27.4922 N, 89.3631 E / HIGH POINT 3,120 M
Bhutan
Quiet on purpose, valley by valley.
- BEST SEASON
- March to May, September to November
- IDEAL LENGTH
- 6 to 9 days
- SLEEPS AT
- 1,242 to 2,320 m
- PACE
- Gentle
- BEGINS IN
- Paro
The approach into Paro is flown by hand and by eye, banking between forested ridges close enough to pick out the prayer flags on farmhouse roofs, and then the valley opens and you are down. Bhutan keeps visitor numbers low by design, so the country you land in is not performing for anybody.
Bhutan asks you to slow down, and it rewards you for it. The country keeps visitor numbers low on purpose, so the valleys stay quiet and the festivals still feel like they belong to the people dancing in them.
We arrange the permits, the guide and the route, from the climb to Tiger's Nest above Paro to the fortress courtyards of Punakha. You travel privately, at a pace that leaves room for long views and unplanned cups of tea.
What we plan here
- Tiger's Nest hike
- Punakha and Paro dzongs
- Local festivals
- Private guided travel
THE SHAPE OF THE DAYS
Seven days in the quiet kingdom
A loop through the three western valleys with the climb to Taktsang saved for the end, once your legs and your lungs have had the week to settle. This is one shape the trip can take. Yours will be its own.
DAY 01
Fly into the Paro valley
We meet you as you come out of the small terminal and drive ten minutes up the valley, past Rinpung Dzong sitting above the river. The rest of the day is deliberately empty: a walk along the water, an early dinner, an open window.
SLEEPS AT Paro, 2,200 mDAY 02
Thimphu, the capital that keeps its calm
Thimphu still runs without a single traffic light, and a white-gloved officer waves the cars through the main junction instead. We take you through the market stalls, then up to the great bronze Buddha for the whole valley at once.
SLEEPS AT Thimphu, 2,320 mDAY 03
Over the Dochula to Punakha
The road climbs to the Dochula at 3,100 metres, where 108 small chortens stand in the mist and, on a clear morning, the eastern Himalaya line up behind them. Then it is two hours downhill into Punakha, where the air turns warm and the rice comes back.
SLEEPS AT Punakha, 1,242 mDAY 04
Punakha Dzong and the river valley
Punakha Dzong stands on the spit of land where the Mo Chhu and the Pho Chhu meet, and we time your visit for late afternoon when the courtyards empty out. Before that there is an easy hour through the rice terraces to a small hilltop temple.
SLEEPS AT Punakha, 1,242 mDAY 05
Back west to Paro
An unhurried road day back over the pass, with lunch in a farmhouse kitchen we have been eating in for years. You are in Paro with the afternoon to spare, because tomorrow starts early.
SLEEPS AT Paro, 2,200 mDAY 06
The climb to Tiger's Nest
We start at first light so you walk in the cool and reach the monastery ahead of the day's groups. It is about two hours to the tea house and another hour to the door at 3,120 metres, and your guide sets a pace that leaves you enough breath to talk.
SLEEPS AT Paro, 2,200 mDAY 07
Depart over the mountains
A short drive back to the terminal and a proper goodbye from the team who looked after you. Ask for a window seat, because the high peaks stay with you for the first part of the climb out.
SLEEPS AT Paro, 2,200 m
You can see the Tiger's Nest from the car park. You only understand it somewhere in the second hour of walking.
Field notes
Tell us where your mind keeps going.
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