Bhutan on a Budget: How to Plan a Wallet-Friendly Vacation to Bhutan
How to save money on your trip to Bhutan
From its snow-capped mountains and magnificent monasteries to hilltop temples and wonderful wildlife, there is so much to love about Bhutan. That said, it can also be one of the most expensive countries to visit, so if you want to save money when visiting Bhutan, you’ll need to plan ahead and allow for some flexibility.
Nestled in the Himalayan mountain range between northeastern India and southern Tibet, Bhutan is a tiny but mighty nation where that is the last remaining Buddhist Kingdom on earth. Having just opened to tourism in 1974, much of the country is still quite isolated from the world and very few travelers have had the opportunity to check it off their bucket list.
Whether you’re planning a two-week trek through remote highland mountains, or a quick vacation to visit the most popular temples in capital city, Thimphu, and gateway city, Paro, there are numerous ways to save money in Bhutan. (Like always, be sure to get a quote for travel insurance in advance and check your packing list twice).
Here’s what you need to know when planning a cheap vacation to Bhutan.
Bhutan’s Sustainable Development Fee
For decades, Bhutan watched neighboring countries like India and Nepal throw open their doors to tourism, letting in so many people that trails and sacred sites became grossly overcrowded and formerly pristine natural areas were blanketed with trash. Bhutan didn’t want the same to happen to them so they instituted what they dubbed the Sustainable Development Fee (SDF). Essentially a daily tourism tax, the fee has varied dramatically over the years, but it’s always been one of the highest in the world.
During the pandemic, the SDF was raised to $200/day; currently, it is temporarily discounted down to $100/day. The government has not set an end date for the discount and has publicly indicated they will consider raising it again if annual tourism rises above 300,000 in 2027. The fee is required whether you travel alone or with a tour operator and it applies regardless of whether you stay in budget homestays or five-star luxury resorts. Bhutan’s SDF fee is charged on top of all other in-country fees (transportation, guides, hotels, meals, airfare), and it’s one of the reasons visiting Bhutan is so expensive. Your visa will not be approved until you pay the SDF so there’s no way around it.
Getting Around Bhutan’s Sustainable Development Fee
Technically, there are ways to not pay Bhutan’s Sustainable Development Fee but most options won’t apply to the average traveler. For instance, if you have a friend in Bhutan, they could invite you to visit as a friend (not a traveler), but this typically only applies to travelers making a return visit to Bhutan to connect with locals they’d met on previous trips.
Another way to not pay the SDF in Bhutan is if you’re traveling to Bhutan as a journalist, media, or travel writer. In these instances, you can submit an application to the government to have the fee waived (this is what I did but it). Keep in mind that this is an extensive process and is not intended for social media influencers or smalltime bloggers; it’s mostly set up for traditional media writing for major outlets like National Geographic or Lonely Planet. This process required several rounds of paperwork; proof of the sort of articles I write and information on what I planned to write about Bhutan; and a very detailed daily itinerary that included the regions I’d visit, my activities, the hotels I’d stay in. I also had to submit the name and contact information of the local tour operator who would be overseeing my trip.
Do You Need a Guide and Driver in Bhutan?
I’d probably bet you $100 that every single person you meet in Bhutan (travellers, guides, hotel operators, etc.) will tell you that you are required to have a private guide and a driver while in Bhutan. While having both is extremely convenient and this is the route that 99% of travelers take, it’s not exactly true.
I had the extraordinary good fortune to have Kinley Gyeltshen as one of my guides. I joined a 12-day hiking trip he led for Wilderness Travel, a California-based adventure travel company for which he’s been leading trips for over 25 years. Gyeltshen has been leading trips in Bhutan for nearly 40 years, as he was one of the first guides selected and formally trained when Bhutan first opened its doors. He is actively involved in the tourism industry and highly knowledgable of all things Bhutan.
Gyeltshen confirmed to me that it is not required to hire a guide and driver in Bhutan. However, he elaborated that doing so doesn’t just make travel easier, but it dramatically increases the experiences you can have in the country. For instance, many of the country’s famous fortresses, temples, and other top attractions require you have a guide to enter. Not only does the guide need to be with you, but they need to present credentials and write their guide number on the registration form.
Gyeltshen admits that whether or not you’ll be admitted entry does depend on who’s working on a given day, as we saw two travelers simply register their own names at Thimphu’s big Buddha statue (where you, technically, are required to have a guide). However, the guards at truly special events and activities – like the country’s colorful festivals held in ancient fortresses, or the Tiger’s Nest monastery that is the single most popular attraction in the country – are unlikely to let you slide in without a guide.
