To me, a trip that focuses only on Paro and Thimphu is a shame because the most beautiful parts of Bhutan are the rural areas, despite most visitors finding the cities, void of any traffic lights or jams, nothing more than a village by Western standards. If you want to keep the costs a bit lower but prefer luxury, you could contact a travel agency to combine some of the more affordable options in Paro and Thimphu where there is a lot of choice and then add COMO in Punakha and continue to the more remote parts with Aman in Gangtey and Bumthang.
It would still be a luxury trip at more affordable costs than an all-Aman trip as COMO comes at around half the price of Aman and Le Meridien or Taj are even more affordable. There are rumours that Six Senses is coming in with the same model as Aman and will start with a resort in Punakha. My guide even pointed at the exact location. I am a big fan of Six Senses having stayed at several of their properties in Chengdu , Oman and the Maldives among others and I know their philosophy and approach will suit Bhutan very well, so keep an eye on new openings.
The Tourism Office of Bhutan has an extensive list of approved operators on their site and all international luxury tour operators will be able to put a package together. If you do not tolerate hot food you are in for a challenge as it is used in every dish. In fact, chilli is so important that the national dish is pure chilli and cheese. My guide even gave me the recipe for chilli and cheese to repeat at home. Most Bhutanese meals include a selection of dishes, Indian style, with servings of various protein and vegetable choices and soup.
Some of the nicest dishes to try are pork dumplings or momo, so common in Nepal , Mongolia, Azerbaijan and Tibet. Curry dishes with potatoes, sweet potatoes, yak meat, beef or chicken feature in almost every meal.
Cheese is a common ingredient too, usually used in dishes in melting form. Green beans with cheese is a delicious example. Dhal, or lentils, tomatoes in various forms and potatoes feature in almost every meal. All meals are accompanied by red rice, the variety grown in the country, a fragrant, nutty and flavourful type of rice that is very different from the basmati or long grain rice of other Asian countries. For drink, Bhutanese make their own rice wine, Ara, similar in taste and alcoholic level to Japanese sake.
This is hard to buy in stores as most people make their own or buy from the neighbours. Ara is stored and served in weaved beautiful bottles that come with a handle for transport. This was the wine the Divine Madman requested, together with a beautiful woman, when someone came to him for a blessing. How to Travel Safely in July 18, Types of coffee around the world to try May 7, Guide to Bhutan: Everything you need to know to plan a trip by Mar December 7, Written by Mar.
Bhutanese Himalayas. DrukAir business class. Himalayas from Delhi to Paro. Map of Bhutan. Distances and travel times in Bhutan. Rice fields Punakha. Punakha Valley. Punakha Dzong. Bhutan Big Buddha.
Handmade paper in Bhutan. Gangtey sunrise. Gangtey Monastery. Paro Dzong. Weaving in Bhutan. White water rafting in Punakha. Prayer flags in Bhutan. Hot stone bath in Bhutan. Amankora Gangtey. Amankora bedrooms. Bhutanese feast. Check if you need a visa, get help processing it at iVisa. Never ever leave without travel insurance. Get affordable coverage from World Nomads or long term insurance from Safety Wing. Check their Deals section too.
Search for all your transportation between destinations on the trusted travel booking platform Bookaway. I book all my day trips and tours via GetYourGuide , they are the best and their tours are refundable up to 24h in advance. Get USD35 off your first booking with Airbnb. Compare car rental prices at Rentalcars. Punakha is just a 2. Once over the pass, the landscape changes and you drive through forests of Blue Pine and rhododendrons before reaching Punakha.
The dzong at Punakha was built by the first Zhabdrung Rinpoche, the spiritual leaders of Bhutan, and is the second largest and second oldest dzong in the country. From Punakha, it is then on to Wangdue Phodrang , a small town to the south of Punakha. The upper reaches of the Wangdue Phodrang Valley are some of the richest pastureland in the Himalayan regions, and the valley is renowned for its stone carving and bamboo crafts.
The Wangdue Phodrang Dzong sits on the hill overlooking the town, but is only open during the tsechu in autumn. In the afternoon, visit the beautiful, lone temple of Chimi Lhakhang , which stands on a small hill that overlooks the Puna Tshangchu River.
It is believed that prayers made there can help protect your children or help you to become fertile enough to have children. Taktsang Monastery in Paro, Bhutan. Once back in Paro, you will get the chance to take a trip out of the city to one of the most spectacular monasteries in the world, the Taktsang Monastery.
Considered to be one of the most sacred sites in Bhutan, it is the site of meditation of the great Guru Rinpoche, the Second Buddha, when he came to Bhutan. It is believed that, in the 8th century, he spent three years, three months, three weeks, three days, and three hours meditating in the caves behind where the monastery now stands. The monastery was built around the cave in and has become a cultural icon in Bhutan.
Traveling from Nepal to Bhutan is relatively easy and quick, as long as you have your visa approval from the travel agent in Bhutan. Bhutan has two airlines, Druk Air and Bhutan Airlines, which are the only commercial airlines that are permitted to land at Paro.
All in all, the optimum time for a Nepal and Bhutan tour is around ten days, although a longer tour would mean that you would be able to spend more time in these beautiful countries, and explore more of the sites, culture, and the amazing people. Energetic, responsible and reliable, Sonam is a guide with more than seven years experience informing visitors about heritage sites and attractions places in Tibet.
Email me about your travel idea. Three of the best destinations in Asia for visiting the Himalayas, Bhutan, Nepal, and Tibet are exciting destinations th Here we make an all-around comparison between Bhutan and Nepal in required documents, best travel seasons, Mt.
