Hi all, We are a group of 4 looking to "hide out" somewhere in Yunnan around the spring festival holidays (Jan 26 to Feb 10), get some local culture and nature, and then spend another 10 days touring elsewhere in Yunnan. Can anyone recommend a town or area that might not be all booked up for the spring festival? We were thinking of the general areas around either Lijiang, Dali, Jinghong, or Yuanyang but are wide open to suggestions! We like biking, walking, boating and have a mid range budget, and no problem going to the end of the road to get away!

It does not matter where your final destination really is because all the transportation is overcrowded during this time. Buses is the most convenient because they have extra buses during this time. However, expect delays because of traffic accidents. Example, a bus ride from Kunming to Dali is usually 4.5 hours but during Golden Week (GW) it may be 6-7 hours because of accidents. Planes and trains will over book so some people get bumped and there are major delays which can be very annoying. Trains will sell hard seats when there are no seats available. Booking sleeper trains and planes must be done in advance because they sell like hotcakes. You need more then 15 days for planes and 10 days for trains. I tried to get a sleeper train from Kunming to Lijiang 5 days early but they were already sold out during GW. Hotel prices in Lijiang and many other places will double during GW.

www.hugoyunnantravel.com/Destinations.asp

I recommend you go to out of the way places and most importantly, do NOT make any plans to go to 3-4 places as you will become very frustarted when your plans do not work out. This is NOT the time to go hopping from one place to another. If you need some help making an itineray let me know as I will do this for FREE. Make sure you have some basic idea of where you want to go.

Try the Xintuo ecotourism company. if you manage to get to Lijiang before the whole mess starts, or at least get a traintiket to lijiang, they will take you to the mountains for as long as you wish and you don't have to see a sigle tourist's face!