The Songtsam lodge-to-lodge circuit, northwest Yunnan
The route is the Tea Horse Road, and the point of lodge-to-lodge is that you are driving one direction through descending and rising valleys instead of doing day trips. The lodges are small, staffed from the surrounding villages and sited next to the monasteries, which is what city hotels in Lijiang cannot give you.
Courtyard buildings at Songtsam Lodge Lijiang · setting photograph, not a depiction of a private tour or package.
Picture your day
A loop of roughly a week driven by private Land Cruiser with your own Tibetan guide-driver, sleeping in a chain of small Tibetan-style lodges rather than returning to a city each night. You fly into Shangri-La, usually via Chengdu or Kunming, and move through Shangri-La beside Songzanlin monastery at about 3,300 m, Benzilan at about 1,900 m where the lodge has ten rooms, Meili at about 3,600 m facing the Kawakarpo massif, Lijiang near the Naxi village of Ciman at about 2,400 m, and Bingzhongluo in the Nujiang gorge, a 45-room property that completed the operator's run along the Three Parallel Rivers.
The access, explained
Nothing is closed to the public here; what you are buying is logistics and siting. The lodges put you walking distance from Songzanlin and Dongzhulin, and a guide will take you to a dawn viewing platform for Kawakarpo and into craft workshops, caves and the Yunnan snub-nosed monkey sanctuary. Sources disagree on how many lodges exist, between four and five in Yunnan, and the operator has announced an extension towards Chawalong and Chayu in Tibet with no confirmed dates, so get the current property list in writing.
Planning the details
How to arrange it. Direct with Songtsam, or through an operator that sells the circuit as a package with guide, driver and vehicle. Six to eight weeks ahead, longer for October. No permit for the Yunnan lodges; the Tibet extension, if it is open when you go, brings a Tibet Travel Permit with it.
When to go. March to May for rhododendron and clear mornings on Kawagebo, late September to November for the best visibility. July and August are the rainy season and the gorge roads are prone to landslides.
Ask for written confirmation of the date, duration, guide language, transport, admission and cancellation terms. Any restricted access must be confirmed by the venue.
The setting, in pictures & film
Videos open on their publisher’s site. YouTube is unavailable in mainland China; watch before travelling.
Good to know
This is altitude trip with a lot of driving, five to seven hours on some days, and that is the real cost. Go in the order that gains height gradually, Shangri-La and Benzilan before Meili, or you will spend a day unwell at 3,600 m. The lodges are comfortable rather than elaborate: wood, rugs, window seats and a fire, not a spa resort.