Five days in Yunnan without hiring a car

The route, in one line

Five days covers Kunming, Dali and Lijiang comfortably without a car, using high-speed rail and local buses. Kunming to Dali is about 2 hours by train and Dali to Lijiang about 1 hour 20 minutes, both under ¥150 in second class.

Yunnan suits this better than almost any province. Its three headline towns sit on a single rail corridor, the distances are short, and the buses between old towns and lakeshore villages are frequent and cheap. You can see the best of it in a week without ever hiring a car or joining a group tour.

Book the trains on 12306 or Trip.com once the 15-day window opens if you are travelling in a holiday period; outside those weeks, a day or two ahead is usually enough, even in summer. Fares are fixed, so booking early buys certainty rather than a discount.

Base yourself in old towns rather than the new city centres. In Dali and Lijiang the guesthouse lanes are a short walk from the station bus stop, and staying inside the walls means the sightseeing day starts when you step outside rather than after a taxi.

Days one and two: Kunming and the Stone Forest

Kunming is the spring-like gateway, sitting at 1,890 m (6,200 ft) with temperatures of 15–22°C for much of the year. It is worth a night to adjust, and to see the Stone Forest, about 90 minutes by bus from the east bus station.

The Stone Forest entry is around ¥130 and the site is a maze of limestone pillars; give it half a day and start early to beat the coach groups. Back in the city, the Green Lake area and Yuantong Temple make cheap evening walks.

Kunming also has the province's best food market at Zhuanxin, where a bowl of crossing-the-bridge noodles costs ¥15–30 and is the local dish to try first, alongside grilled goat cheese and fresh flowers sold by the bag. Go hungry, since the stalls are cheap and the portions generous.

Coming from a UK winter, give yourself the first afternoon off. Kunming's 1,890 m is not high enough to cause altitude sickness, but the dry air and the strong UV still catch people out, and an easy first day makes the rest of the week smoother.

Days three to four: Dali and Lake Erhai

The train to Dali takes about two hours, and the walled old town — a grid of cobbled lanes below the Cangshan mountains — is the natural base. Guesthouse rooms run ¥200–450 a night, more at weekends and in the spring festival season.

Erhai, the lake, is the reason to stay. The lakeshore road makes a 120 km loop and the first village, about 12 km from the old town, is an easy half-day by bike or bus. Electric scooters rent for ¥50–80 a day.

Dali's altitude is mild at around 1,900 m, so there is no acclimatisation to worry about, but the sun is strong and the UV high even when the air feels cool, so bring a hat and sunscreen for the lake days.

Explore the lake on foot and on the water. A boat from one of the fishing villages costs ¥100–150 and gives you the Cangshan range in full, which the lakeshore road only partly shows. Book boats at the pier rather than through touts on the street.

Day five: Lijiang, and the honest verdict

Lijiang is 1 hour 20 minutes on from Dali. Its old town is a UNESCO World Heritage site and also, by any measure, a shopping mall: boutique guesthouses, bars and souvenir stalls packed into a dense wooden maze. The town was rebuilt after a 1996 earthquake and now runs almost entirely on tourism.

Go early or stay late. Between about 10:00 and 17:00 the coach groups arrive and the lanes are shoulder to shoulder; before 09:00 the same streets are quiet enough to enjoy. Entry to the old town carries a ¥50 maintenance fee.

The payoff is the setting: the old town sits at 2,400 m below the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, and local Naxi culture — its orchestras and pictographic script — survives alongside the commerce, especially in the back lanes. The Naxi orchestra's evening concerts, at around ¥120, are a rare thing to see done without irony.

Practicalities for a UK traveller

Altitude across this route is mild, from 1,890 m at Kunming to 2,400 m at Lijiang, so unlike Tibet there is nothing to acclimatise to. Bring layers: days are warm, nights are cold, and the sun is fierce in the thin air.

Yunnan uses the same payment apps as the rest of China, so set up Alipay or WeChat Pay before flying and carry ¥300–500 as a backup for buses and small stalls, which sometimes cannot break a large note. Guesthouses and hotels take cards, but markets, buses and scooters run on QR codes.

Spring (March to May) and autumn (September to November) are the best windows. Summer is wetter and winter is dry but cold at night — which is also when the towns are quietest and the rooms are cheapest. Crowds peak in the first week of October, so book beds early if you travel then.

Pack for three seasons in one bag. Days on the lake can reach 20°C while nights on the plateau drop near freezing, and a rain shell earns its space even in the dry season. Trains are cheap and frequent, so a small case beats a large one for the hops between towns.