Tour operators - how we decided

Hi! I%26#39;ve received several questions about this from TA members and thought it might be helpful to post since there%26#39;s limited info on it.

My friends and I are traveling to Bhutan this October and we spent several months earlier this year researching and selecting a tour operator. We started with the Lonely Planet guidebook, searched this forum and Lonely Planet%26#39;s thorntree, and talked with friends of friends who had recently traveled to Bhutan.

We contacted six different operators, five in Bhutan and one here in San Francisco where we live. After emailing back and forth with all six about the itineraries we were considering, we narrowed it down to three (all in Bhutan). These were three that LP had recommended as being mid-sized and so more able to provide personal service and also having a focus on trekking (which we wanted to do). We also based it upon response times to our emails and how flexible they could be with the itineraries we wanted (i.e. we wanted a very customized itinerary and did not want to end up as part of a much larger tour group).

We narrowed it down to: Lhomen Tours and Trekking, Namsay Adventure and Yu-Druk Tours %26amp; Treks. From there we asked for references and also continued to email with them about small details of our itinerary (which hotels we wanted to stay in, condition of their camping gear, etc). It was a really tough decision and I honestly think we%26#39;d have been very happy with any of these three. We chose Lhomen Tours %26amp; Trekking because our contact, Karchung, was just wonderful in terms of responsiveness and also encouraged us to go with a slightly more aggressive itinerary (in terms of fitting more places in) so that we would ';not miss out on anything that you want to see';.

Also, several people have talked about problems with the wire transfer. We had no problem at all sending it from our bank (wells fargo) to the Bank of Bhutan%26#39;s account (I think it was at Citibank in New York). Just be sure to list the name of the operator (e.g. Lhomen Tours and Trekking) as the ';ultimate beneficiary';. Otherwise, apparently the Bank of Bhutan gets wire xfers to its account and doesn%26#39;t know who they go to!

Hope this is helpful!

Tour operators - how we decided

We spent 14 days in Bhutan trekking and sightseeing and we had a great time. Our booking was trough Lhomen- a tour operator recommended by Lonely Planet for trekking trips. Their response to our emails and questions before we got to Paro was great-always on time, but the assigned guide and the gear provided were not too good. The guide was a great person, but did not like his job too much. He was constantly upset that we were taking our time taking pictures, enjoying the view and struggling with the altitude ( we went up to 16000 feet). At the last high altitude pass he left us alone in a hail storm - he told us later it was because he felt we were too slow for him and he was cold. All the other groups/tour operators had Mountain Hardware tents, our was generic summer A frame not suited for use high in the mountains. The guide was not prepared to deal with the constant rain for the first three days and everything was very wet because the horses did not have any covers (all the other groups we met on the trail had their gear, food well protected from the rain...) and the four people helping us shared one umbrella and one raincoat. Luckily the weather cleared on the forth day and we were able to dry and to enjoy the stunning views. I would definitely recommend gators and gortex shoes for the trek- it was very muddy and wet even without rain. The mountains were beautiful, people were very friendly, food was good in Jigmeling Hotel in Paro and in the little Arts Cafe in Thimphu. One thing that surprised me was the high price of souvenirs , but hey, we are all tourists, what else :)