Everest an Bhutan Tibet Tours for Himalayas: we selected the best Tibet Bhutan tours separately which will tell you how to make the Differences between Tibet and Bhutan mainly include topography, best travel seasons, travel documents, tour costs and hi How to travel from Bhutan to Tibet easily?
Talk about happy pigs! Your guide will be well informed and will probably answer every question you have about the country, but be mindful about controversial topics as they will steer away from them, especially the Bhutanese refugees issue from the s issue.
Bhutan is a constitutional monarchy since Criticizing the royal family is almost considered as blasphemy since they are seen as incarnations of gods. Other than this, your guide, who will always be dressed with the traditional gho if male or kira if female , will feed you tons of useful information about religion, culture, and anything you want to know about Bhutan.
Most towns have an archery field. This semi-challenging hike takes half a day about two to three hours up, and one to two hours down, depending on your pace but it is worth every step. What a country! Bhutan is one of the quietest and most peaceful countries I have travelled to. Yes, the phallic symbols got me the first time when I was with my family; awkward!!! Everyone should visit Bhutan at least once! U travel frkm india??.
Can you give some guidelines for travel from india. Also do u need zone permit for indians and the entry permit for indians is for how many days? Great post! Thanks so much for sharing all this info and awesome pictures. Bhutan is on my list of places to visit so this will be super handy for planning my trip there! Hi Norbert, Thank you for sharing your experience in Bhutan.
I am planning a trip there with my family this autumn; just to get a better idea, how long ago was your trip to Bhutan with Yangphel Adventure Travel?
Hi Norbert, Thank you for sharing your trip to Bhutan. I am planning to go to Bhutan with my family this autumn. Can i ask, how long ago was your trip taken with Yangphel Adventure Travel? Many thanks! Even though we already covered this via email, I wanted to reply here too in case this info is helpful to anyone else. My trip happened during June of Thanks for your comprehensive overview of Bhutan.
I am researching a trip for my family. There is not a lot of info out there for travel with kids. I understand the altitude and this might be a deciding factor for us as to whether we go or not just yet.
They are good little travellers otherwise. In , this place looked brand new and it was our favorite hotel in Bhutan. The best part of this hotel was the balcony overlooking the Paro Valley and the runway of the Paro Airport.
Inside of this round, stone building are thangkas Buddhist paintings , historic artifacts, and festival masks. At the Paro Dzong, visit the temple, admire the architecture, and spin more prayer wheels. In some ways, visits to these dzongs and temples gets a little repetitive, but they are all unique in someway. This photo that we took of Tyler and Kara with young Buddhist monks is one of my favorites of all time.
These are the ruins of an ancient dzong that burnt down in A visit here usually lasts 6 to 8 hours, with time to hike to the monastery, tour the monastery, and have lunch. Get all of the details on the hike in our post:.
The best time to go to Bhutan is during the spring months of March, April, and May and the autumn months of September, October, and November.
During this time, the weather is generally clear with warm days and cool nights. The summer months of June through August are the wet season months. During this time, it is not unusual to have daily rainshowers, sometimes several per day, but they usually do not impact travel. You may not get the clear blue skies like you see in these photos. During the winter months of December, January, and February, it can get very cold in Bhutan and snow can close the roads in central and eastern Bhutan.
You can only visit Bhutan on a tour. And since there are over licensed tour guides in Bhutan, how do you know which one to choose? Bridge to Bhutan is run by two brothers, Lotay and Fin. They arranged our visas to Bhutan, scheduled our transportation into and out of Bhutan, and helped us customize this itinerary.
From start to finish, we had a great experience with Bridge to Bhutan. Our guide, Kinga, and our driver, Sonam, felt like friends by the end of the week. Kinga was very enthusiastic about teaching us about Bhutan and its rich culture, the accommodations beat our expectations, and everything ran smoothly.
If you are looking for a reputable, knowledgeable tour operator in Bhutan, we highly recommend Bridge to Bhutan. Every time you enter a temple, you must take off your shoes.
On some days you will do this four to five times. I recommend wearing a pair of shoes that is easy to slip on and off. At nighttime, the numerous stray dogs spend hours howling and barking, sometimes right outside of your hotel window.
If you have a hard time sleeping through the noise of barking dogs, make sure you pack ear plugs. We loved Bhutan. But we did not love the food.
The Bhutanese cuisine is rather bland with some chili peppers thrown in to add some heat. You will eat a lot of rice and chicken without much flavor. One thing that I did love was the chilies and cheese. Chili peppers grow in abundance in Bhutan. The chili peppers are eaten with cheese on a regular basis. We used the Lonely Planet guidebook to pick out places to visit and experiences to have.
This book was written by a college student who moved to Bhutan to teach English. Do you have any questions about this Bhutan itinerary? Comment below! Planning a trip to Bhutan? Read all of our articles in our Bhutan Travel Guide. Note: This post contains affiliate links. When you make a purchase using one of these affiliate links, we get paid a small commission at no extra cost to you. Really such a neat clean blog with beautiful pictures.
Loved it totally. Just could not stop myself in dropping comment. Hi Julie, I search 10 website but the detail and genuine information is over here in your blog. From very long time Bhutan is on my bucket list. I have bookmarked this page and i will plan it in exact same pattern.
Thanks and good to connect with you. Between your website is inspiration. Wish you lots and lots of success.
What an informative article it is. However, I have two options after the travel restrictions lift about visiting Bhutan either choose paroairport.
However, I do not have Indian nationality, and I think it would cause some problems, but people suggest that by road it is fun and you see more attractions than by traveling by plane. We flew in from Nepal. Then drove into India. Our tour company worked this out for us, arranged our transportation, and helped us with the border crossing. You definitely get to see much more of these countries by traveling overland. Cheers, Julie.
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