The Best Hike In Bhutan: The Tigers Nest Monastery (Taktsang)
Paro Taktsang The Tigers Nest Monastery
Every traveler has seen the pictures of Bhutan’s most famous hike and temple. This hike is one of those places where you can’t help but notice how far away you feel. Perched dramatically on the edge of a 3,000-foot cliff, the Tiger’s Nest Monastery (Paro Taktsang) is Bhutan’s most iconic landmark and a sacred pilgrimage site. This incredible monastery seemingly hanging off the rocks is as impressive as it is important to the Bhutanese people.
Tigers Nest monastery gets it name from the story of Guru Rinpoche an enlightened Buddhist master who is said to have meditated here after arriving on the back of a flying tiger. Taktsang directly translates to tigers nest in the local language Dzongkha. Apparently Bhutan actually has Bengal tigers, so this kind of makes sense. Yes we asked! No we couldn’t see them that’s in the southeast and an entirely different part of Bhutan.
Tigers Nest Hike Stats
- Difficulty: Medium – Good trail but steep in sections
- Hike length: ~ 6.4km round trip
- Elevation Gain – 518m gain (Starts at 2600M or 8500 feet)
- Highest Elevation – 3120 or 10,250 Feet
- Time Needed – We took about 5 hours with lots of pictures
- 4 x 4 – Not required your guide will get you there
- Opening Time – 8am – 1pm 2pm – 6pm
- Fees – 1000nu but Included with our tour provider
Where Is The Tigers Nest Monastery
The Tigers Nest Monastery is located about a 30 minute drive outside the airport town of Paro in the country of Bhutan. A guide is required for this trek as for most of Bhutan. We chose the Bhutan Travel Center and they were amazing. We made sure they understood how important this trek was for us and they literally took care of everything. It was a completely hands off experience where we just got to enjoy Bhutan. We highly recommend going with BTC check them out here!
What To Expect From The Trek
There are a couple things to be aware of before you start this trek. The Tigers Nest trek is very popular by locals and tourists. It is definitely worth going on a weekday if possible. We hiked on a Sunday and there were a ton of local people on pilgrimage to the temple.
Hiking To Tigers Nest
The hike starts at a big parking lot with a ticket office and decently clean washroom. Bring toilet paper if you think you will need to use it. The ticket booth and entry gate are also here but your guide will take care of all that. There were also hiking sticks for sale or rent here as well as mules. You can hire the mules to take you 1/2 way and drop you at the restaurant. We wanted to hike it and usually don’t like taking the animal option so we elected to hoof it.
Starting The Tigers Nest Hike
The start of the trail with Tigers Nest in the background. You can see the temple in the center rock pillar 3/4 of the way up.
Megs Looking up at the Tigers Nest, On the right you can see views of the restaurant
The trail starts out quiet gradually across a flatter area through the forest before steepening in the trees.
There are some great views looking back towards Paro when you get closer to the cafe.
Our guide Dawa refusing to let Meghan carry her own bag. Make sure to spin the prayer wheels clockwise on the way up to appease the pups.
Halfway Point The Tigers Nest Cafeteria
After about an hour of hiking you reach this café. It’s a beautiful building and a great place to hang out with a view. We got a cappuccino here on the way up and stopped on the way down for a delicious lunch.
This lady made an excellent coffee. We were super surprised to have European quality coffees at 2500m. Our cappuccinos cost 240 BTN which is about 4$ CAD, not a bad deal for altitude.
Reaching The Nest
After another hour of so of steeper uphill you reach a fork in the path and get to this lookout. This is the most famous photo spot and where you are most likely to see people waiting for a picture.
Going down to your right here leads you to the Monastery. Be careful in this steep downhill part people have fallen.
Looking back down towards the Cafe.
Reaching The Top
Continuing uphill from the lookout point brings you to another temple and lookout and the high point of this trek. It is about a 1/2 hour uphill and has some more difficult sections but with amazing views on the way up.
The trail getting weird
Absolutely no one bothers with the upper trail, it’s a great way to enjoy the view in peace.
The view from the top. You can see tigers nest down below on the bottom left.
looking to the other side of the valley.
Hiking At Altitude In Bhutan
Unless your are previously acclimatized we highly recommend postponing this hike to the end of your trip. Even though you are most likely flying into Paro and close to the start of the Tigers Nest 3120M or 10k+ feet is no joke. Most people do not get altitude sickness at this elevation, but the trek will definitely feel harder than it should. Like all high altitude experiences we recommend taking some precautions. You can find our tips for dealing with Altitude here. We did this on our 7th day and absolutely ripped up the trail!
What To Bring On Your Hike
Snacks And Where To Eat At Tigers Nest
We brought out standard snacks just some protein bars and fruit and it was perfect for this length of hike. There is a restaurant halfway up that has a great buffet and excellent coffee. You can stop here for a snack and cappuccino on the way up and for lunch on the way down depending on your departure time.
Clothes For The Tigers Nest
We started the hike early morning in February. The weather was chilly but very quickly got hot as the sun came up. We brought lightweight pants and packed shorts for higher up in the trail. When you enter the temple you are required to be covered up so make sure you pack pants and a sweater.
The inside of the temple is also surprisingly cold due to the elevation and the cliff blocking the sun. It was about 24*C outside and I was cold in the temple with pants and a fleece on. Don’t forget something warm so you can spend some time to enjoy the inside.
Photos At Taktsang Monastery
Like most temples and monastery’s in Bhutan there are no photos allowed inside the temple. When you get to the entrance there is a security guard who assigns you a locker where you are required to drops your bags and all camera gear and phones. The guards here are friendly but they take their duties very seriously so you want to follow the rules. Most of the famous photo spots you have probably seen are outside the temple.
Best Time For Tigers Nest Pictures
Tigers Nest itself sits nestled into a rockface. Because of where it is situated the monastery itself does not get lit up by the sun until about 11 am. There is absolutely no benefit photo wise heading up early unless you get their for sunrise. Unfortunately the gate does not open early enough to make this possible. You may be able to do this on the Bumdra trek if you come from the backside.
We got to the hike start right for 8am at opening and it was unnecessary. You might as well sleep and enjoy your hotel breakfast. This would be a magical sunset location and we took some great photos mid-day at about 1 pm. The one benefit of going early is it was very quiet and we had some serene moments to ourselves. I think with somewhere this pretty your are going to like it regardless but I would dub this a mid-day to afternoon photo spot.
Questions About Bhutan?
We wrote a whole blog of everything we wished we knew. Check it out here! How to get here? What do you need for Bhutan? Where to fly to Bhutan from? We answer all of that for you above!
Don’t miss one of the highlights of Bhutan – Spending The Night In A 300 Year Old Monastery.
