Nearly thirty years of walking this country.
A small tour operator in Thimphu. Cultural journeys, festival trips and Himalayan treks, every one run by our own crew.
Bhutan limits how many people may visit and how they travel. That leaves one decision that actually matters: who takes you.
Registered with the Department of Tourism, Bhutan, with our own guides, drivers and trek crew. Answered from Thimphu, usually within a day.
On the record
- Department of Tourism, Bhutan Registered inbound operator
- Established 2012 Based in Thimphu
- Our own crew Never subcontracted
- High value, low impact The national policy
Cultural journeys
Dzongs, temples, and the ordinary life going on around them
Six days across the western valleys, or a fortnight the length of the country.
Bhutan's fortresses are not museums. They are working seats of government and monastic bodies, and you visit them while the business of the day carries on around you.
We pace these trips so you are not simply collecting buildings: a morning at Punakha, an afternoon walking between farmhouses, and the climb to Taktsang on a day when your legs are ready for it.
On foot
Three days on a ridge, or twelve to the Tibetan border
Camps, crew and pack animals, because outside a handful of routes there is nothing else.
Our treks run with our own cook, horsemen and guide. Above Lingshi there is no road, no lodge and no way out except on foot, so who you walk with stops being a matter of preference.
The Owl Trek is three nights and a good first taste. The Laya Gasa is twelve days, four passes above 4,700 m, and finishes in a hot spring.
A few of the trips
Every itinerary here is a starting point. Longer, slower, harder, or built from nothing around one thing you care about.
Cultural Tours
Glimpse of Bhutan
The short introduction to Bhutan: Thimphu, the drive over Dochula to Punakha, and the climb to Taktsang on…
Festival Tours
Paro Tshechu
Two full days at the Paro festival, with the western valleys and Taktsang around them.
Cultural Tours
Central Bhutan Tour
West to east as far as Bumthang, the religious heart of the country, returning through Phobjikha, where the…
Tshechus
Mask dances performed in the same courtyards for four hundred years
Festival dates follow the lunar calendar, so these trips need booking earlier than the rest.
A tshechu is a religious occasion that happens to be spectacular. Most of the crowd is Bhutanese, in their best kira and gho, and they are there for the blessing rather than the photograph.
We give you two full days at the larger festivals rather than one: the first is spent working out where to stand, the second is when you actually see it.
The company
Not a booking site, and not an agent in another country
Namgay Dorji founded Step 2 Bhutan in 2012, after thirteen years in the trade here.
Your guide and your driver work for us. If something goes wrong at 4,000 m, the person sorting it out is someone we trained.
We would rather tell you in advance that a day involves six hours on a winding road than have you discover it on the second morning.
Nestled in the eastern Himalayas, a country roughly the size of Switzerland that its own people call Druk Yul, the Land of the Thunder Dragon.
Bhutan has remained a country where age-old customs and traditions are still part of the everyday lives of the people, even while modernisation, development and the strains of global influence are felt more and more.
It is no surprise that the main goal in life for Bhutanese people is happiness. Even the mandate of the modern Bhutanese state is Gross National Happiness. In translation, that means economic development (a goal for much of humanity) is only a means to the real goal of happiness. Bhutan's brand line, “Happiness is a place”, assures that happiness can be found in simple things, and that these simple things can be found anywhere and in anything.
The Kingdom of Bhutan remains one of the least ventured destinations in the world, and that is how its people would like to keep it. The carefully managed tourism policy that follows from that wish is not a statement of intent: it is how visiting here actually works.
72%
Of the country under forest
7,541 m
Gangkhar Puensum, unclimbed
19
Languages spoken
0
Traffic lights, still
Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints.
The country, as we find it
What guests say
“Our first trip to Bhutan opened our eyes to just how different and magical Bhutan is. A good part of that magic was supplied by Namgay Dorji who…”
“Thank you for your extraordinary leadership on the Chomolhari Trek. You have a wonderfully charming, fun, patient personality which made all of us feel a great sense of…”
“You have provided us with a most extraordinary trip. Your knowledge, skill, intelligence, patience and sense of humor have given us a wonderful impression of Bhutan. We've had…”
Tell us what you want from Bhutan
Send your dates and what matters to you. We will come back with a route, a price and the practical detail, with no obligation.