Things to do in Dali
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Dali
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best overall: dry, sunny, azaleas on Cangshan and spring flowers around Xizhou and Shaxi.
Rainy and lush with cloud on Cangshan, but wild mushroom season begins and the hills turn emerald.
Second best: rain eases, golden light, mushroom season tails into October and crowds thin outside Golden Week.
Dry, windy and quiet with cold nights, blue skies, lowest prices and winter seagulls on Erhai.
What's on
- San Yue Jie (Third Month Fair) 15th day of the 3rd lunar month, around 21 April in 2027
The Bai people's biggest festival: a week long market fair with horse racing, archery and performances on Third Month Street.
- Torch Festival 24th/25th day of the 6th lunar month (commonly late June or July)
Bai and Yi festival with tall torches in villages and the Old Town, fire play and harvest prayers. No fixed Gregorian month.
- Golden Week around 1-7 October
Dali fills completely and prices spike. Avoid these dates unless the holiday is the point.
- Chinese New Year late January or February, date varies
A crowd and price spike inside an otherwise quiet winter season. No fixed month.
Best things to do in Dali
Erhai Lake
Still water at sunrise on the west shore gives the classic Cangshan reflection and fishing boat views.
Dali Old Town
A walled Ming era grid best walked early or after dark, with markets, the wall and dense cheap eating.
Chongsheng Temple and the Three Pagodas
Three historic pagodas backed by Cangshan in front of a large rebuilt temple complex climbing the hill.
Xizhou Old Town
A living Bai town with the region's best preserved merchant mansions, a morning market and Xizhou baba.
Zhoucheng Village
Dali's tie-dye village, where family studios stitch and indigo dye cloth in a national heritage craft.
Bai Three-Course Tea Ceremony
The Bai ritual of bitter, sweet and aftertaste teas, done properly in a courtyard house setting.
Shuanglang Old Town
A lakeside former fishing village facing west to Cangshan, which makes its sunset the famous one.
San Yue Jie
Dali's big weekly market west of the Old Town, the best window onto everyday Bai life and food.
Where to stay in Dali
Edge of Dali Old Town
first trip, all-round base
Walk to dinner, markets and buses in minutes while sleeping on a quiet street cars can actually reach.
Caicun and Longkan, west shore
lake, cycling and sunrise
Lakeside guesthouses with rooftop breakfasts and the ecological corridor at the door for sunrise.
Xizhou
Bai culture, slow stay
Base in a restored merchant mansion, wake to the market and do tie-dye and cooking without day tripping.
Shuanglang
one-night lake-view splurge
Floor to ceiling Erhai views and sunset terraces, superb for a night but isolating as a sole base.
Xiaguan
late arrival or early departure night only
Transport convenience by the station, with none of the old streets or lake corridor life you came for.
Think twice about
- Xiaguan (Dali New Town)
A concrete, traffic heavy city by the station about 13 km from the Old Town, with none of what you came to Dali for.
- Fuxing Road and the South Gate commercial core
The most tourist saturated strip in the Old Town, with souvenir shops, tour crowds and late noise. Sleep a lane or two back.
- Renmin Road bar stretch
Delightful at 8 pm and loud at midnight with live music bars. A poor choice for light sleepers.
- Shuanglang and Haidong Ideal Town as a whole-trip base
Isolating and car dependent, with captive prices and a long drive repeated for every Old Town, Cangshan or Xizhou day.
Best restaurants in Dali
Meizijing (Plum Well) Restaurant
A long established Bai courtyard restaurant known for plum wine, sour spicy fish and tile grilled dishes.
Xizhou Morning Market
Graze baba hot from the oven, rice noodle soup and fried erkuai for the cheapest great breakfast in Dali.
Duan's Sand-Pot Fish Restaurants
Erhai fish cooked in a sand pot with tofu, ham and herbs, Dali's signature shared dish.
Wild Mushroom Hotpot
In season wild mushrooms in chicken broth hotpot, timed carefully by staff for safety.
The Bakery No. 88
German run bakery for sourdough, cakes and real coffee, best early before popular items sell out.
Bad Monkey Brew Pub
Dali's longest running foreign owned brewpub, with house brewed beer, burgers and live music.
Renmin Road and Huguo Road Small Bai Restaurants
Small family places one street back from Fuxing Road serving erkuai, rushan and braised pork to locals.
