Bhutan Itinerary, 6 Nights from Bagdogra

In short

Is Bhutan: The Western Valleys right for you?

Bhutan: The Western Valleys is a six-night private journey for a first visit, flying Drukair from Bagdogra to Paro and back. You spend two nights in Thimphu, two in the Punakha valley and two in Paro, where the Tiger's Nest climb comes on the last full day.

Made forfirst-time visitors to Bhutan, couples, families with children over 10, grandparents who can walk an hour at a stretch and travellers adding Bhutan to Darjeeling or Sikkim.

Not for you ifyou want the cranes of Phobjikha or the temples of Bumthang, this week is too short: choose Bhutan: Into the Heart, or The Cranes of Phobjikha in winter.

Thimphu is a capital where traffic police still direct the main junction by hand and the ministries empty at five, when the flag comes down over Tashichho Dzong. You get two days there to watch Bhutan go about its business: elders circling a chorten at seven, farmers selling hard yak cheese by the river, students carving masks at the school of the thirteen arts, and on a weekend afternoon, if a match is on, archers shooting at a target 145 m away.

Punakha is the week's warm heart. Rice grows below the dzong the Zhabdrung raised between the male and female rivers in 1637, the nunnery on the Wolakha ridge looks over three valleys at dusk, and the evenings are mild enough for a balcony. The Tiger's Nest waits until your legs have had five days among these valleys, and you climb it from a house that stands below the cliff.

Designed in the Darjeeling hills by the Darjeeling Trips team · Updated September 2026

Length: 6 nights, 7 days
Starts and ends: Bagdogra airport to Bagdogra airport
Best months: October to December, March to May
Avoid: mid June to mid September (monsoon)
Pace: Moderate
Longest drive: About 4.5 hours, 375 km in all
Highest point: Taktsang (Tiger's Nest), 3,120 m
Group: Private, 2 to 6 guests

The route

Why Thimphu comes first

Thimphu first, because at 2,320 m it lets you settle at a moderate height with short days and no climbing. Punakha second, where the valley floor lies at 1,200 m and Dhensa's ridge at about 1,400 m, so the middle nights are low, warm and easy on sleep. Paro last, for two reasons: by day six you have spent five days walking between 1,200 and 3,100 m, and the flight home leaves from the same valley, so no dawn drive stands between you and the plane.

your bases, in orderby roadby airborders not drawn

Where the nights go

2Thimphu2Punakha2Paro

Read the place guidesBhutan

The shape of the journey

From 126 m to 3,120 m, day by day

You sleep between 1,400 m and 2,320 m. The highest you go is 3,120 m, on day 6 at Taktsang (Tiger's Nest), and you come down again to sleep.

1,000 m2,000 m3,000 m 2,640 m3,100 m3,100 m3,120 m2,320 m

Arrive126 m
Day 12,320 m
Day 22,320 m
Day 31,400 m
Day 41,400 m
Day 52,250 m
Day 62,250 m
Day 7126 m

Built around

Thimphu, Punakha and Paro at their best

Thimphu's elders circling the Memorial Chorten with prayer wheels at 07:00, before the offices open
Dusk from the nunnery above Wolakha, the light leaving Punakha, Toebesa and Wangdue one valley at a time
Punakha Dzong where the male and female rivers meet, then the 160 m suspension bridge swaying over the Pho Chhu
Taktsang on day six, on the trail by 07:15 with five days of valleys already in your legs
Three houses picked for where they stand: the capital's centre, a Punakha ridge, the foot of Taktsang

Day by day

Day by day, Thimphu to Paro

The longest drive is day 5, Punakha to Paro, about 4.5 hours with stops.

01
Day 1 · Bagdogra airport Thimphu

Into Paro by air, and up the river to the capital
- 55 km, about 1.5 h
- High point 2,320 m
- Sleep at 2,320 m
- Easy
KB131 leaves Bagdogra at 09:40 and touches down in Paro at 11:00 Bhutan time in October and November, and at 10:40 in December, January and spring, under an hour in the air. Take a window seat for the last minutes, when the aircraft threads between forested ridges; Paro lands aircraft only by day and in clear air. Your entry permit and the SDF were settled online before you flew, so the desk is quick. Your guide waits at the arrivals exit in a gho and takes you to the visitor information counter for a local SIM before you leave the terminal. Then 54 km, about an hour and a half with one stop, down the Paro Chhu to its meeting with the Wang Chhu at Chuzom and up the capital's valley. Lunch in town at 13:30, then your room. At 17:30 you walk from the hotel to Clock Tower Square and down Norzin Lam, where a policeman still directs the main junction by hand. Dinner at the hotel, and bed early.

