The wettest place on earth, a river you can see the bottom of, and bridges grown from living roots over generations.
Altitude
1,496 m at Shillong
Getting there
Guwahati (GAU) airport, 3 hours to Shillong
Best time
October to April; spectacular but very wet June to September
How long it needs
4 to 6 nights
About Meghalaya
Meghalaya means abode of clouds, and the plateau earns it. Sohra, still widely called Cherrapunji, and nearby Mawsynram trade the world rainfall record between them, and the whole southern escarpment is waterfalls dropping into Bangladesh.
The living root bridges are the thing you will remember. Khasi families train the aerial roots of rubber figs across streams over decades until they are load-bearing, and then keep training them. The double-decker at Nongriat is 3,000 steps down and 3,000 back up.
At Dawki the Umngot river runs so clear that boats appear to float on air, and Mawlynnong has spent twenty years being the tidiest village in Asia.
What people come for
Living root bridges at Nongriat and Mawlynnong
Nohkalikai, Seven Sisters and Wei Sawdong falls
Boating on the Umngot river at Dawki
Mawsmai and Arwah limestone caves
Laitlum Canyons and the Shillong ridge
Elephant Falls and Ward’s Lake in Shillong
Know before you go
Meghalaya is reached through Guwahati in Assam, not through Siliguri. We arrange the trip end to end; the flights are the part you book to Guwahati rather than Bagdogra.
Nongriat is a serious walk: roughly 3,000 stone steps each way. The single-decker at Mawlynnong is far easier and still remarkable.
Dawki boating depends on the river running clear, which it does in the dry months and does not after heavy rain.
Packages
2 trips that include Meghalaya
Each of these can be lengthened, shortened or recombined. If you want Meghalaya on its own, or bolted onto something else entirely, just ask.
Tell us roughly what you want. We will send back a real itinerary.
Dates, how many of you, and anywhere you have your heart set on — that is enough for us to start. You will get a day-by-day plan with named hotels and one all-in price, in writing, before you pay anything.
