Customized Bhutan tours from Bangladesh and India
Customized Bhutan tours from Bangladesh and India
The valley almost every visitor sees first — home to Bhutan’s only international airport, and to the cliff-side monastery the whole country is known for.
Paro is a broad, flat-bottomed valley of rice fields and farmhouses with the Paro Chhu running through it — and it is the only place in Bhutan an international flight can land. The approach between the ridgelines is famous among pilots, and it sets the tone for everything that follows.
The town itself is one main street, walkable end to end in twenty minutes, with the dzong above it and the National Museum above that. Most itineraries start and finish here, and it is worth keeping a full day rather than treating it as an airport transfer.
Four to five hours round trip for most people, on a well-made path that climbs steadily from the car park. There is a cafeteria at roughly the halfway point with a clear view across to the monastery, and horses can be arranged for the first section. The final stretch is a staircase down and back up a gorge, which horses cannot cover. Reasonable fitness matters more than experience.
At least two nights — one for the Tiger’s Nest and one for the valley itself. Many travellers give it more at the end of a trip, since flying out of Paro means being there the night before anyway.
Paro has direct flights from Dhaka and Kolkata among other regional cities. Travellers coming overland from Siliguri enter at Phuentsholing and drive up, which takes the better part of a day.