The momentNorzin Lam at dusk, the main junction run by a policeman's hands and the shop shutters coming down one by one

InsiderBhutan runs 30 minutes ahead of India, and phones do not always switch on their own. Set your watch by your guide's on the first afternoon and keep it there.

If the weather turnsIf cloud closes Paro and the aircraft turns back, we meet you at Bagdogra with a car and a room, ask the Thimphu hotel to move your nights, and fly you in on the next seat.

Tonight
Le Méridien Thimphu, Thimphu

Meals
Lunch, Dinner
02
Day 2 · Thimphu

Prayer wheels at seven, a fortress at five
- 25 km, about 1 h
- High point 2,640 m
- Sleep at 2,320 m
- Easy
At 07:00 the car leaves you at the National Memorial Chorten, raised in 1974 for the third king, where Thimphu's elders walk clockwise with prayer wheels and beads before breakfast; fall in behind them. If today is Sunday, at 08:30 we go on to the weekend market on the Wang Chhu bank, open Friday to Sunday: chillies by the sack, red rice, dried yak meat and chugo, the rock-hard cheese people chew like toffee. On a weekday we go instead to the Zorig Chusum school of the thirteen arts, open to visitors from 10:00 to 12:00, where students carve masks and paint thangkas. At 11:30, the 54 m gilded bronze Buddha Dordenma above the southern approach to the city. Lunch at 13:00. At 14:30 Changangkha Lhakhang, founded in the 13th century, then the takin at Motithang. On the Sunday, if a match is on at Changlimithang, we stop for half an hour at the archery ground: entry is free, the target stands 145 m away, and when an arrow strikes, the shooting team dances in a line at the target end. At 17:00, when the ministries empty, your guide walks you into Tashichho Dzong as the flag comes down.

The momentThe flag lowered over Tashichho Dzong at 17:00, and red robes crossing the courtyard as the civil servants leave

InsiderParents with babies fill Changangkha: its protector deity guards children born at the national hospital. At the market, ara sells in unmarked bottles.

If the weather turnsIf rain sets in, we trade the takin and the chorten for the looms of the Royal Textile Academy, under a roof, and keep Tashichho Dzong for 17:00 as planned.

Tonight
Le Méridien Thimphu, Thimphu

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
03
Day 3 · Thimphu Punakha

Over the pass to the rice, and the nuns above Wolakha
- 80 km, about 3 h
- High point 3,100 m
- Sleep at 1,400 m
- Easy
Breakfast at 07:30 and away by 08:30, ahead of the midday traffic. You cross Dochu La, 3,100 m, with a short stop among its 108 chortens, then 49 km of switchbacks drop you towards Lobesa, and the air turns soft and warm. Lunch at 12:30 in Sopsokha, then a walk of 20 to 30 minutes along the paddy dykes to Chimi Lhakhang, raised in 1499 for Drukpa Kunley, the Divine Madman, whose blessing couples still come to ask for a child. Dhensa by 15:30, and an hour on your balcony. At 17:00 we drive five minutes up the Wolakha ridge to Sangchhen Dorji Lhuendrup, the nunnery where more than a hundred nuns study beneath a bronze Avalokiteshvara about 4.3 m high. From its terrace the evening light leaves the Punakha, Toebesa and Wangdue valleys one after another, and the rivers below go from green to grey.

The momentThe last light leaving three valleys one after another, seen from the nunnery terrace above Wolakha

InsiderThe paddy path to Chimi has no shade at all. From March carry a hat and water, and let your guide set the pace on the short climb up the temple's hillock.

If the weather turnsIf cloud sits on Dochu La, we drive straight over and take the stop on day five, when the road brings us back across the pass.

