editorial

Thimphu Bhutan Insider Guide &#8211; Giku-Na Village Exterior Hero Shot

Words by Erin Levi 
Photographs by Sonam Tshering 
November 2, 2026
Most visitors to Bhutan give its compact capital only a passing glance. They’re missing out.
<figure id="attachment_164994" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-164994" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-164994" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Chef-Sonam-Dema-and-Giku-Na-Village-Guest-Room.jpeg" alt="Solé’s chef Sonam Dema; a guest room at Giku-Na Village." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Chef-Sonam-Dema-and-Giku-Na-Village-Guest-Room.jpeg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Chef-Sonam-Dema-and-Giku-Na-Village-Guest-Room-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Chef-Sonam-Dema-and-Giku-Na-Village-Guest-Room-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Chef-Sonam-Dema-and-Giku-Na-Village-Guest-Room-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-164994" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Solé’s chef Sonam Dema; a guest room at Giku-Na Village.</figcaption></figure>
On a Wednesday morning at Giku-Na Village, a café and community space tucked above the Memorial Chorten, Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche—renowned filmmaker, author, and Buddhist master—stopped in to see a debut art exhibition by one of his film crew. Nearby, a table of chilips—Dzongkha for “foreigners”—were deep in conversation about tokenization, while a septuagenarian sound therapist led a meditation session in the adjacent yoga room. The flat whites were velvety. The Bhutanese mountain tea, herbaceous. And the homegrown banana-hazelnut smoothie? Delicious. Pro tip: add a shot of espresso.
This is Thimphu now—a place where you might find a leading lama, blockchain entrepreneurs, and a gong lady under the same roof, dreaming up a better world before noon. Yet most visitors to Bhutan don’t linger in its quiet capital of 140,000. They come to this carbon-negative Buddhist kingdom for its centuries-old monasteries, pristine forests, Himalayan scenery, and elaborate masked dance festivals, drawn to a country that has fiercely protected its heritage since opening to the outside world in 1974. Thimphu, if it features on itineraries at all, tends to mean a morning at the hilltop Buddha Dordenma statue, a stop at the Royal Takin Preserve to see Bhutan’s unusual national animal, and a visit to the Royal Textile Academy or Tashichho Dzong before heading back to the hotel for dinner. The city is a pit-stop between the Paro and Punakha valleys, not a destination in itself. Even the area’s top digs, <a href="https://www.sixsenses.com/en/hotels-resorts/asia-the-pacific/bhutan/bhutan/lodges/six-senses-thimphu/?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Six Senses Thimphu</a>, floats so high above the valley it may as well not be in the city at all.
Beyond that familiar circuit, however, a new scene is emerging beneath the Buddha’s gilded gaze, one shaped by both Bhutanese tradition and influences from abroad. A chef who trained in Milan is reworking Bhutanese cuisine through Italian technique. A wine bar is pouring the country’s first domestic vintage, made by a Napa Valley winemaker who now calls Bhutan home. And an artisanal Indo-Bhutanese textile house is helping preserve crafts for the next generation while offering lovely pillows and thangka paintings for travelers to bring home.
Having visited Bhutan six times over 12 years—and spent nearly a month in Thimphu alone last November—I’d argue it’s well worth staying an extra night to explore this unexpected side of the capital.
Start with a visit to <a href="https://www.instagram.com/gikuna.village/?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Giku-Na Village</a>. Since opening in March 2025, it has fast become Thimphu’s center of gravity and levity. “We wanted to create a space for connection and community,” says Australian co-founder Carolyn Hamer-Smith, who opened Giku-Na with her Bhutanese husband Kinzang Chhogyal in his childhood home, formerly the local offices of the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
The result: a corner café, art gallery, textile shop, yoga studio, and three-room guesthouse that mirrors, in its own Himalayan way, the creative salons of 20th-century Montparnasse, attracting government ministers, artists, entrepreneurs, and Oscar-nominated directors alike over coffee, smoothies, and datshi-cheese quiches. Beside a flowering magnolia tree, a bamboo-clad studio offers Sowa Rigpa massages and other traditional wellness treatments, such as acupuncture and moxibustion. There’s also an onsen in the works, a nod to the building’s Japanese roots.
<figure id="attachment_164998" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-164998" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-164998" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Pan-Seared-Himalayan-Trout-at-Sole-Restaurant-and-Ser-Kem-Cordyceps-at-The-Wine-Stop.jpeg" alt="Pan-seared Himalayan trout at Solé; a bottle of Ser Kem Cordyceps at The Wine Stop, Bhutan’s first wine bar." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Pan-Seared-Himalayan-Trout-at-Sole-Restaurant-and-Ser-Kem-Cordyceps-at-The-Wine-Stop.jpeg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Pan-Seared-Himalayan-Trout-at-Sole-Restaurant-and-Ser-Kem-Cordyceps-at-The-Wine-Stop-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Pan-Seared-Himalayan-Trout-at-Sole-Restaurant-and-Ser-Kem-Cordyceps-at-The-Wine-Stop-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Pan-Seared-Himalayan-Trout-at-Sole-Restaurant-and-Ser-Kem-Cordyceps-at-The-Wine-Stop-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-164998" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Pan-seared Himalayan trout at Solé; a bottle of Ser Kem Cordyceps at The Wine Stop, Bhutan’s first wine bar.</figcaption></figure>
