We would like to thank Ms. Lauren Martin (USA) Mr. Helmut Gargitter (Italy), Mr. Julin Maloof (USA), Mr. Mitchell Silver (USA) and Mr. Ewen Bell (Australia) for contributing  some of their pictures for our website.

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Trip: Cultural tour from West to East with Bumthang owl trek

Hello Kencho,

Thank you so much for our wonderful recent experience in Bhutan.

I have a few photographs from our wonderful trip I have promised to send.
Is there a postal address i can send them to that you may pass them on to Sonam Jamtsho to distribute & also to Sonam our driver.

We had a wonderful experience thanks to your exceptional organisation & wonderful staff. Both Sonam’s were outstanding. Sonam Jamtsho’s guiding knowledge, expertise & respect for the country & it’s culture were remarkable.
He always made certain we saw & experienced all that we asked of him and much more. Nothing was too much trouble.
The trip made that much more special by his organising the blessing of prayer flags for us & an unexpected acceptance to view the Buddah’s Relic, my almost insatiable desire to photograph almost everything as well as assisting our purchase of Gho’s & the lesson in how to wear & tie it.
You will also be pleased to learn that his knowledge was often remarked upon by other ‘tourists’ when overhearing his commentary. It was commented upon as being superior to that which they were receiving. A credit to you both.

I have to make comment of Sonam’s excellent driving also. A task not to be underestimated on the challenging roads and often very long days.
The Owl trek ‘team’ were also exemplary.

We are more than happy to make any testimonial or recommendation of support for Snow White Treks and Tours should you require.

best regards

Wayne Woodward & Patrick Cantwell (Oct 2011)

email: wayne@wayneandpatrick.org

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Trip: Snowman trek

We highly recommend Snow White Treks and Tours for arranging your trip to Bhutan. Kencho is fantastic to work with and goes out of her way to ensure your trip is a complete success. We arranged a custom Snowman trek for two. It was extremely easy to communicate our desires to Snow White Treks and Tours and to work out all of the details of our trip thru email correspondence. Our trip was flawless! We had an excellent, very knowledgeable guide and staff, our accommodations were very good, our driver was safe. Once in Bhutan, Kencho goes above and beyond to ensure your trip is meeting your expectations. If you’re considering traveling to Bhutan go with the best, go with Snow White Treks and Tours.

Jane and Steven Wurster, United States (Oct 2008)

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Trip: Mixed cultural tour and trek

Beautiful experience of hiking, visiting and living the every day and festive habits of a smiling nation. To start with, we attended 2 days of a tsechu in Paro what give us the peace and the religious mood to understand the natural kindness of all the people we were to meet during our stay.

We had then a one week trekking uphill with mules to carry our bags and accompanied with very friendly and careful guides: we had nothing to worry about, when we arrived at the campsites, the tents were already set, tea was ready and we only had to wait for a nice meal, different every day (even with fresh fish from the lakes we were passing around) without forgetting the desserts (pancakes, puddings…). At night we used to talk together around a nice fire with a cup of tea. The best moment of the day was the wake-up with hot water for washing and the traditional cup of tea when daylight was still starting and dew all around. When walking we could see lots of rhododendrons but … missed the snow-leopard!

The stages of the trekking were well proportioned and we arrived in Thimphu without any trouble. We had a few days visiting the dzongs in and outside Thimphu and had a first experience of the roads in this mountain-country.

The major event of our trip was our meeting with the Prime Minister who explained us the policy of Bhutan progressively opened to modernity in order to keep the people busy and happy in their remote countries and not to gather them all in the cities. We have been very impressed by the understanding and the wisdom of that man who had been living in Europe and was preserving his people of the failings of the too industrialized and wealthy countries. The way back along a very steep road to the Indian border in a minivan and Kencho’a own car, was extraordinary. We went down from the mountains to the flat country and didn’t know where to look around all the kinds of trees and flowers, the steepness of the precipices, the rivers and waterfalls, and everywhere green, green and green. Fortunately we didn’t have to drive ourselves and to look at the narrow and sometimes very bad road and not to worry about the huge trucks we were crossing coming from India with all kinds of goods and material along the only road climbing through the valley.

