Earthbound Expeditions

Tibet: getting in, and getting there

No independent travel, no visa you can buy on your own, and a permit stack that takes three weeks.

Tibet in one screen

Status
Tibet Autonomous Region of China
Capital
Lhasa, at 3,656 m
Currency
Chinese yuan (CNY)
Languages
Tibetan and Mandarin. English only through your guide
Time zone
UTC+8, the same clock as Beijing, which puts sunrise near eight in the morning
Power
220V, type A, C and I sockets
Main airport
Lhasa Gonggar (LXA), 62 km from the city

Our trips in Tibet

The visa, and what it costs

There is no Tibet visa. There is a Chinese visa, and on top of it a Tibet Travel Permit that only a licensed agency can apply for, against an itinerary that is already booked and paid. Which Chinese visa you need depends entirely on where you fly in from, and the Nepal route uses a document most people have never heard of.

  • China group visa, issued in Kathmandu
    Cost
    USD 51 for most nationalities
    Notes
    USD 140 for US citizens, USD 85 for Canadians, USD 27 for Nepalis. Five working days, or three on the urgent service.
  • Tibet Travel Permit (TTB)
    Cost
    Usually inside the tour price
    Notes
    Applied for by the agency. Allow 15 to 20 working days, longer in season.
  • Alien's Travel Permit
    Cost
    CNY 50 per person
    Notes
    Ngari, for Kailash, and a handful of other closed areas. No longer needed for Shigatse, Nyingchi or Shannan since June 2025.
  • Military and foreign affairs permits
    Cost
    Inside the tour price
    Notes
    Kailash and the Ngari prefecture only. Issued in Lhasa, 10 to 15 working days.
  • Everest reserve entry
    Cost
    CNY 160 to 180 per person
    Notes
    Plus a vehicle charge of roughly CNY 405 for a 4WD and CNY 605 for a coach.
  • Flying in from Kathmandu
    What applies
    You need a China group visa issued by the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu, not a standard Chinese visa. It is a separate sheet of paper listing the whole party, and it invalidates any Chinese visa already in your passport.
  • Flying in from mainland China
    What applies
    A normal Chinese tourist visa obtained at home, plus the Tibet Travel Permit, which your agency couriers to your hotel in the departure city before you fly.
  • Everybody, without exception
    What applies
    A licensed Tibetan guide and a booked itinerary for the whole time you are in the region. Independent travel by foreign passport holders is not permitted anywhere in Tibet.
  • Journalists and diplomats
    What applies
    A different process entirely, through the Foreign Affairs Office rather than the Tourism Bureau. Tell us before you book rather than after.
  • Indian nationals on the Kailash yatra
    What applies
    A separate and better-established route, with its own quota and its own paperwork. It is not the tourist permit stack.

How to actually get it

Book first, apply second

The permit is issued against a confirmed itinerary with your hotels and your guide named on it, so the sequence is the reverse of everywhere else you have travelled: you commit to the trip, then find out whether the paperwork clears. This is why Tibet legs carry a longer deposit lead time than anything else we sell.

Passport and visa scans, six weeks out

Clear colour scans of the photo page and, for the mainland China route, of your Chinese visa. Your occupation on the form matters: journalist, photographer, diplomat and anything with 'government' in it are routinely refused, and the honest answer given early can usually be worked with.

The group visa needs a group

The Kathmandu group visa is issued to a party, and current practice is a minimum of five travellers on one sheet. A couple joining a departure of eight is fine; two people asking for a private Tibet trip out of Kathmandu is the case where this falls down, and we will tell you so rather than take the deposit.

Everything is closed in the spring

The region shuts to foreign visitors around the anniversary of the 1959 uprising, usually the whole of March and sometimes into early April. It is announced with days of notice or none. No itinerary we sell starts in March.

What catches people out

  • The Kathmandu group visa cancels any existing Chinese visa in your passport, so do not buy one first.
  • Permits are refused, occasionally, with no reason given and no appeal. We refund the Tibet portion in full when that happens.
  • You cannot leave your guide and travel on your own for a day, including inside Lhasa.
  • Photographing military installations, checkpoints and border posts is taken seriously. Your guide will tell you where the line is.
  • Overland to Kailash you sleep above 4,500 m for several consecutive nights, which is a harder altitude profile than most Nepal treks and is done in a vehicle rather than on foot.

Flying there

Non-stop routes only. Anything with a connection depends on the day and is better answered by a search than by a table.

  • Kathmandu
    Airlines
    Himalaya Airlines, Sichuan Airlines
    In the air
    1h 35m
    Notes
    Weekdays. Needs the Kathmandu group visa
  • Chengdu
    Airlines
    Air China, Sichuan Airlines, Tibet Airlines
    In the air
    2h 30m
    Notes
    The busiest gateway, more than thirty flights a day
  • Xining
    Airlines
    Tibet Airlines, China Eastern
    In the air
    2h 30m
    Notes
    Also the best place to join the railway
  • Beijing
    Airlines
    Air China, Tibet Airlines
    In the air
    4h 30m
    Notes
    —
  • Shanghai
    Airlines
    China Eastern, Tibet Airlines
    In the air
    6h
    Notes
    Usually via Xi'an or Chengdu
  • Xi'an
    Airlines
    Tibet Airlines, China Eastern
    In the air
    3h 15m
    Notes
    —

Joining it onto the country next door

Half the trips in this catalogue cross a border. These are the links they are built on, and the lead times they impose.

