AN OVERLAND EXPEDITION TO THE FARTHEST REACHES OF THE HIMALAYAN KINGDOM
Bhutan reveals itself slowly, and most never go far enough to see it. Beyond the prayer flags of Paro and the postcard valleys lies a kingdom few have driven through: subtropical forest in the south, high passes choked with cloud, dirt tracks clinging to ridgelines, and villages where the modern world has barely left a footprint. This crossing runs south to north and back west to the capital, flown into the lowlands to begin, climbing through the spiritual heart of the country to a wilderness camp high in the Gasa country, and down into the warm valleys of Punakha. Every switchback earns you a view no guidebook has captured. A coterie of twelve, chosen carefully, from different corners of the world, who chose the same road you did.
First edition, 2026. Our founder leads it.
What This Journey Holds
Max 25°C l Min 0°C
Toyota Prado LJ120 MT
Winding mountain roads, dirt tracks and high passes
EXPEDITION DIFFICULTY
Two kinds of expedition. The terrain, the weather and the altitude decide which.
Tough & Challenging: The country sets the pace and the plan bends to it.
– Long driving days, with journey times the road decides
– Trails that ask something of you
– Weather that can turn, and altitude that slows everything down
– Breakdowns, fixed on the road
– Basic stays, with little around them, and shared facilities at camp
Moderate & Comfortable: The same country, an easier line through it.
– Steadier days, journey times that hold
– More road under the wheels
– Beds with walls and doors
– Amenities within reach
Neither is the soft version. The difference is how much the country is allowed to decide.
MAX GROUP SIZE
Small groups, always. Twelve at most on a Signature expedition, fourteen on a Classic.
– Small enough to move as one convoy
– A camp that fits around one fire
– No one becomes a passenger in their own expedition
– Many join solo. No one finishes that way.
Choose Your Edition
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Venky
Founder
Venky spent a decade in the automobile industry, where people bonded over machines and the roads beneath them, and where he realised that what they were really looking for lay further out. In 2016 he founded Nomadic Road in India, convinced that the oldest human instinct, to move, deserved better than sightseeing. The premise was simple: make the world small enough for strangers to cross its remotest corners together, because no one returns from the frontier unchanged. Ten years and four continents later, it holds, proven on every crossing by one belief: the bond between man, machine and Mother Nature is a powerful one.
Venky
Founder
Venky spent a decade in the automobile industry, where people bonded over machines and the roads beneath them, and where he realised that what they were really looking for lay further out. In 2016 he founded Nomadic Road in India, convinced that the oldest human instinct, to move, deserved better than sightseeing. The premise was simple: make the world small enough for strangers to cross its remotest corners together, because no one returns from the frontier unchanged. Ten years and four continents later, it holds, proven on every crossing by one belief: the bond between man, machine and Mother Nature is a powerful one.
Prices are per person, in US dollars, and exclude your international flights. Dates and prices are
set in good faith, and two things beyond our control can move them: a domestic flight schedule
that changes can shift the dates by a day, and a sharp move in fuel prices can change the price. If
either happens after you book, we tell you first, and why.
This ground, your dates, your circle? That’s Privé →
Nothing Discovered Later
Where You’re Headed
Your Journey, in Movements
70% of every Signature expedition is planned to the hour. What follows is the seventy. The thirty, the road decides.
The Beginning · Paro and the Flight South
Paro, in the Land of the Thunder Dragon, and the briefing that sets the road ahead. Then a flight down to the subtropical south and the first climb into the forested hills, to a camp raised for the night and an evening our hospitality team has built to mark the start of it.
The Spiritual Heart · Bumthang and the Tang Valley
A heritage village and its dzong, then north into Bumthang, the spiritual heart of the kingdom. A full day off the main route into the Tang valley, where rural life moves at its own quiet pace.
The High Passes · Phobjikha and the Gasa Wilderness
West over high passes and through conifer forest to the glacial bowl of Phobjikha, the widest valley in the kingdom. Then the most demanding driving day of the expedition, remote mountain trails through Gogona and Khotokha, to a wilderness camp deep in Gasa’s high country.
The End · Punakha and the Capital
Down from the wild highlands into the warm, fertile valley of Punakha, a whole landscape changed in a day’s drive. A day to go deep into Bhutanese culture, then the final drive into Thimphu, the quiet, unhurried capital, for the farewell dinner. Transfers to Paro the next morning, around your flight.
The Drive
A Toyota Prado LJ120 with manual transmission, old school and easy to fix, on roads that hairpin along cliff edges, unpaved tracks in the remote east, and passes above 3,500 m. Eight hundred kilometres, most of them turning.
The Landscape
Subtropical forest and terraced farmland in the south. The glacial bowl of Phobjikha, the widest valley in the kingdom. High passes in cloud, and the warm, fertile valley of Punakha waiting below them.
The Nights
Boutique hotels and lodges with the warmth of Bhutanese hospitality on most nights. Twice, our own camps raised in places where no hotel has ever existed, with the field chef and hospitality crew ahead of you.
The Table
Bhutanese cooking, which means chilli and cheese and more chilli, and international cooking alongside it, every night of the crossing.
The Culture
Dzongs on river bends, monasteries beyond most outsiders’ reach, a heritage village that has kept its ways for centuries, and a kingdom that measures itself in happiness.
