Gelephu Hot Spring (Gelephu Tshachu)

Gelephu Tshachu is a hot spring with seven ponds in the southern plains, about 15 km north of Gelephu with the last 3.5 km on a narrow side road. Bhutanese come here to soak for days at a time, and the season is winter. It is on both of our southern itineraries as a stop.

What is actually there

Seven ponds, with separate times allocated alternately for men and women — BBS has described it in those words in both 2022 and 2025. A renovation completed in 2020 added two ponds, restrooms, toilets, showers and a separate access route for people with disabilities, and there are guesthouses and small shops on the site that take bookings by telephone.

This is a Bhutanese healing site, not a resort. Soaking is traditionally believed to relieve joint pain, body aches and skin complaints; we report that as the tradition it is, and we are not going to dress it up as medicine. What it does tell you is how seriously it is held — people travel across the country and stay for a week.

What we won’t guess at

Whether it is open on the day you arrive. It closed for four months in 2018 when falling boulders damaged the roof and pillars, and for more than two years during the pandemic, reopening in May 2022. In January 2026 BBS found it open and reachable but short of visitors, with the Thromde’s waste collection three months behind and a highway bypass under construction nearby that had convinced people the road was shut. It wasn’t — but this is a long way to travel on an assumption, so ask us before you count on it.

And the timings. They are set locally, they alternate, and in a quiet season the management simply relaxes them. No web page can tell you what they are this week. We can.

See things to do in Sarpang for the rest of the district, or Gelephu town for the night you spend nearby.