Druk Path Trek Bhutan

We had a fantastic time in Bhutan, what an amazing country and amazing people. We were so impressed by the beauty and the culture! The hotels and food were fantastic too – especially in Paro and Thimpu – and the itinerary worked really well for the most part. We did skip the hike on the last day, purely because when we got to Chele La we couldn’t see a thing in the fog and cloud, so we spent a very pleasant afternoon at Ser Bhum brewery – Karma the owner was a very kind and interesting man. After months of mediocre Asian lager, it was a real treat to have a proper ale!  

I do have two bits of feedback for your consideration:

1) In the pre-departure info, it states that there are no ATM’s in Bhutan. Because of this, we changed money at the border which cost us a lot – if we’d known there were ATM’s we would have just withdrawn cash upon arrival. I think this information needs updating.

2) We could have easily hiked the Druk Path trek in three days and camped for two nights only which would have given us an extra night and half day in Thimpu which would have been greatly appreciated. I do understand that it is difficult to judge a groups hiking abilities over email though – and their acclimatization needs too.

We have been so impressed by the professionalism shown by the whole team – including yourself during all of our communication – our guide, Tashi, and driver, Kezang, were a pleasure to be around and couldn’t do enough to help us. If you could pass on our grateful thanks to them again, that would be amazing. As far as I know, Tashi is a freelance guide but I know he’s keen to work for Windhorse on a permanent basis so I’m putting in a good word for him and would highly recommend him – he didn’t ask me to do this by the way! 

Having landed in Kolkata last night and spend the day wandering about, we miss the peace, quiet and serenity of Bhutan very much!!  We hope to visit again someday.

Druk Path Trek
Dear Chencho
We are now at the airport after a fantastic time in Bhutan. Thank you for all your organisation and your very kind invitation to dinner and the hot stone bath. It was an honour to visit you and Tashi in your home for our best meal in Bhutan.
We were very sad to say goodbye to Sonam and Jigme. Please thank them for their care and attention throughout our trip. They have been excellent.

Best regards
Jim and Philippa

Concise Druk Path Trek 

During our short stay in Bhutan, the people of this amazing country opened their hearts to us and instilled in us a love for their country.  When we arrived in Paro, Mr. Kinga was there for us with bright Wind Horse sashes and a smile as big as the country. From that moment on, we were not only safe and well cared for , but pampered beyond anything we could have imagined.  The next day we set out with our incredible Wind Horse guide, Pema, and our wondrous driver, Chimi, to begin a trip across Bhutan that we will soon not forget. Pema took care of each and every detail, he is truly a professional. He is an outstanding, clear communicator of Bhutanese history.  He sprinkled his knowledge with patience and a remarkable sense of humor. Chimi is without a doubt the very best driver that has ever been behind the wheel. He navigated each and every hairpin turn with care and grace.  We felt so safe in his hands that we would travel anywhere with him.

We took two three day treks with Wind Horse as part of our adventure. Our Wind Horse trekking crew was remarkable on each of these treks.  The food was outstanding, our camp site, perfect each night.  We went home with amazing memories and a thirst for more.

We are grateful to Wind Horse, Mr. Kinga, and especially Pema and Chimi for making our trip to Bhutan one of a lifetime!  Wind Horse is terrific!

Grand Culture Tour with Extension Druk Path for Jordan x 3 TID: 8569
Jul. 31, 14 – Aug. 09, 14
Dear Anand,
The trip with Windhorse was excellent. You did a phenomenal job organizing the whole trip and everything ran incredibly smoothly. Namgay was an excellent guide, always courteous, polite and informative.
I would highly recommend your services to friends and family visiting Bhutan.
If you would like me to write up a review of Windhorse online somewhere, please let me know.
Best,

Bhutan Tour with Druk Path Trek for Lyne & Roger TID: 746 (Feb 25 – March 03, 2014)
Dear Anand,
Many thanks for your e-mail and request for feedback. Our guided tour to Bhutan was a great experience overall. The quality of the guide, driver and trek assistants was outstanding and the itinerary planned very well. Our guide was very professional, always on time and very attentive to our needs. His English was proficient! The driver was very competent: he was driving safely and we felt secure during the entire journey. The trek assistants (horse man, cook and assistant) were also very professional. We are very pleased to have selected your company for this trip to magnificent Bhutan: we feel we could not have found a better one. Since Bhutan is known for is rich flora, the only improvement (if any!) suggested to our guide was to provide a bit more information on the plants observable during the trek.
Once again, much kudos to your team!
Best wishes,

TID-601 Druk Path Trek for Ramkumar & Dr. Maxie (Oct. 29-Nov 7, 2012)

Hi Jambay and Ugyen. Hope all is well. We had a great trip to Bhutan. The service was good and the entire trip went smoothly.

