Introduction
As you may know, it is unfortunately not possible to travel to Tibet on your own. As per official regulations around Tibet travel, you need to visit Tibet on a tour organised by a local Tibetan travel agency.
In this post I will guide you through how we found the perfect travel agency for us - independent travellers who prefer not going somewhere than joining a tour.
How we decided to book a tour to Tibet
For us the need for a tour felt like a deal breaker. We are not travellers who are interested in sightseeing and famous tourist attractions, we prefer experiencing real life adventures and meeting real people.
Since traveling in Tibet is restricted, we didn't think there would be a way to see Tibet 'our way'. We have not even given it too much thought as it just seemed so out of reach!
That was until we saw this video from Tibet Vista on Youtube:
When we saw that this video was posted from a channel of a travel agency, we have thought to ourselves: maybe it is possible to see real Tibet? What if we could travel with a guide without the necessity of being on a tour? Maybe it is worth asking whether they could take us to a real village, where we could stay in a homestay for a few days, meet the people and see how life looks there.
Our goal was to just be able to go to a village, stay there for a few days, and watch the life unfolds in front of our eyes.
To our delight, Tibet Vista replied promptly and told us it was in fact possible! They do organise custom made tours that cater to all the traveller's needs. In the next few weeks we were able to work with them on our custom itinerary that fit our needs and preferences.
The importance of choosing the right tour
You should not think for a second that you can book a 'fake' tour and still somehow travel around - this is not the case. Your travel permit is checked when boarding a train or a plane. The guide will need to check you in to every hotel. The thing you can do independently is walk around Lhasa. However, to see any tourists sights, e.g. Potala Palace, you will need a guide.
The reason I am stressing it is that even though it is common knowledge that you cannot travel to Tibet on your own, on the train we still met a couple who seemed to think so and booked a random cheap tour they found on the internet.
For that reason, it is crucial to pick a tour that suits you, as what is included in the tour, would be the thing you will be doing.
Being on a private tour, you can turn your trip to Tibet into once-in-a-lifetime experience that includes everything you want to do. Tibet Vista helped us all the way through and based on our expectations, created a custom itinerary. They never tried to up-sell anything and made sure the tour included exactly what we wanted. During the tour, they were responding on WeChat 24/7. They even helped us organise a driver to take us from Xining to Qinghai Lake on short notice that was not part of our tour.
How to book a tour and get a Tibet travel permit
Once you agree with the travel agent the itinerary - duration and places to visit - and sign a contract, the agency will take care of the rest and send you the permit before the start of your trip.
It is important to remember, that you will need to have a valid Chinese visa before obtaining a Tibet travel permit, but it is agency that takes care of it.
I also recommend booking the train tickets and hotels through the agency as this makes it easier to get the spot, especially in peak season - the agencies do get a portion of tickets allocated to them.
Another important note is that travel restrictions within Tibet change often, so it might happen that the itinerary has to be changed on short notice.
It takes few weeks to obtain a permit, so make sure you arrange your visa to China and contact the agency as soon as you know your travel plans.
Magda
Our experience
Since we travelled with 2 small children, it was adventurous enough to just go to Tibet, we didn't seek additional does of adrenaline. And for a while we follow the principle that less is more. What we wanted was just to go to Lhasa - use our time there to acclimatise, sample some Tibetan food and see Potala Palace - and then visit the Tibetan countryside.
We spent a few days in a village less than 2 hours away from Lhasa at nearly 4000m elevation. There we stayed with a local family - we were their first ever guests and they made sure we felt welcome preparing delicious food everyday and lots of yak butter tea, a Tibetan specialty.
The hosts' nephew and another local boy who were a bit older than Hanna visited the house and Hanna played Lego with them. When we found out that the nephew started kindergarten the next day we asked our guide to help us visit it so that Hanna can play with local kids - which he did and for Hanna it was one of the highlights of the trip.
We even got to know the famous Jamyang Tsering - the agency's senior tour guide and the man behind its Youtube channel immense success. He visited us during the homestay and invited us to his house in Lhasa - he had a son similar age to Hanna so he was happy to welcome us to meet his family and eat lunch together. This was a one-of-a-kind experience that allowed us to see for ourselves the genuine Tibetan hospitality.
Considerations
The only thing you need to consider really when traveling on a private tour is the cost. It is of course higher than on a bigger tour but the value you get for it is immense. Not once did we feel that our guide was in our way - and it was actually nice to have someone translate for us what our hosts were saying and what we wanted to ask them. Even if it was possible to travel independently, we would have not learned so much and we wouldn't even have known the village we visited existed.
Read more about our trip to Tibet:
Magda 34 posts
Member discussion