Sylhet to Jaflong by car with a driver

About 60 km north-east towards the Tamabil border crossing, typically an hour and a half. The road is reasonable for most of its length but the final approaches to the river and the stone-collection areas vary with the season and the water level.

This is a route where a driver who has been recently is worth a great deal. Conditions change, and the best approach one month is not always the best one the next.

Most people pair Jaflong with Lalakhal, the blue-green river at Jaintiapur, and sometimes with Sada Pathor at Companiganj. That is a long but very rewarding day.

Book it as a full day rather than a return transfer, so the timings are yours and you are not watching a clock at the riverbank.

The rivers here rise fast in the monsoon and conditions at the water's edge can change quickly. Our drivers will tell you where it is sensible to go and where it is not — please take that seriously rather than treating it as caution.

Winter is the easiest season for the roads; the monsoon is the most beautiful and the most variable.

It is worth setting expectations honestly, because Jaflong divides people. What draws visitors is the setting: the Piyain river running out of the Meghalaya hills, the stone beds, and the view across to the Indian border at Dawki with the hills rising behind it.

What also exists is a working stone extraction industry, boats, crowds at weekends and holidays, and a good deal of commercial activity around the main viewpoints. Going early on a weekday is a substantially different experience from arriving at midday on a Friday.

The river also changes character completely with the season — high and fast in the monsoon, wide and shallow with exposed stone beds in the dry months. Your driver will know which approach and which viewpoint is worth using on the day, which is most of what a car buys you here.