Thanks to you and your staff for organizing it.

I finally posted pictures from the trip. You can check them out here:

http://rksphotography.smugmug.com/Travel/Bhutan2012/27247994_Kxpvx8

Wish you a happy New Year.

TID 524 Jon & Nick Bhutan Tour with Druk Path Trek (Sept. 23 – Oct. 06, 2012)

Dear Jambay,
Kuzuzangbo la!
Now we are safely back in Sydney I just wanted to write and let you know how happy we were with our trip to Bhutan. We had some wonderful experiences and have brought back amazing memories.

The itinerary you provided reflected our needs and the extra items you suggested such as Chumpu and Chimi Lakhang were wonderful. We were very happy with all the hotels and all the restaurants we visited. The provision of equipment and food on the trek was superb.

Our guide Rinzin was first rate. We appreciated his professionalism, excellent knowledge (religious, historical and cultural) and friendly, welcoming demeanour. He took great care of us at all times and was also very flexible, especially with regards shopping in Thimpu! We feel we really connected with him and hope to stay in touch.
We felt safe with our driver, Baliman, at all times, even on some unpaved roads such as that to Chimpu. He too was friendly, attentive and flexible and we particularly appreciated his sense of humour.

On the trek,Tenzin (chef), Tenzin (helper) and Namgay? (horseman) were all very professional and allowed the trek to run extremely smoothly. We wanted for nothing throughout.

It was also good of you to take the time to meet with us in Paro and check that we were settling in well.
I will have no hesitation in recommending your company in the highest terms to any friends or relatives thinking of visiting Bhutan in future. We are also thinking of a return visit to explore other parts of your beautiful, enchanting country in a year or so!
Nami sami kadinchey la!

Druk Path Trek March 2011
I so thoroughly enjoyed your West to East traverse cultural tour in October 2010 that I fell in love with Bhutan! Out of the 50 or so countries I have visited Bhutan is the most unique and untouched by Western society. I have lately returned from a 5 day Druk Path Trek (magnificent!) with an attentive and fun Wind Horse crew plus 5 days of other “cultural anthropological” activities. I challenged Wind Horse’s Sonam to find sights and activities I hadn’t seen before this second time around and was pleased that I had a chance to investigate the REAL Bhutan. I visited with yakherders, monks, nuns, Indian roadworkers, weavers, farmers, middle class government and private workers (college grads and advanced degrees) in their homes, on the trail or in the shops and markets. I even toured a modern fruit processing plant. The people are open, friendly, honest and forthright. The way they blend tradition with new ways is a good omen.

When the electees of the Thimpu City Council were sworn in, they held the ceremony in a colorful native tent and were dressed in Ghos and their tall boots; nix the suits and ties that former British Colony officials wear. And when one of our tour members complained to a hotel owner about the ants crawling up the wall of their room, a repellent was painted on to “usher” the bugs out of the building vs.”spray” & kill. (It was the right Buddhist thing to do.) I would not have gotten this in-depth perspective if it hadn’t been for the flexibility and superior knowledge and service by Wind Horse personnel to find these resources.

Thank You! It’s been the experience of a lifetime given both trips and the friendships forged I think will endure.

Tsaluna Trek Bhutan( Reverse & concise version of Druk Path Trek) with group of 5 from UK and Malayasia Nov 20-28, 2009.
Dear Ugen,
Just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for organising a journey of a lifetime! We had an amazing time and feel very privileged to have visited your beautiful and mystical country. We are grateful to have had Tashi and Dorji lead our tour and honoured to have met Mr Kinga, who are all testament to Bhutanese hospitality and have helped us form many fond memories which we will cherish for a long, long time.Thanks again and we hope to have the opportunity to return one day!

Best wishes, Moh –

TID-606: Druk Path Trek (March 25-April 04, 2013.Hi Jambay,Urgen and Widhorse team,
Firstly, my apologies for the late reply. It’s all been pretty hectic since I returned. I was also in India for 5 days doing some business so only returned on Wednesday last week.

You guys were fantastic and of course Windhorse excelled in making our trip so worthwhile. Its difficulty to express just how wonderful our trip was and how beautiful your country and the people of Bhutan are.So much so, that I will be bringing my wife for the October 2015 Laya trek. It’s on the cards and marked off on the diary so you will be hearing from me again.

Pride yourselves on being an efficient tour operator. Also, Yeshi with constant smile and good humor also helped made our trip so memorable.

Well done and many thanks again.
Regards,

Dear Windhorse Directors, We have just returned from an excellent holiday with Windhorse in Bhutan and would like to thank you for the great experience. We had 5 days “Cultural tour ” as a group of 6 people, followed by 5 days on the Druk Path Trek (just George and me).

