Cliff clinging monasteries, the highest pass you can drive, and a kingdom that measures itself in happiness, Bhutan, unhurried.
The flight into Paro is one of the world's most dramatic, a banking turn between Himalayan ridges onto a single runway. Your guide meets you, and an hour's drive carries you to Thimphu, the only world capital with no traffic lights. A first easy evening at altitude.
The great golden Buddha Dordenma watching over the valley, the weekend market if it falls right, a school of the thirteen traditional arts, the takin preserve (Bhutan's improbable national animal), and the Tashichho Dzong glowing at dusk. Hand stamp your own postage stamp along the way.
Climb to the Dochula Pass, 108 chortens and, on a clear morning, a wall of white Himalaya, then drop into the warm Punakha valley. A walk through rice fields to Chimi Lhakhang, the fertility temple, and the breathtaking Punakha Dzong where two rivers meet.
A morning hike across a long suspension bridge and up through paddies to the Khamsum Yulley Namgyal Chorten, the whole valley laid out below. An afternoon of nothing in particular, a riverside picnic, or an optional gentle raft down the Mo Chhu.
Back over the mountains to Paro (about three hours), the loveliest of Bhutan's valleys. The afternoon at the Rinpung Dzong and the National Museum in its old watchtower, then a traditional farmhouse dinner with a hot stone bath to soak off the road.
The day you came for. A morning hike up through blue pine forest and prayer flags to Taktsang, the Tiger's Nest, a monastery improbably glued to a cliff 900 metres above the valley floor. Three to four hours up and back, slow and steady, with a pony to the halfway point if you like.
An offbeat day over the Chele La pass, at 3,988 metres, the highest road in Bhutan, all prayer flags and spring rhododendron, into the quiet Haa Valley that few visitors reach. Or simply a slow day in Paro town. Your call.
A last Himalayan breakfast before your guide sees you to Paro airport and the dramatic flight out. You leave a little slower, a little quieter, which is rather the point of Bhutan.
Three ways to do the same route: Comfort, Premium or Luxe. Breakfasts in. Mix tiers city by city if you like, it is your trip.
Priced to your dates, your hotel tier and how the two of you like to travel. Ask, the first answer usually lands within minutes.
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