Hey guys, I was wondering if some of you guys could evaluate my itinerary for October? I'll be arriving a few days into October (so I'll be getting the tail end of National Holiday week) and will be in traveling roughly 25-26 days.

I've actually done Yunnan 5-6 years before and went to Kunming, Dali, Lijiang + Tiger Leaping Gorge. However, my last journey was too short and my girlfriend has never been to Yunnan so I thought it might be worth a second trip.

So far my itinerary is (calculating by nights)
1 night in Kunming
2 nights in Dali
2 nights in Tiger Leaping Gorge (bypassing Lijiang, prolly stay one night on the way back)
2 nights in Shangri-la
1 night in Daocheng
3 nights in Yading
1 night back in Daocheng
1 night Shangri-la
1 night Lijiang (moreso transfer to Lugu lake)
3 nights in Lugu Lake
Then back to Kunming somehow (either going through Lijiang or Xichang).

In total it adds up to 21 days, leaving 5 extra days for whatever (exploring, relaxing, small detour).

I was wondering if there any other options I could consider? I hear Lugu can be quite touristy but I was hoping maybe Lige could be quieter (since it would be nice to have a place to chill and relax).

I've also considered Litang but the logistics make it difficult (since I prefer not to travel over to Chengdu, mainly because I lived in Chengdu for 2-3 years and my flight out of China is in Kunming)

Yubeng was something else I considered but Yubeng + Yading seems extremely time consuming.

Also thought about Tengchong and Ruili, but those two also seem like a big detour (although dropping Lugu might make those two places possible)

Anyways, what do you guys think? I have a feeling a lot has changed in the last five years.

Too much traveling, not enough staying in one place/

Hmm yeah, that definitely makes sense. This is more of a bare bone outline. I have 5-6 extra days which I will add to a few places here and there.

Plus Daocheng is 30 minutes away from Yading, so while it seems like I'm traveling/moving around a lot in that region, in reality it's not as bad as it seems on paper. (So I could do a +1 onto Dali, Yading, Lugu, etc etc)

I should probably drop any notion of trying out other places.

Looks fine. Tengchong out of the ways, so drop it. 21days in Yunnan is plenty. If you can afford it, fly from lijiang to banna. The change in climate temperature scenery culture and food is so stark flying in like that. I did that once, was crazy seeing snow mountain then an hour later relaxing in balmy weather by the Mekong. You can bus it back or fly to Kunming. As it is you have too much mountain scenery.

Golden Week runs from October 1-7. Would never attempt to travel during that time.

Tallamerican is right, I had't thought of that - Golden Week a lousy time to travel in China.