When to Hire a Guide and Driver in Bhutan
Now, to get around having to pay for a guide and driver every day but still be able to fully take advantage of Bhutan’s unique cultural heritage, I suggest being strategic about when and where you get a guide.
You do not need a guide or driver to go shopping, explore neighborhoods, dine in restaurants, or visit art museums in big cities like Paro and Thimphu. Because everyone flies into Paro (the only international airport in the country), you can simply catch a taxi from there to your hotel, explore on your own, then catch a taxi to Thimphu, where you can also explore on your own. To save even more money, you can get around by local buses, but if you go that route, budget in significantly more travel time (which may not be worth it if you wind up needing to then pay for more hotel nights and, as a result, more days of the SDF fee).
Also keep in mind that, unlike in many other countries, guides are not drivers. You cannot hire a single person to serve both roles even if your guide knows how to drive and has a license. In Bhutan, it’s an either/or situation, as guides are legally prohibited from also being the drivers for safety reasons. While I’ve had many competent guides in other countries who were able to also safely drive us around and simultaneously narrate, Bhutan seems to believe this would pose a danger (or perhaps they’re mostly just considering the rule’s positive impact on job creation). I did meet a Bhutanese guide who had been hired by a budget backpacker from India and they took the bus together all over the country but the guide told me that the public transportation was far less comfortable and they wound up not being able to see or do as much since they lost so much time puttering around on slow buses.
Planning A Budget-Friendly Itinerary in Bhutan
Because you’ll fly in and out of Paro, you have the option to either start your trip here or end it here. If you don’t want to start in Paro, simply hire a taxi or take the bus to capital city Thimphu, about an hour away. Side note: the reason the airport is not in Thimphu is that the area is too mountainous and it would be too complicated and difficult to put an airport there; Paro was the next best option so a tourism industry built up around it.
Whether you begin in Paro or Thimphu, you won’t need a guide to shop, walk around, or hang out in your hotel room while you get over jetlag and acclimate to the ~9,000 feet of elevation (which is how many travelers spend the first couple of days).
Keep in mind that Bhutan’s biggest attraction, the Tiger’s Nest (Taktsang) monastery is in Paro, but because it is an extremely vigorous hike (5 miles and 3400 feet of elevation gain), most travelers save it for the end of the trip. This way, they’re over jetlag, they’ve acclimated to the elevation, and they can do the hike the day before they fly out of Paro. Again, you will need a guide (and modest clothing) to enter the Tiger’s Nest monastery at the top of the hill, but you do not need a guide to climb the hill.
Honestly, the Tiger’s Next monastery is cool and, after you’ve heaved hoed yourself all the way up there, you’ll probably want to enter, but if you really can’t afford a guide, it’s not the end of the world. The hike itself is stunning and you can’t bring a camera inside the monastery anyway (there are lockers outside), so the only pictures you’d get would be from the outside.
Is 7 Days Enough in Bhutan?
For many people, seven days will be enough in Bhutan. You can hit most of the main sites in 5-6 days, but if you want to add in another city, then 7 or 8 days in Bhutan will work.
Days 1-2 Thimphu
Fly into Paro and take a taxi or bus to Thimphu. Lay low for a few days to get over your jetlag and acclimate to the elevation. Walk around, pop into art galleries and souvenir stores and visit museums that are free (or cheap) and that don’t require a guide. Two good options are the Bhutan Art Gallery and the Postal Museum (Bhutanese stamps are big collectors’ items and the country created the first-ever aromatic, 3D, and talking stamps.) I visited both of these museums and thought they were great.
Rooms at the Hotel Bhutan Home Thimphu start around $45, include breakfast, and some rooms have balconies.
Days 3-4 Punakha
From Thimphu, hire a taxi or take a bus to Punakha a couple of hours away. Punakha is a great small town where they have a beautiful dzong that you’ll definitely want to visit with a guide (look out for the enormous beehives hanging from the top entrance).
Traditionally, dzongs were built in the 17th century as fortresses of defense. This was before the country was unified and the different regions were at odds with each other, so every region had a dzong where the population could shelter and be protected from attacks. Now, they are a combination of government offices and religious centers.
Paro and Thimphu have beautiful dzongs, but if you don’t want to hire a guide and driver for every day, you should hire a guide and driver beginning in Punakha. The dzong here was destroyed at least seven times by fire, flood, and earthquake, but it keeps being rebuilt. The current version was last rebuilt in 2006 and it is enormous and absolutely beautiful.
