6-Day Bhutan Hiking and Sightseeing Tour with Tiger's Nest

• Meet your tour guide and the team at the airport.

• Make your first foray into the Kingdom with sightseeing on the way to Thimphu. After lunch, the sightseeing begins with a tour including some of the following, depending on opening times and interests: National Memorial Chorten, Buddha Point, Takin Zoo, and Trashi Chhoe Dzong.

• Visit the weekend market, whose main market days are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, as well as the Folk Heritage Museum.

Dinner and overnight in the hotel.

• Make an awe-inspiring drive to Punakha Valley as the road zigzags up to the 3,140 m-high mountain pass of Dochu La, with its forests of fluttering prayer flags, a maze of memorial chortens, and, on a clear day, sweeping views of the main Himalayan range. Up by the river, deep in the verdant terraced hills and past Punakha Dzong, is your home for the next two nights.

Dinner and overnight in the hotel.

• Enjoy a full day for further exploration of the scenic Punakha Valley, which is low enough at 1,200 m to allow bananas and oranges to grow.

• Walk up through whitewashed homesteads and farmland to Khamsum Yuley Namgay Chorten, a shrine recently built by the royal family. It is a startlingly ornate and elaborate structure with a rainbow of Guru Rinpoche images and superb views.

• Proceed along the riverside as the massive architectural edifice of the 17th-century Punakha Dzong soon looms into view. The fortress-monastery was built in 1637 by Shabdung Nawang Namgyal in a commanding position at the confluence of the Po Chhu and Mo Chhu (Father and Mother rivers). It once served as the seat of the Kingdom's government and is now the winter home of Je Khempo, the head abbot of Bhutan, along with a retinue of 1,000 monks.

• Take a short walk across rice paddies in the afternoon. This leads to Chimmi Lhakhang, a fertility temple dedicated to Drukpa Kuenley, a Tibetan Buddhist saint known popularly as the Divine Madman. The temple sits atop a picturesque hill surrounded by rice fields. Drukpa Kuenley built a chorten on the site in the 14th century, and it has long been a pilgrimage site for couples hoping to start a family.

Picnic or lunch at a local restaurant.

Dinner and overnight in the hotel.

• Retrace your steps over the Dochu La for a second view of the wonderful Himalayan range.

• Returning to the Chuzum (river confluence), catch a glimpse of the three shrines in Nepali, Tibetan, and Bhutanese style, which were built to ward off evil spirits near the checkpoint. Time permitting, the journey can be broken with a visit to Tach Lhakhang, built by Thangtong Gyalpo, the so-called Iron Bridge Builder. This former saint from the 14th century introduced the art of building suspension bridges with iron chains, and the only way to reach his temple is by one of these bridges.

• Drive along the Pa Chhu River, through apple orchards and rice paddies, past quaint homesteads, to your home in the mountains.

• After check-in and a show-round, spend the rest of the day relaxing around the property, enjoying the facilities, or trying an activity like the Bhutanese national sport of archery or a traditional Bhutanese Hot Stone Bath.

Guided with picnic or lunch at a local restaurant.

Dinner and overnight in the hotel.

• Visit one of the most amazing and important pieces of architecture in Bhutan, Taktsang Goemba, which defies logic, gravity, and reason. Legend has it that this cliffside was where Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) landed on the back of a flying tigress, bringing Buddhism to Bhutan from Tibet.

• Start early to avoid the hot sun for the two-hour climb to the Tiger's Nest viewpoint.

• Descend steeply, then climb up to the monastery, passing a waterfall and entering through the main gates, which are filled with murals.

• Retrace your steps or, alternatively, if time and energy levels allow, head further up to several remote temples and monasteries.

• Return to Paro in the afternoon for some time to rest and relax and enjoy the facilities of the hotel. You will also have the option to do a Bhutanese Hot Stone Bath at an additional cost. In the evening, you are invited for a firelight farewell dinner or at the restaurant.

Dinner and overnight in the hotel.

• Depart from Bhutan. Druk Air normally departs in the morning. After breakfast, your 10-minute transfer to Paro International Airport will be arranged depending on the flight schedule.