Khonoma Kohima Tour Package (4 Days)

Our driver picks you up from your hotel or home in Dimapur in the morning. Drive from Dimapur to Kohima (about 70 km, 1 hr 30 min). Check in at your hotel in Kohima. The road climbs out of the Dimapur plains past the Chumoukedima foothills and up through the forested Naga hills to Kohima, where the Inner Line Permit is checked. After checking in, walk to the main town to get a feel for this ridge-top capital of churches, markets and steep lanes, and end the day at a viewpoint as the lights come on across the valleys. Overnight stay in Kohima.

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   Kohima town

   The hill capital of Nagaland, spread along a ridge at about 1,450 m.

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   Kohima Cathedral

   The Mary Help of Christians Cathedral, a modern church on Aradura Hill with a large carved wooden crucifix.

Today's travel: from Kohima to Kisama Heritage Village (about 13 km, 15 min) and from Kisama Heritage Village to Kohima (about 13 km, 15 min). Start at the Kohima War Cemetery on Garrison Hill, where the 1944 battle that turned back the Japanese advance into India was fought around the Deputy Commissioner's tennis court; the court's white lines are still marked among the graves. Visit the Nagaland State Museum for its galleries of Naga dress, jewellery and log drums, then drive about 12 km south to Kisama, the Naga Heritage Village, where each tribe has built a morung (traditional house) in its own style. The Hornbill Festival is held here every December. Overnight stay in Kohima.

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   Kohima War Cemetery

   The Commonwealth war cemetery on Garrison Hill, with the Kohima Epitaph: "When you go home, tell them of us and say..."

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   Nagaland State Museum

   Galleries of the dress, ornaments, weapons and log drums of the sixteen Naga tribes.

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   Kisama Heritage Village

   An open-air village of tribal morungs, venue of the Hornbill Festival.

Today's travel: from Kohima to Khonoma (about 20 km, 30 min) and from Khonoma to Kohima (about 20 km, 30 min). Drive about 20 km west to Khonoma, an Angami village of stone houses, carved gates and terraced rice fields that banned hunting in 1998 and became known as India's first "green village". Walk through its khels (clans) with a local guide, climb to the old fort that held out against the British in 1879, and look over the alder-managed fields that the village has farmed for centuries. Back in Kohima by late afternoon. Overnight stay in Kohima.

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   Khonoma village

   An Angami village of terraced fields, stone walls and carved gateways.

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   Khonoma Fort

   The stone ramparts where the village fought the British in 1879.

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   Khonoma terraces

   Wet rice terraces fed by channels from the hill streams.

Drive down to Dimapur after breakfast. Before the drop, stop at the Kachari Ruins, a field of mushroom-shaped stone pillars left by the Kachari kings who ruled here before the Ahoms burned the city in the 16th century. Drive from Kohima to Dimapur (about 70 km, 1 hr 30 min), and drop at your hotel, home or the railway station in Dimapur. The tour ends here.

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   Kachari Ruins, Dimapur

   Carved sandstone pillars of the old Kachari capital, in the middle of Dimapur.