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Photo by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Best time to visit Bhutan
Bhutan · South Asia
All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.
The year in Bhutan
Tap a month for its page
- JanJBhutan in January: ok
- FebFBhutan in February: avoid
- MarMBhutan in March: avoid
- AprABhutan in April: avoid
- MayMBhutan in May: avoid
- JunJBhutan in June: avoid
- JulJBhutan in July: avoid
- AugABhutan in August: avoid
- SepSBhutan in September: avoid
- OctOBhutan in October: sweet spot
- NovNBhutan in November: sweet spot
- DecDBhutan in December: sweet spot
- Sweet spot
- Good
- OK
- Avoid
- Busy
Plan this trip
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Flights from
Flights
Your city is a guess from your time zone. Choose your city
Where are you flying from? Choose your city for its flights and fares.
Book with the airline
Where to stay
Book direct
Luxury
Things to do
Car hire
Rent direct
Travel insurance
Check whether your bank card or home insurance already covers this trip.
If the trip needs a visa, the travel agent or visa centre usually sells the cover it asks for.
Mobile data (eSIM)
Your own plan's EU roaming may already cover this.
Renting a pocket Wi-Fi is the other common way to stay connected.
These are sites people in book with. Each opens in a new tab, on the site's own pages.
Things to do in Bhutan
- Phobjikha Valley Valley in Bhutan
- Royal Manas National Park National park in Bhutan
- Jigme Dorji National Park National park of Bhutan
- Jigme Khesar Strict Nature Reserve Nature reserve in Bhutan
- Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park National park
- Phibsoo Wildlife Sanctuary Protected area in Bhutan
- Wangchuck Centennial National Park National Park of Bhutan
Tours and tickets in Bhutan
Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank
Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.
Month by month
No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.
| Month | Max °C | Rain days | Humidity | Sun h/day | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 13° | 12d | 62% | 9.4h | ok | 13C max, 12 rainy days |
| Feb | 13° | 19d | 69% | 9.3h | avoid | monsoon: 19 rainy days, 214mm |
| Mar | 16° | 25d | 72% | 9.8h | avoid | monsoon: 25 rainy days, 261mm |
| Apr | 19° | 25d | 74% | 10.2h | avoid | monsoon: 25 rainy days, 241mm |
| May | 21° | 26d | 76% | 9.9h | avoid | monsoon: 26 rainy days, 263mm |
| Jun | 23° | 26d | 80% | 9.7h | avoid | monsoon: 26 rainy days, 365mm |
| Jul | 24° | 28d | 82% | 8.5h | avoid | monsoon: 28 rainy days, 491mm |
| Aug | 24° | 27d | 81% | 8.6h | avoid | monsoon: 27 rainy days, 401mm |
| Sep | 22° | 23d | 80% | 9.0h | avoid | monsoon: 23 rainy days, 282mm |
| Oct | 20° | 17d | 74% | 9.7h | sweet spot | 20C max, 17 rainy days |
| Nov | 17° | 11d | 69% | 9.7h | sweet spot | 17C max, 11 rainy days |
| Dec | 15° | 9d | 64% | 9.3h | sweet spot | 15C max, 9 rainy days |
Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.
Weather read at Paro: ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.
A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.
How busy it gets
Then and now
Bhutan's December days now average 15.0°C, 2.7°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 9 of 12 months are clearly warmer.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981–90 | 10.5° | 11.1° | 14.5° | 17.8° | 19.9° | 21.7° | 21.3° | 21.8° | 20.4° | 18.4° | 14.9° | 12.3° |
| 2017–26 | 12.6° | 13.1° | 16.1° | 18.9° | 20.6° | 23.2° | 23.6° | 23.7° | 22.5° | 20.0° | 17.4° | 15.0° |
| Change | +2.1° | +2.0° | +1.6° | +1.1° | +0.7° | +1.6° | +2.3° | +1.9° | +2.1° | +1.6° | +2.5° | +2.7° |
The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.
Getting there
How far Bhutan is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.
- from Kolkata
- from Delhi
- from Hyderabad
- from Ahmedabad
- from Chennai
- from Bangkok
- from Mumbai
- from Bengaluru
Open in Rome2rio for every way from to Bhutan, flying or not.
