Planning Bhutan

I was very fortunate to get a referral from a friend who’s traveled to Bhutan. Gera recommended her friend Xinyi and sent me to Nima’s company, Best Bhutan. She had traveled with this company for both of her trips to Bhutan. It did take me a few months going back and forth. Originally 2 friends were interested in traveling with me but they eventually decided not to. I was still determined to go during my sabbatical and decided to book a 10 day trip there. I know the cost would be $200-250/day spend minimum mandated by the Bhutan Travel Bureau. This does include lodging, guide, driver, 3 meals a day, and entry fee to any sites. Visa is $40 and listed as a separate cost. There is also a surcharge ($30/each person per day)  if you travel with less than 3 folks in your group. I was able to move my trip to Dec. 1 which is the start of the low peak season and Nima gave me a slight discount due to a friend referral. It is a competitive market for tour guides since there are many working in the tourism industry for a country population of 700,000.

I advise folks to plan early because due to limited flights, the cost of flights can be very expensive. Another reason is that Paro airport in Bhutan allows only 17 qualified pilots who are authorized to land on a runway that is surrounded by severe 18,000-foot mountain peaks. The 6,500-foot runway only allows for arrivals and departures during the daytime. You can book flights out of Kathmandu, Bangkok, Singapore, and several locations in India. I read they added Tokyo as a new route as well. I knew that I wanted to fly from Singapore because I wanted to spend a few days in Singapore to visit friends. Initially since it wasn’t until November I committed to my trip to Bhutan, Nima told me that flights were all booked, but he would check to see if there were seats usually reserved for the royal family or government officials that go unused. Since I was traveling alone, it may be possible. It took him about a week to give me the good news that he was able to secure me a seat from Singapore to Paro by Druk Air. The cost was $1000 USD for this leg. Then I booked my flight from Portland to Singapore roundtrip, which was about $690 USD. I was able to score a last minute deal and used my Chase reserve points to redeem my flight. 

I did have to pre-pay all of my travel fees and wire it directly to the travel bureau after my flight confirmation. Nima did have me wire two different amounts at different times, one was for the flight to quickly secure it and the other amount was for the remaining cost of the travel package. The total cost of the 10 day package came out to be $2240. I would recommend next time to do one lump sum to minimize the wire fee, which was $45 each time for me. In my next post, I’ll cover how I prepared for my trip.