Paro Tshechu Festival Tour

Your guide and driver meet you at Paro International Airport, Bhutan's only airport for international flights. The valley sits at about 2,200 m, so the rest of the day is kept easy while you adjust to the height.

In the afternoon, walk through Paro town with your guide, then down to the river and across Nyamai Zam, the covered wooden bridge over the Paro Chhu, to Rinpung Dzong and the festival ground beside it. Getting to know the layout now makes the two busy festival days easier to follow. Keep the evening quiet.

The Paro Tshechu runs from the 11th to the 15th of the second month of the Bhutanese calendar, usually in March or April, and today and tomorrow follow the festival programme. The masked dances take place on the Deyangkha ground by Rinpung Dzong, and the whole valley turns out in its best clothes. Your guide stays with you through both festival days, explaining each dance as it happens.

A few things to know:

• Dress as for a dzong: long sleeves and long trousers or a long skirt, and no hats inside the walls.
• The dzong itself is a working building, with the district offices on one side and the monk body on the other. Photographs are fine in the courtyards, never inside the chapels.

The second festival day is the last day of the Paro Tshechu, and it starts before dawn. The Guru Thongdrel, an embroidered image of Guru Rinpoche's eight manifestations and his two consorts, large enough to cover a three-storey building, is unrolled in the dark and taken back into Rinpung Dzong before the sun can touch it. It is the one great treasure of the dzong that survived a fire in the early 1900s. Bring a warm layer for the early start.

The rest of the day follows the festival programme on the Deyangkha ground, with your guide explaining each dance as it happens.

The drive from Paro to Thimphu takes about 1.5 hours. As you arrive, Buddha Dordenma watches over the southern approach to the city, so start there: a gilded bronze Buddha more than 50 metres tall on the hill of Kuensel Phodrang, completed in 2015 and holding 125,000 smaller Buddhas, many of them lining the shrine hall inside. From the terrace the city spreads along the Wang Chhu below.

Then come down to the National Memorial Chorten in the middle of town, built in 1974 in memory of the Third King. Older residents walk clockwise around it all day and turn its big prayer wheels, and you are welcome to join them.

The second day in Thimphu covers the north of the city:

• Motithang Takin Preserve, a fenced stretch of forest where you see the takin, Bhutan's national animal, up close.
• The Textile Museum at the Royal Textile Academy, with a gallery of the weaves of each region and a weaving centre where you can watch the work.
• Tashichho Dzong in the late afternoon, which holds the throne room, the King's offices and, in summer, the central monk body. Visitors are let in at set times, which your guide plans around, and the low sun on the whitewashed walls gives the best light.

Cover shoulders and knees for the dzong.

An early start from Thimphu: about 1.5 hours back to Paro, then about 20–30 minutes on to the car park below Paro Taktsang, the Tiger's Nest, fixed to a cliff about 900 metres above the valley. Guru Rinpoche is said to have meditated in its cave in the 8th century; the temples were first built in 1692 and rebuilt after a fire in 1998.

The trail is about 6.4 km there and back, with about 520 m of climbing. The first half climbs through pine forest hung with prayer flags to the cafeteria, 1–2 hours, and ponies can be hired for that stretch, uphill only. Above it a ledge level with the monastery gives the classic view, then stone steps drop to a bridge beside a waterfall and climb to the gate, the steepest part of the day. Bags, phones and cameras stay at the gate. Allow 5–6 hours on foot and wear shoes with real grip.

On the way back to town, stop at Kyichu Lhakhang, one of the oldest temples in Bhutan, traditionally dated to 659.

Your last morning in Bhutan. After breakfast your guide and driver take you to Paro International Airport for your flight home.

If your flight leaves later in the day, there may be time first for a last walk through Paro town or down to the covered bridge below Rinpung Dzong, where the festival was held. Your guide will fit it around your check-in. Tashi delek, and safe travels.