Bhutan, Bhutan

High-value, low-volume tourism by law. Tiger's Nest monastery, archery, and Gross National Happiness.

culturehikingmountainsluxurymonasteries

Best time to visit

Month	High	Low	Rain	Season
Jan	9°	0°	70 mm
Feb	10°	1°	104 mm
Mar	14°	3°	162 mm	prime
Apr	17°	6°	176 mm	prime
May	19°	10°	266 mm	prime
Jun	21°	14°	420 mm
Jul	21°	15°	532 mm
Aug	21°	15°	409 mm
Sep	20°	13°	286 mm
Oct	17°	8°	165 mm	prime
Nov	14°	4°	87 mm	prime
Dec	11°	1°	68 mm

30-year averages (1995–2024) from ERA5 reanalysis via Open-Meteo. Rain is the monthly total.

Serves travellers at Mid-range→Ultra-luxury level. Typically around $400 a day on the ground.

Ranges are typical costs, not quotes. Check the real price before you book.

Cash in ngultrum for nearly everything. Cards are taken in Thimphu and Paro hotels and very little else.
money · editorial
The walk up to Tiger's Nest is a steep climb of several hours at altitude and it is the main event for most visitors. Travel here is tightly regulated and independent wandering is not really how the country works.
know before · editorial
The monsoon brings landslides and closed roads through the summer, and takes the mountain views with it. Deep winter closes the high passes.
when not to go · editorial
A private vehicle with a driver, on winding mountain roads. Paro to Thimphu is about an hour; anything further east is a full day of driving.
getting around · editorial
Paro is the only international airport, served from Delhi, Kathmandu, Bangkok and Singapore by a handful of flights. The approach threads between mountains and is weather-dependent. The land crossing from India at Phuentsholing is the alternative.
getting there · editorial

Tiger's Nest, Taktsang
A monastery stuck to a cliff face nine hundred metres above the valley.
Punakha Dzong
Where the Pho and Mo rivers meet, and the finest in the country.
Buddha Dordenma
Fifty-one metres of gilded bronze, with a hundred thousand smaller Buddhas inside.
Paro Dzong
Fortress and monastery at once, as every dzong is. It still administers the district.
Dochula
One hundred and eight chortens on a three-thousand-metre pass, with the Himalaya behind on a clear day.
Punakha suspension bridge
One hundred and eighty metres of prayer flags swaying over the river.

Eat ema datshi, chilli with cheese, and accept that it burns
Ema datshi
Chilli and cheese, and the chilli is the vegetable, not the seasoning. The national dish.
Bhutanese red rice
Grown at two thousand metres, part-husked. Never white.
Suja
Tea churned with butter and salt. Refusing is not a polite option.

Watch a tsechu, the masked festival
A tsechu with masked dancing
Monastery festivals on lunar calendar dates, with the whole valley there.
A whole day without seeing a single advertising hoarding
They are banned. You only notice after a few hours.

Climb to the Tiger's Nest
Nine hundred metres of ascent, three hours of climbing, and the last stretch on steps.