Romantic Bhutan Honeymoon

Your journey together begins as you descend into the Paro valley — one of the world's most dramatic landings, with Himalayan peaks filling both windows. A Byways representative welcomes you with a tashi khadar, the white silk scarf of blessing, before the gentle drive to Thimphu (approximately 1.5 hours), pausing at Tamchog Lhakhang and its iron chain bridge across the Paro Chhu.

Settle into your hotel, then wander the capital's streets as evening falls — no traffic lights, just the whistle-and-glove ballet of the traffic police. A quiet welcome dinner for two closes your first day in the kingdom. Dinner and overnight at the hotel in Thimphu.

After breakfast, stand beneath the Buddha Dordenma, the 51-metre golden Buddha gazing over the valley, then visit the Motithang Takin Preserve to meet Bhutan's wonderfully odd national animal. At the National Post Office, print a sheet of legal postage stamps bearing your own photograph — post your first letters home as a married couple, stamped with your own faces.

After lunch, browse the Craft Market for a keepsake — hand-woven textiles, silver, prayer flags — and visit Tashichho Dzong as the late-afternoon light gilds its whitewashed walls. Dinner and overnight at the hotel in Thimphu.

Drive east over Dochula Pass (3,100m), where 108 memorial chortens stand wrapped in prayer flags — on a clear day the entire eastern Himalaya lines the horizon. Share a warm cup of tea at the pass before descending into the subtropical warmth of the Punakha valley.

In the afternoon, walk through mustard fields and rice paddies to Chimi Lhakhang, the 15th-century temple of the Divine Madman — Bhutan's temple of fertility, where newlyweds from around the world come for a blessing. Whether you seek the blessing or just the story, the walk itself — farmhouses, waving children, wind in the paddies — is one of Bhutan's loveliest. Dinner and overnight at the hotel in Punakha.

Punakha rewards slowness. This morning, hike gently uphill through rice terraces to Khamsum Yulley Namgyal Chorten, a temple built by the Queen Mother — the valley view from its roof, the Mo Chhu winding silver below, is the picture you'll frame. Descend and cross Bhutan's longest suspension bridge, 160 metres of prayer flags and gentle sway.

After a riverside lunch, explore Punakha Dzong, the "Palace of Great Happiness" — the most beautiful fortress in the kingdom, moored like a great ship where the male and female rivers meet, and the place where Bhutan's kings are crowned and royal weddings held. The evening is yours: a riverside stroll as the dzong glows in the last light. Dinner and overnight at the hotel in Punakha.

Recross Dochula Pass — a second chance at the great Himalayan panorama if clouds won that first morning — and continue down the Wang Chhu and Paro Chhu valleys to Paro (approximately 4 hours in all).

This afternoon, visit Kyichu Lhakhang, one of Bhutan's two oldest temples, where the orange trees fruit at 2,200 metres and elderly devotees circle the prayer wheels — a serene, unhurried place to sit together. Evening at leisure in Paro town's cafes and shops. Dinner and overnight at the hotel in Paro.

The crescendo. After breakfast, hike to Tiger's Nest Monastery (Taktsang) — 7.4 km round trip, about 5 hours, climbing through pine forest hung with moss and prayer flags to the monastery pinned impossibly to its cliff, 900 metres above the valley. Take it slowly, together; ponies are available for part of the ascent, and the cafeteria's tea stop is made for catching your breath and the view.

This evening, the classic Bhutanese ending: a traditional hot stone bath at a farmhouse — river stones heated in fire, dropped hissing into cedar-wood tubs strewn with artemisia herbs — followed by a candlelit farewell dinner of home cooking. Overnight at the hotel in Paro.

After breakfast, your guide and driver transfer you to Paro International Airport. You leave with a camera full of mountains, a stamp sheet bearing your faces, and the kingdom's parting wish — Tashi Delek: may all auspicious things come to you both.