Grand Northeast

• Balipara
• 80 m
• 215 km · 5 hrs
• Dinner

Your driver meets you at Guwahati Airport and heads out along the north bank of the Brahmaputra through Mangaldoi to Balipara, near Tezpur, about 5 hours. Balipara sits at the foot of the Arunachal hills among tea gardens, and in the luxury tier you stay at Wild Mahseer, restored planters' bungalows in old gardens. In the late afternoon, walk the tea rows with a camera; the low light across the bushes and shade trees is lovely. This is also the night before your ILP check at Bhalukpong, 35 km away, so keep printouts and IDs ready.

• Dirang
• 1,620 m
• 180 km · 6.5 hrs
• Breakfast, Dinner

Leave at 7.30 am. At Bhalukpong your ILP or PAP is checked, then the road climbs along the green Kameng river, with good photographs from the bends below Tipi. Continue through Tenga and Rupa to Bomdila at 2,415 m for lunch and its monastery. From Bomdila it is 42 km down to Dirang at about 1,620 m. Check in and walk up to the old stone Dirang Dzong in evening light for pictures of its houses and the river valley. Sleeping in Dirang before Tawang gives your body a night at middle height.

• Tawang
• 2,670 m
• 135 km · 5 hrs
• Breakfast, Dinner

Leave at 7 am to reach Sela before the cloud. In fair weather we take the old road over Sela Pass at about 4,170 m for the lake, often frozen from December to March and deep blue in November and April; the Sela Tunnel, open since March 2024, is the fall-back in bad weather. Stop at the Jaswantgarh war memorial and at Jang for the Nuranang falls, about 100 m high. Reach Tawang at about 2,670 m in the early afternoon and rest. Your driver files the Bum La permit at the DC office today.

• Tawang
• 2,670 m
• 25 km · local
• Breakfast, Dinner

No long drive. Be at Tawang Monastery, founded in 1681 and the largest in India, for morning prayers, when monks cross the courtyard in low sun. Ask before photographing monks and never use flash indoors. The museum holds old thangkas and manuscripts. Later, visit Urgelling, the birthplace of the sixth Dalai Lama, the Gyangong Ani Gompa nunnery and the handmade paper unit in town. At dusk, photograph the monastery lit against the hills from the road below the giant Buddha statue, then watch the light and sound show at the Tawang War Memorial.

• Tawang
• 2,670 m
• 80 km · 6–7 hrs round trip
• Breakfast, Dinner

Leave at 7 am in a local Tawang taxi, the only vehicles allowed on this road. Indian citizens continue to Bum La at 4,600 m on the India–China border, 37 km from Tawang, where photography at the post is restricted and Army instructions must be followed. Madhuri Lake (Sangetsar Tso), at about 3,700 m, is the photographic prize: dead tree trunks standing in still water under bare ridges, best on calm mornings. Bum La runs on Army permission day by day and often closes after snow from December to March. Foreign guests are not allowed on this road; we plan a Tawang town day instead.

• Dirang
• 1,620 m
• 135 km · 5 hrs
• Breakfast, Dinner

Leave Tawang after breakfast. If the morning is clear, take the pass road again for Sela Lake in a different light; otherwise the tunnel. Reach Dirang by early afternoon. In the late afternoon, drive about 10 km to Sangti valley, a flat river valley of willows and stone walls, where black-necked cranes spend the winter from about November to February; bring a long lens and keep well back from the birds. End the day at the Dirang hot spring. This night in Dirang splits the descent so tomorrow is a fair drive, not a 10-hour push.

• Balipara
• 80 m
• 165 km · 5.5 hrs
• Breakfast, Dinner

Leave at 8 am, climb over Bomdila for tea, and descend to Bhalukpong for lunch by the Kameng. Reach Balipara in the afternoon and rest. The heritage gardens at Wild Mahseer are full of birds in winter, and the tea estate roads nearby are good for a quiet walk. Use the evening to back up your photographs and charge batteries; the Wi-Fi here is much better than in the hills. Tomorrow is the longest drive of the trip, so dinner is early. If you prefer, we can use a Tezpur hotel tonight in the standard tier.

• Ziro (Hapoli)
• 1,690 m
• 290 km · 8 hrs
• Breakfast, Dinner

Leave at 6.30 am and drive east along the north-bank highway through Gohpur, then north into Arunachal at Banderdewa, where your permit is checked again. Lunch in Itanagar. From Itanagar, the road to Ziro climbs 115 km through Yazali and Potin, about 4 hours, to the flat Ziro plateau at about 1,690 m. This is the longest day, and there is no shorter way: there is no road across the hills between the Kameng valley and Ziro. Check in at Hapoli in the early evening. Dinner of smoked pork with bamboo shoot and rice.

