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Bhutan

The Himalayan kingdom that measures happiness, two hours from India

Flight from India
5 hrs
Currency
BTN
Best months
Mar – May, Sep – Nov
Visa
Visa on arrival

The place

Bhutan is the only country that counts Gross National Happiness before it counts money, caps its visitor numbers on purpose, and keeps sixty per cent of its land under forest by constitutional law. What that buys the traveller is a Himalaya without the crowds: dzong fortresses the size of small towns, valleys where the loudest sound is a prayer wheel, and a monastery glued to a cliff nine hundred metres above the Paro valley floor.

For an Indian passport holder it is also the easiest international trip on this site. No visa — an entry permit against your passport or voter card — the rupee is accepted at par with the ngultrum, and the Sustainable Development Fee for Indians is a fraction of what the rest of the world pays. You can fly into Paro on one of aviation’s great landings, or cross by road at Phuentsholing after a flight to Bagdogra, which is how the value trips keep their price down.

Go in spring for rhododendrons and the Paro festival, or in autumn for washed-clear mountain views and black-necked cranes over Phobjikha. The monsoon months are green but wet, and midwinter closes the high passes. Whenever you go, the fourth or fifth day of walking through painted courtyards you will notice something missing: traffic lights. There is not one in the whole country.

Best months

Best time to visit

The months in gold are when Bhutan is at its best — weather, crowds and price together.

  • January: high 12°C, low -2°C. Dry.
  • February: high 14°C, low 0°C. Light showers.
  • March: high 17°C, low 4°C. Light showers. Recommended month to travel.
  • April: high 20°C, low 7°C. Light showers. Recommended month to travel.
  • May: high 23°C, low 12°C. Wet. Recommended month to travel.
  • June: high 24°C, low 15°C. Monsoon.
  • July: high 25°C, low 16°C. Monsoon.
  • August: high 25°C, low 15°C. Monsoon.
  • September: high 23°C, low 13°C. Wet. Recommended month to travel.
  • October: high 21°C, low 8°C. Light showers. Recommended month to travel.
  • November: high 17°C, low 2°C. Dry. Recommended month to travel.
  • December: high 14°C, low -1°C. Dry.

Gold = best months to travelDroplets = how wet the month isHigh / low °C

Holiday Packages

Holidays here

See all
Paro Taktsang, the Tiger’s Nest monastery, clinging to its granite cliff face high above the Paro valleyNew8N / 9D

Bhutan by Road: Thimphu, Punakha & Paro, 8 Nights

Phuentsholing 1N · Thimphu 2N · Punakha 2N · Paro 3N

The classic overland Bhutan at the classic overland price: cross at Phuentsholing, climb to Thimphu and the golden Buddha, cross Dochula to Punakha Dzong, and finish with three nights in Paro and the dawn hike to the Tiger’s Nest. Private car, licensed guide and every permit handled — you just reach Bagdogra.

from₹55,595per personView details

*Indicative — final price confirmed on live availability.

A white-walled Bhutanese dzong with timber galleries standing among green trees beside the riverNew9N / 10D · Flights included

Bhutan, Kingdom in Gold: Fly-in with Gangtey, 9 Nights

Thimphu 3N · Punakha 2N · Gangtey 1N · Paro 3N

Bhutan without a single long border day: fly into Paro past the peaks, then nine unhurried nights in boutique hotels — three in Thimphu, the Punakha valley, a night among the cranes of Gangtey, and three in Paro built around the Tiger’s Nest, a hot-stone bath and a farewell farmhouse dinner. Flights, SDF, guide and every permit inside the price.

from₹1,38,586per personView details

*Indicative — final price confirmed on live availability.

Worth your days

What to do

  • Paro Taktsang, the Tiger’s Nest monastery, clinging to its granite cliff face high above the Paro valley

    Climb to the Tiger’s Nest

    Paro Taktsang hangs on a cliff nine hundred metres above the valley, on the spot where Guru Rinpoche is said to have arrived on a flying tigress. The walk up takes two to three hours with a tea-house halfway; a pony can carry you to the cafeteria but no further. Start by seven, before the sun is on the trail, and carry nothing you do not need — bags and cameras stay in lockers at the monastery door.

  • A white-walled Bhutanese dzong with timber galleries standing among green trees beside the river

    Punakha Dzong, at the meeting of two rivers

    The old winter capital’s fortress sits where the Pho Chhu and Mo Chhu — the father and mother rivers — meet, behind jacaranda trees that turn the whole forecourt lilac in spring. It is the most beautiful building in Bhutan and the Bhutanese say so themselves. Twenty minutes away, the country’s longest suspension bridge sways over the Pho Chhu under a lattice of prayer flags.

  • The great gilded Buddha Dordenma statue above Thimphu against a clear blue sky

    Thimphu and the Buddha Dordenma

    The capital fits in an afternoon and rewards a full day: the giant gilded Buddha on the ridge with a hundred thousand smaller Buddhas inside it, the Tashichho Dzong that houses the king’s offices, the weekend market’s chilli mountains, and the crossing where a white-gloved policeman directs traffic with ballet arms because the city rejected its one traffic light.

  • Dochula Pass and its 108 chortens

    The road from Thimphu to Punakha crests at 3,100 metres among 108 memorial stupas. On a clear morning — most likely October to February — the entire eastern Himalaya lines up on the horizon, including Gangkhar Puensum, the highest unclimbed mountain on earth. The café at the pass serves good coffee and the best window seat in the country.

  • Phobjikha valley and the black-necked cranes

    A glacial bowl at 3,000 metres where black-necked cranes arrive from Tibet every November and circle the Gangtey monastery three times — the villagers will tell you — before landing. The valley kept its power lines underground so the birds would keep coming. Walk the Gangtey nature trail through dwarf bamboo, and sleep somewhere with a bukhari wood stove.

