Stunning Bhutan Tour: Shangri-La Comes to Life

Your plane will descend past white Himalayan summits with superb vistas. Paro is nestled in a remote valley beneath the mighty frame of Mount Chomolhari. You will be greeted at the airport by your driver and guide with a traditional Bhutanese welcome. Then, you will transfer to your hotel. You can eat lunch together, sample your first cup of yak butter tea, and discuss the route you will follow over the next 12 days. Two Paro sites will make for a good cultural introduction in the afternoon. Drukgyal Dzong showcases the country’s typical architectural style. Kichu Lhakhang is shrouded in mystery and covered in iconographic murals.

Paro’s serene atmosphere will be perfect for getting used to Bhutan. You will have the entire afternoon to explore at your leisure through the marketplace and streets. To help provide context to these early wanderings, you can spend the morning at the National Museum, where your guide will help to narrate stories that go beyond the information boards. You can then travel to Rinpung Dzong, which is a majestic 17th-century fortress that is a living and working city behind stone walls. More than 200 monks live here, and it is just one of the dzongs that dot the hills all over Bhutan. These relaxing morning visits should set you up for an afternoon of creating your own experiences.

Thimphu has a unique energy. There are no traffic lights, few vehicles on the central streets, and the city was built on a glorious riverside location. Thimphu is a place where traditions and modernity come together, and it is an excellent place to meet people from across the country. After a short journey from Paro, you will visit Simtokha Dzong. The nearby Handicrafts Emporium brings traders and artisans together, and your guide will be able to point out which designs are from which province. The Institute of Herbal and Native Medicine also has its treats, particularly the strange concoctions that satisfy all manner of complaints.

The resonant sounds of trade will echo through Wangdiphodrang. Much of the town’s marketplace is busy as women haggle over the price of grain, flamboyant fabrics envelope store owners, and sections for the mundane and the strange abound. The town’s dzong has been a unifying force for more than four centuries, bringing people together from the country’s borders. Like yesterday, Wangdiphodrang is where you can meet people who have traveled far from their homes. A morning stop at this market crossroad will be followed by an afternoon at Punakha Dzong.

Today, you will have a long journey to Jakar, but it is quite an adventure. You will traverse two high-altitude passes where Himalayan panoramas seem to extend for eternity. You can stop for a riverside picnic with time to peek into a small village. You will then follow the compass point of Trongsa Dzong, which is the largest and the most impressive of all Bhutan’s dzongs. Dzongs are the centerpiece of life in Bhutan, and nowhere is this better illustrated than in Trongsa. It will be dark by the time you arrive in Jakar, but the Himalayan memories will make your day’s journey more than worth it.

After yesterday’s long journey, you will enjoy a couple of days in the Bumthang Valley, using Jakar as a base for discovering the country’s mystical heartlands. This is where you can live out tales of Guru Padmasambhava and his reincarnation. So much is shrouded in mystery, but it is not difficult to imagine the stories when you are overlooking the lake. The entire region is the most traditional in the country, and the locals are very proud of their stories. You will hear a few from your guide and from some village people. You will likely be able to sense the legends in the nooks and crannies of the valley.

This private Bhutan tour will have some inherent flexibility because you never know when a fortuitous local meeting will present a chance to experience local life in more depth. There are also options on what you will see, especially in the Bumthang region. You can go hiking through farm fields to a 16th-century palace that is hidden by mountain shadows or explore the striped marks that give Tiger Stripe Monastery its name. You can also visit a nunnery to see how it operates or explore the imposing Jakar Dzong and visit some of the temples that were built in the seventh century.

The further you travel east, the fewer foreigners you will see. Reaching Mongar is a real adventure because it requires that you cross a 12,500-foot pass that is surrounded by mountains. Ura is a natural stopping point en route, which is a medieval town that is made up of cute farmhouses and a small dzong. It will be easy to think that life has not changed here since the 15th century. After crossing the Thrumshingla Pass, you will descend into eastern Bhutan and can admire how contrasting ecosystems coalesce. The high mountains will now lie behind you, and the rest of this private tour will lead you through the subtropical east of the country.

Mongar Dzong is as large as a village but was constructed without any nails. Tradition dictates that dzongs are not even drawn beforehand, and the architect’s skill lies in visualizing the next steps as the dzong is being built. Even in the 21st century, this architectural style continues to be the favored style in the country. After a morning spent in Mongar, you will follow the Gamri Chu River to Tashigang, which is another town that is full of traders. Like all the days on this tour, you will be free to take photos, and your guide will often ask permission on your behalf if you are seeking portraits of people.

You will spend the day traveling through rice paddies and villages to explore how the culture is a bit different in the far east of Bhutan than it is in the west. Picturesque temples are surrounded by steep fields, and Gom Kora is just one that you will visit today. Tashi Yangtse will be the day’s main destination, which is an old caravan town that still looks like it is about to receive a trading party. Like all the days on this Bhutan tour, the day’s pace will be yours to set, and there are always opportunities to venture further off the beaten track.

Your final day in Bhutan will be all about village life. Villagers may want photos with you, and teenagers may seek you out in order to practice their English. During your time here, you will be immersed in the daily life of village life. Women will walk past you in costumes of color and charm, and men will stroll in their knee-length robes. Small temples add color to the hills, and you may be overwhelmed by the number of smiles that pass you on the streets. Your destination for the day will be Samdrup Jongkhar, but as the famous saying goes: travel is about the journey, not just the destination.

Finally, you will have made it across Bhutan on an epic journey from east to west through one of the world’s final frontiers. This morning, you will depart the Land of the Thunder Dragon and cross into India. Three hours after leaving Samdrup Jongkhar, you should arrive in Guwahati, which is a busy Indian city on the banks of the Brahmaputra River. You can use this time to indulge in a city tour. You will have day-room use at a local hotel, which will provide you with space to freshen up before your domestic flight to Delhi. In Delhi, you will connect with your homebound flight.