14 Day Mount Kailash Kora and Guge Kingdom Tour in Tibet

Overview

Day by day itinerary

1. 1Arrive in Lhasa⌄

   Your Tibetan guide meets you at Lhasa's airport or station and brings you into the holy city at 3,650m. The far west of Tibet is a serious, high journey, and it starts with rest: the Kailash kora demands that you arrive well-acclimatized, so today is yours to settle into the Meikang Hotel, drink plenty of water, and let the altitude come slowly.

   Overnight: Overnight in Lhasa, the Meikang Hotel (or similar)

2. 2Lhasa: Potala, Jokhang and the Barkhor⌄

   A day to acclimatize among Lhasa's greatest sights. The morning is the Potala Palace, the thousand-room winter palace of the Dalai Lamas on the Red Hill; the afternoon the seventh-century Jokhang, holiest temple in Tibet, and the Barkhor pilgrim circuit that turns endlessly around it. Walking gently at altitude today is the best possible preparation for the days ahead.

   Visit the seventh-century Jokhang, the holiest temple in Tibet, thick with juniper smoke and the murmur of pilgrims, and the Barkhor circuit around it, where the whole city seems to turn clockwise in prayer.

   Meals: Breakfast

   Overnight: Overnight in Lhasa, the Meikang Hotel (or similar)

3. 3Lhasa to Shigatse via Yamdrok and Gyantse⌄

   Cross the Gampa La to the turquoise coil of Yamdrok Lake, its waters coiling for miles between the hills, and pass the Karola Glacier tumbling almost to the roadside on the way to Gyantse.

   Stop at Gyantse for its tiered Kumbum stupa, a nine-storey maze of painted chapels rising above the old fort town, before continuing to Shigatse.

   Meals: Breakfast

   Overnight: Overnight in Shigatse, the Gesar VIP Building Hotel (or similar)

4. 4Shigatse to Everest Base Camp⌄

   The road climbs over the Gyatso La and the Gawu La into the heart of the Himalaya, where on a clear morning four 8,000m giants line the skyline at once. Descend past Rongbuk, the highest monastery on earth, to base camp beneath Everest's north face.

   Meals: Breakfast

   Overnight: Heated tent / oxygen guesthouse at Everest Base Camp

5. 5Everest to Saga across western Tibet⌄

   A long, wild drive west into Ngari, passing the Shishapangma reserve — the only 8,000m peak entirely inside Tibet — and the milky-turquoise Peiku Tso beneath it, before crossing the high plains to Saga.

   Meals: Breakfast

   Overnight: Overnight in Saga, the Vienna Hotel (or similar)

6. 6Saga to Lake Manasarovar and Darchen⌄

   Cross the Mayum La and the high Barga plain until, on the horizon, two sacred sights appear together: the perfect snow dome of Mount Kailash and the deep-blue waters of Lake Manasarovar, with the dark ghost lake of Rakshas Tal beside it. Pause at the lakeshore before continuing to Darchen.

   Meals: Breakfast

   Overnight: Overnight in Darchen, the Kangren Hotel (or similar)

7. 7Kora Day 1: Darchen to Dirapuk⌄

   The kora begins. Walk from Darchen into the Lha Chu valley beneath the towering west face of Kailash, passing the great Tarboche prayer-flag pole and the Chuku Monastery on its cliff. The trail follows the river up to Dirapuk, where the sheer north face rises directly above your guesthouse.

   Meals: Breakfast

   Overnight: Dormitory guesthouse, Dirapuk

8. 8Kora Day 2: Drolma La (5,630m) to Zutrulpuk⌄

   The hardest and most sacred day: the crossing of the Drolma La at 5,630m. Climb past the Shiva-tsal, where pilgrims leave a token of their old life, to the prayer-flag chaos of the pass itself, then descend past the green Gauri Kund to Zutrulpuk, the cave of miracles of the poet-saint Milarepa.

   Meals: Breakfast

   Overnight: Dormitory guesthouse, Zutrulpuk

9. 9Kora Day 3, then west to Zanda⌄

   After the kora finish, turn southwest and drop off the high plateau toward Zanda, the road threading into the surreal canyons of the Zanda earth forest.

   A gentle final morning along the Zhong Chu gorge brings the kora full circle back to Kailash and Darchen — three days, one of the great pilgrim walks on earth, complete.

   Meals: Breakfast

   Overnight: A simple guesthouse in Zanda

10. 10The Guge Kingdom and Tholing, return to Darchen⌄

    A morning among the ruins of a lost kingdom. Guge rose here a thousand years ago and vanished in the seventeenth century, leaving a honeycomb city of temples, tunnels and cave-dwellings carved into a ridge above the Sutlej, its chapels still holding extraordinary murals.

    Visit nearby Tholing, Guge's royal monastery and one of the oldest in western Tibet, before driving back to Darchen for the night.

    Meals: Breakfast

    Overnight: Overnight in Darchen, the Kangren Hotel (or similar)

11. 11Darchen to Saga⌄

    The long road back east. Leave Kailash behind and retrace the Ngari highway across wide, wild grasslands, with their herds and salt lakes shining in the distance, to the frontier town of Saga for the night.

    Meals: Breakfast

    Overnight: Overnight in Saga, the Vienna Hotel (or similar)

12. 12Saga to Shigatse⌄

    Another big driving day: snow ranges to the south, nomad camps and yak herds along the way, the road slowly dropping as you return toward central Tibet. By evening reach Shigatse and the comfort of a proper hotel after the high, spare days in the far west.

    Meals: Breakfast

    Overnight: Overnight in Shigatse, the Gesar VIP Building Hotel (or similar)

13. 13Shigatse to Lhasa via Tashilhunpo⌄

    A morning at Tashilhunpo, the great gold-roofed monastery of the Panchen Lamas, before the highway carries you back along the Yarlung Tsangpo to Lhasa. The afternoon is free to rest, shop the Barkhor, or simply sit with everything you have seen.

    Meals: Breakfast

    Overnight: Overnight in Lhasa, the Meikang Hotel (or similar)

14. 14Departure from Lhasa⌄

    After breakfast your guide sees you off at Lhasa's airport or railway station. You have circled the most sacred mountain in Asia, stood beneath Everest, and walked through the ruins of the Guge kings.

    Meals: Breakfast