Tibet cannot be travelled independently, and the altitude sets the schedule
Two facts shape every Tibet trip before anyone chooses a hotel.
Plan my Tibet trip Read the complete guide
- Best time to go
- May, June, September, October
- How many days
- 8 to 10
- Entry
- Chinese visa plus Tibet Travel Permit
- Getting around
- Private vehicle and licensed Tibetan guide
The first is legal. Foreign visitors need a Tibet Travel Permit as well as a Chinese visa, and it is issued only against a booked itinerary through a licensed operator, with a guide and a vehicle. There is no independent version of this trip. Areas beyond Lhasa need further permits, and the region can close to foreign visitors at a few days’ notice. If access is closed for your dates we will say no and move or refund you.
The second is physical. Lhasa sits at about 11,995 feet (3,656 m), higher than almost anywhere most travellers have slept. Every route starts with two full days doing very little, and the passes and the Everest road come later. Those days are not padding and we do not remove them on request.
Everything after those two facts is the good part. Every tailor made Tibet trip we build is written by Asaf Zamshtein, who runs our China desk, with your named Tibet specialist and our Lhasa partner team.
Why plan Tibet with us
Long-standing local partners, and we will be straight about that. Our own offices are in Japan, Vietnam, India and the Philippines. Tibet is not one of them, and could not be: only a locally licensed operator can hold the permits. We work with a Lhasa partner we have used for years, whose Tibetan guides and drivers are the people you travel with.
We hold the permit process. The Tibet Travel Permit, the additional permits for Shigatse, Everest and the border areas, and the physical delivery of the permit to you before you can board a flight or train into Lhasa.
We will tell you no. If permits are suspended for your dates, if a route is too fast for the altitude, or if a medical history makes the Everest road unwise, we say so before you book.
The short answers
| Question | Short answer | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Best time to go | May, June, September, October | September and October give the clearest Everest views. |
| How many days | 8 to 10 | Two are acclimatisation and cannot be cut. Fourteen reaches Everest and Namtso. |
| Entry | Chinese visa plus Tibet Travel Permit | The permit needs a booked itinerary and a licensed operator. We confirm your passport in writing. |
| Getting around | Private vehicle and licensed Tibetan guide | Mandatory, not optional. Driving days on the plateau run six to nine hours. |
| Typical budget | $210 to $560 per person per day | Land only. The permit and mandatory guide make a cheap Tibet trip impossible. |
The full breakdown is in our complete guide →
Altitude, stated plainly
Most visitors to Lhasa feel something in the first 48 hours: headache, broken sleep, no appetite, breathlessness on stairs. That is normal and it passes. What is not normal is confusion, a stumbling walk, or breathlessness while sitting still, and the answer to those is to descend immediately. Every route has a descent option written into it and oxygen in every vehicle, and our guides are instructed to overrule an itinerary rather than push on. Full detail is in the guide.
Eight ways to travel Tibet
- Classic Tibet in 8 days: Lhasa, Yamdrok Lake, Gyantse, Shigatse
- Tibet with older children, 9 days: slower, lower, honest about who it suits
- Everest north base camp, 10 days: the overland road to Rongbuk
- Romantic Tibet, 8 days: the best rooms in Lhasa, a lake, nothing rushed
- Monasteries and the Tibetan table, 10 days: and what people actually eat
- Boutique Tibet, 9 days: the comfortable version, and where comfort runs out
- Tibet in 14 days: Lhasa, Everest, Namtso, the eastern valleys
- Tibet overland to Kathmandu, 21 days: the Friendship Highway and Nepal
Tibet itineraries
Every one of these is a starting point, not a fixed departure. We change the length, the pace and the hotels to fit you.
Classic Tibet in 8 days: Lhasa, Yamdrok, Gyantse and Shigatse
Eight days is the shortest trip we would call a Tibet trip rather than a visit to Lhasa, and two of those eight days…
Tibet with older children: 9 days, no high passes
We will start with the part most operators leave out.
Everest north base camp: 10 days overland from Lhasa
This is the adventure route in the Tibet library, and the adventure is not walking. It is the road.
Romantic Tibet: 8 slow days, one very good room
This route is built on an unfashionable decision, so we will explain it before the day-by-day rather than after.
Monasteries and the Tibetan table: 10 days in central Tibet
Two honest sentences before the itinerary.
Boutique Tibet: 9 days, and where the comfort runs out
Every boutique page we write includes an honest note about value. This one is mostly that note, because Tibet is the destination where the…
Tibet in 14 days: Lhasa, Everest and Namtso
Fourteen days is the length at which Tibet stops being a sequence of driving days with sights attached and becomes a proper trip.
Tibet overland to Kathmandu: 21 days across the plateau
This is the great overland journey of the region, and it is a journey rather than a tour: three weeks that begin at about…
What is in every Tibet trip we build
- All permits obtained and delivered before you travel, with the deadlines managed by us
- A licensed Tibetan guide and a private vehicle with driver throughout
- Two full acclimatisation days in Lhasa before any pass, non-negotiable
- Bottled oxygen in every vehicle and a written descent plan for every day
- A VPN and the Chinese payment apps set up and tested before you fly
- A WhatsApp group with your consultant and our Lhasa team, WeChat alongside as a fallback
Planning Tibet, in detail
What we would skip in Tibet
Editing a Tibet itinerary is different from editing any other trip we sell, because the currency is not time or money. It…
What a trip to Tibet costs, and why it cannot be cheap
The cost of a trip to Tibet works differently from every other destination in this library, and the reason is structural rather…
Tibet for the first time, and how the permits actually work
The Tibet Travel Permit is the first thing to understand about a Tibet trip, because it decides everything that comes after it:…
Tibet month by month
The best time to visit Tibet is a shorter list than most destinations offer, and it is decided by three things rather…
Tibet with older children
Altitude is the whole answer to this question, and it answers it before anything about sightseeing, food or interest gets a vote.
What to eat in Tibet, and what we will not pretend about it
Let us start with the honest position, because it is the one that makes the rest of the article useful. Tibetan food…
Frequently asked questions
Can we travel Tibet independently?
What if permits are suspended for our dates?
Is the altitude dangerous?
Does my phone work?
Tell us roughly what you want. We will tell you honestly what works.
A named consultant in Tel Aviv, our own people on the ground, and a written plan you can argue with before you commit to anything.