Assam is our home state, and the way into the whole North East. This chapter covers the places worth your time: Guwahati, Kaziranga, Majuli, Sivasagar, the tea country, Manas and Chandubi.
It ends with how many days to give it and when to go. Every post we have on Assam is listed below the guide.
Guwahati: more than an airport
Most visitors land in Guwahati and leave the next morning. Give it two days instead.
Kamakhya sits on the Nilachal hill above the city. It is one of the most revered Shakti temples in India, with no idol in the sanctum, only a spring in a cave. The rest of the city has older, quieter temples, and the Brahmaputra at dusk.
Start with our Guwahati travel guide. For the state's temples, read Sacred Assam.
Kaziranga: the rhino park
Kaziranga is four to five hours east of Guwahati. It holds about two-thirds of the world's one-horned rhinos. The 2022 census counted 2,613.
The park has four main ranges, and each one feels different. Kohora and Bagori are best for rhinos. Agoratoli is the range for wetland birds, and Burapahar for hoolock gibbons.
Read our Kaziranga Safari guide for slots and booking, and which Kaziranga range to choose. Our Kaziranga page has the stays.
Majuli: the river island
Majuli is an island in the Brahmaputra, reached by ferry from Neamati Ghat near Jorhat. Its satras are Vaishnavite monasteries that still teach dance, drama and mask-making.
The island is shrinking as the river eats its banks. The ferry is at the river's mercy too. Low water stopped it in October 2024, and again several times in 2026.
Come in November and you may catch Raas, when the satras stage plays in huge hand-made masks. Our Brahmaputra festival season post has more.
Check the ferry locally the week you go, and keep a spare day. Our story Majuli: two days on the island that is disappearing tells you what to expect.
Upper Assam: Sivasagar and Charaideo
The Ahom kings ruled Assam for close to six hundred years. Their country is upper Assam, around Sivasagar.
Sivadol, built in the 1730s, stands beside a huge man-made tank. Charaideo, about 30 km away, is a field of grassed royal burial mounds called moidams. It became a World Heritage Site in July 2024.
The history is in our guide to heritage sites of Assam and the North East.
Tea country
Tea is everywhere east of Guwahati. The best way in is a night in a planter's bungalow on a working estate. You find them near Jorhat and in the tea belt north of the river. These bungalows have very few rooms, so book them first.
Short on time? A working estate half an hour from Guwahati runs a tea estate morning, with plucking, the factory and a tasting.
Manas: the other wildlife park
Manas sits on the Bhutan border, where the Manas river comes down from the hills. It was listed by UNESCO with Kaziranga in 1985.
Conflict in the 1980s and 1990s nearly emptied it, and UNESCO put it on its danger list in 1992. It holds rare animals such as the golden langur and the pygmy hog.
We do not run a set Manas trip. Ask us if you want it on your route.
Day trips from Guwahati
Chandubi is a lake that the 1897 earthquake made, under the Meghalaya hills. Sualkuchi is a weaving town on the river, home of Assam's muga silk. Read the women of Sualkuchi.
We list ten more in day trips from Guwahati.
Getting around
Assam is a road state. A private car and driver is the easy way to link Guwahati, Kaziranga and Jorhat. Private cars cannot enter Kaziranga itself, so safaris use licensed park jeeps.
Jorhat has its own airport, about two hours from Kaziranga. Flying in or out of Jorhat can save you some six hours on the road back to Guwahati.
The highway past Kaziranga, NH-715, is being widened, with a planned elevated stretch for wildlife. Expect some roadworks for now.
Who Assam suits
Assam has no permits, no altitude and the shortest drives in the region. That makes it the easiest North East state for older parents and small children.
It suits wildlife lovers, tea drinkers and anyone curious about temples and history. It suits people who want a slow trip, too. Many of the best hours are on a veranda or a ferry deck.
It is less suited to anyone who wants mountains. For those, add Meghalaya or Arunachal.
How many days you need
Four days covers Guwahati and Kaziranga. Five to seven adds a tea bungalow and Majuli. Ten does the whole state at an easy pace, with Sivasagar and Charaideo.
Our day-by-day plans are in Assam itinerary: 5 and 7 days.
Our tip: book at least two Kaziranga Safaris, in different ranges. One drive shows you one slice of the park.
When to go
November to April is the best time, by Assam Tourism's own advice. The skies are clear and Kaziranga is open.
December and January mornings are cold and misty, so pack layers for a dawn safari. Late December is the busiest week of the year at Kaziranga.
From mid-May the park shuts for the monsoon, and Majuli's ferry gets less reliable. No permit is needed anywhere in Assam, for Indian or foreign travellers.
Plan your Assam trip
Our Rhino, Tea and the River Island trip covers Kaziranga, a tea bungalow and Majuli in six days. It is from ₹33,500 per person, indicative, on 2 adults sharing, land only.
See our Assam page for more trips. Or tell us your dates, and we will reply within 24 hours.
