5-Day Tibet Private Tour includes Lhasa City and Namtso Lake

Attractions: No
Meal: Not Included
Hotel: Overnight in Lhasa

Upon your arrival at the Lhasa airport/railwaystation, your tour guide will greet you and escort you to your hotel and help you get checked in. You will have the rest of the day and evening to rest and relax to become acclimatized to the higher altitude of Tibet.

Attractions: Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple, Barkhor Street
Meal: Not Included
Hotel: Ovenight in Lhasa

After breakfast at the hotel, we will visit the incredible Potala Palace – the highest palace in the world. As we climb to the entrance gate, you will have a spectacular view over all of Lhasa.

After exploring the numerous interesting chapels and learning about the traditional culture and history of the palace and the city, we will move on to the spiritually significant Jokhang Temple, one of the most important temples in Tibetan Buddhism.
To see the “real” Lhasa, we’ll stroll through Barkhor Street with its thriving local market where you can pick up some local Tibetan, Nepalese and Indian handicrafts and souvenirs.

Attractions: Norbulingka Park, Drepung Monastery, Sera Monastery  
Meal: Not Included
Hotel: Ovenight in Lhasa

After breakfast, we start our day with a visit to the summer palace of the Dalai Lamas and also the largest Tibetan garden – Norbulingka Park. The luxuriant trees and flowers, cool ponds and comfortable palaces make Norbulingka the best place for a summer retreat. 

Then drive about 5 km westward to Drepung Monastery. Drepung Monastery is located on the hillside west of Lhasa – at one time the world’s largest monastery with about 10,000 monks living there. A pleasant walk up the hill leads to the solemn ambience inside the monastery’s many halls and chapels.
After Drepung, we will move on to the Sera Monastery. The main highlight of the Sera Monastery is watching the crowd of monks debating inside the shady courtyard behind the main temple. Every day except Sunday, hundreds of red-robed monks assemble in small groups and practice their debating skills – a very impressive sight to behold, as the monks are very animated in their debates about the various attributes of Buddhist scriptures.

Attractions: Namtso
Meal: Not Included
Hotel: Ovenight in Lhasa

Only exploring the exotic culture of Tibet is not enough, you also have to enjoy its natural beauty. So today, you are going to visit the picturesque Namtso Lake which is about 220km from Lhasa city. 

Namtso Lake, in Tibetan, means the Heaven Lake. It covers more than 1,920 square kilometers shaping lake a rectangle, and locates about 4,718 meters above the sea level, which makes Namtso the highest lake in the world. The pure water waves slightly under the pure and blue sky. Along the shore are enormous well-proportioned Mani stones. The colorful prayer flags hanged on the hills and monasteries make Namtso Lake holy and mysterious. A lot huge stones have existed along the Namtso for thousands years, and are related to some beautiful Tibetan stories. Namtso Lake is also the heaven for animals. It is natural pasture for nomads of northern Tibet. You have chance to see the sheep and yaks grazing leisurely on the grassland. Famous as one of three holy lakes in Tibet, Namtso lake is also a popular place for pilgrimage and meditation. It is honored as the holy lake both for Tibetan Buddhism and Bön. 

After the sightseeing, drive back to Lhasa. (Optional: if you want, you can spend a night there to watch amazing sunset and sunrise. But this arrangement needs you add one extra day to your tour.)

Attractions: No 
Meal: Not Included
Hotel: No

Today you will have free time until your tour guide escorts you to the Lhasa train station or airport for your departing train or flight from Lhasa. This will end your tour services in Tibet.