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DREAMVACA

India

Meghalaya

Living root bridges, waterfall canyons, monsoon country

Flight from India
3.5 hrs
Currency
INR
Best months
Oct – Apr
Visa
No visa needed

The place

Meghalaya is the sensible first door into the North-East. Guwahati has direct flights from most Indian metros, Shillong is three hours up a good road, and — unlike Arunachal, Nagaland, Mizoram or Manipur — an Indian citizen needs no Inner Line Permit to enter.

What you come for is water and limestone. Sohra, which the maps still call Cherrapunji, and Mawsynram trade the world rainfall record between them. The plateau ends in a 600-metre escarpment falling towards the Bangladesh plain, cut everywhere by waterfalls — Nohkalikai, Seven Sisters, Wei Sawdong. Below the edge, Khasi families have trained the aerial roots of the rubber fig across streams into bridges that get stronger for two hundred years. The double-decker at Nongriat is 3,500 steps down, and the same 3,500 back up.

Shillong itself is a Khasi hill town with a Welsh Presbyterian past, the best live music scene in the country, and — worth knowing before you plan — almost everything closed on Sunday.

Best months

Best time to visit

The months in gold are when Meghalaya is at its best — weather, crowds and price together.

  • January: high 16°C, low 4°C. Light showers. Recommended month to travel.
  • February: high 18°C, low 6°C. Light showers. Recommended month to travel.
  • March: high 22°C, low 10°C. Wet. Recommended month to travel.
  • April: high 23°C, low 13°C. Wet. Recommended month to travel.
  • May: high 23°C, low 15°C. Monsoon.
  • June: high 23°C, low 17°C. Monsoon.
  • July: high 23°C, low 17°C. Monsoon.
  • August: high 23°C, low 17°C. Monsoon.
  • September: high 23°C, low 16°C. Monsoon.
  • October: high 22°C, low 13°C. Wet. Recommended month to travel.
  • November: high 20°C, low 8°C. Dry. Recommended month to travel.
  • December: high 17°C, low 5°C. Dry. Recommended month to travel.

Gold = best months to travelDroplets = how wet the month isHigh / low °C

Holiday Packages

Holidays here

See all
A deep green valley with a waterfall visible far in the distanceNew6N / 7D

Rhinos, Root Bridges & Living Clouds, 6 Nights

Guwahati 1N · Kaziranga 2N · Shillong 2N · Cherrapunji 1N

Assam and Meghalaya in one loop — Kamakhya at Guwahati, two safaris in Kaziranga where two-thirds of the world’s one-horned rhinos live, the glass-clear Umngot at Dawki, Asia’s cleanest village at Mawlynnong, and Cherrapunji’s waterfalls and living root bridges. Half board throughout; the Northeast has few restaurants once you leave the towns.

from₹32,133per personView details

*Indicative — final price confirmed on live availability.

Worth your days

What to do

  • People crossing a narrow hanging bridge above a forest gorge

    The double-decker root bridge at Nongriat

    3,500 concrete steps down from Tyrna, about two hours, and three hours back up. Start at seven, carry water, and if your knees are being honest with you, sleep in a Nongriat homestay rather than climbing back the same afternoon. Rainbow Falls is another hour beyond, and the pools there are the reward.

  • A deep green valley with a waterfall visible far in the distance

    The Umngot river at Dawki

    The water is famous for being so clear that the boats look suspended in air — but it is only that clear from roughly November to March. Through the monsoon it runs brown and fast. Go on a weekday and go early; by ten there are a hundred boats and the photograph is gone.

  • A clear river winding through dense rainforest

    Mawlynnong and the Riwai bridge

    Billed as Asia's cleanest village, and the community genuinely does sweep it every morning — the bamboo dustbins are not a prop. The living root bridge at Riwai, five minutes away, is far easier to reach than Nongriat and gives you the same idea if the 3,500 steps are not happening.

  • Caves at Mawsmai and Arwah

    Mawsmai is the lit, easy one — 150 metres, ten minutes, one tight squeeze. Arwah Lumshynna has fossils visible in the walls and a fraction of the crowd. Meghalaya holds India's longest cave systems, and Krem Liat Prah runs 34 km; anything beyond the show caves needs a guide from the Meghalaya Adventurers Association.

  • Laitlum canyon and the Sohra viewpoints

    Laitlum, an hour from Shillong, is a grass amphitheatre that simply drops away into cloud. Nohkalikai — India's tallest plunge waterfall at 340 m — and the three tiers of Wei Sawdong are the Sohra pair. All three are best in late afternoon, and all three can vanish into mist in ten minutes.

  • Shillong on a Saturday night

    Ward's Lake and Police Bazar in the evening, then Laitumkhrah for the music — Shillong produces more working musicians per head than any city in India, and the pub gigs are the real thing. Cafés shut by ten, and on Sunday the town closes almost completely, so plan that day as a driving day.