To end with the organization was perfect, the guides so friendly that we couldn’t leave them and had a last meal all together in a restaurant in Phuntsoling, and Kencho on top of all this, managing her business with competence and smile.

I wish her a great success in her travel agency!

Marcelle Delacroix, Brussels, Belgium email: marcelledlx@yahoo.fr

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Trip: Cultural tour

Snow White Treks and Tours gave me one of the best travel experiences of my life–the perfect introduction to beautiful Bhutan. Kencho provided attentive, personal service and made certain that the trip was tailored to my interests. My guide, Dorje, was a wonderful travel companion who served as driver, naturalist, historian, teacher, and friend. If I am lucky enough to return to Bhutan, I will use Snow White again, and I highly recommend this exceptional travel service to others.

John Herzfeld, Louisville, KY USA. email: jherz@loucol.com

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Trip: Mixed cultural tour with trek

“We could come to Bhutan in last autumn 2003 to perform a photographic report, and we decided to choose Snow white Trek and Tours of Ms. Kencho Wangmo Dorji to fulfill our purpose. We have to say that we enjoyed very much our stay with Kencho, the guide that she kindly provided, and all the staff of people who accompanied us during the treks. Our tour was a combination of both a cultural trip and a succession of treks in the mountains. Despite our rather fussy requirements for that photographic reporting, we were always able to do what we wanted to do and see. Kencho and her guide were very flexible, helpful, and extremely friendly. We had the pleasure to share and exchange many thoughts, gifts, and many other tokens of friendship. It was a wonderful experience from a human perspective, and of course also because Bhutan is a lovely country to visit.

Not only were the people of Snow white very close and attentive to us, but everything was perfectly professionally organised, whether it was during the treks (with excellent food and cooking!), or during our road tour, where we stayed in very nice and excellent hotels. Such a demanding trip (more than five thousand pictures accumulated in a little more than two weeks) would probably have been extremely difficult in other circumstances, but again the people of Snow white did everything they could to help us, and we must grant them our deepest acknowledgment for having made 100% successful such an unusual experience.

Susanna and Yves Finet, Geneva, Switzerland. email: yves.finet@mhn.ville-ge.ch / info@actionnature.org

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Trip: Cultural tour

A complete immersion into another world, where kindness, good humour, magnificent scenery carries one far away from the every day stress of our normal European lives. A wonderful breath of fresh air in every sense of the term. Snow White organized a very interesting and well prepared tour, everything ran according to plan and we were taken care of from the minute we arrived till the minute we left. Very difficult to re-adapt upon return!

Wendy O’Ferrall & Sybil Inglin, Geneva, Switzerland 2004. email: wof@tele2.ch

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Trip: Cultural tour

Back from the trip. Ended up doing Darjeeling to Sikkim (6 day trek) to Bhutan (8 days), ending at the Taj Majal. A great honeymoon all around. In Bhutan, we used Snow White Treks and Tours. Recommend them very highly. Great attention from the gal who ran the outfit; terrific guide. We had a fabulous time, though it sounded like we missed out by not doing our trek in Bhutan (thought the trek in Sikkim was fabulous).

Stayed at the Windamere in Darjeeling. A very nice hotel. quite charming. Unfortunatly we were fogged in the whole time we were there, but we were so zonked from the jet lag that it didn’t really matter.

More on the trek in Sikkim: we attempted to go Yuksom to Goeche La in 6 days (against the advise of our tour operator), but didn’t make it. The elevation gain is just too much; you really have to take more time to aclimatize. We knew we were pushing it, and were perfectly happy to just get to Dzongri (which we made it to by the second day without much trouble). It is a steep climb, though. Not for the out of shape. To make it in two days, you are climbing 1,000 meters (3,000 feet) per day. No wonder we both got headaches. But we stopped ascending before it got bad. We were on our honeymoon after all! And the views from Dzongri and in the valley up to Simiti (sp?) lake were extraordinary…

Write me if you have specific questions…and we should have photos up shortly at www.fitzandchristina.com

Ladakh is next!

Fitz & Christina USA