In 2025, Koryo Tours ran its first group tour to Bhutan. The itinerary was ready back in early 2020 before the pandemic closed borders worldwide and put everything on hold. Here is the story of how our Bhutan tours came together, what our first two groups experienced, and why this small Himalayan kingdom has already become one of our favourite destinations.
This year marks the first anniversary of Koryo Tours Bhutan group tours.
However, the inauguration of Bhutan group tour was long overdue and delayed by the worldwide closure of borders in 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
In this blog we will have an overview of our Bhutan group tours, how we started our involvement in Bhutan, and what Koryo does to give back to the communities we visit.
Koryo Tours in Bhutan
Travel to Bhutan
Koryo’s First Essence of Bhutan Tour
Koryo’s First Offbeat Eastern Bhutan Tour
Interested in joining Koryo Tours’ Bhutan Tours?
Koryo Tours in Bhutan
Koryo Tours published its first Bhutan itinerary early 2020 just before the Coronavirus pandemic forced the borders to shut and halted international travel and tourism.
Introducing Bhutan as Koryo’s seventh destination was a natural move. Bhutan is amongst the most isolated nations and tourism is highly regulated. However, unlike Koryo Tours’ other unusual destinations, Bhutan’s isolationism is not for political reasons but rather to preserve the nation’s unique cultural and environmental heritage.
The people of Bhutan also have a deep and special relationship with their royal family.
Bhutan has also played a role in the Great Game that connects many of Koryo Tours’ popular destinations: the Five Stans and Afghanistan.
During the Younghusband Expedition to Tibet in 1904, Ugyen Wangchuk (later the first Druk Gyalpo, i.e. Dragon King) served as a mediator between the British and the Tibetans when the Brits feared that the 13th Dalai Lama was making deals with the Russian Tsar, Britan’s adversary during the Great Game.
Travel to Bhutan
In 2024, when Koryo Tours started its expansion to new destinations, we reached out to our local Bhutan travel company. They got back to us with a great news and an incredible itinerary.
In November 2024, the Darranga–Samdrup Jongkhar Integrated Check Post opened to international travellers, making the secluded Eastern part of Bhutan more accessible. Our local Bhutan tour operator saw this as an opportunity to work closely with Koryo Tours, making this journey the signature Bhutan group tour of both companies.
After the necessary preparations came the day in March 2025 when our guide and friend, Garab Dorji, the President of the Guides Association of Bhutan, picked us up at Dynasty Hotel in Guwahati to start our discovery expedition to East Bhutan.
I chose Dynasty Hotel as our Guwahati base to follow the footsteps of Michael Palin, who stayed at this exact same establishment during his 3,000-mile journey filming the BBC travel series Himalaya With Michael Palin.
We traversed remote East Bhutan from Samdrup Jongkhar to Jakar through pine forests, alpine highlands, and river valleys.
We stayed at hotels run by former government officials and their wives, had tea and meals with local governors and school principals, and were constantly mesmerised by the natural beauty and the unique culture of this small Himalayan Kingdom that values Gross National Happiness over economic indicators.
Through these conversations over local Bhutanese ara and Hungarian pálinka with hotel owners, and tea with governors, I fell in love with the people of Bhutan.
They reminded me of a quote from a Hungarian movie, Sunshine, only its antithesis: Bhutanese people are not “afraid to see clearly and of being seen clearly”.
I also learnt a lot from my colleague and fatherly friend Garab about Buddhist philosophy and looking at life from a different perspective. I found his constant urge to better his nation and to think outside the box very inspiring.
This recce tour in March 2025 laid down the basics for Koryo’s Essence of Bhutan Tour and Offbeat Eastern Bhutan Tour.
Koryo’s First Essence of Bhutan Tour
Had an amazing small group tour to Bhutan in December. An incredible country with spectacular scenery and we enjoyed a real insight into the Bhutanese way of life. Our tour leader, Greg, was great from booking and all through the tour, and together with our local guide Garab, made the whole trip an unforgettable experience. I would definitely recommend Koryo and Greg. – Mandy, Essence of Bhutan Tour, December 2025
Our first Bhutan group tour took place in December 2025 with a small group of 13 curious travellers, many of them not new to the Koryo family and Koryo’s way of running tours.
People often ask what is the best time of year to visit Bhutan? While I don’t believe that there is a single, definite answer to this question, on behalf of our group I can say that December is a good time to visit Bhutan.
There are even less tourists at a destination that measures the annual number of tourism arrivals in the lower hundreds of thousands.
The sky is clear and sunny, offering great views of the Himalayas and the temperatures are pleasant throughout the day with more than 10 hours of daylight.
Although there are no major Bhutan festivals and Tschechus during the time of our tour, it is a somewhat deliberate decision. Koryo Tours seeks to provide a unique, intimate Bhutan cultural tour experience and we believe that it is doable outside the peak season.
