Gelephu is accessible by air from Paro on Druk Air or Bhutan Airlines; the flight takes under an hour. Gelephu Airport (IATA: GLU) is a small facility about three kilometres from town, handling domestic services and some regional connections.
By road from India, the nearest town across the border is Kokrajhar in Assam. The crossing is open to tourists but all visitors to Bhutan must enter on an authorised tour with a licensed operator — independent travel is not permitted. From within Bhutan, Gelephu is connected by road to Trongsa and the rest of the country, though the roads through the mountains can be rough and slow.