Glimpse of North-EastNorth East in 12 nights

Welcome to the North East. Your driver meets you at Guwahati airport or railway station and you drive to Tezpur on the Brahmaputra. Check in; the evening is free.

After an early breakfast, drive into Arunachal Pradesh. On the way, visit the Tipi Orchidarium on the Bhareli river, with more than 500 kinds of orchid, and the Nag Temple, with waterfalls and big views along the road. Check in at Dirang, then visit an apple orchard and kiwi farm (in season), Dirang Monastery and the Kalachakra Gompa. Dirang is also known for its hot springs.

After an early breakfast, the drive to Tawang, the highlight of Arunachal. Cross Sela Pass (13,700 ft) and Sela Lake, frozen for much of the winter, then stop at Jaswantgarh War Memorial, which honours a soldier who held the pass almost alone in the 1962 war. Later, Nuranang Falls, where scenes of the film Koyla were shot. Check in at Tawang; the evening is free.

After breakfast, visit Tawang Monastery (Galden Namgyal Lhatse), founded in the 17th century and the largest monastery in India, high above the Tawang valley at about 10,000 ft. Its prayer hall holds an eight-metre gilded Buddha, and the library old scriptures written in gold. Then Urgelling Gompa, birthplace of the 6th Dalai Lama, and the Tawang War Memorial, a stupa-shaped memorial to the soldiers who fell in 1962. End at the craft centre for masks, hand-woven carpets and silver jewellery. The evening is free.

After breakfast, drive down to Bomdila (8,200 ft), headquarters of West Kameng and a town of Buddhist monasteries. Check in, then visit the Upper and Lower Gompas, with wide views of the snow peaks. In the evening, the local market.

After breakfast, drive to Kaziranga and check in. The evening is free.

Kaziranga is home to about two-thirds of the world's one-horned rhinos. At first light, ride an elephant into one zone of the park for the best chance of seeing rhino up close, along with hog deer, swamp deer, wild buffalo, wild elephants and, with luck, a tiger. The wetlands are full of pelicans, storks and darters. Back at the resort for breakfast, then a jeep safari through the park in the afternoon, and a visit to the Kaziranga Orchid Park.

After breakfast, drive to Shillong (4,900 ft), the hill capital often called the Scotland of the East, stopping at the Maha Mrityunjay Temple at Nagaon, built in the shape of a Shiva linga and Umiam Lake at Barapani, a wide, calm reservoir ringed by pine-covered hills. Check in at Shillong.

After an early breakfast, a full day at Cherrapunjee (4,400 ft), one of the wettest places on earth. On the way, stop at Elephant Falls, the view over the Mawkdok–Dympep valley and the Garden of Caves. Then Cherrapunjee's best: Nohkalikai Falls, India's tallest plunge waterfall, the Nohsngithiang (Seven Sisters) Falls, and the limestone passages of Mawsmai Cave. Back to Shillong in the evening.

After an early breakfast, drive to Dawki on the Bangladesh border, where you can take a boat on the crystal-clear Umngot river (paid directly). Then Mawlynnong, known as Asia's cleanest village, with a living root bridge and a boulder balanced on a smaller rock. Back to Shillong in the evening.

After breakfast, visit the Don Bosco Museum (closed Sundays) and Ward's Lake, then drive to Guwahati and check in. In the evening, visit the Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra, a centre for Assam's history and culture.

After breakfast, a day around Guwahati: the Kamakhya Temple on Nilachal Hill (open 8 am to 1 pm and 3 pm until dusk), the Tirupati Balaji Temple, the Navagraha Temple, the Assam State Museum, the state zoo and botanical garden, the Regional Science Centre and the Sukreswar Temple on the Brahmaputra. In the evening you can take a sunset cruise on the Brahmaputra (optional, paid directly).

After breakfast, transfer to Guwahati airport or railway station for your journey home.