Hike to Tiger's Nest Monastery

Tiger's Nest Monastery (or Taktshang Goemba) is the most famous monastery in Bhutan and accordingly its image is often used on advertisements for the country. Legend has it that Guru Rinpoche flew to the monastery on the back of a Tiger, and hence its name, but the main reason for its fame is that it sits precariously balanced on a narrow rock face some 900m above the valley floor. You can get a real sense of vertigo just looking up at it. A climb to the monastery takes you through a forest before making the steep climb to the cafe the halfway point, where a tea stop is made before the final ascent and the nerve jangling approach to the monastery itself. The views from the top are fantastic - just don't look straight down! For the active a climb up and down will take around 4 hours. For the less mobile there is the option of taking a horse (approximately US$15) most of the way up. But please note that your return to the bottom has to be on foot.