Things You Need to Know Before Planning a Tibet Tour

Tibet is not as easy as other places in China for foreigners to travel due to its special geographic and political situations. Hence, here we list the top three useful tips for foreigners traveling to Tibet.

Book Your Tibet Tour in Advance

Unlike other tourist destinations in the world, foreigners must book the Tibet tour at least 20 days prior. According to the regulations, foreigners are not allowed to travel to Tibet alone but must be accompanied by a tour guide and have a fixed itinerary in advance, which means you must book a tour from travel agency. After you finally engage with a travel agency, you need to give them 2-3 days to confirm the hotel booking. Meanwhile, at least 12 working days for them to apply for the Tibet Travel Permit from the Tibet Tourism Bureau.

Tibet Travel Permit / Tibet Visa

As a basic paper, Tibet Travel Permit is required to provide when foreign travelers enter Tibet and the only way for foreigners to enter Tibet is to book a Tibet tour package. It means even if you are a solo traveler, you have to make a private tour with a tour guide to travel to Tibet or find a suitable Tibet Group Tour to join in. Besides, the Tibet Tourism Bureau doesn’t issue Tibet Travel Permit for the individual travelers, but only to Tibet travel agencies. Thus, you have to let a travel agent get the Tibet Travel Permit or Tibet Visa for you. Since the travel agency needs to take responsibilities for all your behaviors in Tibet, no travel agency will accept to just apply for the permit for clients without booking a tour.

Your destination before and after your Tibet tour will be printed on the Tibet Travel Permit as well. It’s best not to change later as it costs an extra fee and time to alter the information. So, please double check all the information before handing out the application form. And the Tibet Travel Permit may be checked randomly during the whole trip. Our guide will be taking care of your permits for the security reasons.

Notice: If you enter Tibet from Nepal instead of Mainland China, there will be other specific requirements. Check Chinese Group Visa for more information.

Choose the Best Time

Tibet is a place you can visit all year round, except when Tibet will close for foreigners due to the holidays and cold weather, normally speaking during March. The best time to travel to Tibet is from April to October. During this time, the weather is the best, neither too hot, nor too cold (Check the Weather in Tibet for more details). The oxygen content of the air is higher than other time, which is helpful indeed to reduce the risk of getting altitude sickness. Check How to Prevent Altitude Sickness to get prepared in advance.

As a big highlight of Tibet tours, 80% of the foreigners traveling to Tibet are looking for visiting Everest Base Camp. The best time to do Mt. Everest trekking is from late April to May and late September to October. Because the monsoon season of Mt. Everest is from June to August, it’s better to avoid the rainfall when visiting this highest mountain in the world. Going to Mt. Everest requires Alien's Permit besides your Tibet Travel Permit, which will be applied by us in advance as well.

Winter is the off season of Tibet tourism, but actually, winter is also a perfect time to visit Tibet. Three main reasons are warm weather in the daytime, fewer crowds and lower cost. Check things do during our winter visit!