Romantic Bhutan in 8 days
Bhutan is a good honeymoon country for an unusual reason: it is quiet. There are very few visitors, the hotels that matter are small, and the days can be built with genuine gaps in them because the sights are not so numerous that you have to rush.
- Duration
- 8 days
- Pace
- Relaxed
- Hotel changes
- 2
- Best months
- Mar, Apr, May, Oct, Nov
- From
- $3,840 per person
This route uses two bases and one short stay. Two nights in Paro at the start, three in Punakha in the warm valley, and two back in Paro for the walk to Tiger’s Nest. That is two hotel changes in eight days, which is the lowest we can make it while still seeing the country.
Because the Sustainable Development Fee is fixed per night regardless of where you sleep, upgrading in Bhutan costs proportionally less than it does anywhere else we work. This itinerary is priced at our boutique tier for that reason.
Who it suits: couples and honeymooners who would rather have three good afternoons than nine sights. One hard walking day, otherwise easy.
Your specialist: your named Bhutan specialist, with our Delhi office running the ground.
Day by day
Day 1: Fly into Paro. Arrival at about 7,300 feet (2,225 m), a short transfer, and an afternoon that is empty on purpose. You have flown a long way and gained altitude. Dinner in the hotel.
Day 2: Paro, slowly. Kyichu Lhakhang first thing, one of the oldest temples in the country and almost always quiet before nine. Then the drive up to Chele La at 12,400 feet (3,780 m), the highest road pass in Bhutan, with prayer flags across the saddle and, on a clear morning, Jomolhari to the north. A private picnic lunch up there, laid out by your guide and driver. Afternoon in Paro town or in the hotel.
Day 3: Paro to Punakha. Four to five hours east, over the Dochula pass at 10,170 feet (3,100 m) with a stop at the 108 chortens, then a long descent into warm air. Punakha sits at about 4,300 feet (1,310 m) and it is a different climate: rice terraces, bougainvillea, an open river. Check in and stop.
Day 4: Punakha Dzong, and the river. The dzong at the confluence of the Pho Chhu and the Mo Chhu in the morning, which is the best building in Bhutan and repays two unhurried hours. In April and May the jacaranda along its walls is in flower. Afternoon: a gentle float down the Mo Chhu, about ninety minutes on flat water, finishing near the hotel. A hot stone bath in the evening, river stones heated in a fire and dropped into a wooden trough with artemisia, which is the single best thing on this itinerary and is not a spa treatment.
Day 5: Punakha, free. Deliberately empty. Options in your document: the hour’s climb through terraces to Khamsum Yulley Namgyal Chorten, which has the best view in the valley and is usually empty; the walk to Chimi Lhakhang across the rice fields; a village lunch; or a day that consists of breakfast, a book and the river.
Day 6: Punakha to Paro. The drive back over the pass, with a longer stop at Dochula this time and lunch on the way. Afternoon in Paro. Early night.
Day 7: Tiger’s Nest. Paro Taktsang at about 10,200 feet (3,120 m), reached by roughly 1,700 feet (520 m) of steep ascent, two to three hours up. Start at seven, before the day visitors. Down by early afternoon, and then a long lunch and a massage if you want one. Dinner is the trip’s last one and we will book somewhere that is not the hotel buffet.
Day 8: Departure. Transfer to Paro airport.
What is included
Full board throughout in the best independent hotels in each valley, private vehicle with a Bhutanese driver, a licensed English-speaking guide throughout, all entry fees, the private picnic at Chele La, the Mo Chhu float, one hot stone bath each, the visa applications, the Sustainable Development Fee for all seven nights itemised per person per night, and a WhatsApp group with your specialist and our Delhi office.
What we would change, and when
- Want the very best hotels? The international lodge circuit is a step up again in both comfort and price. The boutique route covers it.
- Want a quieter valley? Add two nights in Phobjikha at about 9,800 feet (3,000 m), which is the emptiest place on the standard circuit. Eight becomes ten, and it is cold at night.
- Want to add a beach afterwards? Bhutan pairs poorly with a beach because of the flight routing. Nepal or a few days in Kolkata or Delhi works better.
- Honeymooning in monsoon? June to August means cloud on the passes and rain most afternoons. Punakha still works. The mountain views do not.
Honest notes
The Sustainable Development Fee is charged per person for every night in the country and it is the biggest line in your quote. On this route it is seven nights each. Because it does not change with your hotel standard, the extra cost of the good hotels is smaller in relative terms here than anywhere else, which is why we recommend spending up in Bhutan and not in the flights.
You will have a guide and a driver with you for the whole trip, because that is the rule in Bhutan and not an upsell. On a romantic trip this is worth planning around. We brief our guides to make themselves scarce in the afternoons, and the free day on day 5 exists partly for that reason.
Tiger’s Nest is genuinely steep, and it is the one day on this itinerary that is work. If one of you wants to do it and one does not, that is a normal outcome and the cafeteria at the halfway point is a pleasant place to wait with a view.
Hotel dinners in Bhutan are buffets and they repeat by day four. We book restaurants and farmhouse meals where they exist, which is mostly in Paro, Thimphu and Punakha.
Punakha is warm and the western valleys are not. Bring layers for Paro evenings even in May.
Built by your named Bhutan specialist, and checked by our Delhi office before it goes out.
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