Before you visit the dzong, there’s another gorgeous temple you could visit but it requires a hike. The Khamsum Yulley Namgyal Chorten temple was built by the Queen Mother (the current king’s mother) in the 90s and it offers stunning panoramic views of the surrounding valley. The hike is short but steep and you can complete it (and tour the temple) in a few hours. Many travelers spend the morning visiting the temple and the afternoon at the dzong.
In Punakha, I stayed at the Spirit Village Lodge, which costs about $40/night and has lovely views of the river, where a ton of birds spend their mornings and evenings.
Days 5-6 Phobjikha Valley (optional)
From Punakha, you can either head back to Paro, or head to Phobjikha Valley (“Crane Valley”). If you’re short on time and money, I’d suggest heading back to Paro. Otherwise, a nice next destination would be Phobjikha Valley, where up to 700 black neck cranes spend the winter. They begin arriving in early November (when the Black Neck Crane Festival is held at nearby Gangtey Gompa Temple), but to see the most birds, plan to visit in December or January, when the skies are also bright blue and crystal clear.
In Phobjikha, you can visit the Black Neck Crane Center (where you, technically, won’t need a guide and you can just watch the informational video and read the displays if you somehow made it this far without a guide). You can also tour the Gangtey Gompa Temple, and do an easy 2-mile hike through the valley.
In this area, the Wangdue Ecolodge is a good bet, with nice rooms around $75/night.
Days 7-8 Paro
Unless you plan to head to India or Tibet via a land border, you’ll need to head back to Paro to catch your international flight out of the country. Here, you can explore with or without a guide because, as mentioned, you won’t need to be accompanied to go shopping or exploring. The National Museum of Bhutan is built inside an old watchtower and it is well worth the visit. It contains countless artifacts, the watchtower building itself is fascinating to see and explore, and the surrounding views of the valley are unbeatable. You don’t need a guide to understand what’s inside the museum because there is very good signage in English. However, you may or may not be permitted to enter the museum in the first place without a guide, depending on who is working the door.
As mentioned previously, the Tiger’s Nest hike is an incredible (and incredibly difficult) thing to do and there’s a reason it’s the #1 activity in Bhutan. I spent 2 weeks traveling across the country in slow-season March and saw very few other tourists but as soon as I started the Tiger’s Nest hike, I was shocked at how many people there were (it’s even more crowded in April, May, September, and October). I say this because there’s a reason it’s so popular and you don’t want to miss out on this just because you want to save a buck. You can do the hike without a guide (and that’s perfectly fine), but you probably won’t get to enter the monastery on your own.
In summary, if you can’t afford to hire both a driver and guide for your entire trip to Bhutan, explore Paro and Thimphu on your own, and get a guide and driver for Punakha and Phobjikha (if you go there).
In Paro, there are countless affordable option, be they traditional hotels or glampsites. The cleverly named Taktsangri-La (a mashup of Shangri La and Taktsang, the name for Tiger’s Nest) runs about $70/night and includes breakfast.
Booking Your Flight to Bhutan
Because Bhutan is so remote, you’ll probably have a pretty lengthy flight to get there. In addition to considering how much it will cost within the country, also think about how much it will cost to get there. Two airlines operate here, Drukair and Bhutan Airlines, and there’s daily flights from Delhi, multiple flights per week from Kathmandu and Bangkok (daily during high-season months April and May), and weekly flights from Dubai, Singapore, and a handful of other places. Wherever you come from, you’ll still need to book a flight on one of Bhutan’s airlines to get into the country.
I flew from New York City (JFK) airport, and had the option of flying through Dubai, Bangkok, and Delhi. The Drukair roundtrip flight from Dubai or Bangkok to Paro was about $800, which was half the price as the Drukair flight from Dubai ($800 each way). Still, I found a really cheap flight on Emirates from JFK to Dubai and then back from Bangkok to JFK (through Dubai), so I flew Drukair from Dubai to Paro then from Paro to Bangkok. However, if you can find a cheap flight to Bangkok or Delhi, you could save $800 over flying through Dubai. Was that confusing? All that is to say is that there’s huge differences in the flights into Dubai so spend some time researching flights since they constitute a big portion of the trip cost.
Joining a Group Trip to Bhutan
Some destinations lend themselves to budget backpacking where you can hop on buses, sleep in hostels, and join pay-what-you-wish walking tours. Bhutan is not that sort of destination. Similarly, some destinations are cheaper explored on your own but in Bhutan, it can actually be cheaper to join a group tour. While you still have to pay the daily Sustainable Development Fee, by joining a group tour, you’re spreading out the cost of the guide and driver over the entire group instead of having to pay it all yourself. Also, group tour operators have relationships with hotels so they can often secure room blocks at lower rates, which you can then take advantage of.
