every hour | 10 nights | from $5,860 per person
A Bhutan Vacation Package With Every Hour Held
Ten nights where somebody else holds the clock. This Bhutan vacation package carries the guide the country requires of every visitor and the levy it charges for each night, and it leaves you about three free hours in ten days.
What every hour means here
Bhutan sets the terms, not us. Every visitor travels with a licensed guide for the whole stay, and the government charges a levy for each night you are in the country. A Bhutan vacation package under those rules cannot be loose, and this one does not pretend to be: ten nights, one guide, one driver, a route filed before you land.
- Hours already spoken for
- Nine hours of a normal day are already spoken for, counting the drive, the route your guide has filed, and the meals taken together. Two of the ten days run to eleven.
- The earliest you must be somewhere
- 6:40 a.m., on three of the ten mornings, all of them long driving days. The other seven start between 8:00 and 8:45.
- The longest stretch that is yours
- Three and a half hours on the eighth afternoon in Paro, within walking distance of the main street. Nothing longer than that comes up in ten days.
- Who chooses where you eat
- Your guide, on both counts. The law puts him beside you, he knows which road is open, and on driving days lunch is one place or none.
- What happens if you skip a day
- You can stay in the room and nobody argues, but the day is still paid for and the $100 levy for that night stands. No money comes back for a day you skip.
- Who this shape of day does not suit
- Anyone who plans by mood, who wants a whole morning reading in one cafe, or who likes an evening that ends somewhere unplanned. Ten days on somebody else's clock will grate, and you would be paying $5,860 for the grating.
The last row costs this company bookings and stays on the page anyway. A shape of day that does not suit you is far cheaper to find out about here than on the third morning.
What the figure carries
- Ten nights on two sharing: three in Paro, two in Thimphu, two in Punakha, two in Phobjikha, one back in Paro at the end.
- A licensed guide and a separate driver on all ten days. The country requires it of every visitor, so no version of this trip exists without one.
- The levy of $100 per person for each of the ten nights, $1,000 each, is already inside the price below. Quotes that look cheaper than ours usually add it afterward.
- Around 1,050 km of road. Thimphu to Punakha is 77 km and takes four hours, which is the normal speed here.
- Breakfast daily, lunch on the five driving days, eight of the ten dinners. Chili and cheese appears at most.
- One walking day in Phobjikha: 11 km, about 300 m of climb, on farm tracks rather than a graded path.
- Airport pickup and return, plus drinking water in the vehicle.
What sits outside it
- Getting there is separate and priced on its own. Return airfare from the US into Paro, with one change in Asia, has run $1,450 to $2,300 per person over the past year. We book it after your dates are set.
- Entry permission and travel insurance. We do not apply for either, hold either, or advise on them.
- Tips for the guide and the driver, about $18 per traveler per day for the pair. Nobody will ask.
- Two dinners, alcohol, laundry, and anything bought on the road.
- Single occupancy, which adds $780 over the ten nights.
- The internal flight east to Bumthang, from $210 per person one way, if you would rather not drive it.
What it costs
from $5,860 per person
- Covering
- 10 nights, a fully held timetable with a guide on every day.
- Assuming
- Two people to a room, unless the six rows above say otherwise for your case.
- Pushed up by
- The month, the grade of room, how late you leave it, and how many of the hours you want somebody else to hold.
- Fixed when
- An operator puts it in writing with its own name on it. Until then it marks the bottom of a range that genuinely happened.
You settle with the operator, through whatever system they run. This site gathers nothing and no card ever arrives at this company.
Months that hold and months that do not
March to mid-May is the steadiest stretch: clear mornings, cloud building over the passes after lunch, valley temperatures near 20C. Late September to late November is drier and colder at night, and Chele La at 3,988 m stays open.
Mid-June to mid-September is the wet season, and I would talk you out of those weeks. Rain shuts sections of the lateral road for hours, the passes hold cloud all day, and a trip built on a timetable does badly when the road decides otherwise.
Late December to February is possible if you take cold seriously. Nights in Thimphu drop below freezing, heat in the room is a stove rather than a system in the building, and snow can close Pele La for a day. I would move a first visit out of those weeks unless price matters more than comfort.
Decisions left until confirmation
Four things stay open until you confirm. Whether the Phobjikha walk runs the full 11 km or drops to a 5 km loop. Whether the Thimphu day starts at the weekend market or the archery ground, since each only works on certain days. Whether you drive to Bumthang and add two nights or fly and add one. And which of the two Punakha valley houses you take, the one on the river at 30 minutes from town, or the one above it with the shorter drive. All four go in writing, and you see the route in full before any money moves.