• Ziro (Hapoli)
• 1,690 m
• 35 km · local
• Breakfast, Dinner

No long drive. With a local guide, walk through Hong, one of the largest Apatani villages, with tight rows of stilt houses and lapang platforms used for meetings and rituals. Some older women still wear the facial tattoos and nose plugs the community gave up in the 1970s; always ask before photographing them, and accept a refusal. In the afternoon, visit Siiro and Hari, the managed pine and bamboo groves, and the viewpoint over the rice fields, where fish are raised in the paddy water. The best light over the valley is early morning and late afternoon.

• Majuli
• 85 m
• 190 km · 6.5 hrs
• Breakfast, Dinner

Leave at 7.30 am and drop down through Yachuli and Kimin to the Assam plains near North Lakhimpur, then turn south to Majuli, the Brahmaputra river island, which is reached by road from this northern side. The drive passes rice fields, Mising stilt villages and wide sandbanks. Check in to a bamboo cottage by mid-afternoon. At dusk, go to Auniati or Kamalabari satra for the evening nam-prasanga, the Vaishnavite prayer with cymbals and drums; photography rules vary by satra, so ask first. Monsoon floods can close the island's roads, which is why this trip avoids June to September.

• Kaziranga
• 70 m
• 110 km · 2.5 hrs, plus 1 hr ferry
• Breakfast, Dinner

Start early at Samaguri satra, where masks for the bhaona dance-dramas are shaped from bamboo, cloth and clay, and at a Mising village where women weave on backstrap and frame looms. Then take the late-morning ferry from Kamalabari to Nimati Ghat, about an hour across the Brahmaputra, with your car on the vehicle ferry. Ferry timings change with the river level and services stop when the water rises, so check current status before you travel. From Nimati, drive about 2.5 hours west to Kaziranga. Check in by late afternoon.

• Kaziranga
• 70 m
• 50 km · local
• Breakfast, Dinner

No long drive. Elephant rides run only in the Central (Kohora) and Western (Bagori) ranges, in one-hour batches between about 5.30 and 7.30 am; the mist over the grass at dawn makes this the best photographic ride. After breakfast, a jeep safari in the Central range, then an afternoon jeep safari in the Western range, with its wide beels, water birds and a high density of one-horned rhinos. Use a 300–600 mm lens and a beanbag on the jeep rail. Park entry is ₹100 per Indian adult and ₹650 per foreign adult.

• Shillong
• 1,525 m
• 250 km · 6.5 hrs
• Breakfast, Dinner

Leave Kaziranga at 8 am and drive west on NH-27 through Nagaon to Jorabat, then climb NH-6 into the Khasi Hills. Lunch on the highway. In the luxury tier you stay at Ri Kynjai, a resort of Khasi-style cottages above Umiam Lake, 15 km before Shillong; otherwise, a hotel in Shillong at about 1,525 m. Meghalaya requires hotels to register every guest on the state tourism app, so keep IDs handy at check-in. Evening at leisure, or a walk around Police Bazaar or Laitumkhrah's cafes if you stay in town.

• Sohra
• 1,484 m
• 90 km · 3 hrs with stops
• Breakfast, Dinner

Leave at 4.45 am for Laitlum Canyons, where the ridge drops into deep, forested gorges and first light slides across the valleys. Back for breakfast, then drive about 55 km south to Sohra (Cherrapunji), stopping at the Mawkdok Dympep viewpoint. In the afternoon, photograph Nohkalikai Falls, a 340 m plunge that is fullest after the monsoon and thin by February, then walk through the lit Mawsmai Cave. End the trip at the Seven Sisters falls viewpoint at sunset, when the cliffs turn orange above the Bangladesh plains.

• Departure
• 55 m
• 155 km · 4.5 hrs
• Breakfast

A last early walk in Sohra if the morning is clear, then drive back through Shillong and down NH-6 to Guwahati Airport, about 4.5 hours. We suggest a flight after 3 pm. If you want one more night, a Brahmaputra sunset cruise and a room in Guwahati make a gentle end, or stay on in Sohra for the Nongriat double-decker root bridge walk with a registered guide. Our driver takes you to the terminal door, and we stay on WhatsApp until you board.