Bhutan Travel Guide - Getting Around

Druk Air operates an hour-long scenic mountain flight (the so-called ‘Kingdom of the Sky’), which offers visitors spectacular views of the mountains, lakes and waterfalls. However, there are no domestic airline routes within Bhutan.

Traffic drives on the left. The country has a fairly good internal road network with 3,100km (1,926 miles) of surfaced road. The average speed is less than 40kph (25mph). The main routes run north from Phuentsholing to the western and central regions of Paro and Thimphu, and east–west, across the Pele La Pass linking the valleys of the eastern region. The northern regions of the High Himalayas have no roads. Tour operators will arrange all internal travel for tourists, which will usually be by road.

Bus: Services which were formerly government-owned are now privately run, though yaks, ponies and mules are the chief forms of transportation. The main routes are from Phuentsholing to Thimphu, Thimphu to Bumthang, Bumthang to Tashigang, Tashigang to Samdrup Jongkar and from Tongsa to Gaylegphug.

The following chart gives approximate journey times (in hours and minutes) from Thimphu to other major towns in the country.

	Road
Paro	1.30
P’sholing	6.00
Punakha	2.15
Bumthang	8.45