Tonight
Dhensa Resort, Punakha

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
04
Day 4 · Punakha

The dzong between two rivers, and a chorten above them
- 45 km, about 1.5 h
- High point 1,550 m
- Sleep at 1,400 m
- Moderate
At 09:00, early in the dzong's visiting day, your guide leads you over the covered cantilever bridge across the Mo Chhu, rebuilt between 2006 and 2008 after floods took the old span in 1957, and into Punakha Dzong. The Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal raised it in 1637 and 1638 on the tongue of land where the Pho Chhu, the male river, meets the Mo Chhu, the female; the story goes that his master builder, Zowe Palep, saw it in a dream and built it without a written plan. This was the seat of Bhutan's government until the capital moved to Thimphu in 1955, Bhutan's first king was crowned here in 1907, and the present king married here on 13 October 2011. It still keeps the district's offices, and each winter the Je Khenpo and the central monk body come down from Thimphu to its warmer courtyards, three of them, climbed by steep timber stairs. In April and May the jacaranda round the walls flowers mauve. At 10:30 you walk upstream to the suspension bridge, 160 m over the Pho Chhu, which sways just enough to make you laugh. The car then follows the Mo Chhu to the footbridge at Yepaisa, and half an hour's climb through the paddies brings you to Khamsum Yulley Namgyal Chorten, finished under the Queen Mother in 2004, for the view up the valley from its roof. Lunch at Dhensa at 14:00. When the harvest is in, the staff take you into the fields to thresh rice.

The momentThe first swaying steps onto the Punakha suspension bridge, the Pho Chhu green and loud below your feet

InsiderIn the third courtyard stands the Machey Lhakhang, which holds the Zhabdrung's embalmed body. Visitors do not go in; your guide will show you its door and tell you why.

If the weather turnsIf rain makes the chorten path slick, we keep the dzong, drop the climb and give the afternoon to Dhensa's Kibu Spa and a long lunch on the balcony.

Tonight
Dhensa Resort, Punakha

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
05
Day 5 · Punakha Paro

West again, by Simtokha to the Paro valley
- 125 km, about 4.5 h
- High point 3,100 m
- Sleep at 2,250 m
- Easy
Away at 09:00 while the valley is still in shade, and back over Dochu La by about 10:30, with tea at the pass if cloud cost you the stop on day three. Below the pass, Simtokha Dzong: the Zhabdrung built it in 1629, eight years before Punakha, and it is the oldest dzong still standing in its first form. Lunch in Thimphu at 12:30, then the river road down to Chuzom and up the Paro Chhu, into Paro by 15:00. At 16:00 we walk up to Rinpung Dzong, Paro's fortress, finished in 1646, and down again to the roofed wooden bridge beneath it as its lamps come on. Then the Taj, set beneath Taktsang itself. While you are at dinner, your guide goes over the morning with you, confirms the two ponies booked as a precaution and sets the car for 06:45.

The momentRinpung Dzong going gold above the Paro Chhu while the covered bridge below takes its first lamps

InsiderIf a Drukair jet is due as you drive into the valley, your driver pulls in above the runway so you can watch it bank between the ridges and settle onto the strip.

If the weather turnsIf road works slow us near Dochu La, we take lunch at the pass instead of Thimphu and move Rinpung Dzong to the morning of day seven, before the flight.

Tonight
Taj Paro Resort & Spa, Paro

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
06
Day 6 · Paro

The Tiger's Nest, with five days in your legs
- 25 km, about 1 h
- High point 3,120 m
- Sleep at 2,250 m
- Active
The car leaves at 06:45 and you are walking from Ramthangkha by 07:15, ahead of most day groups. This is the climb the week has been saving: after five days between 1,200 and 3,100 m, the switchbacks through lichen-hung blue pine ask far less of you than they would have on your second morning. The trail's figures, hours and rules are on our Taktsang card (/destinations/bhutan/#taktsang); what this day adds is choice. The two ponies booked for you wait at the foot, for either of you to ride as far as the cafeteria, and from its terrace the monastery sits level with you across the gorge. Take your photographs there, because cameras go into lockers at the gate. Lunch at the cafeteria on the way down and the Taj by 14:30. At 17:00 a massage at the J Wellness Circle spa for the legs that did the work, then dinner at Vista.

The momentReaching the monastery gate with breath to spare, five days of valleys behind you and the Paro Chhu far below

InsiderCarry a few Nu 100 notes for butter lamps inside. Offerings are voluntary; your guide will show you where to leave one and how to bow at the cave.

If the weather turnsIf rain or low cloud comes in, we wait and start at 08:15; if the path stays wet, we ride the ponies to the cafeteria viewpoint and come down from there.