  • A monk in deep red robes walking along a painted wooden corridor of a Bhutanese monastery

    Archery, hot-stone baths and a farmhouse evening

    Archery is the national sport and a village match — 140 metres, wooden bows, victory dances after every hit — is better theatre than anything ticketed. Follow it with a dotsho: river stones heated in a fire and dropped hissing into a wooden tub of water and artemisia leaves. Most Paro farmhouses offer both, with ara rice spirit for the brave and butter tea for everyone else.

Indicative

What it costs

Spending money on the ground, per person per day — food, local transport and entry tickets outside your package.

Shoestring

₹1,800

a day, per person

Street food, public transport, one paid sight

Comfort

₹4,000

a day, per person

Sit-down meals, taxis, a tour or two

Luxury

₹12,000

a day, per person

Fine dining, private car, premium experiences

Visa

Visa snapshot

Visa type
Visa on arrival
Fee
₹0
Processing
1 working days
Stay up to
14 days
Entry
Single
Documents you need
5 items
Indian nationals do not need a visa for Bhutan. An entry permit is issued against a passport or voter card — on arrival at Paro airport, or at the Phuentsholing land border for overland trips, where the immigration office is closed on Bhutanese public holidays and the queue is longest before 10 am. The standard permit covers Thimphu and Paro for up to 14 days; the route permit for Punakha and points east is arranged by our guide in Thimphu in half a day. What Indians DO pay is the Sustainable Development Fee of ₹1,200 per person per night, which is itemised inside our package price, not hidden. Children aged 5 and under are exempt and ages 6–12 pay half.
Full visa detail

Practicalities

Know before you go

What to eat

Vegetarian or Jain? Safe picks here: Ema datshi, For the vegetarian and Jain traveller.
  • Ema datshiVegetarian

    The national dish: whole chillies — treated as a vegetable, not a spice — stewed in a sauce of local cheese. It arrives with everything, at every meal, and it is genuinely hot; kewa datshi (potato) and shamu datshi (mushroom) are the same comfort with less fire. All three are vegetarian.

  • Red rice and buckwheat

    Bhutan’s nutty red rice grows on the Paro valley terraces and holds its bite under any datshi. In Bumthang and the higher valleys, buckwheat pancakes (khule) and noodles (puta) replace rice — familiar ground for anyone who has eaten kuttu during a fast.

  • Momos and suja

    Bhutanese momos come stuffed with cheese and cabbage as often as with meat, and the chilli paste on the side (ezay) deserves its own paragraph. Suja is butter tea — salted, churned, closer to a thin soup than to tea. Order it once for the story; order ngaja, the sweet milky one, when you actually want tea.

  • For the vegetarian and Jain travellerJain friendly

    Vegetarian is easy — the datshi family, red rice, momos and buckwheat cover most meals, and hotels in Thimphu and Paro all know the word. Jain is workable with notice: the cheese sauces are made without onion or garlic in many homes, but restaurant kitchens use both, so we brief each hotel a day ahead and Thimphu’s Indian restaurants fill the gaps.

Set a meal preference — vegetarian, Jain or halal — when you book and we brief every hotel and restaurant on your itinerary.

What to bring home

  • Yathra — hand-woven woollen panels from Bumthang, sold by the roll in Chamkhar and Thimphu
  • Dapa and phob — turned wooden bowls and cups, the burl-wood ones are the collector’s grade
  • Bhutanese incense, rolled from juniper and medicinal herbs by monastery workshops
  • Postage stamps — Bhutan pioneered 3D and even playable-record stamps; the GPO in Thimphu prints your face on one
  • Hand-made paper (deh-sho) from daphne bark, sold as notebooks and lampshades
  • Thimphu weekend market: dried chillies, red rice, wild honey and zaw roasted rice to carry home

Getting around

Tourists move by hired car with a driver, and outside the border towns a licensed Bhutanese guide must accompany you — it is the law, not an upsell, and both are built into our packages. Roads are sealed, slow and spectacular: budget 3 hours Thimphu–Punakha and 5 from Phuentsholing up to Thimphu, and add margin in monsoon when landslides can hold the highway for an hour. Thimphu and Paro have metered taxis for an evening out; there is no Uber, no Bolt, and no self-drive hire for visitors. The one railway in the country is zero railways.

Good to know

  • Bhutan is one of the safest countries anywhere — the real risks are altitude and roads, not people. Dochula and Phobjikha sit above 3,000 metres; take the first day slowly, drink water, and tell us in advance about any heart or lung condition.
  • Mountain highways are narrow with long drops and no barriers on older stretches. Our drivers do not drive after dark outside towns, and you should not accept a night taxi over a pass either.
  • Tobacco is heavily restricted: bring cigarettes for personal use only, expect duty at the border, and never smoke near a dzong or monastery — fines are enforced.
  • Dress for the dzongs: shoulders and knees covered, shoes off in temple rooms, hats off in courtyards, and photography inside shrine rooms is forbidden everywhere. Your guide will keep you right.
  • Street dogs are everywhere and harmless by day; they hold barking contests all night, so pack earplugs — this is the single most common complaint about Bhutan and the only one we cannot fix.
  • The monsoon (June–August) brings landslides that can close the Phuentsholing road for hours. If you must travel then, fly into Paro and keep a buffer day before any onward international flight.

Travel Guide

Read the full travel guide

Month-by-month weather, money, plugs, food, shopping and the small things nobody tells you.

Bhutan travel guide
Bhutan holidays — packages, visa and best time to go · Dreamvacaa