Our group experienced a unique prayer ceremony by young monks at Chelela Pass where we stopped to hoist prayer flags and the itinerary also included a Bhutan cultural show showcasing mask, yak, and ‘clown’ dances from the various regions of Bhutan.
Besides travelling to Thimphu and Paro, this tour visited Punakha Dzong fortress, spent one night at a homestay, and concluded with the Tiger’s Nest Monastery hike. We also passed Bhutan’s highest motorable pass Chele La at 3,988 metres (13,083 feet) to visit Haa Velley where we had a picnic lunch at the meadows.
Everyone had a great time, one of our loyal travellers went as far as “Bhutan is my happy place”.
For some, the highlight was Bhutan’s unique Buddhist culture, for others the challenge of completing the Tiger’s Nest Monastery hike, and for me to be able to show this unique Himalayan Kingdom that deliberately doesn’t have diplomatic relations with the superpowers of the UN Security Council and values its nature and culture.
And of course, our long conversations after dinner, sipping either Druk Lager or homemade ara.
Koryo’s First Offbeat Eastern Bhutan Tour
Just completed my third small group tour with Koryo and specifically my third with tour leader Greg (Gergo) Vaczi. This time it was the new 9-day Eastern Bhutan tour - a unique way into this country when most people are flown straight to the Western cities of Paro and Thimphu, missing out on some (in the true sense of the word) authentic experiences (like our home stay in a valley village, our visit to a semi-nomadic community in their mountain home, tea with the Governor, and mass prayers for peace with a Buddhist community). Koryo Tours can be relied on for thoughtfully planned tours. With Koryo, I haven’t just ‘been’ somewhere (ticking a box); I’ve learned something. And made new friends. – Lesley, Offbeat Eastern Bhutan Tour, March 2026
The inaugural Offbeat Eastern Bhutan Tour was an even more intimate experience.
During the first few days of the tour, we hadn’t met any other travellers on the road and at the hotels we only encountered half a dozen tourists in total.
The highlights of our journey through Eastern Bhutan were the remote village of Merak, where we had lunch with a local family and visited the school hosting the children of the nomadic people of the highlands.
An equally unique experience was the tea with the Dzongdag (governor) of Trashigang and his invitation to join 15th Moenlam Chenmo (Great Global Peace Prayer) and our brief encounter with Her Majesty Gyalyum Ashi Kesang Choeden Wangchuck, the Royal Grandmother of Bhutan at Kichu Lhakhang, one of the oldest temples in Bhutan, which dates back to the 7th century, when, according to the legend of the Supine Demoness, 108 temples were built across Bhutan, Nepal, and Tibet within a day.
See what I mean when I say that avoiding Bhutan festivals and Tschechus is not a mistake?
We had the best dinner of the tour at our homestay in Ura where we visited the local temple, encountered little fellows playing football in the court in front of the temple, and a few cows in the alleys walking to our accommodation. We helped preparing the dinner by making the buckwheat noodles ourselves and enjoyed homemade ara boiled together with eggs.
Koryo Tours believes in responsible tourism and giving back to the communities that we visit, so we launched a forest trail cleaning campaign.
Our guide, Garab Dorji established the Royal Takin Trail during the pandemic and our group while walking down from the Royal Takin Preserve collected trash on the trail establishing a tradition that will be a part of all Koryo Tours Bhutan tour.
Our Offbeat Eastern Bhutan Tour also visits the Muenselling National Institute of the Disabled in Khaling where blind and visually impaired children from all over Bhutan study and which institution is a cornerstone of inclusive special education in Bhutan. After graduating from Muenselling, students continue to study at the nearby school with their peers and some of its faculty includes the schools’ alumnus.
Koryo Tours is now working on a project to raise money to support the schools’ efforts in creating a safer and more accessible ambience within the school premises.
Interested in joining Koryo Tours’ Bhutan Tours?
Check out our next departures on our Bhutan Tour page.
If you would like to make a difference and support Muenselling Institute’s efforts to create a safer environment, drop us a line, and we will be in touch.
Also look out for Bhutan tour updates in our newsletters we are continuously working on improving our tours and introducing new experiences.
See you in the Land of the Thunder Dragon!
Koryo Tours
Experts in Travel to Bhutan
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Gergo Vaczi
Greg is the Koryo Tours DPRK Tour Manager.
He grew up in post-socialist Hungary and first travelled to North Korea as a tourist in 2016 following in the footsteps of his grandparents, who visited in 1988. He has since lived in the Netherlands, Israel, China, Korea and Iceland and holds a degree in Sociology and Anthropology. He has taken 26 groups to North Korea and lived in Seoul studying the Korean language full-time for two years. He also completed a long study course in Korean at a university in Pyongyang.
Read more about Greg's journey to become a North Korean Tour Leader here.