Originally Posted by
jiejie
3) If you do decide to defer Wuhan OR Lijiang to a future trip, thus freeing up at least one day which could be put to the Terraces, then I'd take the train. The best choice would be the train K653 you had originally planned to take from Huaihua, except get off earlier at Sanjiangxiang mid-morning. Then about 3.5 hours drive to Ping'an or Dazhai Terrace for rest of afternoon and overnight. Next afternoon getting to Guilin/Yangshuo by road.
To close this out for prosperity - after your many, very sensible, suggestions jiejie I took on board your advice and reduced the number of destinations a bit more, our final itinerary removed Lijiang, giving us enough time to stay at Dazhai Terrace. The main reason is a desire to avoid an indirect flight Tenzen to Guilin, and partially as the flight times changed meaning we'd have needed to get a plane at 11am.
As such the the trip has ended up being less hectic and has been booked as:
- 2 nights Chengdu | HS train to Chongqing
- 1 night Chongqing
- 3 nights Yangtze river cruise ship | HS train from Yichang -Wuhan
- 2 nights Wuhan | HS train from Wuhan-Changsha, Changsa - Zhangjiajie flight
- 2 nights Zhangjiajie | Train Zhangjiajie to Jishou, then either taxi or bus
- 1 night Fenghuang | presume a taxi/bus to Huaihua (not booked)
- 1 night in Huaihua (before the train) | Train Huaihua to Sanjiangxiang, then either taxi or bus
- 1 night Dazhai Terrace| either taxi or bus to Guilin
- 1 night Guilin | river cruise to Yangshuo
- 1 night Yangshuo | Taxi to airport from Yangshuo, flight Guilin - Yangshuo
- 2 nights Chengdu
Thanks for all your advice and time, just means I need to return to do Kunming in a few years time, maybe when the HS trains open up to it
