Please suggest an itenerary for Meghalaya

Rastapopoulous

Hi IndiaMikers,

I am planning a 10 day trip to Meghalaya in early June. We have booked airtickets from Mumbai to Guwahati and back. From Guwahati airport we will take a bus to Shillong. Since this is my first time in the North East, I would appreciate inputs on the following :

1. Do rains start by the first week of June in Meghalaya?
2. Do we need to book a hotel room in advance, or will it be okay if we book a room on arrival?
3. How to get around in Meghalaya? Is public transport any good or will we have to book a cab for moving around?
4. From the point of tourism will it be off season or tourist season in Meghalaya in June?
5. Is vegetarian food readily available in Meghalaya?

So far I have decided on visiting Lake Umium and Cherrapunji apart from Ward lake and other places in Shillong. What are other places of interest in Meghalaya?

Thanks in advance .

Regards,
Shailendra

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flyingstars

I have travelled in the north-east a lot. From my experience I can say:

1. In Meghalaya it rains for almost the entire year around everyday, so by first week of June it will be start becoming heavy as the monsoons begin here.

2. The monsoons months are essentially a tourist season here. It is advisable to book hotels beforehand or you can book them when you reach there at the earlier stages of June.

3. To get around in Meghalaya, public transport is not so good. Upto Shillong and Cherrapunjee its alright but beyond it is advisable to hire private transport. Here public transport comprises mainly of cabs only.

4. In June it is essentially the beginning of the tourist season here as the best part of the beauty here is the clouds and the rains along with the numerous waterfalls.

5. Vegetarian food is available but not so readily in the outskirts.


You can read about a bit of Shillong & Cherrapunjee in my blog. The links are Shillong,
Cherrapunjee


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flyingstars India Travel Blog

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mousourik

Add Mausinram and Dowki.

shahronakm

With which airline you have booked, at what cost ?
Is it a direct flight ?

Flyingstars, nice blog & pics.

Ronak.

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flyingstars

@ Shailendra

You can also visit Tura also in the Garo hills as also a few hotspots in the Jaintia hills too.

@ Ronak

Thanks very much for the appreciation. You too have some lovely pics out there.

Rastapopoulous

Hi Flyingstars, Mousourik and all,

Thanks for your tips. I just returned back from Meghalaya yesterday evening. We visited the usual places like Cherrapunjee, lake Umium and Mawsinryam, besides the city of Shillong. I will post more details about my holiday, with pictures to accompany, soon.

Shahronakm :
While going, we booked Air Deccan from Mumbai to Delhi, and Jet Lite from Delhi to Guwahati. To be on the safe side we had kept a gap of close to 3 hours between the two flights.
While returning, we took a Jet Lite flight from Guwahati to Mumbai with a brief stopover (half an hour) in Kolkata. The entire journey (both ways) cost us close to 20,000 for 2 people.
After landing in Guwahati, we got a state transport bus from Airport to Paltan Bazaar. At Patlan Bazaar, shared cabs (Tata Sumos) are readily available that take you to Shillong for Rs 100 each. Get down at Police Bazaar in Shillong, as that is the area with the most restaurants and hotels.

Accommodation is readily available, and the prices are pretty reasonable. We were able to get a double bed in a decent hotel for as low as Rs 650 per night (inclusive of taxes).
Let me know if you need any more details about the journey.

mousourik

Yes, where did u put up at Shillong, the itinerary for Mausinram and Cherrapunje, whether u stayed at any of these places, what were the car rates for Chera/Mausin.

Also, more importantly, did you find it safe for a single family to go to Chera/Mausin by hired car ?

shahronakm

Rastapopulous, Thanks for your reply. Waiting for more details & pics of your trip.

Ronak.

