Tibet Travel Forum

Hi

A friend and I are planning a trip to Tibet... in the initial stages, so we're considering possibilities now.

My preference is to travel overland for better acclimatization... and because i'm guessing the scenery will be breathtaking.

Would appreciate your tips on:
(1) which overland route is good - I'm inclined towards Kathmandu - Lhasa because we haven't got that much time, but there are so many agencies advertising online... recommendations and actual travel experience would help.

(2) also contemplating the Yunnan (Zhongdian) - Lhasa route, but have no contacts for that at all and no idea about costs

(3) also, wondering about safety for these overland routes.

(4) other helpful information - e.g. costs, must-sees, to-avoids, etc.

Thanks so much!

i did the Zhondian route and it was great. Although i'd recommend hiring a tibetan driver. We hitched up with 2 people who were already busy organizing and we ended up having a chinese driver who only wanted to stop at chinese places which was a hassle. It doesn't take much time to set everything up in Kunming, Zhongdian and we spend about $500 per person for 8 days (without hotels and food along the way).

If you want to know more, let me know

Hi, Yes, would appreciate a bit more detail like how long the trip takes and wat the road's like. I guess you flew back from Lhasa? Thanks much!

I also attempted the Zhongdian rout back in late May 2006.

Actually, we started in Chungdu but toured parts of Yunnan first and left for Tibet from Zhongdian. We had to turn back because a rockslide took out the road and it was estimated it was going to takes weeks to repair. We ended up flying to Lhasa.

The scenery was fantastic during the drive. It was a great experience even when we did not make it all the way. I spent about 6 weeks in China/Tibet that year. I have some photos on my Tibet page.

Some of the roads were good but some of them were very bad. This was in 2006 and there were lots of construction, so the roads may be better now.

The requirements for foreigners traveling in Tibet keeps changing. ellyse posted the following link for up to date info.

http://kekexili.typepad.com/life_on_the_tibetan_plate/2009/02/tibet-travel-update-2009.html

If you take Kathmandu route to Lhasa is more like tour bus type and will be more comfortable. The Zhongdian and other from Shezuan route is very adventurous type, you might sleeping in the tent or basic guest houses. Depending on what group you joined the trip is ranging from 4 to 7 days. In April 2007 I started from Ganzi, Dege to Lhasa route with local transportation (not tour bus). It took full 3 days drove till midnight to get to some basic guest house (for local truck drivers). The sceneries was fantastic, went trough many mountain passes each time the climate changes from lush wooded green to all white snow covered pass than to to the arid grassland, just like went trough 4 seasons all in 3 days.

Hi

Thanks for your reply. I checked out your pics and they look gorgeous, although some look familiar! I was on part of the way i think last year - due to the olympics, tibet was not open to foreigners, so we were travelling in yunnan and went as far as deqin and mt mei li.

I'm currently reading up on the different routes and it seems the one from nepal is the easiest in terms of organising.

Really appreciate all the replies!

Sorry for replying so late but the internet here (in Burma) isn't working much of late....

Anyways, i did the trip in 2007 and as stated before, the scenery was fantastic. There was talk that it would be possible to take the bus (3 days) if you'd be the only foreigner and if you didn't look too 'western'. Then it might be possible to skip through the checks. That was too much uncertainty for us. Espeically since we didn't have unlimited time (well, my friend didn't, mine was rather unlimited at that time ;-) ). So we hooked up with the 2 people who were already arranging the trip. The road was not very good as some points. But i'm not sure how accurate my info is. for one thing, it has been 2 years, secondly, i live in Burma which gives the phrase 'it was a bad road' a whole new meaning... I do remember that at one point we were so fed up with our driver. The car had no aircon which hadn't thought about till the driver didn't want us to open the windows for almost a day because of the dirt road we were on. It was so hot and stiffling in that car... ! (he didn't want dust in the car...). The road wasn't the only problem, finding a remotely acceptable guesthouse was another. Honestly, the worst place i have ever stayed in was during this trip. From Zhondian it takes 7 to 8 days to get to Llasa depending on how many stops you make along the way. As you said, the Kathmandu route might be easiest to organise since that is a very popular route.

Hi Thanks for taking the trouble to re-visit and reply again... it's taken me so long to get back to you as well. In the interim tho, we've settled on nepal becos my friend only has two glorious weeks to play around with. I'll do it from China the next time :) Are you still in Myanmar (ok, Burma)... I hope it's treating you well. Now our headache is trying to get the cheapest (and decent) tour into Tibet from Kathmandu, tho they all look pretty standard - which means almost half the cost goes to the air ticket flying out of Lhasa! Take care.

Enjoy the trip ;-)