Guwahati Tourist Guide – Smallest River Island In The World

Guwahati Tourist Guide: Overview

Guwahati is one of the fastest developing cities in India and is a major city in Eastern India, often referred as "Gateway of North Eastern Region" of the country. The city is between the banks of the Brahmaputra River and the foothills of the Shillong plateau.  The ancient sakti temple of Goddess Kamakhya in Nilachal hill (an important seat of Tantric and Vajrayana Buddhism), the ancient and unique astrological temple Navagraha in Chitrachal Hill, and archaeological remains in Basista and other locations confirm city's ancient past.

What is Unique in Guwahati and Why?

Guwahati is unique for its popular temple which is on a small island on the river Brahmaputra. The Umananda Island is the smallest river island in the World. Apart from tourist attraction Guwahati also has unique shopping items which are decorative pieces made of bamboo, traditional handloom, the famous mekhla chadar, stunning silk sarees, tribal arts and handicrafts.

Shopping in Guwahati is like embarking on a voyage to a shopping wonderland. The bamboo items of Assam are a must buy from Guwahati and you cannot possibly leave the city without picking up some gorgeous Assam silk either.

History of Guwahati

Guwahati's history go back several thousands of years. Guwahati was capital of many ancient kingdoms. It was the capital of the kings Narakasura and Bhagadatta according to the Mahabharata.The ancient sakti temple of Goddess Kamakhya in Nilachal hill (an important seat of Tantric and Vajrayana Buddhism), the ancient and unique astrological temple Navagraha in Chitrachal Hill, and archaeological remains in Basista and other locations confirm city's ancient past.

How to Reach Guwahati

By Flight: Guwahati has Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport at Borjhar, about 20 km west of the center of the city. There are direct flights to Guwahati from Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, Ahmedabad and other major cities in India by different airlines. Druk Air connects Guwahati internationally airport to Bangkok and Paro twice a week.

By Train: Guwahati falls under the Northeast Frontier Railway zone of the Indian Railways. Guwahati Junction which is the major station of Guwahati is the headquarters of the zone. Two other stations are Kamakhya Junction and New Guwahati (for freight services) located towards west and east from Guwahati respectively. Kamakhya Junction is the second largest station of the city. Guwahati is well connected by express trains to major cities like New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Jaipur, Trivandrum, Ranchi, Patna, Kollam, Puri, Jammu etc

By Bus: Guwahati connects with the states Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal with National Highway 31. National Highway 37 from Goalpara in Assam to Dimapur in Nagaland traverses the entire length of Assam and connects Guwahati with almost all the major cities of Assam including the cities of Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Bongaigaon. Citizens from Myannmar can come in through the border post of Tamu-Moreh and take a connecting flight from Imphal to the city. There are also regular Bus services from Imphal to the city. Similarly, citizens can come from Bhutan and Bangladesh through Border Posts and take the Bus Services to the city.

Best time to visit Guwahati

Guwahati is a beautiful destination and has different charms in every season. Best time to visit in October - March to enjoy a holiday in Assam. The weather is mostly pleasant with minimum temperature barely reaching five Degrees Celsius.

Best Restaurant in Guwahati

Tandoor Restaurant: TA Rank (3.5) - Certificate of Excellence

Famous for Chinese Cuisses

Kasturi Restaurant: TA Rank (3.0) - Certificate of Excellence

Pure Vegeterian Restaurants provides Bengali Cuisines

Best Street Food in Guwahati

Guwahati’s street food is pretty different from the overly-hyped street food of our metro cities. We bring forth a few interesting Guwahati street food stalls where you can indulge in mouth-watering bites.

• Deka’s Pakoras

• All Veg Chaat

• Bhuyan’s

• Raj-Aahar

Guwahati climate

The climate in Guwahati is warm and temperate. When compared with winter, the summers have much more rainfall.  The average annual temperature in Guwahati is 24.6 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1698 mm.

Biggest Tea Garden in Assam

Dibrugarh is a city and is the headquarters of the Dibrugarh district in the state of Assam in India. Well known as the Tea City of India. Dibrugarh is considered the best tea in the world with Guwahati and Bhubaneswar. The best time to visit any of these is during May and June. You may also visit Jorhat in Novemeber when the tea festival takes place.

Festivals of Assam

Bihu is the best known and greatly loved festival of Assam. It is the state festival and is celebrated by all the people of Assam with the special songs and dances. Three kinds of Bihu are celebrated: the Bohag Bihu (Rongali Bihu), the Kati Bihu (Kangali Bihu), and the Magh Bihu (Bhogali Bihu).

Assam Food and Dress

Guwahati is famous city of Assam state which offers lots of things to do during your holiday. It offers Luxuries Mouth watering food taste and enjoy.

Khaar – An Assamese meat delicacy

It is a delicious curry made from raw papaya, pulses, taro and also with a main non-vegetarian ingredient.

Duck meat curry

This delicacy of the food of Assam is cooked with Ash Gourd The use of whole spices gives it a unique flavour.

Maasor tenga

The fish curry is made with everything sour and yet it magically turns out to be delicious

Ou Khatta

Ou khatta is delicious sweet and sour chutney

Culture of Assam

Assam is the meeting ground of diverse cultures. The people of the enchanting state of Assam are an intermixture of various racial stocks such as Mongoloid, Indo-Burmese, Indo-Iranian and Aryan. The Assamese culture is a rich and exotic tapestry of all these races evolved through a long assimilative process.