Top 5 Things To Do in Bhutan

Paro Taktsang, the Tiger’s Nest, is the image that brings most travellers to Bhutan, and it earns the billing. The monastery clings to a granite cliff 900 metres above the Paro Valley, and the only way up is on foot. Allow four to five hours return, with a tea house at the halfway point and a final staircase carved into the rock. Go early, before the light flattens and the day trippers arrive, and save it for the end of your trip: by then you will be acclimatised to the altitude and the climb becomes a pleasure rather than a test.

A decent level of fitness is required, and we recommend all our clients wear proper hiking boots that support the ankle, as several sections of the trail are steep and uneven. Walking poles help on the descent, which many find harder than the climb.

On our own visit, luck was on our side. Our guide turned out to be a childhood friend of one of the monks on duty that day, and after the tour we were invited to take tea in the private room reserved for Bhutan’s royal family when they visit. It is not something any itinerary can promise, but it says everything about how personal Bhutan can be with the right guide.

Bhutan’s former capital holds its most beautiful building. Punakha Dzong rises at the meeting point of two rivers, the Pho Chhu and Mo Chhu, its whitewashed walls and gilded roofs doubly striking in spring, when the jacaranda trees turn lilac. Every Bhutanese king has been crowned here, and the fortress remains the winter residence of the country’s central monastic body.

Pair the visit with a walk across the nearby suspension bridge, one of the longest in Bhutan, strung with prayer flags above the river. Punakha sits at a lower, warmer altitude than Thimphu, so it also makes a gentle middle chapter between the higher valleys.

A Tshechu is Bhutan at its most vivid: masked dances, whirling silk, whole valleys turning out in their finest kira and gho. The Paro Tshechu (spring) and Thimphu Tshechu (autumn) are the grandest, though smaller village festivals can be more intimate and just as memorable.

Dates follow the lunar calendar and shift each year, so this is the first thing to fix when planning.
Book a year ahead for festival weeks, as the best suites at Amankora and Six Senses go first.

The road from Thimphu to Punakha climbs to 3,100 metres at Dochula Pass, where 108 memorial stupas stand against a horizon of snow peaks. On a clear day, most likely from October to February, you can see a great sweep of the eastern Himalayas, including Gangkhar Puensum, the highest unclimbed mountain on earth.

Stop for tea, walk among the stupas and let your driver time the crossing for morning, when the visibility is at its best. If the peaks are hidden, the pass is still worth the pause: the stupas in mist are their own spectacle.

The dotsho, Bhutan’s hot stone bath, is the ritual we most often hear about in client feedback. River stones are heated over a fire until they glow, then dropped into a wooden tub scattered with artemisia leaves, releasing minerals into the steaming water. After a day on mountain trails there is no better recovery.

Farmhouses offer the authentic version, often with dinner alongside; the spas at Amankora and Six Senses offer a more polished one with a valley view. Either way, book it for the evening after Tiger’s Nest. Your legs will thank you.

Amankora and Six Senses are the two finest lodge collections in Bhutan, and the ones we recommend to our clients. Each operates a circuit of five lodges across the western valleys, including Paro, Thimphu and Punakha, so you can travel between valleys without changing brand, standard or rhythm.

Amankora is the quieter, more monastic of the two; Six Senses leans into wellness, with each lodge themed around a different element of Bhutanese wellbeing. Both will arrange the guides, drivers and permits seamlessly behind the scenes, and both reward booking the full circuit rather than a single lodge.

Bhutan rewards travellers who plan early and travel slowly. Berkeley Travel’s travel designers know the lodges, the festival calendar and the valleys beyond this list, and can build an itinerary around the moments that suit you. Contact our team to start planning.