A Complete Tibet travel guide

Tibet or the land of snow is located in the southwestern region of China. A question of how to travel Tibet has always been a difficult issue for the tourists who don’t know well about Tibet or how has never been to Tibet before.

For the last 20 years, Tibet has become a dreamed destination for millions of tourists no matter from outside of China or from mainland China, especially after the Covid 19 because Tibet is the only place in the world that does not have a single case of Coronavirus.

Tibet is located on a vast high plateau with an average altitude of more than 4000 meters. Tibet is known as the “ Roof of the World ’’ The entire high plateau of Tibet are Qinghai Tibetan plateau, Sichuan Tibetan plateau known as Kham, Gansu Tibetan plateau known as Amdo, Yunnan Tibetan plateau known as Horse Trading Route and Tibet Autonomous Region Tibetan plateau, known as Utsang.

Tibet Autonomous Region covers an area of 1.2284 million square kilometers which accounts for about 1/8 of the total area of the country and at the end of 2018, the permanent population of Tibet Autonomous Region was 3.4382 million. Tibet is bordered by Xijiang to the north, Sichuan to the east, Qinghai to the northeast and Yunnan to the southeast.

How to travel Tibet from Europe?

There is not any direct flight to Tibet from Europe so the only option how to travel Tibet is you can get to Tibet from Europe through different cities in mainland China. Tourists can fly to any kinds of cities in mainland China and from there, they can take a direct flight to Lhasa. The most popular airline route to fly to Tibet is via Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xian, Chongqing and Chengdu. Among them, Chengdu is the easiest way to travel to Tibet because there is a direct flight from Amsterdam and Frankfurt to Chengdu and from Chengdu to Lhasa, there are more than 50 daily flights. Chengdu is also the shortest flight route to Tibet.

How to travel Tibet from USA?

There are many travel routes from USA to Tibet via many cities in mainland China such as the tourists can get to Tibet via Beijing, get to Tibet via Shanghai, get to Tibet via Guangzhou, get to Tibet via Chongqing, get to Tibet via Xian and get to Tibet via Chengdu. The most convenient and easiest way to travel to Tibet is via Beijing as there are many direct flights from USA to Beijing. From Beijing to Lhasa, there are two daily flights and one is the direct flight to Tibet and another one is via Xian to Tibet. The tourists can also take Qinghai highway train from Beijing to Lhasa which takes around 41 hours to get to Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet.

How to travel Tibet from Asian countries?

There are also many different ways to get to Tibet. If the tourists are traveling to Tibet from Singapore, it is recommended to fly to Chengdu and from Chengdu, they can travel to Tibet directly. If the tourists are traveling to Tibet from Malaysia, it is also recommended to get to Chengdu and from Chengdu, they can directly fly to Lhasa. If the tourists are traveling to Tibet from Thailand, it is recommended to travel to Tibet via Kunming and from Kunming, they can get to Tibet directly. If the tourists are traveling to Tibet from Indonesia or Philippine, it is recommended to travel to Tibet via Chengdu. 

If the tourists are traveling to Tibet via Nepal, it is recommended to fly to Tibet from Kathmandu. The tourists can fly to Nepal and from Nepal, they can directly fly to Lhasa, the most beautiful sunny city of Tibet. There are plenty choices of flights to Nepal from Europe or USA and from Kathmandu to Tibet, there is a direct daily flight which is just one hour flight over the most beautiful view of the Himalayan Mountains.

If the tourists are traveling to Tibet from Australia, they will have to fly to mainland China first and then fly to Tibet. According to today’s flight schedules, it is recommended to fly to Chengdu which is closer to Tibet but there are more direct flights to Shanghai, Guangzhou and Zhengzhou from Australia and if the tourist fly to those mentioned cities from Australia, they can easily connect the next flight to Tibet.

How to travel Tibet from England?

There are direct flights from London to Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing but all those cities in mainland China are far from Tibet so it is better to fly to Chengdu even if there is not a direct flight to Chengdu from London. The tourists can fly to Amsterdam from London and then fly to Chengdu directly. From Chengdu to Tibet, there are plenty of daily direct flights and it is just two hours flight.

How to travel Tibet from Hongkong and Macao?

It is very easy to travel Tibet from Hongkong or Macao because both of these two cities are very close to mainland China and if the flight cost is reasonable, again it is recommended to fly to Chengdu from those two cities and from Chengdu, they can fly to Tibet easily.

How to travel Tibet from Taiwan?

If the tourists are traveling to Tibet from Taiwan, the best way to get to Tibet is to fly from Taiwan to Xiamen city in mainland China and from Xiamen to Chengdu or Chongqing and from there, they can fly to Tibet directly. 

How to travel Tibet with a complete Tibet travel guide?

If you are planning to travel to Tibet, your first preparation is to have a valid passport which means at least your passport with the validity of more than 6 months. After that, of course, you need to look for a right Tibetan travel agency which means the local Tibetan tour company which must have been registered under the administration of Tibet Tourism Bureau and has all the related official licenses to be able to help you to arrange your Tibet trip and Tibet travel permits.

Once you find a right Tibetan travel agent, you need to tell the agent where you like to go in Tibet and ask the travel agent to design a nice Tibet tour program for you. Make sure that you will include all the places in your program that you would like to travel in Tibet because Tibet is a completely different travel destination than other European or US cities as you need necessary Tibet permits for your trip and your Tibetan travel agent should put all the places in the Tibet permits. Besides, you also need a Tibetan tour guide who can accompany you while you are doing tour in Tibet. Without a tour guide, you cannot enter the scenic spots or cross the checkpoints on the way.

To prepare your Tibet permits, it will take two to four weeks depending on where you are traveling in Tibet. It is always recommended to book your Tibet tour in one or two months advance so that you and your local Tibetan travel agents will have enough time to prepare all your Tibet permits and other necessary Tibet trip bookings.

How is the facility of your Tibet travel?

Language guides: Since the tourism industry has become one of the most important imcome industries in Tibet, there are more different language travel guides available. You can find English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, and Mandarin speaking guides.

Accommodation: For the last 20 years, Tibet has got a huge development and in all the cities and hot destinations of Tibet travel, you can get very good hotels including five stars and luxury resorts. Food: In all the big cities where you are traveling, you can find very nice and fancy restaurants where you can get continental food. In those of the remote areas, you can get clean Tibetan and Chinese restaurants as long as you don’t mind trying local food during your Tibet tour.

Transportation: Since the roads in most parts of Tibet have been paved and there is a very good condition of the road, nowadays, most of the tourists vehicles are comfortable mini vans, vans or buses. If you require to have car or 4*4 or cruisers, you can also book but in the one hand, it is not necessary to have it with such a good condition of the road and in the other hand, it is costly.

Scenic spots and the toilet facility: Nowadays, most of the scenic spots in Tibet are running under the standard of the Chinese government scenic spot management and most of the scenic spots are clean and providing western flashing toilet.