A short flight to Tibet give you a panorama of the snowy Himalayan ranges or the days of train ride over high plateau by crossing the mighty Thangu la ranges get you to Lhasa with beautiful sceneries along the route, at your arrival at the Gonggar airport or Lhasa Train Station, you will be greeted by our Tibetan guide and driver and transfer to your hotel in Lhasa city. From the airport to Lhasa it is about 65km and it takes less than an hour through the recently built highway, from the train station it is only 15km and it takes about half hour, check in the hotel and take it easy for the rest of the day to acclimatize and alleviate the jet lag. You will experience some mild symptoms of altitude sickness that includes light-headedness, disorientation, headache etc. Drink plenty of water and take enough rest.

Following breakfast, we drive 8km west of Central Lhasa to visit Drepung Monastery which was once world's largest monasteries with around 10,000 resident monks! Drepung Monastery was the home to the Dalai Lamas and the power center of Tibet, until the 5th Dalai Lama built Potala Palace. We visit the Ganden Palace, the main assembly hall and the several chapels and colleges. The monastery also commands the panoramic views of the valley. In the afternoon, we visit Jokhang Temple, is the most revered of all religious shrines in Tibet. Thick with the smell of butter lamps and burning incense, the murmur of sacred Tibetan mantras, prostrating Tibetan devotees, visiting Jokhang is indeed an unrivalled Tibetan experience. We visit the various chapels of the temple and later, we take leisurely walking tour of the old town. The walk takes us in the craft workshops, back-street chapels and pilgrimage path with the Tibetan devotees spinning prayer wheels or counting beads with the murmur of sacred mantras. 

If you are interested taking Lingkhor walking tour that finishes in Potala Palace, we need to start a bit early. We transfer by car to Dickey Lam (Deji Zhonglu in Chinese) and join the hundreds of Tibetan pilgrims heading to the Potala. The trail takes us through the rock carvings, a chorten built entirely of the carved Mani stones. Take chance to watch the Tibetans rubbing their backs, shoulders and hips against a series of polished holy stones at the intersection of Beijing Road and Dickey Lam. We continue east to the Golden Yak Statue and time permitting, we climb the view point just above the white chorten (Stupa) for photography opportunity. By now, it must be time for us to enter the Potala Palace-Lhasa's cardinal landmark. Situated atop Marpo Ri, 130m high hill, with a commanding view of all Lhasa, Potala Palace is one of the great wonders of world architecture. The complex has two palaces-White Palace and the main Red Palace. The White Palace houses the throne rooms of the 13th and 14th Dalai Lamas, a reception hall, meditation room and the bedroom of Dalai Lamas. The Red Palace has various chapels and the tombs of Dalai Lamas. Photography inside the palace is forbidden. Now, we head to Sera Monastery which lies about 5km north of Central Lhasa. Sera Monastery is one of Lhasa's two great Gelugpa institutions, second only to Drepung. Founded in the early 15th century by Sakya Yeshe-a disciple of Tsongkhapa, Sera Monastery was once home to more than 5000 monks. As the chapels start closing at 3 p.m., we first explore the various chapels of the monastery and then attend the debating ceremony of the monks which takes place between 3 pm and 5 pm except on Sunday. If you are not interested seeing chapels, you can take hike on the pilgrimage path of the monastery which takes less than an hour.

Today we drive to north-west of Lhasa via Qinghai-Tibet highway, tracing the Tibet railway to Damxong and then cross the Lagen la pass by driving further west to Namtso lake, north-western part of Tibet is vast pastures for the plateau nomads since from long time and we call it Jiangthang (Northern plain), from ridge of the Lagen la (5190m) it offers the first view of the amazing Namtso lake, the paved road cut through the nomads grasslands and black tents of nomad families can be seen along the road side during summer season, Tashi peninsula is the final destination of the day, in the afternoon you explore around the Tashi Do peninsula and surroundings. Namtso lake is one of the Tibet’s three most holy lake and Tibetans makes pilgrimage circumambulation around the lake on some ritual time which takes about a month or less to complete the whole circle, it is world highest salt water lake and second largest salt water lake in China with 70km in length and 30km in breadth (1st largest salt water lake in China is Kokorno lake in Qinghai province). Late afternoon, drive back to Lhasa, en route you will visit a nomad family to experience the yak tent from the inside and you will get chance to know little more about plateau nomads lifestyle. 

Trip ends here by bidding farewell to your guide and driver who will see you off to Lhasa airport or train station and depart to your next destination.