Lhasa Travel Forum

We're planning a trip to Lhasa (via train from Beijing- Xining - Lhasa), and were thinking that to save money, we could find a travel agent willing to get us the train tickets and travel permits, but hire our own guide just for a couple of days, staying without a guide in Lhasa itself. Does anyone know if this is feasible? Is it legal to travel in Lhasa city without a guide?

On a side note, Any hotel rec's for Lhasa, Xining, Chengdu, Dunhuang, or LanZhou? We've got too many places we'd like to visit! Trying to decide which are the must-see, kid-friendly places in this part of the country (Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu, & Tibet). Many thanks for any advice you can give us. Have a great day!!

This thread may have some of the information you are looking for:

http://forum.virtualtourist.com/discussion-479442-1-1-Travel-0-1447-Tibet-discussion.html

I liked the hotel I stayed in Lhasa in 2006. More info is at:

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/9e4cc/f7011/

Hi, as I know, you won't be allowed to be free and easy in Tibet. fyi, train from Beijing to Lhasa directly: T27, depart at 21:30 and arrive at 18:38 the third day night, it takes almost 45 hours. It stops at Xining as well and arrives at 17:50 the next afternoon. It's good way to get train tickets and Tibet travel permit via a travel agent. For the must-see, if you'd like, I will ask my sister Jane for these information. She is a travel expert on an online travel website.

Thank you for your replies, OptimusPrimeShi and MikeySoft. I think we'll stop in Xining for a day or two and then continue on to Lhasa. Maybe we can hire a guide once we arrive in Lhasa, if we can find a travel agent to acquire the train tickets and special permits for us in advance (without a tour booking.)

We still are trying to decide which other places to visit, but definately are thinking Dunhuang should be included.

Um…………I was told that you should get a travel permit before your arrival in Lhasa. Generally, the local agent will delivery the travel permit to you before your departure to Lhasa. Such as, if you take a train, they will send you the permit (or copy) via express delivery service.
If you stop at Xining, you can take a full day tour to Qinghai Lake and Sun & Moon Mountain. More, of course, Dunhuang is a wonderful place to view. But I found there was no direct train/ plane from Xining to Dunhuang. Maybe you should transfer with Lanzhou/ Tianshui. Or, you will re-arrange your itinerary.

Look on my Dunhuang and Xining travel pages. I fancy them pretty good for information, I put a lot of effort into them!
I suspect you're too optimistic to try and find someone who would get you only train tickets and permit though.
How long do you have to travel?

Ellyse, your Dunhuang and Xining pages are great! In fact I saw the Dunhuang pictures and descriptions before which is why we thought of adding it to our plans- thank you for sharing it with the VT community. We are pretty flexible with our travel dates and how much time we can spend. We are in China for 5 months and will travel during many various weeks (but staying in Beijing for a big chunk of time.)

Yes, I guess we'll need to hire a tour guide for Lhasa and arrange it all in advance. We'll talk with a few travel agents to see what they can offer. We don't want to spend too much (5 month trip means the money has to stretch far)

Thanks for your advice, I really appreciate it.

Susan

Good to know that you enjoyed my travel pages! If it isn't too much to ask, would you like to help me rate the tips as well? Thanks in advance. :D

Glad to do it, Ellyse!

Thanks again,
Susan

Thanks, I really do appreciate it! :)