Lhasa, Gyantse, Shigatse and Namtso Tour

Welcome to Tibet! You will be warmly greeted at the train station/airport by our representative and we will transfer you to the reserved hotel in Lhasa. Have a good rest to acclimatize the high altitude in the afternoon.

In the morning we will begin our sightseeing tour of Lhasa, visiting the famous Potala Palace and explore the grandest of the myriad chapels. By the afternoon we will visit the holiest temple in Tibet, the Jokhang Temple. Then we will head to Barkor Kora, which is the most famous Kora in Tibet, where we can buy Tibetan traditional or religious crafts.

Today, we will visit two important monasteries in Lhasa, the Drepung and the Sera. If we are very lucky, we may even come across Sera Monastery’s Monks debating which is held in the courtyard at around 3:00pm-5:30pm in the afternoon.

Today we'll say farewell to Lhasa as we travel through the countryside to Shigatse. Along the way we'll pass by the green farmland of Nyang Chu Valley and drive along Yamdrok-tso Lake, a stunning lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains. We'll also see Karo-la Glacier as we move westwards to arrive at Gyantse, home to the famous Palcho Monastery - which we'll visit - and Tibet's third largest city. Afterwards we'll finish our drive to the second biggest city in Tibet: Shigatse. This amazing city is the spiritual home of the Panchen Lama and site of the Tashi Lunpo Monastery.

Before going back to Lhasa from Shigatse, we will visit the largest Monastery in west Tibet, the Tashilhunpo Monastery. Tashilhunpo Monastery is one of the six great Gelukpa institutions and was founded in 1447 by a disciple of Tsongkhapa, containing the world's largest gilded copper image (26m high) of future god Jampa. After visiting here we'll travel along the Friend-ship Highway back to Lhasa.

Our guide and driver pick you up from your hotel around 8:00am, and then we drive to Namtso Lake. Along the way we'll see Nyenchen Tanglha Mountains, a stunning range of snowy peaks. In summer (May to August), you may see sheepherders and their tents, groups of sheep and yaks. Then we'll arrive at Namtso Lake, also known as Heavenly Lake. You can do a very relaxing walk around the lake side as well as Tashi Island. It is considered the lake in the sky, it is about 5000m high lies on the highest plateau in the world. We'll spend the night here, relaxing along the lake shore and enjoying the clear night sky where you can see all the stars twinkling.

We'll rise early in the morning to see the beautiful sunrise at Namtso Lake. You can trek along the lakeshore to Tashi Dor Island to explore the meditation caves. Afterwards we'll drive to Damxung to have lunch before returning to Lhasa. On the way, we will pass a famous hotspring — the Yampanchen (admission not included). If some tourists are interested in it, we can stop over for a while and have a bath.

Our tour guide and driver will help to drop you at the Lhasa airport and end the wonderful journey.