Bhutan tourism only began in 1974 when a massive 274 tourists flooded into the country!  The numbers today are much higher but Bhutan tourism is still restricted and you need to book through one of the approximately 75 Bhutan tour operators in order to get into the country.

A lot of people still think it’s difficult to get into Bhutan but, but in reality it’s no more difficult than any other country. You basically just need to book with a licensed tour operator and hire a guide.  You don’t actually need the guide and if you want to have a walk around by yourself as I did, that’s no problem.  You’ll need the guide for a few things like showing you around, explaining a few places and getting into some places, but other than that, you can go around by yourself if you want to.

The food is probably the only thing negative about Bhutan tourism.  It’s pretty ordinary and they tend to stick cheese in everything. Not as bad as Tibet, but you’ll need to stock up on snacks like I did if you’re a bit of a fussy eater.  When you get out of the main cities it probably gets worse, but you put up with it because everything else is awesome.

Getting to Bhutan can be a bit of a mission. From Hong Kong, you can fly either to Bangkok, Kolkata or Katmandu.  I took a late night flight into Kolkata, stayed a few hours at a hotel near the airport, then took an early morning flight out.  By the time you check in and get to sleep, it’s early morning so it’s probably not worth getting a hotel.  Apparently there’s some lounges in the airport you can sleep in or even doing a sleep in the airport chairs would maybe be better than heading over to the nearest hotel, which still requires a taxi ride.

The flight from Kolkata to Paro is a good one, sit on the left side of the plane if you can, you’ll need to show up early because you can’t prebook seats.  You’ll be flying over the himalayas and can see everest on a good day. The landing is awesome, only a select number of pilots are qualified to land here. I’ve experienced what appear to be more difficult landings, but when the weather turns to shit I can imagine this being quite an ordeal!

As usual on my solo trips, I only stayed 3 says and that wasn’t quite enough. Most  of the Bhutan tourism operators’ itineraries seem to be at least 12 days and take you into the real untouched parts of Bhutan. Unfortunately this isn’t something one can do with kids, unless you don’t really give a shit about your kids and don’t mind leaving them at home for 2 weeks, but some time down the track I’d like to do a longer trip. If you can, spend 10-14 days there.

Back to the Bhutan Destination Guide home page.

Visit the Bhutan Tourism Councils website here.