How many days do you need in Tibet?

Lhasa sits at about 11,995 feet (3,656 m), higher than almost anywhere most travellers have ever slept. A classic route crosses passes at around 15,700 feet (4,790 m) and 16,400 feet (5,000 m), and the Everest road tops out above 17,000 feet (5,200 m). Almost nobody arrives adapted to that.

So every route we build starts with two full days in Lhasa doing very little, and we do not remove them on request. Every length below is that pair of days plus whatever the trip is actually for.

Why the first two days are not negotiable

Most people who fly into Lhasa feel something within the first 24 to 48 hours: headache, broken sleep, waking short of breath, no appetite, mild nausea, and a flight of stairs that is harder than it should be. That is acute mountain sickness in its ordinary form. It is unpleasant, it is common, and it resolves as you adapt.

The management is simple and boring. Do very little for two days. Drink far more water than feels necessary. No alcohol. Eat, even without appetite. Walk slowly, and mean slowly.

What is not ordinary, and what changes the situation completely, is confusion or an unsteady stumbling walk, breathlessness while sitting still or a persistent wet cough, or any symptom that gets worse rather than better with rest. The response to all three is to go down, immediately, at any hour. Losing altitude is the treatment. Every route we build carries a written descent plan for every night, with the road distance and time to a lower elevation, and our guides are instructed to overrule the itinerary rather than push on.

That is why a six day Tibet trip is not a four day Tibet trip with two spare days in it. The two days are the structure.

Six days, Lhasa only

The minimum we will build. Two acclimatisation days, two days of proper sightseeing, and the arrival and departure days at either end.

It is a genuinely good trip. The Potala Palace, the Jokhang and the Barkhor circuit around it, Sera and Drepung monasteries on the edge of the city, and the old town, which is the part people remember. Six days is enough to feel the place and not enough to leave the valley.

It suits travellers who are adding Tibet to a longer China trip, who are uncertain about how they will handle altitude, or who simply do not want six to nine hours a day in a vehicle. See Lhasa in three days for what the sightseeing half of it looks like.

Eight days, our standard first trip

Two acclimatisation days in Lhasa, the city properly, and then the classic road west: Yamdrok Lake over a pass at around 15,700 feet (4,790 m), the fort and the extraordinary tiered Kumbum stupa at Gyantse, and Tashilhunpo monastery at Shigatse, then back to Lhasa.

This is the shape we build most often. It gives you the monasteries, a high pass, a turquoise lake, two nights outside the capital and a sense of the scale of the plateau, without the two very long driving days that Everest requires. See classic Tibet in 8 days.

Driving days on this route run six to eight hours. The roads are largely surfaced and in good condition. The length comes from the distances, the passes and the checkpoints, and we build each day around a small number of stops rather than a long list.

Ten days, the Everest road

Eight days plus the overland drive to the north base camp area, which is the reason a large proportion of our travellers come.

What it adds: a border permit, two long driving days of seven to nine hours each, a road that climbs above 17,000 feet (5,200 m), and a night at around 16,500 feet (5,000 m) in a guesthouse or tented camp with basic or shared rooms, thin bedding, a stove, no reliable hot water and pit toilets. It is the least comfortable night most travellers will ever spend and it is the one they talk about for years afterwards.

What it gives you, if the sky is clear, is one of the great sights on earth from a place very few people stand. If the sky is not clear, you have driven two long days and slept badly at 16,500 feet for a view of cloud. September and October give the best odds and we will tell you what they are for your dates before you commit. The full detail is in the overland road to Everest.

Ten days is the shortest route we will build to Everest. Anything faster reaches the highest ground with too little adaptation behind it. See Everest north base camp in 10 days.

Fourteen days, the version with room in it

Fourteen days is the same ground at a pace that includes rest days rather than only driving days, plus two additions that are genuinely worth the time.

Namtso, a lake at around 15,500 feet (4,730 m) north of Lhasa, reached over a high pass and slept beside if you are adapted well. It is the single most beautiful place many of our travellers see on the plateau.

The Yarlung valley, southeast of Lhasa, which is the older heart of Tibetan civilisation: the first palace, the first monastery at Samye, the burial mounds of the early kings, and a landscape that feels agricultural rather than austere.

Fourteen days is our recommendation for anyone who has come a long way, wants the mountain, and would rather not spend every second day in a vehicle.

Twenty-one days, and the Nepal question

Three weeks lets you go overland to Kathmandu on the Friendship Highway by way of the Gyirong crossing, descending from the plateau into the Himalayan foothills in two days, which is one of the great descents in travel.

One warning, and it is the biggest administrative trap in Tibet planning. Travellers entering from Kathmandu do not use an ordinary Chinese visa. 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 catches out people combining Tibet with a longer China trip. If Nepal is involved in either direction, tell us at the first email.

What we will not do

We will not compress the route. If your holiday is seven days, we build a six day Lhasa trip rather than an eight day route squeezed into seven, because the day we would remove is an acclimatisation day.

We will not build a three or four day Tibet visit. By the time you have adapted enough to enjoy it, you would be leaving.

We will not build the Everest road into fewer than ten days.

We will not build a fast winter Everest route. Access is unreliable and the cold at that altitude is the main condition rather than a background one.

What changes the answer

Your arrival route. Flying from Chengdu takes a little over two hours and puts you at nearly 12,000 feet (3,660 m) in a morning. The Qinghai-Tibet railway from Xining takes around 21 hours, crosses the Tanggula Pass at roughly 16,640 feet (5,072 m), carries supplementary oxygen in the carriages and helps a little with the gradual ascent. It does not replace the acclimatisation days, and it does add a day at each end.

Your medical history. If you have significant heart or lung conditions, or you are pregnant, ask your own doctor about Tibet specifically and tell us what they say. It may change the route or the answer.

Who you are travelling with. Older children can do this well with a slower, lower route. Younger children we would rather talk you out of, and we explain why in our article on Tibet with children.

Combining with China or Nepal. Both work well and both add days at the joins. Mainland China sits naturally on either side of Tibet.

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Tell us how many days you have and we will tell you honestly what fits inside them at a safe pace. Free, and with no obligation.

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Keep reading

• Tibet: the complete guide to planning your trip
• Lhasa in three days
• The overland road to Everest north base camp
• What a trip to Tibet costs
• Classic Tibet in 8 days
• All our Tibet trips

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