Bhutan

Mountaineering is banned outright above 6,000m here out of religious respect for the peaks, which only makes the trekking that skirts those closed summits feel more genuinely untouched.

2 Diving & Whitewater lines

Default order

Whitewater · Punakha Valley

Whitewater kayaking, Mo Chhu River

ADVANCEDRisk: HIGHUSD Guided day US$150–220

Glacier-fed Himalayan whitewater running past Punakha Dzong, one of Bhutan's most striking fortress-monasteries — genuinely remote paddling with essentially no other commercial river traffic and rescue options limited to what the group itself can manage.

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Whitewater · Punakha Valley

Whitewater kayaking, Pho Chhu River

EXPERTRisk: HIGHUSD Guided day US$180–260

A second, more technical glacier-fed river in the Punakha Valley alongside the gentler Mo Chhu — continuous rapids fed directly by Himalayan snowmelt, paddled by a tiny number of expedition kayakers who make the trip to Bhutan specifically for it.

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