In a country with a nascent dining scene, chefs who train abroad rarely return home. One exception is thirtysomething chef Sonam Dema, who spent seven years in northern Italian kitchens, most of them at Milanese seafood restaurant Food Writers. (“A mountain girl, I learned how to shuck oysters and fillet bluefin tuna and swordfish,” she tells me.) Then her mother asked her to come home. The outcome is the hottest table in Thimphu: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sole.thimphu/?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Solé</a>, an 18-seater that she opened with her cousin last year in the northern suburb of Babena. Here, Bhutanese-Italian cuisine is served with Himalayan sprezzatura: house-cured pancetta, slow-cooked yak ragù over fresh pappardelle; an ema datshi panino; and Gep and Gep—ribbons of fried tripe (gep) dusted with a furikake-like mix of perilla seeds, Sichuan pepper, and dried garlic and served with a spicy aioli.
Back in central Thimphu, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/the_wine_stop/?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wine Stop</a> is the country’s first wine bar. Bhutan may be the world’s newest wine-producing country, but you wouldn’t know it from the prices: a bottle of Ser Kem Pinot Noir runs about US$460, more than any of the French, Italian, and New Zealand labels on offer. It’s made by the Bhutan Wine Company, founded by American couple Mike Juergens and Ann Cross together with Bhutanese partner Karma Choeda. Their experimental Ser Kem Cordyceps—featuring the prized high-altitude medicinal fungus—costs a pretty penny too. Fortunately, The Wine Stop also sells by the glass; a three-wine flight runs about US$100. Charcuterie boards and Thai caviar round out the menu.
Thimphu’s retail scene may still be in its infancy, but there are a few gems. One is <a href="https://www.instagram.com/shebhutanofficialpage/?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">She Bhutan</a>, the new boutique of designer Gaymit Lepcha’s contemporary fashion label. On the racks you’ll find an array of jackets for women—from short-cropped capes with fringe to belted trenches—all made from yathra, a geometric-patterned woolen weave from central Bhutan.
<figure id="attachment_164995" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-164995" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-164995" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Displays-in-the-Zampa-Showroom.jpeg" alt="Zampa showcases a range of woven textiles made from natural fibers and dyes." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Displays-in-the-Zampa-Showroom.jpeg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Displays-in-the-Zampa-Showroom-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Displays-in-the-Zampa-Showroom-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Displays-in-the-Zampa-Showroom-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-164995" class="wp-caption-text">Zampa showcases a range of woven textiles made from natural fibers and dyes.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_164999" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-164999" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-164999" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Zampa-Showroom-Interior-and-Cofounder-Karma-Lhazom.jpeg" alt="Inside the Zampa showroom; the space’s co-founder Karma Lhazom." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Zampa-Showroom-Interior-and-Cofounder-Karma-Lhazom.jpeg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Zampa-Showroom-Interior-and-Cofounder-Karma-Lhazom-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Zampa-Showroom-Interior-and-Cofounder-Karma-Lhazom-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Zampa-Showroom-Interior-and-Cofounder-Karma-Lhazom-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-164999" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Inside the Zampa showroom; the space’s co-founder Karma Lhazom.</figcaption></figure>
Another is <a href="https://zampa.bt/?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zampa</a>, tucked up a steep dirt road above the Changangkha Lhakhang temple complex. It feels unexpectedly cozy for a contemporary showroom: carved wooden window frames salvaged from the farmhouse that once stood on the site cast warm light across bolts of hand-loomed fabric. Opened earlier this year, the studio is an offshoot of artisanal textile house <a href="https://www.namaysamay.com/?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Namay Samay</a> and aims to bring Bhutan’s endangered craft traditions to a new generation of luxury travelers. Naturally dyed cushion covers, cashmere scarves, thangkas painted with natural pigments, and fabrics for tailored gho and kira, the national dress, fill the space.
“We wanted to create something that feels authentically Bhutanese and is made with lots of care,” says co-founder Karma Lhazom, who employs two dozen weavers and painters and locally sources all dyes: indigo, madder, and rhubarb. She also wanted prices in the hundreds rather than thousands—the cost of many elaborate hand-loomed textiles in Bhutan—with cushions ranging from US$65 to US$375.
Most travelers come to Bhutan for what hasn’t changed: the dzongs, the mountains, the Buddhism practiced for centuries. But Thimphu, Bhutan’s expanding, ever-evolving capital, is a reminder of Buddhism’s key tenet: that nothing is permanent, least of all a city.
<figure id="attachment_164996" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-164996" style="width: 1920px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-164996" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Giku-Na-Village-Exterior.jpeg" alt="Outside Giku-Na Village." width="1920" height="1280" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Giku-Na-Village-Exterior.jpeg 1920w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Giku-Na-Village-Exterior-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Giku-Na-Village-Exterior-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Giku-Na-Village-Exterior-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Giku-Na-Village-Exterior-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Thimphu-Bhutan-Insider-Guide-Giku-Na-Village-Exterior-1568x1045.jpeg 1568w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-164996" class="wp-caption-text">Outside Giku-Na Village.</figcaption></figure>
This article originally appeared in the <a href="https://subscription.destinasian.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">October/November 2026</a> print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“Thimphu’s Time”). Buy a single issue or subscribe <a href="https://subscription.destinasian.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

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