Punakha Drubchen & Tshechu

Your guide meets you at Paro International Airport, Bhutan's only airport for international flights, for the drive of about 1.5 hours to Thimphu. As you reach the capital, look up at the hill above the southern approach: Buddha Dordenma, a gilded bronze Buddha more than 50 metres tall, is one of the first things you see. Stop at its terrace for the view over the city along the Wang Chhu. Later, the National Memorial Chorten in the middle of town is worth a short visit, with older residents circling it and turning its big prayer wheels.

Leave Thimphu early for Dochu La, about 45 minutes to an hour away at about 3,100 m, where 108 chortens honour the Bhutanese soldiers who died in 2003 and the clearest mountain views come in the first hours of the day. The road then drops through forest to the Punakha valley, about 1.5–2 hours more.

At Sopsokha, walk about 20 minutes through the rice fields to Chimi Lhakhang, the temple of Drukpa Kunley, the Divine Madman, whose demoness is said to have lived at the pass you have just crossed.

The festival days follow that year's programme, and your guide plans each day around it. The Punakha Drubchen re-enacts the 17th-century fighting in which the Zhabdrung's forces drove off a Tibetan army. Local men dressed as pazaps, the old militia, in red and black with swords, stage the battle in and around Punakha Dzong and on the bank of the Mo Chhu.

You reach the dzong over the covered bridge across the Mo Chhu and up its steep wooden entrance steps. Dress as for any dzong: long sleeves, long trousers or a long skirt, and no hats inside.

The Punakha Tshechu follows straight after the Drubchen, with masked dances in the dzong's courtyards. As yesterday, your guide plans the day around that year's programme.

On a morning free of festival events, walk from the footbridge at Yepaisa through rice fields and pine, about 30 minutes uphill, to Khamsum Yulley Namgyal Chorten on its ridge above the Mo Chhu, with wide views of the valley.

Leave Punakha for the drive west: back over Dochu La to Thimphu in about 2.5–3 hours, then about 1.5 hours on to Paro. If the mountains were hidden on the way out, the pass gives you a second chance. In the afternoon, drive up to the National Museum in Ta Dzong, the round watchtower of 1649, whose thangkas, masks and bronzes make the next stop easier to read. Walk down to Paro Dzong, consecrated in 1646 and home to the district monk body, and compare it with Punakha. Here there are two courtyards, the administrative one ringed by offices and the monks' side beyond the five-storey central tower. Leave on foot over Nyamai Zam, the covered wooden bridge over the Paro Chhu, in the late-afternoon light. After dinner the dzong is lit, and the view from the riverbank is worth the short walk.

The last morning is a short one. Paro International Airport, Bhutan's only airport for international flights, is in the same valley as your hotel, and your guide and driver take you there for your flight home. If there is a little time before you leave, a last walk in Paro town is easy, with the dzong in view across the river.