7-Day Bhutan Cultural Journey with Tiger's Nest and Phobjika

The approach into Paro is one of the great arrivals in aviation, a steep descent through a tight river valley that only a handful of certified pilots may fly. Meet your guide and orient yourself in the valley, with Rinpung Dzong straddling the river on a stone bridge and the National Museum housed in the old watchtower above it. In the evening, enjoy a walk along the river as the light fades.

The icon. This classic day hike climbs through prayer-flag-draped pine forest to a cafeteria viewpoint, then descends to a waterfall and climbs stone steps cut into the cliff, taking five to seven hours round trip. For the fit, the optional Bumdra extension (2 days, 1 night) camps on a 3,800-metre ridge and descends to Tiger's Nest from above, ahead of the crowds. Photography is not permitted inside the temples.

After yesterday's effort, enjoy a traditional Bhutanese hot stone bath: a wooden tub heated by river stones that have been burning since morning, with minerals leaching into the water as they cool. In the late afternoon, share dinner with a local farming family - ema datshi (the national dish of chillies and cheese), red rice, and whatever has come in from the garden - before driving east to Thimphu.

Thimphu is the only capital in the world without a traffic light, where a white-gloved officer directs the central intersection by hand. A full day covers the essential arc: the 51-metre Buddha Dordenma above the valley, the government fortress of Tashichho Dzong, the National Memorial Chorten where the elderly circle and spin prayer wheels, twelfth-century Changangkha Lhakhang, and the takin preserve, home to Bhutan's improbable national animal.

Cross the Dochula Pass (3,088m), where 108 chortens stand against, on a clear day, the entire eastern Himalaya. Descend into a subtropical valley to Sopsokha, the Fertility Village, where every house is painted with phalluses. A twenty-minute walk through paddies reaches Chimi Lhakhang (1499), where a monk blesses pilgrims with a sacred wooden phallus. End at Punakha Dzong, the most beautiful in Bhutan, at the confluence of the Mother and Father rivers.

A 45-minute morning climb through rice paddies and pine forest leads to the Khamsum Yulley Namgyal Chorten, four storeys of painted timber and gilded copper, with a rooftop giving a 360-degree view of the Punakha valley. Then the road climbs over the Black Mountains (3,300m) and descends into Phobjika, a broad, flat, treeless glacial basin at 3,000 metres unlike anywhere else in Bhutan, with Gangtey Monastery on its forested knoll.

Phobjika is the winter home of the black-necked crane (October-February). The Gangtey Nature Trail descends six kilometres from the monastery through pine forest, bamboo, and open marsh, passing through every habitat the valley contains. Then a three-hour drive returns to Paro for the late-afternoon flight out - the same canyon approach in reverse, only this time you know what you are looking at.