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Western Bhutan, Central Bhutan or
Eastern Bhutan?
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Bhutan is undeniably hailed as one of the world's
last Shangri-Las. While the
festivals in Bhutan are very colorful and special in every way,
and you should include at least one of them in your itinerary,
fact is that aside the unique culture, Bhutan above all has
stunning landscape, incredible virgin forests, and a pace of
life we in the West have lost.
Needless
to say if you are going to come all this way, whether you shall
be coming from North America, Europe or Asia, you should make
the most of your visit.
If you have no more than 5 to 7
days to spare, you can only see the key sites of
Western Bhutan. Although you
can get a glimpse of the Bhutanese culture and sample its beauty
and traditions on such a short visit, you can only at best
venture a short distance beyond the Dochula Pass, the real entry
point to Central Bhutan, the heart and cradle of Bhutanese
civilization. In order to visit Central
Bhutan, plan on at least 10 days, better more.
And last, should you desire to
experience the entire Bhutan, and the depth of the traditional
Bhutanese culture, you must venture all the way to Mongar and
Tashigang in far Eastern Bhutan.
To accomplish that, same as going to Central Bhutan, keep in
mind that there is only one road and coming all the way to the
center and the far east, you will have to return the same way
and thus you will need at least 14 days otherwise it is not
logistically possible, nor worth to rush through it.
Not to forget, the same way we
can customize any tour, any itinerary, to fit your schedule,
same way we can customize it with emphasis on your favorite
activity or special interest,
whether it may be bird watching, architecture, textiles, bicycle
touring or photography.
Bottom line, we are here to help
and if you let us know your total number of days available to
travel, we'll make sure to design an unforgettable itinerary for
you.
We specialize in
private tours that
we custom-design
per your wishes and run when you want to
travel. Any of the itineraries we show can be customized as a private tour, and some we
offer also as group tours
on set departure dates.
For samples of our itineraries,
please see the navigation menu in the left column.
The best way to design a
private tour for you is to have us include a
festival in it - please see the Festival Dates list
on this page as well as check for our latest festival updates. But
before you decide on
any tour in Bhutan, the important thing is to
consider your travel options as to where you can
enter and exit Bhutan and, considering you're coming all this
way to visit Bhutan, whether it would not make sense you combine
your Bhutan itinerary with a visit to neighboring Sikkim,
Nepal, Assam and/or other parts of India or even elsewhere in
South and South East Asia. |
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Most tourists enter
Bhutan by air via Paro and exit the same way. This
is the most popular way to visit Bhutan. The only
problem with this option is that if you want to go
as far as Bhumthang in the heart of Bhutan, not to
mention if you'd like to explore Eastern Bhutan,
you will have to backtrack the same way back to Paro, in a
way wasting time and money by tracing your footsteps
over the places you have already seen. Hence here
are two land-entry/exit points for you to consider,
especially if you should like to add-on visit to
other parts of India. |
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Bhagdogra, West Bengal to or from Phuntsoling
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If you can't get a
seat on Druk Air flying into Paro during festival
times, you can still come to Bhutan by flying to Bagdogra in
West Bengal. We'll pick you up in Bagdogra and enter
Bhutan by road via Phuentsholing in
south-western Bhutan. We can design your
tour to exit Bhutan via Paro by air, or fly out of Bagdogra
again, or exit in
south-eastern Bhutan if you want see the East and do
a full-circle of Bhutan. |
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For those with time
and interest, this is an option not to miss if
you are coming all this way - enter Bhutan via Paro by air, tour Bhutan, then exit by road at
Phuentsholing to West Bengal
where our Sikkim crew will pick you up for your
add-on tour of
Darjeeling & Sikkim,
another of the once
prominent fairytale Himalayan kingdoms.
Please keep in mind
that any of our itineraries you see at our sites can
be customized, made longer or shorter, any-which-way
you prefer! |
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Eastern Bhutan to Assam and Kaziranga National
Park
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Start your tour by
flying into Paro, exit in the south-eastern corner of
Bhutan, at Samdrup Jongkhar, then fly out from
Guwahati in Assam.
This is an ideal way to
tour Central as well as Eastern Bhutan, the real Bhutan. It
allows you to make a full circle of the country, no
backtracking. In addition, this option offers a
possibility to add a side trip on your Bhutan tour to
Assam and India's premier wildlife
reserve, the
Kaziranga National Park
- this is place not to miss! And you could even sail
on the Brahmaputra! |
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Add-on options from Delhi, Kathmandu or
Bangkok
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As Druk Air flights,
the only carrier allowed to service Bhutan, fly
to/from Paro via either Delhi, Kathmandu or Bangkok,
these access points offer wonderful opportunities
for add-on tours in the respective countries. From
Delhi it is only a hop to visit Agra and
Taj Mahal or the majestic
Rajasthan.
Kathmandu is always worth a stop and then
there is
Chitwan National Park, even short flight
option to Everest. And from
Bangkok you could add a side trip around
Thailand, to Luang Prabang in Laos,
Angkor Wat in neighboring Cambodia, even a
few days in
Vietnam. |
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