Tibet — 8 days with permit guidance

Day by day

1. Day 1 · lhasa

   Arrival, rest

   Land at Lhasa Gonggar Airport (LXA), which sits at 3,600m — already high enough for altitude effects. The drive to Lhasa city takes approximately 1 hour. Check in to the hotel, which should be in the Old Town area near the Barkhor. Rest is mandatory today: no climbing stairs unnecessarily, no exercise, drink water consistently. Light meals. Most hotels have oxygen; some provide free initial doses. The thin-air headache is common; it usually passes within 24 hours. No sightseeing today.

   Stay in: Old Town near the Barkhor

2. Day 2 · lhasa

   Jokhang and Barkhor

   Morning walk of the Barkhor pilgrim circuit — the kora (circumambulation route) around the Jokhang Temple, continuously walked by Tibetan pilgrims prostrating and spinning prayer wheels. The circuit takes about 30 minutes at a walking pace. Allow more time to watch and photograph. The Jokhang Temple (Tsuklakhang) is the holiest temple in Tibetan Buddhism — founded in the 7th century, it houses the Jowo Rinpoche statue of the Buddha at age 12, the most revered image in Tibet. Entry to the inner sanctum is included in the permit package.

   Attractions: jokhang-temple

3. Day 3 · lhasa

   Potala Palace

   Entry to the Potala Palace is by timed permit — book through the agency in advance, as daily visitor numbers are strictly limited. Morning entry is standard. The Potala is the former winter palace of the Dalai Lamas, a 13-storey fortress-palace on Marpo Ri (Red Mountain), with the Red Palace (containing chapels and funerary stupas of past Dalai Lamas) and the White Palace (administrative quarters). The visit takes 2–3 hours inside. The climb of 118 steps from the courtyard to the entrance is significant at altitude.

   Attractions: potala-palace

4. Day 4 · lhasa

   Drepung and Sera Monasteries

   Drepung (Drépung) Monastery, west of Lhasa, was founded in 1416 and was once the largest monastery in the world with over 10,000 monks before 1959. The current active community is smaller. The monastery is a working institution as well as a UNESCO-inscribed site. Sera Monastery (east of Lhasa) has an afternoon monastic debate session in the courtyard — monks sparring verbally over Buddhist philosophy points, accompanied by hand-claps as rhetorical emphasis. The debate session is open to visitors and is one of the most distinctive spectacles in Lhasa.

   Attractions: drepung-monastery

5. Day 5 · lhasa

   Yamdrok Lake day trip

   A full-day drive south from Lhasa over the Khamba La pass (4,794m) to Yamdrok Lake (Yamdrok Yumtso), a high-altitude turquoise lake regarded in Tibetan Buddhism as a sacred oracle lake. The colour of the water — intensely blue-green — is the defining visual of the trip and varies with season and light conditions. The drive provides the first dramatic open-country landscape. Altitude at the pass is nearly 1,200m above Lhasa; acclimatise before attempting to walk far at the viewpoints.

6. Day 6 · lhasa

   Lhasa to Gyantse via Shigatse

   A long driving day (7–8 hours including stops) west along the Friendship Highway. Stops: Karola Glacier (a glacier visible from the road at 5,010m — receding substantially with climate change, now considerably smaller than in photographs from 20 years ago [VERIFY: current condition — May 2026]); Pelkhor Chode monastery complex in Gyantse, which includes the remarkable Kumbum ('hundred thousand images') — a multi-storey chörten with chapels on each floor, containing some of the finest Tibetan Buddhist art outside Lhasa; Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse, the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama.

7. Day 7 · lhasa

   Shigatse back to Lhasa

   Drive back to Lhasa along the southern route, different from the outbound journey. Time permitting, the Norbulingka (Jewel Park) in Lhasa — the Dalai Lamas' summer palace, a more relaxed compound than the Potala, with gardens and smaller palace buildings — is a good afternoon visit. Less visited than the Potala and Jokhang, with a quieter atmosphere.

8. Day 8 · lhasa

   Departure

   Lhasa Gonggar Airport departure. Check flight times carefully — schedules to Beijing and Chengdu are the most frequent. The drive from Lhasa city to the airport takes 60–90 minutes on the expressway along the Yarlung Tsangpo River valley. The agency will arrange airport transfer as part of the package.

   Domestic flight back via Chengdu or Beijing.

Budget guide (CNY per day)

Tibet 8-day tour package ¥6,000–¥10,000 per person all-inclusive (guide, transport, accommodation, permits). Not including international flights to China or domestic flights to/from Lhasa.