A sweeping tea plantation covers a hillside in Assam under a wide sky.

Assam · 6 Days

Assam — Tea Trail & Majuli

A tea-country trip — one Kaziranga safari night, then Jorhat's heritage estate bungalows for the gardens, the hoolock gibbons and the river island.

Day by Day

6 Days, In Full

Assam for travellers drawn to the tea and the culture more than the safari. One night at Kaziranga is still enough for an elephant and a jeep safari. Then three nights in the Jorhat tea country, in a colonial estate bungalow: a walk through a working garden and a tasting, a dawn visit to the Hoollongapar gibbons, the only ape in India, and a full day on Majuli among the satras. Sivasagar, the old Ahom capital, can be added. It is the slow, green half of Assam.

A lone fisherman poles a wooden boat across a wide marshy stretch of the Brahmaputra valley in Assam.

Guwahati

Arrive in Guwahati — the Brahmaputra at Dusk

You land at Guwahati, the hub for the whole northeast. The city sits where the Brahmaputra narrows between hills, and the river is the thing to see first. In the late afternoon a cruise boat runs out onto the water for the sunset, past Umananda island and under the temple hill, usually with tea or a meal and a short set of Assamese music. It is an easy way to arrive and get the shape of the place.

Guwahati → Kaziranga

Guwahati to Kaziranga — East Along the Brahmaputra

The drive east follows the south bank of the Brahmaputra for about two hundred kilometres and five hours, through paddy fields, tea gardens and small towns, with the hills of Meghalaya away to the south. There are stops for tea and for lunch on the way. You reach the lodges at Kohora, just outside the park's Central Range gate, in the afternoon, with time to settle in and meet the naturalist before dark.

Kaziranga

Kaziranga — Elephant Safari at Dawn, Jeep in the Afternoon

The elephant safari goes out at first light from Kohora or Bagori, for about an hour, walking through grass that is often higher than a jeep. This is where the rhinos feed, so it is the closest you will get to one. The mist lifts during the ride. Back for breakfast, then a slow middle of the day. The afternoon is a jeep safari of about three hours through the Central Range, for rhino, wild elephant, swamp deer and buffalo, and the chance of a tiger in the grass.

A dirt path runs between rows of bright green tea bushes on an estate in Assam.

Kaziranga → Jorhat

Kaziranga to Jorhat — Into the Tea Country

A shorter drive, about two and a half hours, east and then south into upper Assam. The landscape becomes tea almost at once, garden after garden with the old bungalows set back among the bushes. You reach Jorhat, the tea capital, by early afternoon, and check in at one of the heritage estate bungalows. A walk through the garden before dark, and dinner is Assamese home cooking on the veranda.

Rows of lush tea bushes stretch across an Assam estate under a bright sky.

Jorhat

Jorhat — the Gibbon Sanctuary and a Tea Estate

An early start for the Hoollongapar sanctuary, a patch of rainforest cut off by tea gardens and a railway line. It is the only ape in India, the western hoolock gibbon, and a guided walk on the forest paths at dawn, when they call, is the way to find them, along with six other kinds of primate. The rest of the day is the tea itself: a walk through a working garden with the manager, then the factory, then a tasting through the estate's grades the way a buyer would.

Guwahati

Depart Guwahati

A last morning in the city before the flight out. If there is time, a final hour on the river, a visit to the Assam State Museum, or the silk shops for Assam's own muga and eri weaves. Guwahati's airport connects to Delhi, Kolkata and the rest of the northeast, so onward plans are straightforward.

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luxury · 5 Nights