Private tour · Nagaland
Hornbill Festival Tour
Every Naga tribe gathers at Kisama for ten days each December. We pair the festival ground with Khonoma and the war cemetery, so the week has depth beyond the spectacle.
- Dates
- 1 – 10 December, every year
- Duration
- From 5 days
- length to suit you
- Starts from
- Guwahati or Dimapur
- Highest point
- 4,921 ft
- Kisama
The dates
1 – 10 December, every year
This one runs to published dates, so the trip cannot move. Rooms are the constraint, not the itinerary — book early.
- Tour type
- Private tour
- Starts from
- Guwahati or Dimapur
- Permit
- Inner Line Permit
- Difficulty
- Easy–Moderate
- Season
- December
On the trip
What you’ll come home talking about
Kisama Heritage Village and the tribal morungs
Kohima War Cemetery
Khonoma, Asia's first green village
Optional trek to Dzukou Valley at 8,045 ft
Altitude along the road
Highest point Kisama, 4,921 ft
- Dimapur
- Kohima
- Kisama
- Khonoma
The route
Where the road takes you
The stops this trip is built around, in order. Your day-by-day plan, stays and pace come with your free quote.
Dimapur
Start · 476 ft · Dimapur district
The commercial centre and the state's only airport and railhead, on the plain below the hills. The Kachari ruins on its edge — carved monoliths from a kingdom that predates the Naga settlements here — are usually passed without a stop, which is a mistake.
Dimapur at blue hour Kohima
4,738 ft · Kohima district
The state capital, built along a ridge, and the site of the 1944 battle that turned the Japanese advance into India. The War Cemetery on Garrison Hill carries the epitaph that begins 'When you go home, tell them of us' — it is the quietest place in the city.
Kohima on its ridge, under monsoon cloud Kisama
4,921 ft · 12 km from Kohima
A permanent ground of morungs — the traditional bachelors' dormitories — one for each recognised Naga tribe, each staffed by that tribe during the Hornbill Festival from 1 to 10 December. Outside those ten days it is quiet and can be walked in an hour.
The arena at Kisama, at dusk Khonoma
4,921 ft · 20 km west of Kohima
An Angami village that resisted the British through three sieges and then, more recently, banned hunting and logging across its forest — the reason it is called Asia's first green village. Its terraced rice fields step down the valley in more than twenty varieties.
The stone road into Khonoma
Good to know
Questions about this one
Plan this trip
Tell us your dates. We’ll do the rest.
Share a few details and who’s coming. We’ll take it from there.
1 – 10 December, every year