Rastapopoulous

Hi Mousourik,

We had stayed in Hotel Magnum at police bazaar. We got a room on arrival. The tariffs were Rs 805 (including taxes) for a double room, and Rs 1100 for a deluxe room. If you look around a little, you should be able to get rooms for much less than this. There are decent rooms available for as little as Rs 650. On the higher side there is hotel Center Point, Polo Towers and Hotel Pinewood (the last one is close to Ward Lake). See the below links to get more exhaustive info about hotels in Shillong :

http://www.holidayiq.com/Meghalaya-H...yes-state.html
http://megtourism.gov.in/acco_shillong.html
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g5...ya-Hotels.html

I did not stay at Cherrapunjee/ Mausin. We would rent a taxi (most taxis out there are Maruti 800s) for entire day and use it to move around. Taxis could be hired from Police Bazaar, and the rent for an entire day would be Rs 1200. It is quite safe to use these taxis, but an entire family may not fit into a Maruti 800. You may need to book a Maruti Gypsy, or a Sumo. Otherwise Meghalaya is very safe. Its the safest place in the North East, and is much safer than even Bombay or Delhi.

Inside Shillong the best places to visit are Shillong Peak, Ward Lake, Hyadari Park, Elephant falls and Butterfly museum.

In Cherrapunjee the places of interest are Ramakrishna MIssion, Dain-Thlen Falls, Noh-Kalikai Falls, Noh-Sngithiang Falls, The living root bridge, Khoh Ramhah (The "Giants Basket" is an imposing single formation in a shape of a giant cone. It looks like a natural shivalingam), and the Mawsmai cave.

Mawsynram, which is some 56 kms from Shillong has now overtaken Cherrapunjee to become the wettest place on Earth. While leaving Shillong, a road forks out - to the left lies Cherrapunjee, to the right Mawsynram. In Mawsynram, there is a natural shivalingam at the Mawjymbuin cave. Close by is a hot water spring called Jakrem. The spring is considered to have medicinal properties, and the government has built enclosed bathrooms, to which spring water is supplied through pipes. It is possible to take a bath in one of those bathrooms.

Rastapopoulous

I had posted a longish reply to mousourik's question, but I can't see it being reflected here. I am not sure if the message did not get posted due to whatever reason, or if messages in indiamike are moderated?

mousourik

thnx a lot. did u cover Chera and Mausin in two separate days or in one day ? how much time did it take to cover those two places ? is food available on road ?

Rastapopoulous

My reply got some time to become visible, but its there finally .

@Mousourik : WE covered Cherra and Mausim in 2 different days. I don't think it will be feasible to cover both the places in a single day.

While Mausim has got limited places of interest, still its quite far from Shillong and if you devote proper time to each spot, and not rush through, it will easily take 6 hours to do the place. Restaurants are difficult to find in and around Mausim. We had a delayed lunch after reaching Shillong, which was around 5 pm. We had left around 9 in the morning.

Cherrapunjee will take even longer, but you will find restaurants there. For Cherrapunjee we started around 9 in the morning and reached back at 8 in the night. Of course we spent a huge amount of time exploring places, getting inside jungles, navigating through caves, taking photos of waterfalls from every conceivable angle and in general climbing up and down hill slopes. So I guess its possible to do Cherrapunjee in lesser amount of time. But if you are on a holiday and have a few days to spare, then spend a day entirely exploring Cherrapunjee, and another day in Mausim. You can probably try and combine Mausim and Lake Umium (bada pani).

mousourik

thnx Rasta for so much of information. we plan for hiring a car, going to mausin first and instead of going back to shillong, go to chera and then spend the night and the next full day there. the following day, going back to shillong after visiting dowki at the bangladesh border.
another question, after reaching shillong from guwahati, do u think the next full day will be sufficient for shillong or should we keep another day there ?
and, where are your pics ?

Rastapopoulous

Hi Mousourik,
You itenerary looks good. Only, I am not sure if you will find too many good hotels in Cherra. Make enquiries beforehand, else you may be stranded. Look up the links that I had given in one of my earlier posts for info about hotels in Meghalaya.
One day is sufficient in Shillong.
I haven't been able to post my pics in my blog yet . I will take out time to do so. Is there any forum in indiamike where i can post my pics?

mousourik

just go to the photos section and upload as many as u want !