Bhutan & the Nepal Himalaya
The high Himalaya at its clearest, after the monsoon. Dzongs, cloud forest and a mountain flight held for a clear morning.
October and November are the clearest weeks in the high Himalaya. The monsoon has washed out by the end of September, the skies settle, and the peaks that are hidden for much of the year stand out clean from the valleys. It is the season of the autumn festivals in Bhutan and the most dependable window for the mountain flights out of Kathmandu.
Fifteen nights, two Himalayan kingdoms. A few days in the Kathmandu valley to arrive and see the old cities, then the length of western Bhutan, Paro, Thimphu, the warm Punakha valley and the crane country at Gangtey, taken slowly, one valley at a time. Bhutan is walked, not rushed, and the days are built around a single dzong or a single climb.
The centrepiece is the Tiger's Nest, the monastery pinned to the cliff above Paro, best started early before the heat and the crowds. Around it there are the fortress-monasteries at Punakha and Thimphu, the temples and squares of Bhaktapur and Patan in the Kathmandu valley, and, on a clear morning, a mountain flight along the wall of the Himalaya with Everest off the wing. If the timing aligns, a tsechu festival is worth building the whole trip around.
The aviation here is the real work, and Paro is the reason. It sits in a valley ringed by peaks, runs to visual rules in daylight only, and is flown by a small number of specially qualified crews, which means long-range private jets do not land there. We route you into Delhi, Kathmandu or Bagdogra and put you onto the scheduled Himalayan carriers or a permitted charter for the leg into Paro. A licensed guide accompanies you throughout Bhutan; that is the rule, and a good one.
None of the global houses operate in Bhutan. What we use instead is the Amankora circuit of lodges and Six Senses across the western valleys, both among our preferred partners, with COMO in Paro and Punakha as an alternative.
Ask your advisor about the Tiger's Nest on an early start, timing the trip to a tsechu, and a Himalayan sightseeing flight held for the first clear morning rather than booked to a date.