Erhai Lake in Dali at midday — floating white sea-flowers, a red lakeside pavilion and the Cangshan mountains under a bright sky

Private tours in Dali · Yunnan, China

Where the wind lives, and the lake keeps the moon.

Private multi-day journeys through Dali — the Erhai lake, the Cangshan range and the tie-dye villages of the Bai people. Designed by a host who lives in Dali — good pacing, fewer crowds and real local experience. Four signature routes, festival day trips, or a trip built entirely around you.

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A thousand years of wind, flowers, snow & moon

Dali is the old soul of Yunnan — a walled Bai kingdom set between a nineteen-peak mountain and a lake shaped like an ear.

A short flight from Shanghai, Chengdu or Bangkok, Dali sits at 2,000 metres beside Erhai Lake, beneath the snow-brushed Cangshan Mountains. For centuries it was a crossroads of the Tea-Horse Road, and today it keeps the same unhurried rhythm: indigo dye drying on courtyard walls, morning markets, cormorant boats, and a light photographers travel across the world to catch.

The people of Dali distilled their home into four words — 风花雪月, wind, flowers, snow and moon. Every journey we build is shaped around them.

风
Wind

The famous gale off Xiaguan — the reason kites and sailboats love this shore.

花
Flowers

Camellias, rapeseed gold and rare white sea-flowers that bloom only on clean water.

雪
Snow

The Cangshan crest, silver into early summer, threaded by cloud-traversing paths.

月
Moon

Erhai at night — a mirror so still the old poets swore the moon fell in and stayed.

Signature journeys

Choose your kind of journey

Four private routes, each three days and two nights, designed by a host who lives in Dali. Follow one, blend several, or design your own from scratch.

A small wooden boat on Erhai Lake beneath towering white summer clouds
Tour 1 · 3 days

Classic Erhai Loop

Old town, Three Pagodas, Xizhou and both shores of Erhai — with a Shuanglang sunset. The easiest first trip.

First-timers · 1–4 guests
Two Bai women in traditional embroidered dress and headwear sitting on a doorstep with a basket of pine cones
Tour 2 · 3 days

Bai Culture Deep-Dive

Museum, Bai courtyard houses, three-course tea, tie-dye and Bai cooking — plus lunar festivals when they fall.

Culture lovers · 1–4 guests
Aerial dawn view from the Cangshan Mountains over golden fields above a sea of cloud
Tour 3 · 3 days

Photography & Hidden Gems

Nuodeng's salt-well village, Cangshan's sea of clouds and an Erhai sunrise at Longkan Dock.

Photographers · 1–4 guests
A flower swing in a lakeside garden of daisies at sunset over Erhai Lake
Tour 4 · 3 days

Slow Living & Family

Beach play, an easy cable-car Cangshan walk, a farm café, local markets and flower-bike cycling.

Families · 1–4 guests
A weathered lone tree leaning over the deep blue water of Erhai Lake
Customized · Your design

Customized Tour

Tell us your days, budget, interests, group size and dates — mix our routes, add Shaxi or Weishan, or time it to a festival.

Any length · 1–4 guests
Compare all tours Festival day trips

A window onto Dali

Postcards from the road

See the gallery
A small wooden boat on Erhai Lake beneath towering white summer clouds reflected in the water
Cloud harvest on Erhai
A flower swing in a lakeside garden of daisies at sunset over Erhai
The flower swing
Historic wooden corner tower in Xizhou old town
Xizhou corner tower
A lakeside breakfast of bamboo steamers facing Erhai Lake
Breakfast by the water
A smiling Bai farmer carrying golden rice under a blue sky
Rice harvest

Simple, personal, no middle-man

How booking works

We keep it human. There's no checkout cart and no public price list — you send a short enquiry form, we send a quote for your group, and you settle locally once your itinerary is confirmed.

i.

Tell us your dates

Pick a tour or a festival day trip and email your travel dates, group size (1–4) and anything you're dreaming of.

ii.

We quote & tailor

Within 2 days you'll get a personal reply with a plan, timings and a clear price for your party. Transport and hotel nights are included; meals are an optional add-on.

iii.

Meet in Dali

A small deposit holds your date; the balance is settled on arrival. We pick you up at your hotel and drop you back at your hotel or the airport.

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Who we are

About Dali Journeys

Dali Journeys is an independent, locally guided travel service in Dali, Yunnan, China. We run private tours for groups of 1–4 guests, and every itinerary is designed by a host who lives in Dali — built around good pacing, fewer crowds and real local experience, never a rushed box-ticking run.

What we offer

  • Four private 3-day tours (3 days / 2 nights): the Classic Erhai Loop, Bai Culture Deep-Dive, Photography & Hidden Gems and Slow Living & Family.
  • Six one-day tours built around festivals and local experiences — Sanyue Jie, the Torch Festival, Raosanling, the Erhai fishing lanterns, village market days and wild-mushroom foraging.
  • Customized tours of any length, shaped around your days, budget, interests and dates.
  • Guides who speak English, Mandarin and Japanese, and a personal reply to every enquiry, in English, within 2 days.
  • Included: hotel pick-up and drop-off, all transport, hotel nights and basic travel insurance. Meals are an optional add-on.

Dali at a glance

  • Where: Dali, in Yunnan province, southwest China — between Erhai Lake and the Cangshan Mountains, home of the Bai people.
  • Altitude: about 2,000 metres — bring sun protection and warm layers.
  • Best months: March–May and September–November.
  • Rainy season: about mid-June to September — also wild-mushroom season.
  • Dates to avoid: Chinese national holidays — Spring Festival, 1–5 May and 1–7 October, the most crowded and expensive dates.
  • How long: 3 days covers the essentials; add a fourth for Shaxi, Jianchuan or more of Cangshan.
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