Our home turf
North East India.
Done properly.
Premium or offbeat. We do the North East the way locals would. Eight states, a permit regime that turns most itineraries back at the checkpost, and a team that lives here.
Eight states, a dozen climates, and a permit regime that turns most itineraries back at the checkpost. We are from here. That is the entire difference.
Guwahati is our base, not a branch office. Every trip starts from the city we know best, run by people who grew up on these roads.
Inner Line Permits, Protected Area Permits, checkpost paperwork. The thing that quietly ends most Arunachal trips is routine for us. How permits work →
Monpa homestays, Sherdukpen orchard valleys, village satras. Relationships built over years, not scraped off a listing site.
November to February
Winter is the season here. Kaziranga opens, the plateau clears, and the good beds are few.
Plan a winter tripAssam
The river, the rhino, the tea.
Our home state and the gateway to everything else. The Brahmaputra runs through all of it - Kamakhya on its hill above Guwahati, rhinos in the Kaziranga grass, tea bungalows with verandas built for long afternoons, and Majuli, the river island that empties out into satras and mask-makers.
Guwahati (GAU) is the region's air and rail gateway - every one of our trips starts here. No permits needed for Assam.
10 experiences in Assam
Meghalaya
Abode of clouds, and the wettest place on earth.
Three hours from Guwahati and an entirely different world - Khasi hill country, gorges full of waterfalls, and the living root bridges that Khasi communities have grown across rivers for generations. Nominated to UNESCO, and finally getting the attention they deserve.
Road from Guwahati - Shillong is about 3 hours, Sohra another 2. No permits needed.
9 experiences in Meghalaya
Arunachal Pradesh
High passes, Monpa country, almost nobody else.
The hardest state in the North East to travel well, and the one where we're most useful. Tawang's monastery at 10,000 feet, Bumla on the Indo-China border, and valleys like Shergaon and Sangti where the visitor count is still measured in handfuls. Everything here needs a permit; we handle them.
Overland from Guwahati via the Bhalukpong checkpost. Inner Line Permit required for all Indian visitors - we arrange it.
9 experiences in Arunachal Pradesh
The ones we'd send you on first.
Drag to explore
Deliberately mixed - a cruise cabin and a root-bridge trek sit side by side, because both are us.
01 - Half day - Assam
Kamakhya Temple - VIP Darshan
One of India's most sacred Shakti Peethas, with the queue handled and the darshan arranged.
02 - 3-7 nights - Assam
Brahmaputra Luxury Cruise
The premium anchor of the region - days on the river, with villages, satras and Kaziranga along the way.
03 - 1-2 days - Meghalaya
Living Root Bridges - Nongriat
The double-decker root bridge at Nongriat - grown, not built, and now on its way to UNESCO.
04 - Full day - Meghalaya
The David Scott Trail
16 km of old colonial bridle path across Khasi hill country - the region's best day walk.
05 - 3-4 nights - Arunachal Pradesh
Tawang - Monastery at 10,000 Feet
India's largest monastery, the Bumla pass on the Chinese border, and Monpa villages in between.
06 - Arranged before you travel - Arunachal Pradesh
Inner Line Permits - Handled
The single biggest reason people abandon an Arunachal trip. We do this every week.
Browse by theme
What kind of North East are you after?
- 01Faith & TemplesShakti Peethas and river shrines. Kamakhya above Guwahati is one of the most sacred Shakti Peethas in India, and the temple circuit around it runs from a river island to a hillside spring. Darshan arranged properly, queues handled, pace kept gentle.3
- 02Wildlife & NatureRhinos, rivers and rain. Two-thirds of the world's greater one-horned rhinos live in Kaziranga's grass. Add the Nameri river, Meghalaya's gorges and some of the best birding in the country, and the North East is India's most underrated wildlife region.10
- 03Living Culture & CuisineWeavers, satras, and a proper thali. Not a sightseeing checklist - the actual living culture. Silk looms at Sualkuchi, mask-makers on Majuli, a Khasi meal in a hill kitchen, and an Assamese thali eaten the way it's eaten here.11
- 04Offbeat & AdventureWhere the packages don't go. Root-bridge treks down into Nongriat, the David Scott Trail across Khasi country, and Arunachal valleys most operators can't route to. This is the part we're best at.18
- 05Premium & SlowCruise the Brahmaputra. Stay in a tea bungalow. The North East does upmarket better than its reputation suggests. Multi-night Brahmaputra cruises, heritage planters' bungalows in working tea estates, private guides, and an itinerary with room to breathe.5
- 06FestivalsBihu, Ambubachi, Nyokum - the calendar to plan around. The North East's festivals are the reason to move your dates. Nyokum on a fixed date in February, Bihu in April, Ambubachi in June - each worth building a trip around, and each needing stays booked far earlier than people expect.3
Signature journeys
Or take the whole thing as one journey.