  • Nepal
    How
    Fly Lhasa to Kathmandu, or drive out via Kerung
    How long
    1h 35m flying, three days overland
    Notes
    The overland exit drops 3,000 m in a day and a half, which is the easy direction
  • Mainland China
    How
    Fly or take the railway from Lhasa
    How long
    2h 30m to Chengdu, 21h by train from Xining
    Notes
    —
  • India
    How
    Not directly. Via Kathmandu or via mainland China
    How long
    Two flights
    Notes
    There is no open land crossing from Tibet into India for tourists

Permits and entry fees

Separate from the visa, and payable whether or not you are trekking. Checked in February 2026; these change by notice and without a notice period.

  • Tibet Travel Permit (TTB)
    Fee
    Inside the tour price
    Who needs it
    Every foreign visitor, everywhere in Tibet
    Notes
    Applied for by a licensed agency against a paid itinerary. 15 to 20 working days.
  • China group visa, Kathmandu
    Fee
    USD 51, or USD 140 for US citizens
    Who needs it
    Anyone entering from Nepal
    Notes
    Minimum party size of five under current practice.
  • Alien's Travel Permit
    Fee
    CNY 50
    Who needs it
    Ngari prefecture, for Kailash and Mansarovar
    Notes
    No longer required for the Everest side since June 2025.
  • Military area permit
    Fee
    Inside the tour price
    Who needs it
    Kailash, Ngari and the border zones
    Notes
    Issued by the Tibet Military Command in Lhasa. 10 to 15 working days.
  • Foreign affairs permit
    Fee
    Inside the tour price
    Who needs it
    Kailash itineraries routed through Lhasa
    Notes
    —
  • Qomolangma nature reserve entry
    Fee
    CNY 160 to 180, plus CNY 405 to 605 per vehicle
    Who needs it
    Everest north side and Rongbuk
    Notes
    —

When to come

  • March
    What it is like
    The region routinely shuts to foreign visitors for the month. We do not schedule anything into it.
    Closed
  • April to May
    What it is like
    Clear, cold, and the best Everest views of the year from the north side. Kailash opens around mid-May once the snow goes off the Dolma La.
    Good
  • June to August
    What it is like
    Warmest, greenest and busiest. The monsoon reaches the Himalayan rim but the plateau behind it stays largely dry.
    Best
  • September to October
    What it is like
    The other good window. Stable, clear, and thinning out through October.
    Best
  • November to February
    What it is like
    Lhasa and Shigatse are fine and empty. Kailash is effectively shut and the guesthouses on the kora are closed.
    Hard

Money on the ground

  • Cash
    Yuan, and carry it. Outside Lhasa and Shigatse there is very little that takes a card.
  • ATMs
    Bank of China in Lhasa, Shigatse and Ali. Nothing useful between them.
  • Mobile payment
    Alipay and WeChat Pay run the country and both now accept foreign cards. Set it up before you fly; it is far easier than doing it on a Tibetan hotel wifi.
  • Tipping
    Not traditional, but expected of tour groups. CNY 50 to 100 a day for the guide and about half that for the driver.

Arriving

By air from Kathmandu

Himalaya Airlines and Sichuan Airlines fly Kathmandu to Lhasa Gonggar in about an hour and thirty-five minutes, on weekdays. It is the short way in and the harder one on your body: you go from 1,400 m to 3,656 m in one morning, which is why every itinerary we run this way holds two nights in Lhasa before it goes anywhere.

By road from Kathmandu

The Kerung crossing at Rasuwagadhi, north of Kathmandu, is the working land border. It is a full day to the border and another to Kerung, then two more days climbing across the plateau, and the gradual gain is genuinely better for acclimatisation than the flight. The road is subject to landslides in and after the monsoon and the crossing has closed at short notice more than once.

By train from mainland China

The Qinghai-Tibet railway runs to Lhasa from Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Xining, Lanzhou, Xi'an and Guangzhou. Xining is the one worth doing: it is the start of the high section, about 21 hours, and it climbs over the 5,072 m Tanggula pass in daylight. Soft sleeper, booked well ahead, and the carriages are oxygen-enriched.

Health and safety

  • Lhasa is at 3,656 m and you arrive there in one flight. Two nights doing nothing is not padding in the itinerary, it is the itinerary.
  • A Kailash kora crosses the Dolma La at 5,630 m on foot, and the nights before it are spent at 4,600 m in basic guesthouses. It is the most demanding thing in this catalogue that nobody calls a trek.
  • Take altitude medication advice from your own doctor before you fly, and tell us about heart or lung conditions at the enquiry stage rather than at the airport.
  • Hospitals in Lhasa and Shigatse are adequate. Anywhere west of Saga, the answer to a serious problem is a long drive, and helicopter rescue is not available to tourists in Tibet the way it is in Nepal.
  • 2026 is the Tibetan Fire Horse year, which runs to 5 February 2027. A kora walked in a Horse year is held to carry the merit of thirteen, and Kailash is far busier than usual for it. Book early and expect company on the trail.

Still not sure the paperwork works?

Tell us your passport and your dates and we will tell you plainly whether the trip is possible, before you have paid anything.

Ask us