Eight days timed for early light on dzong walls, crane roosts and high passes
A photography trip is decided by where you are standing at 6:15 in the morning, so the hotels here are chosen for distance to the viewpoint rather than for a lobby. We plan one strong location each morning and one each evening, with the middle of the day left for reviewing images, charging batteries and eating properly. Your guide is a working photographer who has shot these valleys for years and knows when the mist usually lifts at Phobjikha.
Serious hobby photographers and travellers who prefer cold mornings to crowded afternoons
Land, collect your bag and rest for two hours before walking to Rinpung Dzong for the late afternoon light on the timber galleries. Dinner is early because tomorrow starts before sunrise.
Shoot the valley from the terrace above Kyichu Lhakhang at first light, then take a late breakfast. The middle of the day is for file backup and a slow lunch before a short evening session at Drukgyel Dzong.
Move to Thimphu in the morning and walk the craft school and the market with cameras away. Catch the last light on the giant Buddha statue above the valley, looking west.
Leave in the dark to be on Dochula Pass for the first light on the Himalayan range, then drive on through Wangdue and up to Phobjikha for sunset over the marsh.
Be in the hide before the black-necked cranes leave the roost, which happens quickly and quietly. After breakfast walk the Gangtey nature trail with a long lens, and spend the evening shooting the valley from the ridge road.
Descend through the pass into Punakha and shoot the dzong from the riverbank in the afternoon. The light here is warmer and lower than anything in the valleys above.
A final dawn session on the suspension bridge before the traffic wakes, then drive back to Paro for an afternoon of editing and a print discussion with your guide.
Breakfast, backup check, and the short run to the airport.
Travel insurance strongly recommended: cover mountain medical care, altitude evacuation, and Paro weather flight delays. Read the travel insurance note
Send Enquiry
Share your preferred month and party size. We reply by email or WhatsApp with hotel options and the exact SDF and visa costs.
By sending this enquiry you agree to our
