back to the lodge for breakfast by 10 am and depart for Guwahati by 10.30 am. With a lunch stop you reach the airport around 4 pm, so book a flight after 6 pm. If your flight is earlier, we drop the last safari or route you to Jorhat Airport, 95 km east, instead.