Bhutan: The Hiking Odyssey

Your guide meets you after arrival formalities, and the day begins gently, above the town at Ta Dzong, the old circular watchtower that now houses the National Museum, where thangka paintings, ritual masks and centuries-old armour trace the story of the kingdom. A short path leads down to Rinpung Dzong, whose carved timber galleries and wide courtyards still serve as the valley's seat of monks and government. If you wish, continue on foot across Nyamai Zam, the covered cantilever bridge over the Paro Chhu, before lunch in town.

In the afternoon the road climbs through spruce and rhododendron to Chele La, at 3,988 metres the highest motorable pass in Bhutan. Prayer flags snap in the wind, and on a clear afternoon Jhomolhari stands to the north; you can hang a string of prayer flags at the pass if you like. You then descend into the quiet Haa Valley. Sleeping lower after crossing the pass is a kind first step in adjusting to altitude.

Dinner features hoentay, the buckwheat dumplings for which Haa is known, followed by an early night before tomorrow's walk.

This is one of the oldest routes in the country. For generations, families from Haa walked it to trade with the farmers of Paro, carrying dried meat and dairy over the mountains and returning with rice, which will not grow in Haa's cooler valley. The path rises steadily through pine, fir and rhododendron, past open yak pastures, to a high pass at close to 3,800 metres. On a clear day Jhomolhari and Jichu Drake appear on the northern horizon, and you stop for a picnic lunch with both valleys laid out on either side.

The afternoon is a long, gentle descent through rhododendron and bamboo forest into the Paro Valley, past farmhouses and small fields, ending, fittingly, at the door of your hotel. Your guide sets the pace throughout, and your driver stays within reach should you wish to shorten the day.

Return to a hot shower, a quiet dinner, and the particular satisfaction of having crossed a mountain on foot.

Bhutan's capital is small and unhurried. It is a city without a single traffic light. You begin above the valley at Buddha Dordenma, the 51.5-metre bronze Buddha whose gaze rests over southern Thimphu, then continue to the Takin Preserve to meet Bhutan's curious national animal. In the afternoon the Royal Textile Museum reveals centuries of weaving tradition, and at the Institute for Zorig Chusum you watch young artisans training in the thirteen traditional arts.

As the light softens, you set out from Sangaygang on a walk of about an hour through pine forest to Wangditse Goenpa, a small temple on the ridge above the city. The golden roofs of Tashichho Dzong glow below, and if you linger, you can watch the lights of Thimphu come on one by one.

The path climbs through blue pine, then juniper and rhododendron, following old routes once used by herders and monks. Mid-morning you reach the meadows below Phajoding, a monastic settlement whose origins reach back to the thirteenth century. From here the trail climbs higher to Pumola Lhakhang and the pass beyond, at nearly 4,000 metres. On a clear day the view opens north to the great snow peaks of central Bhutan, including Gangkar Puensum, the highest unclimbed mountain in the world.

You rest at the top with a picnic lunch and, if you wish, try the tall wooden swing beside the temple. It's a small local tradition with a very long view. The return follows the same trail back to the Takin Preserve, where your driver will be waiting.

From here you set out on foot along the Divine Madman's Trail, the old route by which the monastic body once migrated between its summer home in Thimphu and its winter residence in Punakha. The trail descends through mossy forest alive with birdsong, past Sew Drangsa, the traditional resting place of travellers, and into the village of Chandana, where a farmhouse is said to have been struck by an arrow fired all the way from Tibet by Drukpa Kunley, the saint remembered as the Divine Madman. Along the way you pass a family home some seven centuries old, and stands of bamboo said to have grown from the saint's walking staff.

Your driver meets you at Thinleygang, and the road continues into the warmer Punakha Valley. In the afternoon you visit Punakha Dzong at the meeting of the Pho Chhu and Mo Chhu. It is the most beautiful fortress in the kingdom and the former seat of government. You close the day walking across the longest suspension bridge in Bhutan, prayer flags moving beneath your feet.

You ease into the warm water as the valley wakes around you, then stay for a picnic lunch beside the river, prepared by your guide and driver.

In the afternoon you cross to the Mo Chhu side of the valley and walk up through rice fields and small orchards to Khamsum Yulley Namgyal Chorten, a finely detailed temple built by the Queen Mother for the peace and wellbeing of the country. From its rooftop the view runs the length of the valley and up towards Gasa, where you head tomorrow. Should the season and your energy allow, a gentle rafting trip on the Mo Chhu can be arranged on the way back.

You pause at Gasa Dzong, a seventeenth-century fortress whose watchtowers guarded the old routes from Tibet, then continue down to Gasa Tshachu, the most loved hot spring in the country, set beside the rushing river. It was here, tradition tells, that Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal rested and bathed in 1616 on his arrival in Bhutan. Rebuilt and reopened in 2023, the springs offer several pools of different temperatures, each believed to hold its own healing properties.

You spend the afternoon and evening as the Bhutanese do: slowly, moving between the pools, resting, and returning. After dinner, if the sky is clear, you may choose to soak once more beneath the stars, with no light for miles but the moon.

Beyond Wangdue the road climbs into a different Bhutan: dwarf bamboo, oak forest heavy with moss, and yak herders' camps on the higher slopes. By mid-afternoon you crest the ridge and the Phobjikha Valley opens below: a wide glacial bowl of marshland and meadow ringed by forest, with Gangtey Goenpa standing on its low hill.

Settle into your lodge, with a wood-burning bukhari to warm the evening and dinner by the fire.

Mid-morning you walk up to Gangtey Goenpa, the seventeenth-century monastery at the head of the valley, where you may hear young monks at their prayers. From here the Gangtey Nature Trail descends gently through pine forest and open meadow, past small villages and grazing horses, to the valley floor. Afterwards you visit the Black-Necked Crane Information Centre; between late October and February you may see the cranes themselves, which arrive each winter from the Tibetan plateau.

The afternoon is entirely yours. A book, a nap, or a slow walk across the fields. If you wish, a traditional hot stone bath can be arranged this evening: river stones heated in a fire and lowered into water infused with local herbs.

Near Dochula you stretch your legs at the Royal Botanical Park in Lamperi, a protected forest home to around forty species of rhododendron, with a short walk to the small Baritsho Lake. At Dochula itself, you look back one last time across the chortens to the peaks you walked beneath earlier in the journey.

You reach Paro in the late afternoon and, if you wish, stroll through the town with its painted wooden shopfronts and small cafés. Dinner is at your hotel, with a quiet evening before tomorrow's walk.

Midway you reach the cafeteria viewpoint, where you rest with tea and see it clearly for the first time: Paro Taktsang, clinging to a sheer cliff almost 900 metres above the valley floor. Legend holds that Guru Rinpoche flew here on the back of a tigress in the eighth century and meditated in a cave in the rock, bringing Buddhism to Bhutan.

The final stretch takes you down a flight of stone steps beside a waterfall and up again to the monastery gate. Inside, among butter lamps and quiet chapels, time seems to slow. Cameras are left at the entrance, which means you simply look.

On the way down you stop again at the cafeteria for lunch. In the afternoon you can visit Kyichu Lhakhang, one of the oldest temples in the kingdom, dating to the seventh century, and light butter lamps in its courtyard, a traditional way to give thanks at the close of a journey. The evening is yours before a farewell dinner.

As the aircraft lifts out of the valley, you look down on the fields, rivers and ridges you have crossed on foot, and carry them home with you.