Losar - Bhutanese New Year Festival Tour

You will be received at Paro International Airport by your Byways guide and transferred to your hotel. After lunch, ease into Bhutan with a gentle stroll through Paro town and a visit to Paro Rinpung Dzong. Over a welcome dinner, your guide introduces Losar — the Bhutanese New Year — and what the coming days with your host family will hold.

Drive to Thimphu and feel the capital preparing for the New Year: the Centenary Farmers' Market at its busiest as families shop for the feast, homes being cleaned and altars dressed. Visit Buddha Dordenma and the Memorial Chorten, where locals gather for prayers in the closing days of the old year.

Cross the spectacular Chele La pass to Haa, Bhutan's least-visited valley, and settle in at a traditional village homestay — your Bhutanese family for Losar. Spend the afternoon in the kitchen helping fry khapse (New Year pastries) and preparing the altar offerings, then share a warming home-cooked dinner as the old year closes.

Rise before dawn with the family for the first offerings of the New Year and a visit to the local lhakhang as the valley wakes. Then the day belongs to celebration: the Losar feast with suja (butter tea) and desi (sweet saffron rice), toasts, songs, and the easy joy of a Bhutanese home on its biggest day of the year. You are not a spectator today — you are a guest of the house.

Losar celebrations continue with the village: archery and khuru (traditional darts) matches — you'll be handed a bow — and a hike to a hilltop to hoist new prayer flags for the year ahead, a ritual you'll take part in. Visit Lhakhang Karpo and Lhakhang Nagpo, Haa's ancient white and black temples, before a farewell evening with your hosts.

Bid farewell to the family and drive back over Chele La — on a clear winter day the pass offers sweeping views of Jomolhari and Jichu Drake. Afternoon at leisure in Paro: the National Museum, a hot stone bath, or last souvenir hunting in town.

A full day for Bhutan's most iconic hike. Set out in the crisp morning air for Paro Taktshang, the Tiger's Nest Monastery, clinging to its cliff 900 meters above the valley — quiet and clear in winter, with the trail largely to yourselves. Take it at an unhurried pace: tea at the Taktshang Cafeteria on the way up, time inside the monastery, and a slow descent. In the evening, soothe your legs with a traditional hot stone bath and share a farewell dinner in Paro.

After breakfast, your guide and driver transfer you to Paro International Airport for your onward flight — sent off with tashi delek for the new year, and a standing invitation to come home to Bhutan again.