Bhutan Trekking & Adventure Tours

Accommodation

All accommodation on your trip is provided in Kathmandu and Bhutan, so you don't need to worry about a thing. You'll stay in a local Guesthouse in Kathmandu run by our operating partners, and at a comfortable B&B’s and lodges in Bhutan, all with private, ensuite bathrooms.

Meals

All your meals are provided apart from on your free days when we find most people enjoy checking out the variety of things on offer in the bigger towns. 

Transport

You're mostly using the trusty transport of your own two feet in Bhutan, and we'll fly you between Kathmandu and Paro for the Snow Leopard and Thunder Dragon trips. There aren't too many roads in the Himalayas! You'll be using local trade routes and come across many local people selling their wares along the way, delivering goods by foot to businesses further up the mountains and travelling to visit their families. 

Guides

You will be accompanied on your trek by an Active Adventures guide and a local guide. They will work closely together to ensure your trip is special, fun, hassle free, safe and successful. From organising your lodgings each night to making sure you're well fed, this is a team you couldn't do without. They are used to working together, have a great team bond and are always looking for ways to make your trip special. They will keep you entertained, motivated and happy, even on the most challenging days. 

We don’t believe in charging you extra for travelling alone and we have lots of single travellers on our trips. There’s no forced single supplement if you don’t mind sharing a room (you might even get a room to yourself sometimes). If you prefer not to share a room at all, you can upgrade to a single room.

You will need proper hiking boots - trail shoes are not good enough. We'll be taking you to some awesome places where you'll be hiking over a variety of terrain, therefore your boots should have full ankle support and a stiff sole with a high profile tread. It's also important that whichever footwear you decide to bring that it's well broken-in and waterproofed before you come down. If you have good ankles that will be able to cope pretty well with varied terrain, then good hiking shoes should be fine, but if not then hiking boots will give you better support.

The food in Bhutan is healthy and nutritious, with rice being the staple in the Bhutanese diet. It’s usually accompanied by one or two side dishes consisting of meat or vegetables. Pork, beef and chicken are consumed most often. Chillies are an essential part of nearly every dish and are considered so important that most Bhutanese people wouldn’t enjoy a meal that’s not spicy.

We can deal with all sorts of different diets during main meals, like…

• vegan (no meat or animal products)
• vegetarian (no meat products)
• pescatarian (vegetarian, but eat fish) • no red meat (eat chicken & fish)
• no red meat (eat chicken & fish)
• gluten intolerant (no wheat, rye, barley or oats)
• lactose intolerant (no dairy products)

Some people prefer to stick to vegetarian fare whilst in Bhutan to avoid any stomach upsets from the handling of meat. However as these trips are more comfort focused, you’ll be dining at high quality establishments and the meat in Bhutan is delicious! Your guides will let you know if there’s anywhere in particular to avoid meat.

Also if you have a sensitivity to dairy or gluten, and you have a favourite snack or brand of snack which suits you at home, we suggest you bring some along. There are meal options for you and a plenitude of food however gluten/dairy free biscuits, chocolate and muesli bars are hard to come by.

 There are a few local customs to be aware of with regard to food and meals in Bhutan:

• Always use your right hand for eating and handling food. The left hand is considered dirty, so don’t use it to eat or pass food to other people.
• It’s important not to touch another person’s food.

Being in a tropical environment and not treated by the government, the water in Bhutan contains different bacteria to what we’re used to at home. We highly recommend you to not drink it or use it for brushing teeth, even in main cities. Use treated water at all times. This also applies if you’re travelling through a developing country on your way to Bhutan.
Plastic bottles are causing a huge environmental impact in Bhutan, with plastic bottles littering some of the highest and most stunning places in the Himalayas. We’re sure you’ll agree with us that this is heart-breaking to see, so please use treated water rather than buying plastic bottles, or reuse the same bottle. Our purification tabs work perfectly, we’ll provide these for you at your trip briefing, and treated drinking water is provided in the hotels where we stay.

Bhutan’s currency is the Bhutanese Ngultrum - US$1 is worth about 67 Bhutanese Ngultrum.

We recommend you bring a variety of payment options with you to Bhutan. US dollars are most easily exchanged, and a Visa Debit ATM card and a credit card should be carried in case of emergency. 

Cash is the easiest option and most widely accepted form of payment in Bhutan. Visa and MasterCard are accepted in some places, with additional transactions fees. Be sure to let your credit card company know you are travelling to these countries. If bringing US dollars to Bhutan, bring brand new & good quality notes, the bigger the denomination the better.

We recommend bringing about US$300 in total for our Comfort-focused trips. It should be plenty for extra food or drinks, bottled drinking water, as well as any souvenirs you would like to buy. 

