Western valleys
Haa
The hidden rice valley over the pass.
Overview
Haa opened to visitors only in 2002, and it still feels that way. You reach it over the Chele La, at almost 4,000 metres the highest motorable pass in the country, and drop into a narrow valley of wheat and potato fields, stone farmhouses and forest that climbs to the Tibetan border.
At around 2,700 metres, Haa is cooler and quieter than Paro, with a single small town and a scattering of villages along the Haa Chhu. The valley is the ancestral home of the Dorji family and keeps strong traditions of its own, celebrated every July at the Haa Summer Festival.
We send travellers to Haa for walking: the ridge paths above Chele La among rhododendron and prayer flags, the gentle riverside tracks between temples, and the quiet of a valley where you may not see another visitor all day.
- Altitude
- 2,700 m
- From Paro
- About 2.5 hours over the Chele La pass (3,988 m).
- Best months
- April, May, June, September, October
- Region
- Western valleys
Best time to visit
Four seasons, two of them famous.
Spring and autumn are peak. Monsoon is green and quiet. Winter is cold, clear and empty.
Spring
March to May
Rhododendrons flame along the Chele La road from April and the valley floor turns green. Snow may linger on the pass in March.
Monsoon
June to August
Mild and lush, with the Haa Summer Festival in July. Cloud sits on the ridges but the valley walks are at their greenest.
Autumn
September to November
Golden wheat and buckwheat, clear views to Chomolhari from the pass. Our favourite season here.
Winter
December to February
Cold and still; the pass can close briefly after snow. Lovely for a few quiet nights by a bukhari stove with the valley to yourselves.
Festivals here: Haa Summer Festival (July). Dates follow the lunar calendar; verify yearly.
Highlights
What Haa does better than anywhere.
Chele La ridge walk
From the prayer-flag forest at the pass, a path runs along the ridge towards Kila Goemba, a nunnery tucked into the cliffs. Chomolhari and Jichu Drake fill the skyline to the north on a clear day.
The Haa Summer Festival
Two days each July of yak herders, archery, folk songs, local brews and the valley's own dances. Small, warm and entirely unstaged.
A farmhouse lunch
Buckwheat pancakes, hoentay dumplings stuffed with turnip greens, and ara, the home-distilled spirit, in a kitchen warmed by the stove. Haa's food is its own.
Dzongs & temples
Whitewashed walls, red roofs, and the people still inside them.
Lhakhang Karpo
The White Temple, said to have been founded in the seventh century by Songtsen Gampo and marked by a white pigeon released to choose the site. It stands at the foot of the three hills the Haaps call the Meri Puensum.
Long sleeves and trousers in the dzong; no photography inside shrine rooms.
Lhakhang Nagpo
The Black Temple, a short walk from its white twin, built where a black pigeon landed. Smaller, darker and older-feeling, with a small lake beside it and a shrine that locals hold especially sacred.
Long sleeves and trousers in the dzong; no photography inside shrine rooms.
Stays
Where to sleep in Haa.
Placeholder names until partner agreements are signed. Prices per person per night, SDF included.
Journeys
Journeys that pass through Haa.
Questions
Before you go.
Because it is the valley most travellers miss. Two nights in Haa adds the Chele La pass, real walking and a sense of rural Bhutan that Paro and Thimphu, for all their beauty, are now too busy to offer.
You cross it in an hour and descend again, so most people feel only light-headedness at the top. We go slowly, stop for the view and keep the walking short on your first crossing.
Usually over two days in July. Dates are announced each year by the tourism authorities; verify yearly. Verify against https://www.bhutan.travel before launch.
Verify against bhutan.travel before travelling. Fees verified as of 2026-10-14.
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Build a journey around Haa.
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