Northeast festival tours

The Ziro Festival of Music is usually held over four days in the last week of September. The 2026 edition was held from 24 to 27 September in the Ziro valley, Lower Subansiri district, Arunachal Pradesh. Check the next edition's dates with the organisers before you travel and book flights only after they are confirmed.

The Hornbill Festival runs from 1 to 10 December every year at Kisama Heritage Village, about 12 km south of Kohima. The dates have been fixed for many years and 1 December is also Nagaland Statehood Day. We still suggest you confirm the programme once the state tourism department publishes it, usually in October or November.

Rongali, or Bohag, Bihu marks the Assamese new year and usually begins around 14 April. Goru Bihu, the cattle day, comes first, and Manuh Bihu, the human day, follows. Stage functions and husori singing continue for a week or more. Dates follow the Assamese calendar, so we confirm them each year; check current status before you travel.

Ziro is about 115 km from Itanagar by road through Yazali and Potin. The drive takes about 4 hours in a private car, a little more after heavy rain. From Donyi Polo Airport at Hollongi add another 15 km. Guwahati to Ziro is about 440 km, a 10–11 hour drive, which is why we start this trip in Itanagar.

This 5-night package starts at ₹34,500 per person on twin sharing with standard rooms or homestays. The price is higher than a normal Nagaland trip because Kohima hotels charge festival rates for the first ten days of December. Premium and luxury rooms, or a smaller group, raise the per-person cost.

On Goru Bihu, cattle are bathed and garlanded at dawn. On Manuh Bihu, people wear new clothes, seek elders' blessings and exchange gamosa. Homes make pitha rice cakes and laru sweets. In the evenings, towns hold stage functions with Bihu dance and songs, and husori troupes sing blessings from house to house.

Yes. Indian citizens from outside Arunachal Pradesh need a tourist ILP, applied for online at eilp.arunachal.gov.in before the trip; it costs about ₹300–500, so pay what the portal shows. Foreign nationals need a Protected Area Permit, arranged through an approved tour operator. Rules change from time to time, so check current status before you travel.

It starts at ₹31,500 per person on twin sharing, with standard hotels, a private air-conditioned vehicle, the Goru Bihu village morning, a stage Bihu evening, guides in Sivasagar and Majuli, the Majuli ferries, a gamosa and breakfast and dinner daily. Flights and monument fees are extra. Premium tiers use heritage tea bungalows near Jorhat.

No. Festival passes and official camping are sold only by the organisers, and prices change each year and by booking stage. We include your stay, meals, private car, a daily shuttle to the festival car park and a guided village walk. Buy your passes as soon as you confirm dates, because early tiers sell out first.