I joined a 12-day hiking trip with the adventure travel company, Wilderness Travel, and I was so impressed with my guide (as mentioned, he’s one of the most experienced guides in the country. Their tours are not ultra luxury but they do include nicer hotels in Thimphu and Paro, which up the total trip cost a bit. If you’re looking for a cheaper group trip with more basic accommodations, check out Intrepid, which also combines Nepal (a much cheaper destination) with some trips to help bring down the cost.
If you’d like a local operator to plan your own budget-friendly trip, check out MyBhutan (where I met the guide who traveled by bus with one of his clients), or Gangri Tours, which does a lot of specialization around interests like hiking, birding, butterflies, and flowers.
Which Month is Best for a Bhutan Tour?
The best time to visit Bhutan depends on what you want to do. If you want to witness the crane migration, go in December or January. If you want wildflowers and migratory river birds, visit in April and May. If you want to hike the infamous Snowman Trek, visit in September. The summer months in Bhutan (June-August) can be a bit rainy so they are less popular. And, despite clear blue skies and lots of cranes in the center of the country, December and January are slow because it’s colder.
In terms of weather, April, May, September, and October are the best times to visit Bhutan. However, because these are the most popular months, they’re also the most crowded and, as a result, a bit more expensive. March is a good shoulder month when it’s mostly warm, not too crowded, and not as expensive.
Booking Budget-Friendly Hotels in Bhutan
I was shocked to learn that Bhutan has crazy expensive hotels all over the place and that they are packed with Americans. Most Americans I met in Bhutan were staying at high-end lodges (like the stunning Gangtey Lodge in the Crane Valley) that run at least $1,000 night. There are a ton of lower-end hotels, including farmhouses and homestays that cost $30-40/night. The real challenge is if you want a mid-range hotel, particularly in further-out regions like Bumthang (where I spent 3 nights), where there are only basic accommodations and ultra-luxury hotels.
You can either book your own hotels or have a tour operator book them. The thing is that many tour operators won’t be as interested in planning your trip if you book your own hotels. Why? Because they get a cut of the hotels. This is standard travel business workings and you see it all over the world. You won’t be paying more by having the tour operator book for you, the hotel will just kick back a commission to the operator for the booking.
To really save money, book super budget accommodations on your own and go without a guide and driver as much as possible. However, keep in mind that, not only will you spend a lot more time on slow buses and you won’t be able to get into some great attractions, you may also have a hard time finding a tour operator that finds it worth their time to arrange the rest of your trip. If you book your own hotels, they’ll get no commission, and if you don’t use a guide or driver for half the time, they’d also miss out on that money. It’s not that you won’t find a tour operator to plan your trip, it just may be a bit harder and you likely won’t be assigned the most experienced guides they have.
How Much Cash Do I Need in Bhutan?
The amount of cash you need in Bhutan depends on how much you want to spend on services, when you visit, and what was prepaid. If you join a group tour, most or all of your expenses will be paid for. All meals and activities were covered in my group tour so I only exchanged $100 at the money exchange, which lasted me two weeks. I used it for small tips here and there and to buy a bag of tea, Bhutanese honey, and handmade Christmas tree ornaments. For larger purchases (like the embroidered jacket I bought, which cost $120), I used my credit card.
I confirmed with my tour operator in advance if I could tip the guides in USD since 1) that’s easier for me, and 2) I know that guides in many countries prefer USD because they can hold on to it and exchange it when the value goes up.
Bhutan Budget Breakdown
If you’re arriving and paying for things as you go, then expect the following costs (in local currency):
Farmstays & guesthouses: Nu 3000
Basic hotel: Nu 4000-5000
Simple dinner: Nu 400-700
Tea/coffee: Nu 80-150
Beer at a bar: Nu200
Public transport: Nu 1500-200/person for a shared taxi.
Taxi: Nu 4000 and up for 100km (62 miles)
Guide: Nu 2000-3000/day
Average daily cost will be about 8,000-12,000 per person (roughly $90-140). The cost will be more if you hire a guide, and it will be less if you’re sharing the cost of the hotel room with someone else.
To ensure you’re covered for the unexpected, strongly consider getting travel insurance, as Bhutan can be a very expensive place to have to replace lost luggage our helicopter off a mountain. Get a Quote from World Nomads!
