Bhutan History, Culture & Colorful Festival Tour

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Oliver D L

TID 681 Bhutan Tour (12.11.13 - 23.11.13) Rating of the Trip Below: 1 means "far under our expectations" 2 means "under our expectations" 3 means "responding to our expectations" 4 : "above our expectation" 5 : "far above our expectations" General rating of the trip : 4 1) Bhoutan Guide Yeshi : 4. Commentaires intéressants. Très prévenant et attentif. Driver Sonam: 4: excellent conducteur, très prudent. Sur les routes du Bhoutan un vrai plus que nous avons tout particulièrement apprécié. Également prévenant et attentif. Programme bien organisé et intéressant: 4 Hôtels: 2/3. The level of comfort is good, but almost all of them have some problem of maintenance, isolation or electricity. Food is basic, even in 4* hotels. On n'attendait pas des hôtels de type européen mais dans l'ensemble ils avaient presque tous un ou deux défauts portant sur des éléments de confort essentiel. Problème général de gestion de la chaleur: isolation, portes ouvertes...ou eau chaude. Restauration: globalement nous ne nous attendions pas à une cuisine très raffinée mais tout de même à mieux que ce qui nous été servi: 2 J1: Voyage aller avec le transfert et l'hôtel Uppal à Delhi :3: accueil et prestations parfaits 4 J2: voyage de Delhi à Paro: l'avion avait une heure de retard. Sur place pour le transfert à l'hôtel Druk à Thimphu notre guide Yeshi et notre chauffeur Sonam nous ont pris immédiatement en charge avec beaucoup de gentillesse. L'hôtel Druk offre des chambres + salon+ dressing particulièrement spacieuses et confortables. Seul bémol l'eau chaude est "capricieuse". Service attentif et agréable. En synthèse : 2 ( uniquement à cause de l'eau chaude, le reste était bien). Dîner: 3 J3: visite de Thimphu très intéressante. Les 9 points de visites étaient parfaitement agencés pour rendre cette journée aussi passionnante qu'agréable. J4: de Thimphu à Punakha. Temps clair pour un trajet magnifique. Balade et visites merveilleuses. Hôtel Meri Puensum Resort, magnifique vue mais juste correct :2 mais il semble que la région n'offre pas d'autres choix. Repas corrects: 2 J5: merveilleuse ballade au temple de Chimé. Route longue mais grandiose vers Trongsa. Déjeuner médiocre : 1,( plats souvent froids comme la salle à manger). Visite du Dzong superbe. L'hôtel Yangkhil est bien, vue superbe:3. Dîner correct: 3 J6: Trongsa-Jakar. Très belle journée. Programme intéressant et varié. Déjeuner 3 ( le 2ème meilleur du séjour ). Hôtel Yugharling est bien, avec une vue superbe: 3. Dîner: 2. Avec le recul, le meilleur hôtel de notre séjour au Bhoutan. J7: Vallée de l'Ura. Très agréable ballade dans deux villages typiques intéressants. Sympathique pique-nique avec de vrais plats dans cadre grandiose. Dîner: 2 J8: Nord de Jakar. Magnifiques visites. Déjeuner: 1 mêmes remarques qu'au jour 5 (même restaurant) . Les grues noires sont au rendez-vous. Hôtel Dewachen : 2: rustique et amusant , magnifiquement situé, mais plutôt plus spartiate que sur le descriptif ( par exemple: ni tapis de bain , ni verres dans la salle bain, chauffage "modeste" 18° dans la chambre,16,5° dans la salle bain (14° le matin car nous avions fermé la porte) , coupures de courant fréquentes. Dîner : 2 J9: retour vers Paro. Déjeuner sur la route:3. Hôtel Nak Sel: apparence plutôt luxueuse, une vue magnifique. Jolie chambre, mais très "fraîche" 17°, baignoire sale, La présence d'une souris doit sans doute être comprise comme accidentelle ? Très bonne réaction de notre guide qui a exigé une autre chambre pour nous, très bien. Abstraction faite de l'incident ci-dessus: 3. Repas:2 pour ma femme, 3 pour moi. J10: visite de Paro, de ses temples, Dzong et musée très intéressante. Encore une excellente journée. Déjeuner bon: 3 ( le meilleur du séjour ) J11: randonnée au Tiger Nest: magique! Nous profitons du massage et Spa de l'hôtel: 4

