D1

Lhasa Arrival

D2

Rest Day in Lhasa to better acclimatize high altitude

D3

Lhasa Suburban: Summer Palace Norbulingka, Sera Monastery with Lama Debating Ceremony

D4

Lhasa Downtown: Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple, Barkhor Bazaar

D5

Lhasa → Holy Lake Yamdrotso → Karola Glacier → Pelkor Chode Monastery with Gyantse Kumbum → Gyantse → Shigatse along Northern Friendship Hwy

D6

Shigatse → Sakya Monastery in Sakya Town → Tingri

D7

Tingri → Rongphu Monastery → Everest Base Camp (5200m) with up-close view of Mt Everest (8844m) → Tingri

D8

Tingri → Shigatse

D9

Shigatse → Tashilhunpo Monastery → Tibetan Family Home Visit → Lhasa along Southern Friendship Hwy

D10

Lhasa Departure

    D1

Arrival in Lhasa

- / - / D

Highlights: ✔Acclimation of Tibetan Plateau ✔Explore and get the vibe of Lhasa

DIST. 50km/1.5hrs

Your leisured yet adventurous seniors’ Tibet tour kicks off today. Upon landing at Lhasa Airport/Railway, our friendly Tibetan guide and driver will wait you at the exit holding your name sign. A white Khata (scarf) presenting ceremony will be performed according to Tibetan tradition to bless you with a safe and happy journey ahead. Transfer to hotel in downtown Lhasa by a private vehicle while enjoy your first glimpse of Tibet along the way. After check in you will have the rest of the day free for a sneak peek at what’s to come by yourself. No arranged sightseeing is crammed in for the first day to allow you time to acclimatize the high altitude in Tibet.

    D2

Rest Day in Lhasa to better acclimatize high altitude

B / L / D

Highlights: ✔Acclimation of Tibetan Plateau ✔Explore and get the vibe of Lhasa

DIST. - / -

Acute mountain sickness (AMS, aka. altitude sickness) is what worries most travellers about Tibet travel. Symptoms of altitude sickness usually develop between 6 and 24 hours after reaching altitudes more than 3,000m (9,842 feet) above sea level. Symptoms are similar to those of a bad hangover. The best way to prevent altitude sickness is to travel to altitudes above 3,000m slowly. This itinerary is especially designed for such purpose. By having an extra rest day in Lhasa (3600m) before starts sightseeing, it allows your body more time to get used to a change in altitude. Meanwhile, it is also a good way for you to experience the layback lifestyle in Tibet. eg. Sipping on a yak butter tea in a teahouse while watching the comings and goings in Barkhor Bazaar would be a very typical Tibetan way to enjoy, relax, and appreciate life.

    D3

Lhasa Suburban

B / L / D

Highlights: ✔Summer Palace Norbulingka ✔Sera Monastery with Lama Debating Ceremony

DIST. 50km/1.5hrs

Potala Palace involves climbing many flights of stairs to a hilltop, thus we arrange the second day for sights in Lhasa suburban, which are less physically demanding. Guide and driver will pick you up at your hotel, and deliver you back afterwards.

Summer Palace Norbulingka is a palace with surrounding park, served as the traditional summer residence of the successive Dalai Lamas. Covering an area of around 89 acres, it is considered to be the largest man made garden in Tibet.

Sera Monastery with Lama Debating Ceremony: Located at the foot of Tatipu Hill, worshipped not only as one of the six main Gelugpa monasteries of Tibet Buddhism, Sera Monastery has assumed another responsibility of cultivating eminent monks by serving as a religious educational institution. It is famous for the Buddhism activities of Monks Debating, which takes place in the afternoons from Monday to Saturday.

    D4

Lhasa Downtown

B / L / D

Highlights: ✔Potala Palace ✔Jokhang Temple ✔Barkhor Bazaar

DIST. 50km/1.5hrs

Potala Palace, the winter palace of Dalai Lamas since the 7th century, symbolizes Tibetan Buddhism and its central role in the traditional administration of Tibet. The complex, comprising the White and Red Palaces with their ancillary buildings, is built on Red Mountain in the centre of Lhasa Valley, at an altitude of 3,700m.

Jokhang Temple has been listed in the UNESCO's World Heritage since 2000. It is the spiritual center of Tibet and the holiest destination for all Tibetan pilgrims. Situated at the heart of Lhasa Old Town and surrounded by Barkhor Bazaar, this 4 storied building, built in the 7th century by Songtsan Gambo, with roofs covered with gilded bronze tiles, demonstrates a combination of the architectural style of Han, Tibetan, India and Nepal, as well as a Mandala world outlook of Buddhism. Devoted Tibetan pilgrims perform body length prostration in its courtyard all year long.

Barkhor Bazaar is located in Lhasa Old Town, surrounding Jokhang Temple. It is the best place to shop for authentic Tibetan souvenirs where are full of shops and stands at its every corners. It is also of extraordinary historical and cultural significance. Barkhor was developed along with Jokhang Temple in the early 7th century.

    D5

Lhasa → Holy Lake Yamdrotso → Karola Glacier → Pelkor Chode Monastery with Gyantse Kumbum → Gyantse → Shigatse

B / L / D

Highlights: ✔Holy Lake Yamdrotso ✔Karola Glacier ✔Pelkor Chode Monastery with Gyantse Kumbum

DIST. 360km/7hrs

Drive along Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) River by Southern Friendship Hwy via Kamba-la Pass (4794m).

