How to hike to the Tiger's Nest

Taktsang, the Tiger's Nest, is the image of Bhutan: a cluster of white temples and golden roofs fixed to a sheer cliff 900 metres above the Paro valley. Guru Rinpoche is said to have flown here on the back of a tigress in the eighth century and meditated in a cave for three months. The monastery that grew around that cave has burned and been rebuilt, most recently in the late 1990s, and remains one of the most sacred places in the Himalayan world.

It is also a hike that almost anyone of reasonable fitness can do. Here is how we do it.

Start early

The trailhead at Ramthangkha is a twenty-minute drive from Paro town. We leave the lodge by seven, sometimes earlier, for three reasons. The light on the cliff is best in the morning. The valley heats up by midday and the lower trail is exposed. And the monastery is quietest in the first hours, before the day-trippers arrive.

Go on your third or fourth day in Bhutan, not your first. Paro sits at about 2,200 metres and the monastery at roughly 3,120; a couple of days of acclimatisation turns a hard morning into a good one.

The climb: three to four hours up

The trail gains about 900 metres over roughly four kilometres. Most people take two to three hours to reach the monastery and another one to two to come down, with stops. Walk slowly from the first step. The path is wide and well made, through blue pine hung with lichen, past a stream-driven prayer wheel and a line of white chortens, then up a long series of switchbacks.

Ponies can be hired at the trailhead to carry you as far as the cafeteria, roughly halfway. They do not go beyond it, and they do not come back down with riders; the descent is on foot.

The cafeteria halfway

About an hour in, the Taktsang cafeteria sits on a shoulder of the hill directly across from the monastery, with the first full view of it. This is where most of the photographs you have seen were taken. Tea, coffee and biscuits are available and, if you order ahead through your guide, a hot lunch for the way down. Use the bathroom here; there is nothing between this point and the monastery.

Above the cafeteria the trail steepens through rhododendron and old oak to a second viewpoint, closer and level with the monastery. Then the surprise: around 700 stone steps drop into the gorge, past a waterfall and a small shrine, and climb again on the other side to the gate. The descent-then-ascent is the hardest part of the day, mostly because you can see every step of it.

At the entrance: bags, cameras, phones

At the monastery gate you will leave your bag, camera and phone at a small security office and pass through a check. Photography is forbidden inside Taktsang, as it is inside all Bhutanese temples and shrine rooms, and there are no exceptions. Carry only your water bottle and whatever is in your pockets. Your guide holds the permit.

Shoes come off at the door of each shrine room. Slip-on walking shoes make this easy; so do clean socks.

Dress code

The monastery is a working temple, not a viewpoint. Long sleeves and long trousers or a long skirt are required, and hats are removed inside. Many travellers hike in a light long-sleeved layer over a t-shirt and change at the gate. Leggings alone are not considered appropriate; a loose trouser over them is fine. Bhutanese visitors will be in gho and kira, and the monks notice who has made an effort.

Inside

Your guide will lead you through the eight temples and the cave of Guru Rinpoche, explaining the statues, the murals and the protector deities. It is dim, cool and smells of butter lamps and juniper. You may be invited to make a small offering and receive a blessing of holy water. Speak quietly, walk clockwise and do not point your feet at the altar. Fifteen or twenty minutes inside is typical. Nobody will hurry you.

Coming down

The descent takes most people an hour and a half. Knees feel it more than lungs, so walking poles help, and the cafeteria lunch is a good reason to stop halfway. The drive back to the lodge is twenty minutes, and the hot stone bath should already be heating.

What to bring

Water, at least a litre. Sunscreen and a hat for the trail. A warm layer: the monastery is in shade and the wind on the gorge steps is cold even in summer. Comfortable broken-in shoes. A little cash for the cafeteria and for an offering at the altar. Leave the big camera at the lodge; the photograph you want is taken from the cafeteria.

Is it hard?

It is a steady uphill walk, not a climb. We have taken travellers in their seventies and children of eight. The altitude is the main variable, which is why we schedule it after a few days in the valleys. Go slowly, drink water and stop at the cafeteria. Then stand at the gate, look down 900 metres to the valley you walked up from, and understand why they built it here.