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Mrs Kjersti E

TID 639 Engehaugen & Party from March 27-April 07,2013 Dear Ugen, We are very satisfied with our Bhutan-tour, and we hope we will get a opportunity to go back. My family and I (ages 29-55) traveled in Bhutan for 11-12 days in spring (March - April) 2013. We chose Wind Horse as our tour operator and did not regret. The planning went smoothly. Our contact persons answered quickly and relevant in perfect English. There were no misunderstandings or cultural related confusions. Our guide met us at the airport as planned, and we had a wonderful start as we entered the Paro Tshechu (Festival) right from the airport. We had read about the boring food in hotels (due to minimal variations), and that the food was no reason to go to Bhutan. We had most of our lunches and dinners in local restaurants with considerable variations. Most of the food was tasty and not at all boring (except for the desserts which was mainly melon or banana).Two of our lunches was wonderful picnics. Both our guide and driver spoke English very well. They were very flexible. The driver took us safely from place to place independent of road conditions. We had a wonderful time in Bhutan, and experienced Wind Horse as a very reliable and no fuss company, which we can recommend. Have a nice summer. Kind regards

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Mario & Families

TID 647 Mario & Families 17.04. 2013 to 30.04. 2013 Hi there Wind Horse. Portugal’s calling. Me and family, we've spent last 2 weeks of March travelling around Bhutan. 2 weeks seemed enough, but at the end we would gladly spend another 2, there’s so much see and experience. Many thanks to: Ugen and his team (Jambay, Pema, Yam). Regards,Mario, Maria, Martim

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Salmeron Family

Bhutan Tour Sep 21 -Oct 02, 2009 Hi Ugen, We are back in Spain from our trip, and we just wanted to say thanks a million for everything!! Bhutan is a wonderful country and the people is really kind. The guide and the driver were very friendly and very professional, and the planning was absolutely flawless. All the accommodations, the tours and the planned events were great as well!! We will definitely reach out to you in the future for more trips and refer you to anyone interested in travelling to Bhutan. I would like to thank you once again for your professionalism and great cooperation, and express my gratitude for a superb service. It has been a pleasure dealing with you. With our best wishes, Salmeron family (Madrid, Spain)

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Donald J S & Amy B

Dear Kinga & Chimi, We hope that you are both well and it was a pleasure to meet you. Thanks again for the very kind gift of the kira, it was a lovely thought. We're now safely back in New York, going through our photographs of our trip and recalling the wonderful time which we enjoyed in our time there. It has taken us a little longer than planned to provide you with feedback, but we hope that this is still useful to you both.We considered it best to provide you with our consolidated feedback via e-mail, and we believe we've covered all of the requested feedback areas from the questionnaire which you provided us with.

Staffs: During the Pre-trip; Ugen in Minnesota Office was exceptionally helpful and very responsive to all of our questions. He was invaluable in planning our itinerary. We were provided with adequate information prior to departure and our few last minute questions were responded to efficiently.Both Karma and Gudu met us on arrival and instantly made us feel welcome. Karma was a very good guide - he was very knowledgeable, answered our queries, carried out the itinerary as planned, and was flexible when required to be so. He was punctual and always looking to help us enjoy and get the most out of our trip.Gudu was also always punctual and drove very safely on some difficult roads. The vehicle was quite comfortable for the two of us, though we did get a bit more comfort from the jeep we had on day 1 of the tour, before we switched to the WindHorse van.

Itinerary: With the time we had available, the itinerary worked well for us. We felt that we covered a lot of ground and a lot of sights each day, without feeling that we were particularly rushed at any time. We found the detail contained in the itinerary to be very useful - we liked the short paragraphs on each of the sights that we were visiting. We were able to add to this by using our own Lonely Planet guidebook and also, of course, Karma's knowledge.

