By flights – Yunnan is a province adjacent to Tibet. Travelers can take flights to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, from 3 cities in Yunnan, which are Kunming, Diqing (Shangri-La) and Lijiang. It respectively takes 4 hours, 2 hours and 2 hours and costs 2800 RMB, 1700 RMB and 1700 RMB to fly from Kunming, Diqing and Lijiang to Lhasa.
By train – There is no direct trains from Yunnan to Tibet. If you want to take a train ride to Lhasa, you need to fly from Kunming to Chengdu, Xian or Xining to board on a train. Xining is perhaps the best option, because it takes only 22 hours for a Xining to Lhasa train ride, and the most beautiful sceneries along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway start from Xining Station.
Although your final destination is Tibet, Yunnan is also worth to stay for a few days. Most our customers will visit Kunming, Yunnan and Diqing (Shangri-La) in Yunnan before traveling to Tibet. Like Tibet, Yunnan is also an area renowned for its minority cultures. There are 24 minority ethnic groups in Yunnan. Normally, 5 days is enough to learn about the highlights of these minority ethnic groups. Besides the minority highlights, the Kunming Stone Forest, Lijiang Ancient Town and Tiger Leaping Gorge are also worth a visit.
The most popular itinerary from Yunnan to Tibet is Kunming – Lijiang – Diqing – Tibet. There are flights to Tibet from all the 3 cities in Yunnan, so it is ok to change the order of the itinerary.
It is a good idea. The Tiger Leaping Gorge is the most popular trekking site in Yunnan. Normally, it takes two days for this trek.
Day 1 – Take a bus from Lijiang to the Tiger Leaping Gorge Town, the start point of the trek. After around 30 minutes’ trekking, you can choose to ride a horse or continue trekking. 40% of our customers choose to ride horse, because they need to climb a mountain. After lunch, you will arrive at the Twenty-Eight Turn to start the steepest trekking section. It is dangerous to ride a horse here, because the cliff path is narrow. Todays trek ends around 6:00 pm.
Day 2 – Start trekking from your guesthouse to Middle Tiger Leaping Gorge, where you can admire the most spectacular gorge view. After arriving at the Middle Tiger Leaping Gorge, you can backtrack or continue the trekking to see more beautiful sceneries. No matter you decide backtrack or continue the trekking, at last, you will arrive at your guesthouse to take a bus to your next destination.
With the accompaniment of our experienced driver and guide-Lomsang. I forgot the name of our driver. Terribly sorry. He did a great job. Our guide is fluent in English, we had no problem in communicating. He made us laugh during the long drive and took care of my daughter. We had altitude sickness when we were at the tent of Everest Base Camp, he didn’t sleep well also in order to look after us. He also explained tibetan culture clearly which I find it pretty interesting. We would like to thank him for making our trip in tibet extraordinary. We were lucky to book a tour with Tibet odyssey tours.
We definitely recommend to book a Tibet trip through Tibet Odyssey! We had a great trip in June，exploring beautiful lakes and Mt. Everest base camp. Our guide was super patient.
We had a unique travel experience in Tibet specailly the landscapes we saw and local people we met.
Both of our tour guide and driver were excellent, our guide had a vast knowledge about the areas that we visited and also had extensive knowledge with the culture and history of Tibet. All the way, he made sure that we were comfortable with all aspects of the day. The place that he set for each day was appropriate for our abilities, because the tour schedule allowed for a slower start and initial days in Lhasa to adjust to the altitude. Also, the schedule did not put too much into one day. Once we departed from Lhasa and went to the higher altitudes, we did not have any problems with the heights because we were acclimated already, so a good schedule arrangment is very crucial for first-time tourists to Tibet. Our driver was very polite and accommodating person too, he always picked up us from the hotel on time every day and drove in a very safe manner and made us feel comfortable during the trip, he was a very nice man.
Additionally, I never forget the blue sky and white cloud in Tibet, everywhere is so gorgeous that could rarely see in big cities, we love it so much and hoped to stay there longer time. But only one point I want to tell here, the 3 star standard hotel in Tibet actaully is not really equal to 3 star standard hotel I ever stayed in domestic big cities of China, so choose 4 star hotel is suggested, I think it would be much more comfortable stay in the trip. Overall, the Tibet tour was excellent, here I much thanks to our travel agency Odyseey and consultant Amy for everything you did for us for the trip, thank you!!
The trip is very satisfied overall, just a few things to watch. There are too many monasteries. I am not quite a fan of religion. The hotel air conditioner didn’t work well and the hot water went wrong some times. Wish the hotel condition could be better in the near future.
Tibet has been one of my top travel destinations. As a Buddhism, visiting places tapping into sacred goddess and Mother Nature becomes a dream for me to achieve. At the age of 40, I am so happy I have finally made my dream come true.
The trip planning to Tibet has never been easy for Taiwanese. To grant a permit by a trust worthy travel agent is already a hassle, my first trip plan didn’t get though two years ago. I am glad I found odyssey travel agent for my second try. The whole process started off with zero trust, trip advisor and Facebook helped me to validate its credibility, and further more I had even asked for reference check from the agent. Thanks Kay for being a nice and patient coordinator during this planning process.
With all had prepared, our group has been one of the most peaceful and harmony travel company I have been with. With years of experience, I have not been with a group of >20 until this time, apart from school and company team building. To spend 9 days with who I meet the first time and could probably the only time caused me zero worry with the brilliant tour guide Xiao Gao!
If you’ll and would like to have a joyful and unforgettable journey in Tibet, going up to the Everest base camp is definitely the only option. So is odyssey travel.
This trip has been part of our family’s bragging card at get togethers and parties ever since we stepped foot out of Tibet. But it would have not been without the preparation and help from Xiao Yu, our tour planner from Chengdu. In addition our tour guide Julia was extremely informative and a joy to be around for those 8 days. The hotels were extremely nice and the places along the way were magnificent. Our family felt very welcomed to the area and we enjoyed the endless insight into the beautiful culture and religion (It helped out the person taking world history next year in our family). We would definitely recommend this trip to other family and friends as it is worth every single petty bit of the high elevation fatigue.