Stories from the road.
Drag to explore
Written by the people who drive these roads - the long climb to Sohra, the pass into Tawang, the looms at Sualkuchi, and a pair of shoes that never recovered.
01 - 2 min read
The Best Time to Visit North East India
Meghalaya's living root bridges, Arunachal's high passes and Assam's rhinos each keep their own calendar. Here's how to time the North East right - and a few things that will surprise you.
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02 - 3 min read
Guwahati to Sohra: The Road That Climbs Into the Clouds
Three and a half hours, one long climb, and the moment the plains let go of you. Notes from the drive every Meghalaya trip begins with - and why you should never do it in a hurry.
Read03 - 4 min read
Guwahati to Tawang: Two Days, One Pass, and the Longest Road I Know
Permits at Bhalukpong, a night in Dirang, and then 13,700 feet of Sela Pass with the prayer flags going sideways. The hardest drive in the North East, and the one people never stop talking about.
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04 - 3 min read
Mawlynnong: What the Cleanest Village in Asia Actually Teaches You
It is on every list and every reel, and I went expecting a tourist trap. What I found was quieter, stranger and more interesting than the title suggests.
Read05 - 3 min read
3,000 Steps Down: Walking to the Double-Decker Root Bridge
Everyone shows you the photograph. Nobody mentions the staircase. On Nongriat, wet stone, screaming calves, and the strange feeling of standing on something that is still alive.
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06 - 3 min read
The Women of Sualkuchi and the Mekhela Chador
An hour from Guwahati is a town where the sound in the street is thousands of handlooms. The golden silk woven here grows nowhere else on earth - and it is almost entirely made by women.
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07 - 3 min read
A Million Stars Over Cherrapunji
The wettest place on earth spends most of the year under cloud. On the nights it clears, the sky over the plateau does something I have not seen anywhere else in India.
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08 - 3 min read
Eye to Eye With a One-Horned Rhino
Kaziranga at first light, elephant grass over your head, and an animal the size of a car deciding whether you are worth its attention. There is nothing else in India quite like this.
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09 - 3 min read
The Monsoon, and My Brand-New Nikes
I wore white sneakers to the wettest place on earth. This is a cautionary tale, a packing list, and an argument for coming in the rain anyway.
Read10 - 4 min read
The Brahmaputra Is Not a River. It Is an Ocean.
Stand on the bank at Guwahati and you cannot always see the other side. On the mightiest river in India, the island that is disappearing, and why everything in Assam is organised around water.
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11 - 2 min read
Ziro Festival of Music: Four Days in a Paddy Field
India's best-sited music festival happens in an Apatani rice valley in Arunachal, and getting there is half the story. Our guide to the offbeat North East's one unmissable September date.
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12 - 2 min read
Anini: The Emptiest Road in India
Dibang Valley is one of the least densely populated districts in the country, and Anini sits at the end of it. The most offbeat North East drive we run, and the one we are most careful about.
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13 - 2 min read
Mechuka: Three Days to Get There, Worth Every One
A grassy valley on the Tibet border with a 400-year-old monastery above it and a visitor count you could count on your hands. The offbeat North East at its furthest.
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14 - 2 min read
Roing, Mayodia and Parashuram Kund: Eastern Arunachal's Loop
Snow on a pass at 8,000 feet, a lake with a legend, and a river confluence where lakhs of pilgrims bathe each January. The offbeat North East circuit almost nobody sells.
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15 - 7 min read
Sacred Assam: A Religious Tour of the Whole State
Shakti Peethas and Vaishnavite satras, a dargah that carries a quarter of Mecca, Buddhist monasteries in the tea belt, a gurudwara on the Brahmaputra, and the Welsh churches over the border in Meghalaya. The long version.
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