Beyond Adventure Bhutan

Bhutan keeps its visitor numbers low, and most of the few who come see it through a minibus window. Here you drive it yourself. Your car is a safari-built Porsche 911 or Cayenne, raised and prepared for rough roads, and the permits to take it into the country have been arranged for you.

The flight into Paro passes the Himalaya on the way in. Your Porsche is waiting at the hotel, and the first evening is for acclimatising, a briefing on the cars and the route, and a first taste of Bhutanese food.

The drive

Distances are short and the roads are slow. Day two climbs out of Thimphu to the giant bronze Buddha that watches over the valley – 51.5 metres tall – for lunch on the hill opposite, then winds over a pass lined with 108 stupas and strung with prayer flags, down to Punakha at 1,200 metres. Two nights in a tented pool villa follow, with a free day for the great dzong, optional rafting or mountain biking, or a hot stone bath.

Then the route leaves the highway. You lend a hand with the rice harvest, turn off into the Khotokha Valley, call in at a village school and eat a picnic lunch surrounded by forest and mountains, before an off-road run through dense woodland to Gangtey at 2,900 metres. Next morning you breakfast with young monks, then cross three passes, one above 3,400 metres, to reach Bumthang. A slower day there brings a Swiss cheese factory, an archery and darts contest and an optional drive deeper into the valley.

Down to the plains

Day seven is the longest and most varied: 270 km from cool high valleys through jungle-covered hills to the subtropical plains at Gelephu, 300 metres above sea level and right on the Indian border. The road runs through Zhemgang, where golden langurs and hornbills live in the forest and tigers are present, though rarely seen. Day eight is an 8 to 9 hour drive back to Paro on steep, winding mountain roads, and the last full day offers the 3 to 4 hour hike up to Tiger’s Nest, one of the most revered temples in Buddhism.

How it works

You drive and navigate yourself, two to a car, and the group comes together for the demanding stages. Local regulations mean the usual Beyond Adventure rally format does not run in Bhutan, so this is a guided drive rather than a competition. An expedition leader, a local guide, a mechanic, a paramedic and an organiser travel with the group, and every car is tracked by Dakar Rally GPS.

The fleet is KALMAR’s own: the RS-7 (based on the 997-generation 911, manual), the RS (the air-cooled 993 911, manual) and the CS and CS-R (Porsche Cayenne, automatic). Swapping between cars is possible if a rotation works out, and you can bring your own safari Porsche instead.

Nights are at Six Senses lodges in Thimphu, Bumthang and Paro, Pemako in Punakha and Gangtey Lodge. Meals, soft drinks, airport transfers, data connection and the planned activities are included. Flights to Paro, alcohol and spa treatments are not.

Is it for you?

This is not a trip for fast driving. Bhutan’s roads are narrow, twisting and slow, and the pleasure is in the passes, the villages and the time spent between them. Departures need at least ten participants.