Indicative

What it costs

Spending money on the ground, per person per day — food, local transport and entry tickets outside your package.

Shoestring

₹1,500

a day, per person

Street food, public transport, one paid sight

Comfort

₹3,500

a day, per person

Sit-down meals, taxis, a tour or two

Luxury

₹8,000

a day, per person

Fine dining, private car, premium experiences

Visa

Visa snapshot

No visa needed

This is a domestic holiday. Carry a government photo ID for hotel check-in and any flight — Aadhaar, PAN, passport or driving licence.

Practicalities

Know before you go

What to eat

Vegetarian or Jain? Safe picks here: Jadoh, Pumaloi and pukhlein, Pure-veg in Police Bazar and Laitumkhrah, What to carry, and why.
  • JadohVegetarian

    The Khasi signature dish: rice cooked with pork and, traditionally, pork blood. Named first and plainly so that nobody orders it by mistake. Khasi and Garo cooking is pork-, fish- and dried-fish-centred, and a Khasi restaurant will have very little a vegetarian can eat.

  • Pumaloi and pukhleinVegetarian

    The vegetarian half of Khasi food, and it exists: pumaloi is powdered rice steamed in an earthen pot, pukhlein a jaggery-and-rice-flour fritter. Sakin gata, rice with jaggery and coconut, is the sweet one. Ask for these by name at a village kitchen and you will usually be given them.

  • Tungrymbai

    Fermented soybean paste, pounded with sesame and chilli. The traditional version is cooked with pork fat, but a plain fermented-bean version exists and is worth trying — it is the North-East's equivalent of a strong pickle, and it is an acquired taste in any language.

  • Pure-veg in Police Bazar and LaitumkhrahVegetarian

    This is the practical answer for a Gujarati family. Shillong has Marwari, Punjabi and Bengali pure-vegetarian restaurants around Police Bazar and Laitumkhrah, and Guwahati — where you land — has proper Gujarati thali. Outside the two towns, assume rice, dal, potato and egg, and tell the homestay a day in advance.

  • What to carry, and whyJain friendly

    There is no Jain food anywhere in Meghalaya, and onion, garlic and root vegetables are in everything that is not pork. Gujarati tour groups here routinely carry thepla, khakhra, dry farsan and ready-to-eat packets, and many carry a cook. That is not fussiness in this state — it is planning.

Set a meal preference — vegetarian, Jain or halal — when you book and we brief every hotel and restaurant on your itinerary.

What to bring home

  • Eri silk — the "ahimsa silk" of the Khasi and Garo hills, where the moth is allowed to leave the cocoon before the thread is spun
  • Lakadong turmeric from the Jaintia hills, GI-tagged and among the highest-curcumin turmeric in the world
  • Meghalaya wild honey, and the cherry and plum wines made in Sohra
  • Cane and bamboo baskets, and the khoh — the conical back-basket you will see every Khasi woman carrying
  • Khasi and Garo handwoven shawls and dakmanda, from the Purbashree emporium at Police Bazar
  • Bay leaf, black pepper and Khasi mandarin, in season

Getting around

Guwahati (GAU) is the real gateway — 100 km and about three hours to Shillong on NH-6, by private car or a shared Tata Sumo from Paltan Bazar. Shillong's own Umroi airport (SHL) has only a handful of flights. There is no train to Shillong. Roads within the state are good but slow: Shillong to Sohra is 55 km and two hours, Shillong to Dawki 82 km and three. Hire a car and driver for the whole trip; self-drive rental here is not worth the risk.

Good to know

  • Meghalaya needs no Inner Line Permit for Indian citizens — but Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur do, and they are what people try to add on. Apply online at least a week ahead. Foreign nationals must register with the FRRO on arrival.
  • Dawki and Shnongpdeng sit on the Bangladesh border. Carry photo ID, do not cross or touch the fence line, and do not fly a drone anywhere near it — the BSF checks and does not negotiate.
  • Flash floods in the streams below Sohra come from rain falling upstream that you cannot see or hear. When a local guide calls everyone out of the water, get out immediately; every year someone does not.
  • The Nongriat descent is 3,500 steps each way with no vehicle access, no evacuation and no mobile signal at the bottom. Do not attempt it with a heart condition, a bad knee, or in flip-flops, and do not start it after noon.
  • Bandhs and highway blockades close roads at a few hours' notice across the North-East. Keep a buffer day before your outbound flight, and carry cash — ATMs outside Shillong and Tura run dry regularly.

Travel Guide

Read the full travel guide

Month-by-month weather, money, plugs, food, shopping and the small things nobody tells you.

Meghalaya travel guide