Accommodation: In Paro, the Gangtey Palace was our favorite hotel of the trip. It had a great location and we loved the traditional style of the accommodation. On our second night there we were put in the suite (Room 212), which was a beautiful room. The only downside to this was that there appeared to be some unseen opening in the room to the outside, such that we were inundated by mosquitoes for the night. Hot water was available and breakfast / dinner standard was acceptable, As a side note, Karma was helpful in arranging the hot stone bath for us here, which was an excellent experience. In Punakha, we stayed in the Zangdopelri hotel. The location and views were excellent, but we found the cleanliness of both the room bed linen and towels and of the table cloths / napkins to be really poor. Myself and Amy have both traveled widely and are well used to staying in accommodation which is not necessarily "Western" standard, however, we both believe that basic hygiene standards should be met, regardless of location. Breakfast and dinner options were okay. The bathroom was old, but functional. In Thimphu, the Hotel Riverview was in a decent location, a short walk from the main town center. We ate only breakfast here as we dined out both evenings, and the standard was the best of the trip. The hotel and rooms were functional, rather than being particularly "Bhutanese", but we understood this is a "modern" hotel. Our room was clean, but we did struggle to get any constant supply of hot water to shower with. For all hotels, the staff service was good and friendly and we were well looked after with an endless supply of tea!

We believe the above covers most of the main points of feedback, but please e-mail us with any follow up questions that you have, if you there's something you'd like our thoughts on.

Once again, thank you for all of the WindHorse team's assistance, both before and during our tour. We had a wonderful time and will be recommending to our friends that a visit to Bhutan is a unique experience. In all, to answer one of your questionnaire questions, we both found the trip to be "very satisfying". This was our first trip to Bhutan, and one day it would be lovely to return to explore the country more.

Bhutan  Tour Sept 22, 2008

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Brenden MC

Hi Ugen, The trip was great and met all our expectations, the guide & driver were also very good and went out of their way to ensure that we saw all that we wanted to. We had dinner in Thimphu with Anand and he checked throughout the trip that all was going well. If we go to Tibet, India or Nepal we will be sure to contact Windhorse for our arrangements

Best Regards,

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Michele Taylor

Steve and I had a fantastic time in Bhutan. It was the highlight of our 5 week Asia Trip. All the Wind horse staff were knowledgeable, professional, and helpful. I will be sure to recommend Wind horse to my friends. Thank you again for organizing our trip on such short notice! Warmest Regards

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Mellisa Carp

Bhutan Oct 2006 Thank you for all you did to arrange our trip! I had the most wonderful time in Bhutan. It was such an honor to be in a country with such a rich culture, sensible policies, warm people, and beautiful environments. During my stay I felt very joyful and have brought some of that feeling home with me. I learned lots and felt very inspired. I can't say enough about Sonam. He was so informative, patient, and flexible. His knowledge helped to make it such an enriching experience.

Aita who drove our van was also wonderful. I'm often nervous in vehicles I'm not driving. Despite mountain roads, and some night drives I felt totally relaxed with Aita's driving. Our accommodations were all excellent. I especially liked the place in Paro because it was smaller.

Thank you again for all of your work. The visit has meant so much to me. It makes me happy knowing somewhere like Bhutan exists.

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Laura Lee Wilkins

The guide and all accommodations were excellent; the sights were among the best I've ever experienced--in over 40 years of travel around the world.

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Carol C

Private Tour of Bhutan in May 2005

Both Joyce and I LOVED Bhutan, and our guide and driver. There were a few minor suggestions that we wrote down to give to the office in Bhutan, but all in all, we both enjoyed ourselves immensely. The visit renewed my faith in humanity that a place as special as Bhutan can exist in this world. I am interested in further trips with Windhorse.

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Lolita M. Tavano

Just wanted to let you know that our trip was fabulous. We enjoyed the whole experience very much. The guides were all wonderful. Since we spent most of our time in Bhutan, I wanted to let you know that our guide Chokie and our driver Lol took very good care of us. Chokee was very informative and he had a good sense of humor and was very patient. Bhutan is a truly beautiful country and the people are so friendly and warm.

Thanks for putting this wonderful trip together for us. It was truly a memorable experience. If I ever encounter anyone who wants to take a similar trip I will definitely recommend your company.

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Dr. Bernard & Michaela Segall

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN This is to inform you that our trip to Bhutan met all our expectations, particularly due to our guide and our driver, who escorted us with care and difference. The accommodations were the best Bhutan could offer wherever we went and the food preparation showed a lot of consideration for our western taste. Our driver was great. However, we formed an appreciation for the Bhutanese way of life because our guide listened to our interests and was able to accommodate them in our excursions and our visits to the Bhutanese monuments. Our guide was very well informed and professional in his behavior. We had a great time in Bhutan and we will certainly recommend Wind Horse Tours to our friends.

Sincerely,

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Simone Desjardins

I have found all the employees at Wind Horse to be very professional and helpful. Very quick service. Highly recommended!