Seven nights for two
A honeymoon asks for fewer sights and better ones: rooms worth staying in, mornings without alarms, and hours that belong to the two of you. Bhutan, quiet by habit, is good at all three.
Photo: Sam Power / Unsplash
Paro, nights 1 and 2
On the first evening a Lhab Sang, a short rite of juniper smoke for new beginnings, is held for you in Zhiwaling Heritage's own temple. Its timbers are 450 years old and once stood in Gangtey Goenpa, which you reach on day five.
Photo: Hai Nguyen / Unsplash
Day 2
The Tiger's Nest is the week's one early morning, and yours to refuse: a 07:10 start on an empty path, or a gentler 08:30 one. If one of you stops at the halfway cafeteria, the other walks on with the guide. At 17:30, an open-air stone bath.
Photo: Priyangshu SV / Unsplash
Punakha, nights 3 and 4
Over Dochu La and down into warm Punakha, you cross a prayer-flag bridge into Pemako Punakha: 21 tented villas on 60 acres of forest by the Mo Chhu, each with its own temperature-controlled pool.
Photo: Jaanam Haleem / Unsplash
Day 4
While you walk the paddy dikes to Chimi Lhakhang, your guide and driver go ahead with rugs, cushions and a hamper and choose a shaded stretch of riverbank. From 15:30, Punakha Dzong in softer light, until the courtyards empty.
Photo: Nils Leonhardt / Unsplash
Phobjikha, nights 5 and 6
Gangtey Lodge has twelve farmhouse suites with wood stoves, facing the monastery your shrine's timbers came from. From November to mid-February the cranes fly in at dusk. The last dinner is in the Woodshed, with no one else at the table.
Photo: Yash Chaurasia / Pexels
Days 7 and 8
Day seven is the price of Phobjikha: about 190 km (118 mi) and six hours at the wheel, broken at Wangdue, Dochu La and Thimphu. The last night is at COMO Uma Paro, ten minutes from the airport, so the flight home never needs a dawn drive.
Photo: Anil Sharma / Pexels
Planning
Go October to early December or March to May. If either of you dislikes a six-hour drive or nights near freezing at 3,000 m (9,840 ft), our Western Valleys week sleeps no higher than 2,320 m and keeps every drive shorter.
Photo: Ugyen Tenzin / Unsplash