For both sectors Sonam Loday was our guide. We all thought he was excellent at all times. On the trek we had disappointing weather, but even so, Sonam managed to keep us cheerful and went out of his way to make the trek a success.

We have had a few thoughts about the way Windhorse operates and now list these as feedback for you. We hope this will be of assistance in finding that leading edge in the tour business.

1. Making Bookings: We found the process of making a booking quite frustrating. Good communication is the key to success, and this didn’t happen for us. We needed early confirmation of the flights as we were all making connecting flight bookings that depended on the Druk flights into and out of Paro. This didn’t happen and we found ourselves paying for connecting flight tickets before we had assurance of the Druk flights. Only after several international calls did we receive an OK.

2. Flight booking from Kathmandu to Paro (Sept 16,2010). Our itinerary clearly stated that we were on KB 401 at 11:00 am. It was only at Kathmandu airport that we discovered that in fact only one of our party of 6 was on this flight, and the rest on a second flight several hours later. Surely it makes sense that ALL of a group should travel on the SAME flight! As it happened, we all did travel on the 11:00 flight at the last minute. (This was last minute changes Druk Air made without informing us)

3. Your on-line system: You have an impressive on-line system which the client can access. Use it ! and most customer emails and frustration will vanish! This information should be kept up-to-date from the time of payment of a deposit. It should accurately reflect the flight status, the itinerary, the accounting (with final payment due date), and eventually the Detailed Itinerary/Trip Notes. We suggest you add a field to the main screen – “Last updated – (Date)”. Had this system been operational for us, many of our worries would have disappeared. (This is in Beta stages and it will be fully operational by the end of 2010. It has already improved a lot since you have last checked)

4. Final Payment Due Date – this was important for us as we were closely watching the exchange rate Australian $ / US Dollar which varies quite a lot. If the final payment due date is known, clients can pay when the rate is favourable for them. In fact Windhorse gave us just a few days notice of Final Payment
5. Itinerary: we were happy with the itinerary before we left home. In retrospect though, there are things that you could add to give a real insight into Bhutan and give your trips the leading edge…
– who makes the costumes worn at the festivals?
– who makes the masks worn at the festivals?
– who paints the houses and dzongs?
– who creates the Thangkas?
– Bhutanese cuisine.

Demonstrations of some of these would have made a very interesting itinerary.

6. Windhorse Head Office – We think it’s important for you to state that your Head Office is in Bhutan. The current perception is that Head Office is Minneapolis, US. We appreciate that the US market is important to you…BUT most of our group (coming from Canada, UK, France & Australia) did not want to book with Windhorse because it was American! I had to do quite a lot of convincing that Windhorse is in fact a Bhutanese company. Wind Horse is a registered in Bhutan, Darjeeling, Delhi, Cochin & in US. We also have staffs in Nepal & Tibet. Head office is the opertion office of the each destination and therefore the head office for Bhutan is in Thimphu and head office for north India is in Delhi, but head office for Sikkim and Darjeeling areas is in Darjeeling. US office is the sales office and also acts as the co-ordination offices between different offices.

7. Cultural Night in Thimpu: Our group was lucky to experience a cultural night, courtesy of Windhorse. This was a very nice gesture and we enjoyed it very much. It could be improved though, by having an introduction to each dance, explaining which region of Bhutan the dances and costumes represent. A large map on the wall would also help.
8. The Druk Path Trek: we think you should change your advertising to say the best time for this trek is “from the end of September……” . We were very disappointed that the weather made the walking muddy and slippery, the campsites quagmires, and that views of the Himalayas were elusive. It’s an expensive trek to have this happen.

9. Litter: Our impression of Bhutan is far from the “pristine” reputation we’d heard about. Littering is a real problem and really detracts from the beauty of the country. I refer especially to the Tigers Nest hike and the Druk Path trek. Perhaps Windhorse could lead the way with a clean-up campaign – making it an advertising feature – with all staff picking up litter and cleaning up campsites. Perhaps you could adopt a motto such as the famous ” take only photographs and leave only footprints” .

We hope you accept these points as constructive, and that you are able to action some of them. We wish you all the best in your operations Regards, Christine Floyd

To potential travelers in Bhutan, I would highly recommend the services of Windhorse Tours. They are a highly professional, organised and informed travel company. The guide Loja was excellent and took great care of myself and friend to ensure we had a fantastic time in Bhutan. The driver too was excellent, drove the new luxury 4wd carefully, safely and still we had plenty of time to look around without being hurried. Our tour was a week long and we managed to see the main towns, dzongs, monasteries and also do a 3 day trek. The trek was a highlight…. our luggage being carried by ponies, our tent set up and all meals delicious. Such luxury for two Australians used to doing it all ourselves! Bhutan is a fascinating country and very beautiful…. why not go and find out yourselves? Thank you, Windhorse Tours for an excellent time and I hope to travel with you again someday.