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Getting to Bhutan - Pricing Policy and Travel

Download and print the information contained on this webpage. It contains information on getting to Bhutan, the flying routes and Bhutan's pricing poilcy.

Travelling to Bhutan. You can only travel into Bhutan using a recognised Agent; you cannot organise it yourself. You can either fly into/out of Bhutan or drive or a mixture of the two. There are now three official road crossings (all on the southern Bhutanese border with India) making access to the more remote eastern side of Bhutan easier. The Bhutanese Government monitors visitors into and out of Bhutan; they do not restrict.

You are strongly recommended to engage with us at an early stage of your trip planning to take advice of dates and the number of nights that you intend to stay in Bhutan. Druk Air for example does not fly into Bhutan on a daily basis from each of the cities that it serves (Bangkok is the exception).

Travel and Trek has extensive experience of organising and adjusting your itinerary to take all of this into account.

On entry into Bhutan, you will be met by your Guide who will escort you everywhere. He will be with you until you depart Bhutan (even if you have a UK Leader too).

Druk Air. Druk Air is Bhutan’s National airline and is the only airline that serves Bhutan.

Getting to Bhutan shows the Druk Air routes and the cities that it serves (it is subject to change).

With the exception of Bangkok, Druk Air does not fly to every city every day and therefore you need to be aware of its schedule to fit in with your plans. It’s schedule can be downloaded from the Druk Air website (www.drukair.com.bt).

Druk Air can change their schedule and routings without notice (see Buffer Time).

Visual Flight Rules (VFR). Paro (PBH) is Bhutan’s only international airport and is located in a fairly mountainous area. The weather in this area is unpredictable and VFR simply means that if the pilot has no clear vision of the local mountain tops, he will not take off or land. Delays are therefore always possible.

Buffer Time. For the reasons stated above, Travel and Trek strongly recommends that you factor in a buffer time zone of at least one night (two if you have the time) primarily on the end of your time in Bhutan to counter any changes or delays. It is far better to factor in two inexpensive nights in Kathmandu than to risk missing a costly international flight to the UK.

Driving. It is possible to drive into Bhutan from India. The most well established and used crossing is at Puntesholding, 5hrs driving south of the capital Thimphu. The other two crossings are not so well used due to their distance from airports.

Puntesholing is approx 4hrs from the Indian airport of Bagdogra (or Bhadrapur in Nepal (they are just across the border from each other)), from which you can fly to Kolkata or Kathmandu. You can also drive up through West Bengal to Darjeeling and or Sikkim thereby making what can be a good circuit.

Travel and Trek can design an itinerary that combines Bhutan, India and/or Nepal.

Pricing Policy. For your all inclusive stay in Bhutan (see box on the right hand side for what is included), the Bhutanese Govt charges a flat rate fee per person per night (pppn) (not per day) regardless of what you are doing in Bhutan.

All figures are US$

There is a reduction of those figures for the low season months of July and August to $165, $195 and $205 pppn respectively.

A reduction of $18 pppn is given on stays of longer than 9 nights. It applies to the 10th night onwards.

Paying for your trip. The deposit required to secure your trip per person is $300 + the full Druk Air fare. The remaining balance is due 10 weeks prior to departure.

UK Based Clients. You can either pay directly to Travel and Trek in UK£ (converted from the US$ rate) or directly to Travel and Trek’s office in Bhutan in US$ (details on how to do this will be provided).

Non UK Based Clients. In order to avoid unnecessary costs going through world currency exchanges, you are best advised paying directly to Travel and Trek’s office in Bhutan in US$ (details on how to do this will be provided).