Tonight
Taj Paro Resort & Spa, Paro

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
07
Day 7 · Paro Bagdogra airport

Kyichu at morning prayers, then the flight home
- 20 km, about 0.5 h
- High point 2,320 m
- Easy
From October 2026 to January 2027 the flight to Bagdogra leaves at 16:20, so the morning is yours. At 08:30 we drive about 20 minutes to Kyichu Lhakhang, founded in 659, whose floorboards are grooved by prostrations and whose orange trees are said to fruit all year. At 10:00 the Taj Experience Centre runs a stupa-making workshop, or your guide takes you to a village range to loose a few arrows from a bamboo bow. Lunch at 12:00 is in a farmhouse kitchen by the wood stove: ema datshi at the heat you ask for, red rice and a cup of suja. The car reaches Paro airport at 14:30. KB130 lands at Bagdogra at 16:35 Indian time, in time for an evening flight home or a night with us in the hills. In spring the flight leaves at 11:50 instead, so we go straight from breakfast to the airport.

The momentButter lamps flickering in Kyichu's seventh-century shrine while the prayer wheels outside turn and creak

InsiderYour host will offer suja more than once. Take it with both hands if you can; if you truly want no more, a smile and a gentle refusal is the polite way.

If the weather turnsIf cloud delays the flight, we wait with you at the airport; if it cancels, we take you back to the Taj, rebook the next seat and call your onward airline ourselves.

Tonight
Homeward

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch

Where you will stay

Where you sleep, three houses

Le Méridien Thimphu, Dhensa Resort and Taj Paro Resort & Spa. Prefer a different house on any night? Say which and we re-price it.

The hotel on its Thimphu street corner, white walls under painted Bhutanese window galleries.Christopher J. Fynn, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

2 nights

Le Méridien Thimphu

Thimphu

In the city centre, so the Clock Tower, Norzin Lam and the river market are a walk away; an indoor pool and spa for the first evening.

Ask for A Classic Room on a higher floor, away from the street side
The Punakha valley from above the river, the terraces the pine cottages look over.Anil Sharma / Pexels

2 nights

Dhensa Resort

Punakha

Six cottages on the Wolakha ridge above the paddies and the river, five minutes from the nunnery; every room has a balcony and a tub by a window.

Ask for Any of the 24 cottage rooms; ask for an upper floor for the view down the valley
Taktsang on its cliff, the climb that starts close to the hotel's door.Sujan Mongar / Unsplash

2 nights

Taj Paro Resort & Spa

Paro

Opened in December 2025 below Taktsang itself, so the climb starts close by; a spa and a heated indoor pool for the evening after.

Ask for A mountain-facing room in the entry category; we ask at booking for one that looks towards Taktsang

Price and what it covers

from₹4,55,000

per person, twin share, with Drukair economy from Bagdogra and the Indian-rate SDF, ₹7,200 for six nights; other passports pay US$600 in SDF plus a US$40 visa. How our prices are built

About £3,550 or US$4,740 at the rates of 19 September 2026.

On other passports, about ₹5,09,000 (£3,970, US$5,300). Bhutan's Sustainable Development Fee is US$100 a night for most visitors, against ₹1,200 for Indian passports, for 6 nights here, plus a US$40 visa. How the fee works

Price my dates

More time?The Masked Dances of Paro7 nights

Included

Drukair economy flights Bagdogra to Paro (KB131) and Paro to Bagdogra (KB130)
A Land Cruiser Prado or similar SUV and its Bhutanese driver for the seven days, Paro airport and back
A licensed Bhutanese guide from the Paro arrivals exit to the departure gate, as Bhutan's rules require
Six nights twin share in the houses named: breakfast and dinner at Le Méridien Thimphu, breakfast at Dhensa and the Taj, with their dinners paid by us
Every lunch, including the Paro farmhouse lunch on autumn departures
Your entry permit, filed online, and six nights of SDF at the Indian rate, ₹7,200 a person (other passports: /plan/what-it-costs/#bhutan-sdf)
Entry fees at every monument in the plan, including Taktsang at Nu 2,000 (September 2026 rate)
Two Taktsang ponies booked ahead as a precaution, and walking poles
A 60-minute massage at the J Wellness Circle spa on the Taktsang evening
The stupa-making workshop at the Taj Experience Centre
Our team in Darjeeling on call 24x7 from the Bagdogra departure to the flight home
Drinking water, snacks, blankets and a first-aid kit in the car

Not included

Flights between your home city and Bagdogra
Travel insurance, which the Indian consulate's guidance for Bhutan lists as required
Tips for your guide and driver
Drinks, laundry and room service
For passports other than Indian: the US$40 visa, and US$100 a night in SDF in place of the Indian rate
Rafting, the Chele La and Haa day, and other add-ons

Make it more Arranged on request, priced in your quote

Rafting on the Mo ChhuClass II and III water in the Punakha valley, October to March, with a licensed rafting crew; about two hours on the river.
Chele La at first light, then HaaAdd a Paro night, drive up to Chele La, 3,988 m, at dawn for Jomolhari, then down into Haa, opened to foreign visitors only in 2002, for hoentay, its buckwheat dumplings, by the river.
Darjeeling before you flyTwo or three nights in the tea hills first, the last near Kurseong, 70 minutes from Bagdogra, so the 09:40 flight is unhurried.