Before you go
| Cost of living | very cheap — prices run about 23% of the United States' (World Bank, 2025) |
|---|---|
| Currency | Ngultrum |
| Languages | Dzongkha |
| Plugs | Type C and D and F and G, 230 V |
| Driving | On the left |
| Calling code | +975 |
| Travel advice | No advice against travel — UK Foreign Office, updated 2025-12-10 Exercise normal security precautions — Global Affairs Canada, updated 2026-09-24 Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions — US State Department, updated 2026-09-04 |
| Health | UK Foreign Office health advice |
Facts from Wikidata (CC0), the UK Foreign Office (Open Government Licence) and the World Bank, refreshed 2026-10-08. The advisory is written for British travellers; entry rules depend on your passport.Travel advice for American readers is the US State Department's (public domain), and for Canadian readers Global Affairs Canada's (Open Government Licence - Canada), each in its own words and written for its own citizens; entry rules depend on your passport.
Being there
On arrival
- Paying — The ngultrum is pegged one to one to the Indian rupee, and cash in Indian rupees or US dollars is widely accepted. ATMs and banks take Visa and Mastercard, and cards are widely used in towns but may not work elsewhere; Indian RuPay cards work at ATMs and card machines. Bank of Bhutan's goBoB and Bhutan National Bank's MyPay wallet apps can be linked to an international card.
- UPI, for visitors from India — Works at participating merchants across Bhutan: scan their QR code with your UPI app; BHIM was the app named at the launch in 2021.
Getting around Bhutan
Paro's airport is 3.5 km from the town: take a taxi from the rank outside or a transfer arranged by your hotel or tour operator, as there is no other public transport there. Self-drive hire is not possible, so visitors travel with a driver from a tour operator or hire firm, and a guide certified by the Department of Tourism must accompany you at all times; bringing your own car costs Nu. 4,500 a day.
- Apps — Rides: DrukRide. Maps: Google Maps. Taxi fares are not regulated and taxis are often not metered, so agree the fare before you set off. The Department of Tourism points visitors to the DrukRide app for booking a local driver.
Bhutan does not have addresses, though streets in the bigger towns, such as Thimphu, have been designated names, which come before the suffix lam, meaning street or road. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Bhutan, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Help
- Emergency — police 113 · ambulance 112 · fire 110.
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.
Your embassy — : how to reach your embassy or consulate abroad. A guess from your city, : a city is not a passport.
Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 8 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.
Sources (11)
- gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/bhutan/getting-help
- gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/bhutan/safety-and-security
- travel.gc.ca/destinations/bhutan
- bhutan.travel/faqs
- doat.gov.bt/international-airport
- rma.org.bt/rpSystem
- drukride.com
- apps.apple.com/bt/app/drukride/id1276150974
- pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2286608
- indembthimphu.gov.in/public_files/assets/pdf/PressRelease_BHIM.pdf
- developers.google.com/maps/coverage
Bhutan in pictures
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Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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Original: Nina R from Africa Derivative work: UnpetitproleX, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Christopher J. Fynn, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What Bhutan is like
The Kingdom of Bhutan (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul) is a small country in the Himalayas between Tibet and India. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth seeing
- The majority of tourists do "cultural tours" where they visit important destinations. Paro, Thimphu, Punakha, Phobjikha, and Jakar are popular destinations. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth doing
- Archery is the national sport of Bhutan and competitions are held throughout the country at most weekends. More on Wikivoyage
- Getting in
- Bhutan has one of the most restrictive visa policies in the world, and travel to the country is highly regulated under the government's "High Value, Low Impact Tourism" scheme. More on Wikivoyage
- Staying safe
- While drug abuse is not uncommon in urban areas, it will not affect tourists, and Bhutan remains one of the safest places in the world for travellers. More on Wikivoyage
- Staying healthy
- Hospitals and clinics are located throughout the country, even in the remotest areas. However, travellers should not expect hi-tech facilities, and at many of the Basic Health Units the resident doctor is often away. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Bhutan, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.
Around Bhutan
Nearby
Routes through here
Kind of place
Bhutan is in Bhutan, South Asia. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.
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