Druk Air (KB) (website: www.drukair.com.bt), the national airline of Bhutan, is the only airline serving Bhutan. It is compulsory for all visitors to Bhutan to travel at least one-way by Druk Air. Druk Air operates direct flights from Kolkata (Calcutta) and New Delhi (India), Dhaka (Bangladesh), and Khathmandu (Nepal), each about 1 hour away by air.

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Paro (PBH), Bhutan’s only airport, is located in a deep valley, some 2,190m (7,300ft) above sea level, surrounded by hills and high mountains. Operating conditions are fairly difficult and the approach into Paro airport is entirely by visual flight rules. To/from the airport: Buses and taxis are available to the city centre (journey time - 1 hour 30 minutes). Facilities: The airport has a post office, bank, bureau de change, restaurants, VIP lounge, duty-free shop, gift shop, and two airport hotels.

The nearest railhead is Siliguri (India).

The road from Bagdogra (West Bengal) enters Bhutan at the border town of Phuentsholing, which is 179km (111 miles) from Thimphu, and borders West Bengal, India. The border crossing at Samdrup Jongkhar in eastern Bhutan allows tour operators to take travellers across Bhutan on a single-lane road crossing into Assam, India.

Druk Air operates an hour-long scenic mountain flight (the so-called ‘Kingdom of the Sky’), which offers visitors spectacular views of the mountains, lakes and waterfalls. However, there are no domestic airline routes within Bhutan.

Traffic drives on the left. The country has a fairly good internal road network with 3,100km (1,926 miles) of surfaced road. The average speed is less than 40kph (25mph). The main routes run north from Phuentsholing to the western and central regions of Paro and Thimphu, and east–west, across the Pele La Pass linking the valleys of the eastern region. The northern regions of the High Himalayas have no roads. Tour operators will arrange all internal travel for tourists, which will usually be by road.

Bus: Services which were formerly government-owned are now privately run, though yaks, ponies and mules are the chief forms of transportation. The main routes are from Phuentsholing to Thimphu, Thimphu to Bumthang, Bumthang to Tashigang, Tashigang to Samdrup Jongkar and from Tongsa to Gaylegphug.

The following chart gives approximate journey times (in hours and minutes) from Thimphu to other major towns in the country.

	Road
Paro	1.30
P’sholing	6.00
Punakha	2.15
Bumthang	8.45