10-Day Everest, Northern Grasslands & Namtso Lake Tour
Lhasa · Yamdrok Lake · Gyantse · Shigatse · Everest Base Camp · Sakya · Serling Tso · Bange · Namtso Lake · Damxung · Lhasa
The Route
Everest, then the empty north
Most Tibet itineraries are a line: out to Everest and back the way you came. This one is a loop, and the second half is the part almost nobody sells.
The first five days are the classic route — three days in Lhasa, then the overland road past Yamdrok Lake and the Kumbum at Gyantse to Shigatse, and up over the Gyatso La to a night in a heated tent beneath the north face at 5,200m.
Then, instead of turning back east, the group heads north into the Changtang: four hundred thousand square kilometres of high grassland, the Tibetan equivalent of the Serengeti, where the herds are yak and the wildlife is chiru antelope and wild ass. You stop at a roadside hot spring, cross to Serling Tso — at 2,391 km² the largest lake in Tibet and roughly the size of Shanghai — and spend a night in the frontier town of Bange before coming down past Bam Tso to the north shore of Namtso, walking the Tashi Dor headland, and dropping to Damxung. A Tibetan medical spa back in Lhasa on the last full day is a better idea than it sounds after nine days on the road.
Ten days, two of the highest great lakes on earth, and a stretch of country most visitors to Tibet never see. Read the Yamdrok and Namtso lakes guide for what the water actually looks like in each season.
Trip Highlights
- ◆Everest Base Camp at 5,200m, with sunset, the Milky Way and sunrise on the north face
- ◆Two days across the Changtang — the northern grasslands, yak herds and wild antelope
- ◆Serling Tso, the largest lake in Tibet, at 4,700m and roughly the size of Shanghai
- ◆The Tashi Dor headland on Namtso, walked slowly rather than photographed from the car park
- ◆A natural hot spring on the grassland road out of Shigatse
- ◆A full Lhasa block first — Potala, Jokhang, Barkhor, Drepung and the Sera debates
Departure dates
Departures on request — tell us when you'd like to travel and we'll usually confirm availability within 24 hours.
Plan This Trip →Day-by-Day Itinerary
Arrive in Lhasa
Met at the airport or station with a white khata and driven into the city along the Yarlung Tsangpo and the Lhasa River. Check in and rest — the first day at 3,650m is deliberately empty. Your guide runs through the ten days and the altitude signs to watch for.
Overnight: Lhasa
Drepung, Sera and a welcome dinner
Drepung in the morning — once more than ten thousand monks, and still enormous — with time in Loseling College and the monks' quarters, which tell you more about monastic life than any chapel. Sera in the afternoon for the debating courtyard, roughly three to five, Monday to Saturday. A welcome dinner in the evening where the group gets to know one another.
Meals: Breakfast, Dinner·Overnight: Lhasa
Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple and the Barkhor
The Potala at your ticket hour, then Longwangtan Park below it, where the palace looks entirely different from the water. In the afternoon the Jokhang — the twelve-year-old Sakyamuni inside, pilgrims prostrating outside — a kora of the Barkhor, and sweet tea in a busy indoor tea house while your guide fields questions.
Meals: Breakfast·Overnight: Lhasa
Lhasa to Shigatse via Yamdrok and Gyantse
Over the Kamba La at 4,790m to Yamdrok Lake, 4,400m, with Nyenchen Khangsar standing at 7,191m beyond it; several viewpoints along the shore and lunch with a family in a lakeside village. The Karola Glacier drops almost to the road. Prayer flags at the Simi La, old Gyantse, then barley fields all the way into Shigatse.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch·Overnight: Shigatse
Shigatse to Everest Base Camp
The Gyatso La at 5,280m for the first distant sight of the summit. Into the Qomolangma reserve and over the Gawu La at 5,198m, where five of the world's highest peaks line the horizon. Then the switchbacks to base camp, the north face directly ahead, gold at sunset and — with a clear sky — backed by the Milky Way after dark.
Meals: Breakfast·Overnight: Everest Base Camp (heated tent)
Rongbuk, the Dinggye road and Sakya, back to Shigatse
Rongbuk Monastery at 5,154m before you leave, then the Himalayan foothill road east through Dinggye. The Xilin viewpoint puts Everest's eastern slope and Lhotse (8,516m) in one frame above a wide wetland. A stop at the old monastery town of Sakya, then into Shigatse for a Langma hall — Tibetan song, dance and dinner with the group.
Meals: Breakfast, Dinner·Overnight: Shigatse
North across the Changtang to Serling Tso and Bange
The day the trip changes character. North out of Shigatse, with a stop at a natural hot spring, and then out onto the Qiangtang — four to five hundred thousand square kilometres of grassland ringed by snow peaks, dotted with yak and sheep and, if you are lucky, chiru antelope at a distance. By afternoon you reach Serling Tso, the largest lake in Tibet: 2,391 km², about the area of Shanghai, at 4,700m, and from the shore indistinguishable from a sea. Overnight in Bange, a small county town on the plateau.
Meals: Breakfast·Overnight: Bange
Bange to Namtso Lake and down to Damxung
More grassland — yak herds, antelope on the skyline, and Bam Tso, which is small and very clear. By the middle of the day you reach Namtso, the most famous of Tibet's holy lakes, and walk the Tashi Dor headland: prayer flags on the rocks, cold wind off the water, and time to sit rather than just photograph. Afterwards the road crosses the meadows off the north-east shore and drops to Damxung for the night.
Meals: Breakfast·Overnight: Damxung
Damxung to Lhasa, and a Tibetan medical spa
About three hours down the expressway into Lhasa. Then a traditional Tibetan medical spa — herbal steam and a soak — which after nine days of high passes and rough roads is the single best-value hour of the trip. The rest of the afternoon is yours on the Barkhor.
Meals: Breakfast·Overnight: Lhasa
Depart Lhasa
Departure details confirmed the night before, and your guide takes you to the airport or railway station. Onward tickets and permits into China or over to Nepal can be arranged if you tell us at booking.
Meals: Breakfast
What's Included
- ✓Tibet Travel Permit, Alien's Travel Permit and all required local permits
- ✓Licensed English-speaking Tibetan guide shared within your group
- ✓Tourist vehicle sized to the group, with oxygen on board, throughout
- ✓3-star hotels or better in the cities, a heated tent at Everest Base Camp, and the best available guesthouses in Bange and Damxung; upgrades available where they exist
- ✓All entrance fees for the sites listed, including the Qomolangma and Namtso reserve fees, and the meals marked in the itinerary
- ✓Free transfer between Lhasa airport or railway station and your hotel; taxes, service charges and travel accident insurance
Not Included
- —International and domestic flights or trains to and from Lhasa (we book these on request)
- —Chinese visa (we can provide the documents you need to apply)
- —Meals not marked in the itinerary
- —Single-room supplement — rooms are twin-share by default (price on request)
- —Tips for your guide and driver — around USD 7 per person per day, shared between them, is customary
- —Costs arising from force majeure — weather, road closures, permit suspensions or flight delays
Accommodation
3-star hotels as standard in Lhasa and Shigatse (upgrades quoted on request), a heated tent at Everest Base Camp, and simple but clean guesthouses in Bange and Damxung — the northern grassland towns have nothing better, and that is part of the trip. Rooms are twin-share.
Frequently Asked Questions
Because the Changtang is the emptiest and least-visited part of Tibet that you can reach on a normal permit, and because it puts Serling Tso and Namtso — the two largest lakes in Tibet — into the same trip as Everest. The trade-off is two nights in basic county-town guesthouses and a lot of driving.
Gallery
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