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This was published 15 years ago

Your questions

A burning desire to travel to Bhutan seems to need appeasing, but the cost is a major deterrent. Are there alternatives to costly travel packages into the country or is cross-border entry from northern India possible?

- Kerry Takagaki, Balgowlah.

Answer

Unfortunately, travel to Bhutan is neither simple nor cheap. All visits have to be made with an officially approved tour operator, meaning you have to plan, book and pre-pay your journey - and cannot deviate from that itinerary once you are there.

Kylie McLaughlin, from Lonely Planet, says it's difficult to travel on the cheap in Bhutan. There is a daily tariff for tour groups of around $US200 ($A315), and this goes up if you want to travel as a couple or go solo. Australian companies that offer Bhutan travel include Peregrine (peregrineadventures.com) and World Expeditions (worldexpeditions.com.au). To give you an idea, Peregrine's cheapest tour is $2690 (land only) for eight days.

McLaughlin says you might have more scope to do your own thing if you deal directly with a Bhutanese tour operator but it can be tricky making contact and making payment via international bank transfer. You'll find a selection of tour operators listed at tourism.gov.bt.

According to this site, the town of Phuntsholing, in south-western Bhutan, is the only land-based border access open to international tourists.

The nearest Indian airport is Bagdogra. The Tourism Council warns that while the overland journey into Bhutan is one of great beauty, it can also take a day to cover just 170 kilometres.


If you have any travel questions, we'd love to hear from you. Write to travelshd@fairfaxmedia .com.au. Personal correspondence cannot be entered into. Only questions appearing in print will be answered. If your question is published, you will win a Lonely Planet guidebook.

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