Meghalaya; a must visit north eastern state in India. My family and I had done a 5 day family trip to the state at the beginning of Oct in 2019. So what would I recommend as an itinerary to visit it?

One of the most difficult and definitely one of the most important aspect for any vacation, is the travel itinerary; especially if time is limited. And for most us, time is always limited, particularly on a vacation 😀 . Our personal experience, based on the travels we have done, prove this. To us, a planned itinerary is a good framework and not necessarily something that has to be strictly adhered to.

When we were planning our trip to Meghalaya, we looked through a number of sources before we finalised our itinerary; we spoke to friends who had visited, read personal blogs posts, watched vlogs and read through lots of internet articles. What it helped in is getting different perspectives of people with varied interests.

Here are my recommendations for finalising the itinerary:

  • The minimum period that you should consider, to do any justice to the visit, is 5 days. If you can spare it, then aim for 7 days
  • Meghalaya is big on its waterfalls. So some should definitely be on your list. The ones that you actually choose will depend on the regions that you are visiting. Keep in mind, that the waterfalls are rain fed. So visiting them near the rainy season will have you see them in their full glory
  • Sohra (erstwhile Cherrapunjee) is a place I would recommend to be in your itinerary. It has lots of natural beauty
    • You should aim to visit the Umshiang Double Decker Living Root Bridge if you are reasonably fit. It will be an unforgettable experience. Read about our experience here
    • The waterfalls that you should look to definitely visit are Seven Sisters Waterfalls and Nokhalikai Waterfalls. There are other waterfalls like Dainthlen Falls amd Kynerm Falls. But squeezing them all in may be difficult unless you have an additional day
    • If you have not done visits to any caves before and not claustrophobic, then you should look to include atleast one cave. The Mawsmai Cave is the easiest of them
    • Here are some of the places that we visited in our trip. We enjoyed them all
  • There are a number of quick spots you can visit enroute to Sohra. Read this post for more information on them
  • Another popular destination for tourists is Mawlynnong village. Personally I would not suggest that you include it in your itinerary, unless you want to tick off being to the cleanest village. However, a reason to visit it would be if you have not seen a Living Root Bridge elsewhere already. Then it provides one that can be accessed conveniently. If you have visited the Umshiang Double Decker Living Root Bridge, then the Living Root Bridge here should be definitely skipped. Here is our experience when we visited it
  • Another popular destination is Dawki, especially for the boat ride on the Umngot river. Definitely an item to include, especially if you are planning to go in Dec to Feb timeframe. The water is supposed to be crystal clear during this period. Here is our experience when visiting it just after rains
  • Krang Shuri Waterfalls should be on everyone’s itinerary. It is a bit out of the usual way, but not to be missed. Here is our experience from visiting it
  • Laitlum Canyon can be a worthwhile inclusion. We had planned to visit. But had to drop it owing to paucity of time
  • Umiam Lake should be included in the itinerary. To really enjoy it, you have spend a night near the lake. Here is our experience
  • Many people base themselves in Shillong and then travel to the different sites. I would not recommend this. Too much travel and you will lose out spending more time at the locations. Instead try to spend the night at a place close to where you are a visiting. We spent 2 nights in Sohra, 1 night at Mawlynnong and 1 night at Umiam Lake
  • Meghalaya also has some great trekking trails. They are however, best done in the non-rainy season, i.e. Jan to Mar
  • Look to hire a car to stay with you throughout the trip. Makes it much more convenient