Boutique Tibet: 9 days, and where the comfort runs out

Here is the position. Lhasa has genuinely excellent hotels: restored Tibetan courtyard houses in the old town with beautiful rooms and real service, and international-standard properties with proper heating, reliable hot water and, in some cases, oxygen-enriched rooms that make a measurable difference to the first three nights. At this tier, Lhasa is comfortable.

West of Lhasa, it is not. Gyantse and Shigatse have clean, plain three and four star hotels and there is nothing above them. Paying more does not produce a better room because a better room does not exist. What money genuinely buys outside the city is a better vehicle, a better guide, a private picnic instead of a roadside canteen, and someone carrying the oxygen, and those are real improvements. It does not buy a suite in Gyantse.

So this itinerary spends heavily where spending works, moves through the provincial towns efficiently, and comes back to a very good room. Nine days, three hotel changes, and a lot of unscheduled time.

Who it suits: travellers who care about where they sleep, are willing to accept two plain nights in exchange for the classic route, and want the trip run properly rather than cheaply.

Your specialist: Asaf Zamshtein, who runs our China desk, with your named Tibet specialist and our licensed Lhasa partner team.

A note on who is on the ground. Our own offices are in Japan, Vietnam, India and the Philippines. Tibet is not one of them and could not be, because only a locally licensed operator can hold the permits. Your guide and driver are Tibetan, from a Lhasa partner we have worked with for years.

Day by day

Day 1: Arrive Lhasa. Met at the airport and driven in, about an hour, in a large comfortable four-wheel-drive rather than a minibus. Into the best courtyard house in the old town, in its best room. Nothing scheduled.

Day 2: Rest, properly. A late start, an hour on the Barkhor circuit at walking pace, a sweet tea house, and back before lunch. The afternoon is deliberately empty and the hotel is a good place to spend it.

Day 3: Jokhang, and the Sera debates. The Jokhang at opening. Afternoon at Sera for the debating courtyard. A short day, back by five, with the middle of it free.

Day 4: The Potala, and a workshop. Timed entry to the Potala Palace, about an hour inside. Afternoon at a thangka painter’s studio or an incense workshop, arranged privately rather than as a group visit. Late afternoon at the river viewpoint for the palace in the last light, with nobody else there.

Day 5: Lhasa to Gyantse, with a picnic. The driving day, six to seven hours, over the Kamba La pass at about 15,700 feet (4,790 m). Yamdrok Lake below it at about 14,600 feet (4,450 m), and rather than the crowded viewpoint above the pass we take you down to the shore, where our team sets up a private lunch on the water.

Then the Karo La glacier at around 16,400 feet (5,000 m). Night in Gyantse at about 13,050 feet (3,977 m), in the best hotel in the town, which is a plain hotel.

Day 6: Gyantse, and Shigatse. Pelkor Chode and the Kumbum in the morning, unhurried and before the tour groups arrive, which means being there at opening. Ninety minutes on the road to Shigatse, then the afternoon at Tashilhunpo, the seat of the Panchen Lamas. Night in Shigatse at about 12,600 feet (3,840 m).

Day 7: Back to Lhasa. The northern road down the Yarlung Tsangpo valley, about five hours, back into the good room. Afternoon free, and after two provincial nights you will want it.

Day 8: Nothing, or Ganden. Two versions. Ganden monastery on its ridge an hour and a half east, with a ninety minute walking circuit and the best view in central Tibet. Or an entirely free day in Lhasa with a long lunch and the rooftop.

Dinner at the best table in the city, which is a short list and we hold it.

Day 9: Departure. Transfer to the airport, about an hour.

What is included

All permits obtained and delivered before travel, accommodation with breakfast in three hotels booked in the room category we would actually take rather than the entry level, a licensed English-speaking Tibetan guide and a private large four-wheel-drive with driver throughout, all entries including the timed Potala ticket, the private lakeside lunch at Yamdrok, a private studio or workshop visit, restaurant reservations, bottled oxygen in the vehicle, a written descent plan for every night, a VPN and the Chinese payment apps set up and tested before you fly, a day-by-day document with the elevation of every night, and a WhatsApp group with your consultant and our Lhasa team, with WeChat alongside as a local fallback.

Upgrades worth considering

An oxygen-enriched room in Lhasa, which is the single most useful thing to spend money on here and improves the first three nights measurably. A second vehicle, so that a party of four travels with space rather than in a full car. A private charter flight into Lhasa, which exists and is expensive and saves nothing except a connection. An extra Lhasa night at the front, which is the cheapest and most effective comfort upgrade on this page.

What we would change, and when

• Not willing to accept the two provincial nights? Then we build the romantic eight day route instead, which stays in one Lhasa hotel for seven nights and reaches Yamdrok as a day trip. For many travellers at this tier it is the better trip and we say so.
• Want Everest as well? It adds three days and a night at Rongbuk in a guesthouse at about 16,340 feet (4,980 m) with a stove and a pit toilet. It is the opposite of this page and it is still worth doing. See Everest north base camp in 10 days.
• Twelve days? Add Tsedang and Samye in the Yarlung valley, which sits slightly lower than Lhasa and has better accommodation than Gyantse.

Honest notes

There is no luxury hotel in Tibet outside Lhasa, and there is no spa culture anywhere in the region. If a supplier tells you otherwise, ask for the room photographs.

Altitude is not softened by a good hotel. An oxygen-enriched room helps you sleep and it does not change the fact that you are at almost 12,000 feet (3,660 m), that the first two days are for resting, and that the descent rules apply to everyone regardless of what they paid.

The driving day to Gyantse is long and there is no faster way to reach it. A better vehicle makes it more comfortable and does not make it shorter.

Restaurants in Gyantse and Shigatse are simple. We choose the best of them and they are not the reason you came.

Built by Asaf Zamshtein, who runs our China desk, and checked with our licensed Lhasa partner before it goes out.

Related

• Tibet: the complete guide
• Romantic Tibet in 8 days
• Classic Tibet in 8 days