Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.hellomagazine.com
The Maldives, St. Barts and the Amalfi Coast are just a few of the destinations where famous faces are regularly spotted on holiday, but more and more celebrities are seeking out parts of the world where they can fall completely off the radar. Places where even the hotel staff are unlikely to recognise them – and wouldn’t care if they did.
A royal recluse
Hemmed in by 18,000-foot Himalayan peaks, with strict tourism protocols (they allow just 200,000 visitors a year), few places offer a better chance to disappear than the kingdom of Bhutan. Helmed by the glamorous royal couple King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk and Queen Jetsun Pema Wangchuck, the tiny Buddhist country is best known for its natural beauty, rich culture and Gross National Happiness Index.
Keanu Reeves, Cameron Diaz, Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield are among the Hollywood A-listers who have visited – although you wouldn’t know it without scouring the deepest recesses of the internet. Royal tours have also occurred, including visits by King Charles, and, separately, the Prince and Princess of Wales. However, outside of scheduled walkarounds there’s barely a snap to be found.
Peak privacy
Known as The Land of the Thunder Dragon (so called because the sound of thunder claps in a storm echo around the peaks like the roar of a dragon), just getting to Bhutan is far from straightforward. There’s only one precipitous mountain-squeezed airport, Paro, and less than 50 pilots in the world qualified to land there. Even private jets need to have a Bhutanese navigator onboard – including the King of Thailand, who piloted his own flight to Paro last year.
Scattered across the countryside, luxury hotels are few and – literally – far between. It took four hours by car from the airport swerving stray cows on noodle-like mountain roads to reach the valley of Punakha. Happily, the scenery along the way was a delight – all mist-licked peaks, wildflower meadows, stepped rice fields – with Bhutan’s only locally owned luxury hotel, Pemako, at the end of the road. A handful of the big, upscale hotel brands have arrived and thrived in the country (Six Senses, COMO) so it felt extra special to be checking into a property with firm Bhutanese roots.
Paradise found
Set on the bucolic banks of the Mo Chhu River, Pemako appeared like a vision from a fairytale, with a wooden temple-like main building, prayer flags fluttering in the gardens and 12 tented pool villas widely spaced across the hillside. In what felt like a scene from the Brad Pitt movie Seven Years in Tibet, I was met by a red-robed monk on arrival, who performed a traditional Bhutanese blessing and then tied a yellow thread around my wrist to protect me from negative energy.
There was certainly nothing negative about my accommodation. My ‘tent’ was more like a canvas-wrapped mansion with a rambling living room, a gargantuan carved wooden bed, a hand-hewn copper bathtub and an outdoor deck with a large, temperature-controlled swimming pool. After dark descended, staring up at milky clouds passing across starry skies quickly became one of my favourite things to do at night.
Heritage trails
Within the hotel, guests can spend their days flitting between complimentary yoga classes, Bhutanese archery lessons and fascinating astrology sessions with monks. My chart revealed my lucky colour (blue), my lucky number (seven) and my best day of the week (Friday), as well as delving into my past lives, which included one life as part of a medical family and another where I was an angel.
There’s also a wonderful spa set in the flower-filled gardens, where I sank into a traditional stone bath heated with coals and filled with medicinal herbs. I also tried a local yak butter massage, which was incredibly relaxing and left my skin baby soft, even if I did smell like an oven-ready Christmas turkey at the end of it.
A feast for the senses
Bhutanese food was something I knew nothing about before arriving in the country, but it turns out that you can grow almost anything on Punakha’s sub-tropical slopes. Everything from potatoes to papayas to wild ferns appeared on my plate, often doused in red and green chillis. There are plenty of international options too, including bacon and eggs for breakfast, club sandwiches for lunch and divine chicken butter curries for dinner. Every meal is a feast fit for royalty.
The great outdoors
As tempting as it is to remain cloistered in Pemako’s extensive grounds, Punakha has a bounty of memorable things to see and do. Near to the hotel, you can hike to Khamsum Yulley Namgyal Chorten, a gilded temple which was commissioned by the Queen Mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck in the 1990s to promote world peace. Alternatively, you can visit the 17th-century Punakha’s Dzong, an astonishingly beautiful fortress with a giant golden Buddha set inside an intricately carved and brightly painted hall.
On your way back to the airport, make time for a few days in Paro, if only to hike up to Tiger’s Nest – probably the most sacred Buddhist site in the country (and the most jaw-dropping located on a sheer cliff face). Adventurous types can also try their hand at white-water rafting, mountain biking and horse riding.
From landing in Paro to bidding farewell to Pemako’s all-smiling staff and unofficial resident dog, Auntie, my trip to Bhutan felt like an exclusive getaway like no other. The perfect escape for those looking for peace, in every sense of the word.
How to book it
Lightfoot Travel offers a seven-night tailormade holiday to Bhutan from £7,500 per person. Based on two people staying for five nights at Pemako Punakha in a Luxury Tented Villa on half-board basis, and two nights at Pemako Thimphu in a Deluxe Room with breakfast. The price includes indirect flights from the UK, local transfers and some activities.
Lee travelled as a guest of Pemako Hotels and Bhutan Airlines. All hotels and experiences have been independently reviewed by our expert writers, who are usually hosted on a complimentary basis, but this never affects our review process.
