Bhutan Serenity: Land of the Peaceful Dragon

Five days is enough for Bhutan if you spend them well. This one climbs to Taktsang on the second morning, when your legs are fresh and the cliff still holds shade, then crosses Dochu…

Length: 5 days, 4 nights
From: ₹1,98,000 per person
Pace: Balanced
Stops: 6
Best months: March to May, September to November

The route

6 stops over 5 days

Paro
Thimphu
Dochu La
Punakha
Thimphu
Paro

The Taktsang climb at first light, unhurried, with tea halfway
108 chortens at Dochu La, Gangkhar Puensum on the skyline
Punakha Dzong where the Pho and Mo Chhu meet
A paddy walk to Chimi Lhakhang, the Divine Madman’s temple
Archery at Changlimithang: bamboo bows, 145 metres, victory dances

Day by day

What actually happens

Length: 5 days
Stops: 6
Pace: Balanced
From: ₹1,98,000

1L D

Paro

Arrive Paro, walk to Rinpung Dzong

The approach is the first event: your aircraft banks between forested ridges and puts down at 2,235 metres beside the Pa Chhu. Formalities are quick, your guide is in a gho, and Paro town is ten minutes away. Settle in, then walk to Rinpung Dzong across Nyamai Zam, the cantilever bridge, as the light goes amber on the hillside. Dinner is ema datshi and red rice.

Night: Zhiwa Ling Heritage, Paro
2B L D

Paro to Thimphu

Taktsang done properly, then Thimphu

Leave at seven, while the valley floor is still cold. The path to Taktsang gains about 900 metres through blue pine hung with lichen, two hours at an unhurried pace, with tea at the cafeteria and then the flight of steps down to the waterfall and up to the monastery door. Afternoon at Kyichu Lhakhang, seventh century, its two orange trees fruiting out of season. Thimphu by dusk.

Night: Taj Tashi, Thimphu
3B L D

Thimphu to Punakha

Over Dochu La to the rice valley

Buddha Dordenma first, fifty-one metres of gilded bronze above Thimphu, then east to Dochu La. At 3,100 metres the 108 chortens stand in ranks; on a clear morning Gangkhar Puensum, 7,570 metres and still unclimbed, closes the skyline. The descent is into rice and jacaranda, and Punakha runs twenty degrees warmer. Walk the paddy track to Chimi Lhakhang, then the dzong at the rivers’ confluence.

Night: Dhensa Boutique Suites, Punakha
4B L D

Punakha to Thimphu

Suspension bridge, chorten, archery

Cross the Pho Chhu on the 180-metre suspension bridge at seven, prayer flags snapping, planks flexing underfoot, then climb an hour through paddy to Khamsum Yulley Namgyal Chorten, raised by the Queen Mother in 1999 for the country’s wellbeing. Back over Dochu La after lunch. In Thimphu, an archery match at Changlimithang: bamboo bows, targets 145 metres off, a victory dance for every hit.

Night: Taj Tashi, Thimphu
5B

Thimphu to Paro

Memorial Chorten, then departure

A last Bhutanese breakfast, buckwheat khur-le and suja if you have taken to it, then the Memorial Chorten, where Thimphu’s older residents walk clockwise from six in the morning with prayer wheels turning. The drive down the Wang Chhu to Paro takes a little over an hour. You depart today; the aircraft climbs steeply out of the valley and the mountains sit on your right.

Night: Departure day, no overnight