Before you go

Before you go on this route

Choose another journey ifIf you want the cranes of Phobjikha or the temples of Bumthang, this week is too short: choose Bhutan: Into the Heart, or The Cranes of Phobjikha in winter.

Papers: Indian guests travel on an original passport or voter ID, never Aadhaar; children, other passports and the rest are on /plan/permits-and-visas/#who-needs-what.
SDF: six nights at the Indian rate come to ₹7,200 a person, already in the price; how the fee works for other passports is at /plan/what-it-costs/#bhutan-sdf.
Three climates in one week: Thimphu and Paro run from about 9 to 24 °C by day in October with colder nights from November, Punakha sits a kilometre lower and warmer, and Dochu La and the Taktsang morning want a warm jacket.
For day six: walking shoes with grip, a small daypack, water, a light rain shell and long trousers, since the dress code applies at the monastery gate. Children from about eight manage it at their own pace.
Dzongs: long sleeves and covered knees at Tashichho, Punakha, Simtokha and Rinpung, caps off in the courtyards; the full list is at /plan/before-you-travel/#etiquette.
Height: you never sleep above 2,320 m on this route, and the highest you stand is 3,120 m, at the Taktsang gate on day six.
Money, SIMs and tips: rupees are taken everywhere, SIMs are sold at Paro airport, and our tipping suggestions are at /plan/before-you-travel/#tipping.

Questions

Six questions about Bhutan: The Western Valleys

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What does six nights leave out?

Phobjikha and Bumthang. The crane valley lies about three hours east of Punakha over Lawa La, and Bumthang a long day beyond that, so neither fits a week that flies home from Paro. If the cranes matter, take The Cranes of Phobjikha between November and mid-February. If you want the temples of central Bhutan, Bhutan: Into the Heart adds Gangtey and Bumthang to these same valleys over nine nights.

On which days does the Bagdogra flight run?

Drukair flies Bagdogra to Paro at 09:40 on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and Paro to Bagdogra on Mondays and Fridays: at 16:20 from October 2026 to January 2027, and at 11:50 in April and early May 2027. So this journey runs Tuesday to Monday or Saturday to Friday, and the last morning is free only on the autumn and winter dates with the 16:20 flight. The February and March 2027 timetables were not out when we read Drukair's schedules in September 2026.

Can parents over 70 manage this week?

Most can, if they walk an hour at a stretch. You never sleep above 2,320 m, the longest drive is four and a half hours on day five, and the ponies booked for day six carry riders to the Taktsang cafeteria, where the monastery faces you across the gorge. If even that is too far, Kyichu Lhakhang, founded in 659, needs no climb at all, and Dzongdrakha above Bondey, called the mini Taktsang, is a far shorter climb of about 350 m that we can arrange instead.

Why is the Tiger's Nest last here, when other journeys climb it on day two?

Both orders work, for different people. This week saves the Tiger's Nest for the end, after five days between 1,200 and 3,100 m, for guests who would rather climb with the height already in their legs, and the flight home leaves from the same valley. If you would rather climb while you are fresh, A Bhutan Honeymoon and Bhutan: Into the Heart put it on day two, from a first night in Paro.

Can we see a festival or the cranes on this route?

Not as it stands. The cranes winter in Phobjikha, east of Punakha, from late October to mid-February, and the Paro Tshechu falls in March or April on lunar dates. The Cranes of Phobjikha is built on the first, with three dawns above the roost, and The Masked Dances of Paro on the second. On December dates, the Druk Wangyel festival at Dochu La on 13 December can fall on your road if you cross the pass that day.

Can we combine this Bhutan week with Darjeeling or Sikkim?

Easily, because the flight leaves from Bagdogra, the airport for the Darjeeling hills. Spend two or three nights on a tea estate or in Darjeeling first, sleep the last night near Kurseong, about 70 minutes from the airport, and be in Paro before lunch. If you would rather cross by road, From the Hills into Bhutan goes from Kalimpong through the Dooars to the Phuentsholing gate, and Two Kingdoms joins Gangtok to Bhutan.

Sources we checked for this itinerary (52)