Bhutan Extended with Haa Valley

Highlights

• All of the Bhutan Classic itinerary
• Haa Valley — remote, less-visited valley
• Chele La Pass (one of the highest motorable passes in Bhutan)

Day by day

1. Day 1Arrive Paro, drive to Thimphu

   Entry formalities at Paro, then the road along the river to Thimphu — no traffic lights, no billboards, and a valley quieter than you expected.

2. Day 2Thimphu Sightseeing

   The Buddha Dordenma, enormous and gilded on its hillside above the whole city, and Tashichho Dzong below, holding both the government and the monastic body behind whitewashed walls.

3. Day 3Thimphu to Punakha

   Over Dochula Pass, with its bank of chortens facing the Himalaya on a clear morning, and down into the warmer valley at Punakha, where the dzong stands at the meeting of two rivers.

4. Day 4Punakha to Paro

   The drive back to Paro, taken slowly because the valley deserves it.

5. Day 5Haa Valley Day Trip

   Across Chele La — the highest motorable pass in the country, strung with prayer flags — into Haa. A valley opened to visitors only recently, and still farmed and lived in rather than looked at.

6. Day 6Paro Local Sightseeing

   Paro itself: Rinpung Dzong above the river with its covered cantilever bridge, and the National Museum in the old watchtower on the hill behind it.

7. Day 7Tiger's Nest Hike & Departure

   The morning hike to Taktsang, the Tiger's Nest, on its cliff nine hundred metres above the valley floor. Then departure.

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