Tibet overland to Kathmandu: 21 days across the plateau

The descent is the part nobody expects to remember and everybody does. You spend two weeks in thin cold air, brown hills, barley and prayer flags, and then the road drops through a gorge and within a few hours there are trees, banana leaves, humidity and noise. Very few journeys anywhere change that completely.

We run it in this direction, Lhasa to Kathmandu, for a specific reason set out below. Twenty-one days, nine hotel changes, one border crossing on foot, and four days with nothing scheduled.

Who it suits: experienced travellers with three weeks, and anyone who would rather travel a route than visit a list.

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

A note on who is on the ground. Our own offices are in Japan, Vietnam, India and the Philippines. Neither Tibet nor Nepal is one of them. In Tibet only a locally licensed operator can hold the permits, and we work with a Lhasa partner we have used for years. In Nepal we work with a Kathmandu partner of similar standing. We would rather name that arrangement than imply offices we do not have.

Why we run it Lhasa to Kathmandu

The direction is a paperwork decision as much as a travel one.

Going this way, you enter China on an ordinary Chinese visa, we obtain your Tibet Travel Permit and the additional permits against your booked itinerary, and you leave China at the Gyirong crossing into Nepal, where most nationalities obtain a Nepali visa on arrival.

Going the other way, from Kathmandu into Tibet, you cannot use an ordinary Chinese visa at all. A Chinese group visa is issued in Kathmandu against the booked itinerary, and it takes precedence over any Chinese visa already in your passport, which causes real problems for anyone combining Tibet with a longer China trip. It is workable and we do build it when the flights demand it. It is more fragile, and unless you have a reason, west is the better direction.

We confirm the current requirement for your specific passport and dates in writing before you book, and again before you fly.

Day by day

Days 1 to 5: Lhasa. Arrive and do nothing. Two rest days: the Barkhor circuit and a tea house on day two, the Jokhang and the Sera debating courtyard on day three. The Potala and Drepung on day four. Ganden monastery and its ridge kora on day five, which doubles as acclimatisation.

Days 6 and 7: The Yarlung valley. Drive south-east to Tsedang, about three hours and slightly lower than Lhasa at around 11,650 feet (3,550 m). Yumbulagang, the fortress-temple said to be the oldest building in Tibet, and Samye, the first Buddhist monastery built here and the one that explains everything you have already seen. Two nights.

Day 8: Tsedang to Gyantse. West along the Yarlung Tsangpo and up over the Kamba La pass at about 15,700 feet (4,790 m), with Yamdrok Lake below it at about 14,600 feet (4,450 m) and the Karo La glacier at around 16,400 feet (5,000 m). Afternoon at Pelkor Chode and the Kumbum. Night in Gyantse.

Days 9 and 10: Shigatse and Sakya. Ninety minutes to Shigatse and an afternoon at Tashilhunpo, the seat of the Panchen Lamas. The next day out to Sakya, grey, fortified and belonging to a different school entirely, then back for a second night in the same hotel.

Days 11 and 12: Everest. The long drive west and south, seven to nine hours, over the Gawu La pass at around 17,050 feet (5,200 m) where four peaks above 26,000 feet (7,900 m) stand along the horizon on a clear day. Night at Rongbuk at about 16,340 feet (4,980 m) in a guesthouse or tented camp, with sunset and sunrise on the north face if the weather gives them to you.

Day 12 drives out to Tingri, around 14,100 feet (4,300 m), which is a shorter day than going all the way back to Shigatse and puts you on the road west.

Days 13 and 14: Down to Gyirong. The road turns south and begins to lose height. Over the last high pass, then down through the Gyirong gorge to Gyirong town and Gyirong Port at around 9,200 feet (2,800 m). Two nights, and the second is a rest day at the lower altitude with a valley walk, which is genuinely good for you after eight days above 12,000 feet (3,660 m).

This is the operating crossing to Nepal. The old Zhangmu and Kodari road has not been in normal use since the 2015 earthquake.

Day 15: Cross into Nepal, and on to Kathmandu. Formalities at the border, then a change of vehicle and driver on the Nepali side and the drive to Kathmandu, seven to nine hours depending on the road. It is a long day and the descent through the Trishuli valley is extraordinary.

Days 16 to 18: Kathmandu valley. Three nights. Boudhanath at dusk, when the kora fills with Tibetan pilgrims and the trip makes a circle back on itself. Swayambhunath, Pashupatinath, and the durbar squares of Patan and Bhaktapur, which are the best preserved of the three and worth a full day each.

Days 19 and 20: Pokhara. A short flight west, about half an hour, or six hours by road. The lake, the Annapurna range at dawn from Sarangkot if the sky is clear, and two days at 2,700 feet (820 m), which after three weeks of altitude feels like breathing through a wider straw.

Day 21: Fly to Kathmandu and depart. Morning flight back and on to your international departure, or a final Kathmandu night if the timings need it. We will tell you which before you book.

What is included

All Tibet permits obtained and delivered before travel, including the border permit. Accommodation with breakfast throughout in nine properties, described accurately in advance, a licensed English-speaking Tibetan guide and private four-wheel-drive with driver throughout Tibet, an English-speaking guide and private vehicle in Nepal, the internal Nepali flights, all entries including the timed Potala ticket and the Everest area entry, bottled oxygen in the vehicle with additional supply for the Rongbuk night, a written descent plan for every night, border assistance on both sides of the Gyirong crossing, 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 both partner teams, with WeChat alongside as a local fallback for the Tibet leg.

What we would change, and when

• Eighteen days rather than twenty-one? Cut Pokhara and one Kathmandu night. Do not cut the Gyirong rest day or a Lhasa acclimatisation day.
• July or August? This is the one route where we push back hard on summer dates. The monsoon affects the Nepali side of the border, the descent road is the part most prone to landslides, and the mountain will be in cloud. We would move you to late September.
• Kathmandu to Lhasa instead? Possible, and it means the Chinese group visa described above, which supersedes any existing Chinese visa. Tell us at the first email if your flights force this direction.
• Want to add mainland China? Do it before Tibet, not after, and tell us early because of how the visa interacts with the permit timeline. See our China cluster.

Honest notes

The border day is long and occasionally slow. Formalities at Gyirong can take anywhere from under an hour to most of a morning, and the crossing has closed at short notice in the past for weather, road works and administrative reasons. We build a buffer day into the Nepal side rather than booking a tight onward flight, and we would rather lose a day of Pokhara than a flight home.

The Rongbuk night is basic. Thin bedding, a stove at best, no reliable hot water, pit toilets, and cold at almost 16,500 feet (5,000 m). It is the least comfortable night of the trip and one of the two people talk about afterwards.

Permits can be suspended. The Tibet portion depends on the region being open to foreign visitors, which is periodically not the case, usually at short notice. We monitor it through our Lhasa partner and we tell you as soon as we know. If your dates close, we move you or refund the land arrangements rather than sending you to the airport hoping.

Nine hotel changes in twenty-one days is a lot of packing. We have already removed every move we can. The four unscheduled days are there for a reason and travellers who ask us to fill them usually regret it by week three.

The two countries are run by two different teams, and the handover happens on foot at a border post. We are straight about that because it is the one point in the trip where the trip changes hands, and it is planned rather than improvised: both teams are briefed, both have your document, and both are in the same WhatsApp group.

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

Related

• Tibet: the complete guide
• Tibet in 14 days: Lhasa to Everest
• Everest north base camp in 10 days