Holy Lake Yamdrotso lies to the south of Yarlong Tsangpo River in Shannan Region of Tibet. The lake is one of three holy lakes in Tibet with the easiest access of them all. It is the largest freshwater lake at the south foot of the Himalayas with an area of about 638 square kilometers (about 246 square miles). The lake is in a length of 130 kilometers (about 81 miles) and a width of 70 kilometers (about 43 miles).The surface of the lake is about 4,441 meters (about 14,570 feet) above the sea level. Far in the distance is the huge massif of Mt Nojin Kangtsang (7191m). We will go all the way down to the lake shore.

Karola Glacier is a beautiful glacier perched between Nangartse County of Shannan and Gyantse County of Shigatse. Backing to the south face of Mt Noijin Kangtsang, Karola Glacier is made of an ice cap with slow slope and two hanging-glacier typed glacier tongues. Mt Noijin Kangtsang is one of the four greatest snow-capped mountains in Tibet. Among its glaciers, Karola Glacier is the biggest one occupying 9.4 square kilometers and reaching to 5,560 meters high. Contrasted with the blue sky, soft clouds and colorful prayer flags, the scenery of Korala Glacier is magnificent. Many Tibetan films had been shot here, the most famous one called Red River Valley.

Pelkor Chode Monastery with Gyantse Kumbum: the read-walled Pelkor Chode Monastery was founded in 1418. There’s a small but visible population of 80 monks and a steady stream of prostrating, praying, donation-offering pilgrims doing the rounds almost any time of the day. Sitting inside the Pelkor Chode complex, its Gyantse Kumbum is the town’s foremost attraction. This 32m-high Chorten, with its white layers trimmed with decorative strips and its crown-like golden dome, is awe-inspiring. And its inside is no less impressive, and in what seems an endless series of tiny chapels you will find painting after exquisite painting (Kumbum means ‘100,000 images’).

    D6

Shigatse → Sakya Monastery in Sakya Town → Tingri

B / L / D

Highlights: ✔Sakya Monastery in Sakya Town

DIST. 290km/6hrs

Get your Alien’s Travel Permit done in Shigatse which takes abt 30mins. Then drive by Tropu-la Pass (4540M).

Sakya Monastery: Sakya town is southeast of Shigatse, about 25km off the southern Friendship Hwy, accessed via a good dirt road through a pretty farming valley. The immense, grey, thick-walled Sakya Monastery is one of Tibet’s most impressive constructed sights, and one of the largest monasteries. Established in 1268, it was designed defensively, with watchtowers on each corner of its high walls.

Head further towards Tingri (4300m) to spend the night there instead at Rongphu Monastery (4980m) or Everest Base Camp (5200m). In Tingri, there are guesthouse with standard twin room available, unlike in Rongphu and EBC where have but dorm bed lodgings.

    D7

Tingri → Rongphu Monastery → Everest Base Camp (5200m) with up-close view of Mt Everest (8844m) → Tingri

B / L / D

Highlights: ✔Rongphu Monastery ✔Everest Base Camp (5200m) with up-close view of Mt Everest (8844m)

DIST. 220km/5hrs

Pass by Gyatso-la Pass (5248M).

Enter Mt Everest National Nature Reserve, some 27,000 sq km of territory around Mt Everest.

Enjoy the panorama of Himalaya Mountain Range at Gawula Pass (5198m).

Rongphu Monastery (4980m) is located at the northern foot of Mt Everest, famed as the highest altitude monastery in the world. The monastery and its large Chorten makes a superb photograph with Everest thrusting its head skyward in the background.

Everest Base Camp (5200m) with up-close view of Mt Everest (8844m), the highest mountain on Earth, unobscured by other mountains from Tibet side.

Return to Tingri for the night.

    D8

Tingri → Shigatse

B / L / D

Highlights: ✔Leisurely and scenic drive

DIST. 240km/4hrs

Leisurely drive along the Friendship Hwy back to Shigatse. After a hot shower with steady and unlimited supply in your air-conditioned hotel room – this is what luxury means after Mt Everest – you will have the rest of the day to yourself for nap or explore Shigatse, the 2nd largest city in Tibet.

    D9

Shigatse → Lhasa

B / L / D

Highlights: ✔Tashilhunpo Monastery ✔Tibetan Family Home Visit

DIST. 280km/5hrs

Tashilhunpo Monastery, the traditional seat of Panchen Lamas, founded in 1447 by the 1st Dalai Lama, is a historic and culturally important monastery in Shigatse. Its huge golden statue of the Future Buddha is the largest gilded statute in the world.

Tibetan Family Home Visit to experience Tibetan life first-handedly and our legendary hospitalities. It is the best way to learn about the culture and way of life of today’s Tibetan families in Tibet. It’s an interactive activities of experiencing the original, unique and colorful Tibetan customs.

   D10

Lhasa Departure

B / - / -

Highlights: ✔Homeward Bound

DIST. 50km/1.5hrs

Time to say adios to the Roof of the World. Thumbs up to yourself for making it happened in this lifetime. Humbled by the marvel and beauty of nature, it’s nature’s way of keeping us in check. Hop on your private vehicle for the transfer to Lhasa Airport/Railway. Say a fond farewell to your Tibetan guide and driver and take home with you the best memories of Tibet.