True, most tourists come in Spring and Fall as these seasons do have clearer skies and more pleasant temperatures, but it can be just as rewarding to visit Bhutan any other time of the year. In the Winter the temperatures drop and in the Summer it may rain but neither is such a factor to spoil your trip. Fact is that during Winter and Summer you will have Bhutan to yourself, and that is indeed the best experience you can hope for in Bhutan. The sounds of nature,  the peaceful and unhurried ambiance will leave you speechless!

While the festivals are indeed very fascinating, many people will get a fill of the monk dances after just a few hours, not to mention that you can see similar festivals elsewhere in the Buddhist Himalaya, in Ladakh, Sikkim, Tibet or Nepal. But no doubt, the monastic festivals in Bhutan are special, very colorful and grand in every way and you should include at least one of them, if only for a day, in your itinerary! But aside the unique culture, Bhutan above all has stunning landscape, incredible virgin forests, and a pace of life we in the West have lost.

The Western Bhutan festivals in Paro and Thimphu have been the ones that have been most promoted by operators. Yes, the hotels you can stay in while in those two cities are unquestionably the best in Bhutan, but the two towns are not what could be called the genuine Bhutan experience! Of course if you are short on time and want only a short tour in Bhutan, then Paro and Thimpu festivals are those to book. On another hand, any festival in Bhutan, in any town or village, is just as lavish and just as important and your  experience will be much more unique and unforgettable.

Indeed Bumthang Valley is wonderful, the mountain views and vistas, so many monasteries and temples in one place, a true cultural heartland of Bhutan. But there is so much more to Bhutan and places like Trongsa and Phobjikha Valley in themselves may be just as well the reason around which to design your tour. Yet to experience truly the unspoiled and remote areas of traditional Bhutan, you need to travel all the way east, to Eastern Bhutan. This is a spectacular journey that will take your breath away! It leads through  incredible  forests, grand panoramas of nature, and pristine villages where time as if has stopped but where nature and people's lives are in harmony.

While the number of tourists visiting Bhutan is slowly going up, around 22,000 in 2010, it has nothing to do with the Royal Government actually opening the country up but the fact that more Bhutanese and overseas operators are selling more tours. The Ministry of Tourism's motto still is: "High Price, Low Volume," all based on strictly controlled tourism, hence it is unlikely that the country will open up to independent travel anytime soon, if ever. Although the Bhutanese government would like to see the number go up higher yet, and the hotel capacities can handle more, they are also very conscious of not wanting to create a negative impact on their culture. Realistically, the only other limiting factor to bring in more tourists is constituted by the seat capacity of Druk Air, the only carrier allowed to fly into Bhutan.

While in Western Bhutan, namely Paro and Thimphu, one can find better quality hotels, the standard generally diminishes as one travels East. Obviously the best hotels fill up first and those that still want to come may have to face alternative accommodations; nowhere else the situation reaches this stage as in Bumthang, where on prominent festival dates the last tourists to book may not only get to stay in a hotel but will need to settle for staying in farm houses, and in extreme situations even tented accommodations, and at no discount applicable! Above all, forget what you hear about mandatory rates "so why pay more" - with 200 some operators now registered in Bhutan, there are definite differences in quality of service! You pay less, you get less.

It's an undeniable fact that in the travel business most agents sell tours and packages they have no more knowledge about than what they read in a brochure sent to them by their network or partner companies, never even coming close to visiting the destination country they market themselves. This is nowhere else more the case than in Bhutan where reported less than 1% of the actual Western agents ever visited Bhutan to check the country, its facilities and attractions out themselves in order to create better tours and market their tours with more insight. We pride ourselves being entirely different in this regard, a Footloose trademark, hence we believe that the quality of our service and tours far exceeds the average!