Heartland Journey to Bumthang

Drive: Paro to Thimphu, about 1 hour

The flight into Paro is part of the welcome: on a clear day the Himalaya slide past the windows before the aircraft threads down a forested valley to land. Your guide and driver meet you outside the terminal, dressed in gho, with a white khadar scarf of welcome.

The road follows the Paro Chhu to its meet with the Wang Chhu at Chuzom, where three chortens — Bhutanese, Nepali and Tibetan in style — mark the confluence, and then climbs gently to the capital. Check in at Thimphu Residency, take tea in the café and settle in.

Overnight: Thimphu Residency, Thimphu

Sightseeing in and around Thimphu, mostly short drives

Start above the city at Buddha Dordenma, the great gilded Buddha that watches over the valley, then come down to the National Memorial Chorten, where elderly residents walk their circuits with prayer wheels from first light. The Folk Heritage Museum shows how a farmhouse worked, from the grinding stones to the altar room.

After lunch, visit the textile museum and the Institute for Zorig Chusum, where students learn the thirteen traditional arts — painting, carving, embroidery. At about five o’clock Tashichho Dzong, the seat of government, usually opens its courtyard to visitors as the flag is lowered.

Overnight: Thimphu Residency, Thimphu

Drive: Thimphu to Punakha, about 3 hours with stops · Highest point: Dochula, about 3,100 m

Leave Thimphu after breakfast and climb to Dochula Pass, about 3,100 m, where 108 memorial chortens stand on a ridge hung with prayer flags. On clear mornings, mostly from October to February, the eastern Himalaya line the northern horizon. Tea at the pass, then the long, winding descent into a warmer world of rice and orange trees.

Punakha Dzong sits at the point where the Pho Chhu and Mo Chhu rivers meet, and for many travellers it is the most beautiful building in Bhutan. Cross the cantilevered bridge into its courtyards, then walk the long suspension bridge upstream, swaying gently over the river. Check in at Punakha Residency in Khuruthang.

Overnight: Punakha Residency, Khuruthang

Drive: Punakha to Phobjikha, about 3 hours

A morning drive up through the forests of the Black Mountains to Phobjikha, the wide glacial valley where black-necked cranes winter.

Visit Gangtey Goenpa on its ridge and walk part of the Gangtey nature trail across the valley floor. The evening is quiet and cold; many lodges here light a bukhari wood stove in your room.

Overnight: A certified hotel or farmhouse lodge in Phobjikha

Drive: Phobjikha to Jakar, about 6 hours with stops · Highest point: Yotong La, about 3,400 m

Cross Pele La, the traditional divide between west and central Bhutan, and stop at Chendebji Chorten, built in the style of Kathmandu’s Swayambhunath. Trongsa Dzong appears long before you reach it, spilling down a ridge above the Mangde Chhu gorge.

After lunch in Trongsa, visit the dzong and the watchtower museum above it, then cross Yotong La into the Chumey valley, known for yathra — hand-woven woollen cloth. Arrive in Jakar, Bumthang’s main town, in the early evening.

Overnight: A certified hotel in Jakar, Bumthang

Sightseeing with short walks

Bumthang’s temples are close together and best explored on foot. Jambay Lhakhang is one of the 108 temples legend says King Songtsen Gampo built in a single day to pin down a demoness. Nearby Kurjey Lhakhang shelters the rock where Guru Rinpoche is said to have left the imprint of his body.

Walk across the river on a footbridge to Tamshing Lhakhang, founded by the treasure-revealer Pema Lingpa, and end the afternoon at Jakar Dzong above the town. In the evening, try local cheese, buckwheat pancakes and Bumthang honey.

Overnight: A certified hotel in Jakar, Bumthang

Drive: Jakar to Tang, about 1 hour each way · Short walks

Drive into the Tang valley to Mebar Tsho, the Burning Lake — really a deep pool in a gorge of the Tang Chhu, where legend says Pema Lingpa dived in holding a lit butter lamp and came out with a treasure, the lamp still burning.

Continue to Ogyen Choling, a manor house turned museum that shows how a noble family lived in centuries past. On another day, or instead, the high village of Ura offers cobbled lanes and fields of buckwheat. Return to Jakar for a final evening in the valley.

Overnight: A certified hotel in Jakar, Bumthang

Drive: Jakar to Punakha, about 7–8 hours with stops

An early start for the longest drive of the journey, back over Yotong La and Pele La. Your guide will choose the stops — a tea house in Trongsa, a viewpoint above the gorge, lunch along the way.

Arriving in the warm Punakha valley after a day in the mountains is a pleasure in itself. A hot shower and dinner at Punakha Residency, and an early night.

Overnight: Punakha Residency, Khuruthang

Drive: Punakha to Paro, about 4 hours

A leisurely morning at Punakha Dzong, crossing its bridge into the courtyards, before the drive west.

The drive back west recrosses Dochula and descends to Chuzom before turning up the Paro valley. In the late afternoon, walk down through Rinpung Dzong to the covered cantilever bridge below it — the light is at its best on the whitewashed walls at this hour.

Overnight: A certified hotel in the Paro valley

Hike: about 5–6 hours return, about 500 m of ascent · Highest point: about 3,100 m

This is the day many travellers come for. The trail to Taktsang, the Tiger’s Nest, starts in pine forest at the foot of the cliff and climbs steadily for about 2–3 hours to a viewpoint opposite the monastery. Legend says Guru Rinpoche flew here on the back of a tigress in the eighth century and meditated in the cave the temples now enclose.

From the viewpoint, a stone staircase drops into a gorge beside a waterfall and climbs up to the gate. Cameras and bags stay in lockers; inside, butter lamps flicker in the cave shrines. The cafeteria halfway makes a good lunch stop on the way down, and most people are back at the road by mid-afternoon.

Overnight: A certified hotel in the Paro valley

Drive: Paro hotel to the airport, about 15 minutes

After breakfast your guide and driver take you to the airport for your flight onward. Window seats on the left side heading west often give the best mountain views, so it is worth checking in early.

We hope you leave with a few new friends and a reason to come back. Kadrinchhey la — thank you.