Rushan Stalls
Grilled rushan milk fan with rose jam, the Bai cheese taste you can only have here.
Outdoor things to do in Dali
Erhai Ecological Corridor
A car-free west shore path past rice fields and Bai villages, best ridden Caicun to Xizhou in 2 to 3 hours.
Full Erhai Loop
The full lake loop by car or e-bike, cycling the west shore and driving the dramatic east shore road.
Jade Belt Road (Yudai Yunyou Lu)
A largely flat stone path at about 2,600 m contouring Cangshan between the Gantong and Zhonghe cableways.
Ximatan Cableway
A long cableway to about 3,920 m and an alpine pond, worth it only on your clearest day.
Gantong Temple
A low effort mountain taste: cableway up to an old temple and a short walk to Qingbi Stream.
Erhai Cruise
A large boat cruise giving the lake's scale, with island stops and a tea performance on board or ashore.
Paragliding and Rock Climbing in Dali
Tandem paragliding from Cangshan slopes and guided climbing near Shuanglang, weather dependent and bookable locally.
Dali Stone Mountain Golf Club
Dali's better known golf option with mountain and lake scenery, bookable through your hotel.
Best hotels in Dali
Hilton Dali Resort & Spa
Dali's international full service resort with Cangshan and Erhai views, pool, spa and family facilities.
Hotel Indigo Dali Erhai
A design led IHG hotel in the lakeside zone south of the Old Town, with lake facing rooms.
The Linden Centre
A protected Bai merchant compound in Xizhou run as a boutique hotel and cultural centre.
Sky Valley Heritage Boutique Hotel
A small design lake terrace inn in Shuanglang where you pay for the specific room's Erhai view.
Dali Gurong Hotel
The archetype Bai courtyard inn, with carved wood, breakfast included and a host who books drivers.
Dali Old Courtyard Boutique Inn
A well rated Bai courtyard inn near Renmin Road, praised for location and service.
Caicun Longkan Family Lakeside Guesthouses
Family rooftop terrace guesthouses by the corridor, with breakfast over the water and host arranged bikes.
Z.Garden
A popular design minsu ten minutes from the South Gate, some units with floor heating or a fireplace.
Is Dali expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | CN¥220 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | CN¥450 a person |
| Splurge | CN¥1,100 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Bai Three-Course Tea Ceremony: a few days ahead
- Bed Sheet Factory Art District: a few days ahead
- Paragliding and Rock Climbing in Dali: a few days ahead
- Hilton Dali Resort & Spa: weeks ahead
- Hotel Indigo Dali Erhai: weeks ahead
- The Linden Centre: weeks ahead
- Sky Valley Heritage Boutique Hotel: weeks ahead
- Wild Mushroom Hotpot: a few days ahead
- Book Linden Centre, top Shuanglang lake view rooms and peak season trains weeks ahead.
- Book Cangshan cableway slots, courtyard tea ceremonies and half day workshops a day or two ahead.
Is Dali safe?
- Take the first day easy at about 1,970 m, hydrate, and treat the Ximatan summit as a real altitude outing.
- Eat wild mushrooms only fully cooked at busy specialist restaurants and never self cook foraged mushrooms.
- Skip raw pork specialities if in any doubt. Drink bottled or filtered water and watch for silent e-bikes on roads.
Dali travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Open-top jeep and convertible photo loops around Erhai are superficial photo caravans. Cycle the corridor instead.
- Ideal Town, called Santorini Dali, is a manufactured photo park, not a town.
- Unpriced fish, silver and jade: insist on price per jin, hallmarks and totals before you commit.
- Very cheap pre-booked day trips make their margin at jade, tea and silver shopping stops.
Getting around Dali: public transport and more
- High-speed train from Kunming takes about 2 hours to Dali Station in Xiaguan, then 30 to 45 minutes by taxi to the Old Town.
- Walk the Old Town, cycle the west shore corridor, and use DiDi or a guesthouse booked chartered car for day trips.
- Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay before arrival and carry small cash notes as backup. Amap navigates Dali better than Google Maps.
Who Dali suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | OK |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Great |
Make Dali your trip
Swearby drafts the days from places people swear by. Swap any stop, then invite the crew by text, even friends without the app. Vote on dates, track costs as you go, and everyone gets one number at the end.
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