Every Journey is a Story
Five nights in the valley we come from
Cross Chele La at 3,988 m into the valley that only opened to visitors in 2002 — barley fields, blue pine, two ancient temples and the people we grew up with.
Haa is the valley Jamyang Tourism comes from, and the one most itineraries skip. It sits at about 2,670 m behind a wall of ridges west of Paro, closed to foreign visitors until 2002 and still quiet enough that a walk through the fields is a conversation rather than a photograph. This journey gives Haa two full days instead of the usual passing glance, and reaches it the way it should be reached — over Chele La, the highest road pass in Bhutan.
Suits first-time visitors who would rather see two valleys properly than five in passing, and anyone comfortable with one long uphill walk. Day walks are optional and the driving days are short.
Where you sleep, and for how long. Every transfer is by private vehicle with your guide.
Distances and walking times are honest estimates for an unhurried pace. Nothing here is fixed — we move days around to suit the weather, the festival calendar and how you are feeling.
Your flight banks between the ridges and lands at Paro, the country’s principal international gateway. We meet you outside the terminal, and if you have the energy after the flight we walk the old bridge and the town’s single main street before an early night at 2,200 m.
The trail to Paro Taktsang gains around 900 m through blue pine and prayer flags to a monastery built onto a cliff face at roughly 3,120 m. Most walkers take four to five hours for the return, and there is no shame in the halfway teahouse. Afternoon at Rinpung Dzong and Kyichu Lhakhang, one of the oldest temples in the country.
The road climbs through fir and rhododendron to Chele La at 3,988 m, where the prayer flags run for hundreds of metres and, on a clear morning, Jomolhari stands on the northern skyline. We drop into Haa for lunch, then visit Lhakhang Karpo and Lhakhang Nagpo — the White and Black temples, whose siting is credited in local telling to a white and a black dove.
No transfers today. We walk from the valley floor through Katsho or Yangthang village, past barley and buckwheat and the small wooden lhakhangs that serve each cluster of houses, and stop where we are invited to. In the afternoon there is time for the shrine of Ap Chundu, the valley’s protector deity, and for the hot-stone bath a farmhouse will prepare if you ask in the morning.
We leave Haa along the Haa Chhu, meet the Paro river at Chuzom where three chortens stand in three architectural styles, and continue to the capital. Thimphu in the afternoon: the Memorial Chorten, the weekend market if the day falls right, and the great seated Buddha Dordenma on the ridge above the city.
An early drive back down the valley to Paro for your flight, with a last stop wherever the light is good.
Altitudes and walking times are approximate and vary with conditions. Festival dates follow the Bhutanese lunar calendar and are confirmed annually by the Department of Tourism, so festival journeys are built around the year’s published dates. Road works and weather can change a driving day; your guide will always discuss an alternative with you before anything is changed.
Yes — every journey we publish is a starting point. Add a valley, drop a dzong, move the whole thing to a festival week, or slow the whole pace down. Most itineraries go through two or three drafts before anyone books anything.
Only the people you book with. Every journey is private: your own guide, your own vehicle and your own driver, whether you are one traveller or eight.
You get a written day-by-day itinerary with hotels named and a full quotation, usually within one to two working days. Nothing is payable while we work it out.
For March–May and September–November, six to nine months ahead — the Paro flights and the better hotels fill first. Off-season, six to eight weeks is usually enough.
Written itinerary and full quotation, usually within one working day.
Every journey is private and rewritten around you — add a valley, add days in Haa, or move the whole thing to festival week.
Tell us your dates and how many of you there are, and we will come back with a written day-by-day itinerary for Haa Valley & Chele La and a full quotation. No deposit, no obligation, and a real person answering.
Paro · Thimphu · Punakha
The three western valleys, unhurried: the capital, the pass with 108 chortens, the great fortress at the river junction, and the Tiger’s Nest to finish.
Tailor-made
Quotation by email
Paro · Festival valley · Punakha or Haa
A tshechu is not a performance for visitors — it is the year’s most important religious gathering, and the dances have been danced in that courtyard for centuries.
Tailor-made
Quotation by email
Paro · Thimphu · Punakha · Phobjikha · …
East of the Black Mountains the valleys widen, the temples get older, and the road becomes the journey. Nine nights to Bumthang and back.
Tailor-made
Quotation by email
