Wangditse Hike

The Wangditse hike is a near-level path from the Sangaygang viewpoint round the hillside to Wangditse Goenpa, about 1.7 km each way with Thimphu spread out below most of the way. It’s the gentlest real walk in the capital. Allow 2–3 hours; it’s free.

Who it’s for

Anyone who wants a walk without a climb. That is a genuinely useful category in Bhutan, where the alternative — the Tango and Cheri hike — is an hour of steep uphill and not for everyone.

From the BBS radio tower at Sangaygang the path contours round the hillside, broad and close to level, for about 1.7 km to the monk housing at Wangditse, with the goenpa a little beyond. Reckon on 45 minutes each way at a walking pace and 2–3 hours out and back with time at the top. The full loop is about 4 km.

It is still a hill path — uneven underfoot, muddy in monsoon and icy in shade in January — so it wants shoes rather than sandals. But there is no ascent to speak of and no exposure, and the view over Thimphu is with you almost the whole way.

Wangditse Goenpa itself was founded in 1750 by the attendants of Bhutan’s eighth Desi, Yeshey Rabgye, and holds statues of the guardian deities. It was renovated in the 1960s with little change to the original structure.

Which way round

Most people walk out and back from Sangaygang, which needs no logistics at all.

You can instead finish downhill to Dechen Phodrang and be collected there — a nice route, and the one our own page used to describe as though it were the only option. It isn’t, and it needs a driver at the bottom, so tell us which you’d prefer rather than discovering it on the ridge.

How it fits your day

The takin preserve sits just below the Sangaygang trailhead, so the standard half-morning is takin, viewpoint, walk — in that order, and it’s a good one. There’s a café at the top of the hill for afterwards.

March–May and September–November are the seasons; go in the morning for the light over the city. See things to do in Thimphu for how everything compares.