SKY DRAGONEXPEDITIONS
All ten journeysCultural, trekking, festival, wildlife
Nine days built around one of the Bumthang festivals — Jambay Lhakhang Drup in autumn, or the Ura Yakchoe in spring — where the audience is the village rather than a crowd.
The Bumthang festivals are what the big city tshechus were before they became large. They are held at temples founded a thousand years before the dzongs, the audience is the valley itself, and at Jambay Lhakhang Drup the proceedings include a fire ceremony and a midnight dance performed in darkness.
The itinerary below is what we would run as written. Every day of it is adjustable — add a night, drop a drive, change a valley. Read when to travel if you are still choosing dates, and entry and fees for what a quotation covers.
Travellers who have either seen a big tshechu already or would rather skip one. There is substantial driving to reach Bumthang — two full road days each way — and the reward is a festival with almost no other visitors at it.
Private departure, any date. We reply with a written itinerary and a full quotation.
Overnight stops in order. Read more about each valley on the valleys page.
Driving times are realistic for Bhutanese mountain roads. Everything here is adjustable.
Arrival and a quiet afternoon. Kyichu Lhakhang if the flight is early.
There is a great deal of road over the next three days, so today does nothing.
Thimphu briskly — Buddha Dordenma, the Memorial Chorten — then over Dochu La and down into Punakha.
A long day, but it puts you within reach of Trongsa tomorrow.
Punakha Dzong first thing — 1637–38, at the river confluence — then east past Wangdue Phodrang and up to the Pele La at about 3,420 metres.
Down past Chendebji Chorten to Trongsa, where the dzong of 1648 runs along a spur above the Mangde Chhu gorge.
The Tower of Trongsa museum in the old watchtower, then east over the Yotong La and down into the Chhume valley, where yathra is woven at Zungney.
Jakar in the afternoon, at about 2,600 metres. The festival ground will already be getting ready.
A full day at the festival. The scale is entirely different from Paro or Thimphu: a few hundred people rather than several thousand, most of them from the valley, and enough room to move.
The dances follow the same canon as the city tshechus — the Black Hats, the Lords of the Cremation Grounds, the Judgement of the Dead — but performed in front of temples that predate the Bhutanese state. Your guide will explain each as it begins, and there will be time to ask.
Jambay Lhakhang, traditionally counted among the seventh-century foundations attributed to Songtsen Gampo; Kurjey Lhakhang, built around the cave holding what is held to be Guru Padmasambhava's body imprint; and Tamshing, founded in 1501 by Pema Lingpa, with some of the oldest surviving murals in the country.
In the afternoon Jakar Dzong, and a walk down through the fields.
The long return over the Yotong La and Pele La, past Chendebji and Wangdue, down into Punakha. It is a full day on the road with stops at both passes.
Punakha at about 1,250 metres will feel tropical after four nights at 2,600.
Over Dochu La and through Thimphu to Paro. With an early start there is time for the Taktsang climb in the afternoon, though it makes for a very full day — most people take Rinpung Dzong and the National Museum instead.
Tell us at the enquiry stage which you would rather do and we will build the day for it.
Transfer to Paro International for your flight home.
Altitude range on this journey is 1,250–3,425 m. Sleeping heights matter more than the passes you drive over — see travel questions on altitude.
One figure covers everything on the left, the Sustainable Development Fee and the visa fee included. There are no compulsory extras added later.
More general questions are answered on travel questions.
We do not publish prices, because a private trip priced honestly depends on your dates, your group and the hotels you want. Tell us those three things and you will have a real figure.
No call centre and no automated quote. A person in our Thimphu office reads what you have written and replies with a plan built around it.
Private departure on any date you choose. We reply with a written itinerary and a full quotation.
Cultural
8 days · 7 nightsParo, Thimphu and Punakha at a pace that leaves room for the Taktsang climb, an afternoon in the Punakha rice terraces and a drive over Chele La.
Cultural
11 days · 10 nightsEast from Punakha over the Pele La to Trongsa, then into the four valleys of Bumthang — the oldest temples in the country and the quietest roads.
Cultural
14 days · 13 nightsThe full length of the country, west to east, over Bhutan's highest road pass into the weaving districts most itineraries never reach.