Tipping is accepted in Bhutan (and appreciated!). Your loose change (or 5%) is fine in cheaper places; around 10% in more expensive restaurants. Round up the fare for taxi drivers. Most people do choose to tip their Active Adventures guides at the end of an awesome trip. Up to US$100 each for your Active Adventures trip leader seems to be the norm, however less, more or not at all is also fine too. Tips are gratefully accepted in either their local currency or US dollars.

Our Bhutan trips will take you to high altitudes, so it’s important to be aware of the causes and risks of altitude sickness, and how we manage them. You’ll be accompanied on your trip by a very experienced guide. Altitude sickness is something that can occur above 2,400m or 8,000ft and affects everybody differently regardless of fitness (after all no-body is the same). Unless you live somewhere with high elevation, it's difficult to predict how your body will react to the higher altitudes, though there are some things you can do along the way to help you acclimatise.

One of the most important of these is to walk slowly and drink plenty of water – it’s really important that your body stay well hydrated at all times and you never over-exert yourself. Also, eat light meals to make it easy for your body to digest food, avoid coffee and alcohol which dehydrate you and slow your breathing down, take plenty of rests and keep yourself warm at all times. If you are concerned or have any problems, then tell your guide straight away. If you are concerned, chat to your doctor about a prescription for Diamox which is proven to help with altitude. If you need any other information please get in touch – we know the place well and we can give you plenty more specific advice.

Learn more here about dealing with altitude

Bhutan Standard Time (BST) is the time zone for Bhutan. It is +6 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Bhutan operates on a 220 volt / 50Hz syetem with round two- and three-pin plugs (C, D and M).

WiFi is available at all hotels if bringing a smart phone or iPad, though the connection can sometimes be a bit sporadic.

There are so many great stories to come out of the Himalayas, probably because the landscape and the people inspire such creativity and adventure. Here is a list, gathered from across the Active Adventures family, of recommended reads:

• Seven Years in Tibet and the sequel Return to Tibet. Two autobiographical travel books written by Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer. Seven Years in Tibet is based on Harrer's real life experiences in Tibet between 1944 and 1951 during the second world war and the time before the Chinese People's Liberation Army invaded. The book quickly became a best seller and has now sold millions of copies and been made into a movie twice - most recently in 1997, starring Brad Pitt!
• The Snow Leopard is an account by Peter Mathiessen, of his and George Schaller's 1973 journey to Crystal Mountain, in the Dolpo region on the Tibetan Plateau. They went in search of the extremely rare Snow Leopard that exists only in the high parts of Asia. Published in 1978, The Snow Leopard is regarded as a classic of modern nature writing. 
• A more recent book, Michael Palin's Himalaya accompanies the successful 2004 BBC series. If you're looking for a great coffee table book to help get you inspired, this is it! There are some awesome images by Basil Pao interspersed regularly with Palin's fantastic sense of humour and easy-reading stories. 
• You can't go past Into Thin Air, by best selling author Jon Krakauer. This is a hair-raising tale of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster when eight climbers were killed and several others were stranded during a rogue storm. Whilst a little more 'extreme' than our Everest Base Camp trek, this book definitely portrays another element to mountaineering in the Himalayas! Since it was published it has raised many questions surrounding the morality and competitive nature of summiting Mt Everest.
• For those interested in Tibetan Buddhism, The Path to Enlightenment by the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso is a must read. In 1959 the Communist Chinese Government forced the non-violent Tibetan Buddhist Government into exile. Having spent the majority of his life in India, the Dalai Lama, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, has spent this time advocating for Tibetan's inside and outside of Tibet. Along with defining the Lam Ram, which are the stages on the spiritual path, the Dalai Lama describes the difficulty of attaining Nirvana (full Buddhahood), but urges determination.
• Sherpas: Reflections on Change in Himalayan Nepal by James F Fisher is a fascinating snapshot of how tourism and modernisation have affected the traditional way of life of the Sherpa people - both positively and negatively. Fisher first visited the Sherpas of Nepal when he accompanied Sir Edmund Hillary in 1964, to help build school houses. One of the by-products of this new school building was a small airstrip, which dramatically increased tourism to the area.
• Touching My Father's Soul by Jamling Tensing Norgay offers a great insight into the Sherpa world. Jamling Norgay was a mountaineer in his own right, who was a climbing leader on the ill-fated 1996 Everest IMAX expedition. As well as a first-hand account of the 96' tragedy, this book also tells little known stories of Tenzing's historic climb. 

Please contact our New Zealand office using the details below. If the office is unattended (outside of New Zealand business hours), please leave a message so we can pick it up and respond as soon as we can.

Free phone 1 800 661 9073 (USA, Canada & Australia)
Free phone 0808 234 7780 (UK)
Free phone 0800 234 726 (New Zealand)
Worldwide +64 3 450 0414, ext 1
Email: service@activeadventures.com