I honestly don’t know where to start with Tibet. We’ve just spent 8 incredible days travelling through Tibet from Kathmandu and those 8 days were some of the most mesmerising of our last 6 years of full-time travel. I now need to create a Tibet travel blog to record our memories before they fade and to give you the low-down on this beautiful and inspiring place. Our content on Tibet travel starts here, I need to unpack my mind on these pages and explain what Tibet does to you.
Tibet Travel Blog
I’ll start today with an overview because every place we visited in Tibet, every experience, deserves its own post.
Our journey from Kathmandu, to the Chinese border, and onward to Lhasa was immense.
So few people visit, I want you all to know about Tibet but I need to tread carefully. You can do more research for yourselves.
Maybe, like me, you’ve been fascinated by Tibet for a long time, watched the films and read the books but not been fortunate enough to see this place first-hand.
I want to show you the pictures. All of the places we mention here will have full blog posts in time.
This is just a first taste of Tibet.
Is it Safe to Visit Tibet?
We felt very safe in Tibet from the moment we crossed the border.
In my opinion it is safe to visit Tibet and we took children with us.
The roads in Tibet were all in very good condition and almost free from traffic.
There is heavy police and army presence, both visible and disguised.
You will pass through checkpoints and metal detectors often.
The journey to Tibet, by road starting in Kathmandu, was hair-raising, but once you’re on Chinese roads everything changes.
Tibet Travel Video
We have Tibet travel videos on our posts about Lhasa and the monks debating at Sera Monastery.
There is no video on this page as yet because some people find them annoying, but do try to find those.
See our Tibet tag at the bottom of the page.
Kathmandu to Tibet Journey
Our 8 day journey to Lhasa started in Kathmandu with a 7 hour jeep ride to the Chinese border.
It’s a tough trip on almost non-existent roads. You bounce and shake through villages and mountain passes in low-quality jeeps. 7 tourists and a driver crammed into a too-small vehicle with little comfort or safety.
I always say that the worse it gets the better the stories, but I wasn’t happy with safety on this ride at all, particularly not for my children. We’d been in Nepal almost 3 months and taken plenty of long-distance bus rides so I’m not being precious here.
This jeep wasn’t good, the booking agent lied to us and Nepali roads are challenging. In general, I’d prefer to take a bus in Nepal.
Of course, the scenery was stunning and the experience was a memorable one. This is real travel, it’s not always easy but it’s always worth it.
Crossing The Border into China
Crossing the border into China was fairly straightforward.
A huge modern border control complex marked the entry into another world. Goodbye Nepal, hello China.
From here on in our bus was spacious and comfortable, the highways were good and the landscape changed completely.
We met our Tibetan guide, our faultless escort for the next 8 days filled us in on Tibetan customs while keeping well away from politics.
The first stop was just 45 minutes from the border.
A comfortable modern Tibetan styled hotel. The next morning we set off into Tibet proper, passing the tree line, travelling up onto and into the Tibetan Plateau.
Altitude and High Passes
Here’s the thing, it’s not a plateau at all. It’s not flat.
We crossed multiple high passes over 4 and 5,000 m. The altitude in Tibet is extreme and you need to be ready for that.
Altitude is an issue if you’re thinking of visiting Tibet. I can talk more about that elsewhere, but for us and the other family on this tour of Tibet, it wasn’t too much of a problem.
We had all just completed high altitude treks with the kids, Everest Base Camp and Annapurna Circuit, along with spending extended time in Kathmandu (which is at 1300 m) so we did OK. Others suffered more.
Some days saw us spending up to 9 hours per day driving. It sounds a lot and it is, but it was enjoyable.
The landscape, traditional villages, animals, lakes and people kept me staring out of the window. Likewise the changes brought in by the Chinese development were there to see.
Kids and Tibet Travel
The children, there were 3 with us, between 9 and 14 years old, slept comfortably in reclining seats or read and played games as we drove for long days over high passes.
There was some travel sickness and a couple of major tummy upsets caused by giardia. Toilet stops were off-the-scale bad. You’ve never seen bad public toilets until you’ve seen those in Tibet (China generally also) and my son wasn’t happy to use them. It was a problem.
In some places, the Potala Palace for instance, the public toilets were OK, but mostly, no.
Yes, you can take kids to Tibet and mostly the three kids with us enjoyed it. It was fascinating, there’s so much to see, all of it new. The attention the kids received was overwhelming at times but they didn’t have the same emotional response to what they saw as we adults.
Food and accommodation in Tibet were absolutely fine for kids, be aware of altitude, tummy problems, cold, and bad toilets if you’re travelling to Tibet with kids.
Food on The Tibet Trip
Breakfast was included in the price of our trip. Some hotels were very good, 2 were very bad.
Breakfast was eggs and bread or some variation on that theme. It wasn’t great, but it was OK.
We made lunch stops as a group and in the evening we were free to eat where we pleased, choosing between Nepali, Indian, Chinese and Tibetan dishes on most menus.
We ate well with all 3 kids developing a liking for yak. Yak is much nicer than buff, if you were wondering.
There were several vegetarians on the bus and we found food easily, Indian and Nepali food is usually great for vegetarians.
We now have a full post on food in Tibet.
If you’re vegan and committed to sticking to your principles while travelling like this, you’ll struggle.
There is most certainly a language barrier in Tibet and I really don’t like your chances of explaining a vegan diet in Chinese or Tibetan, maybe you’d need to get something printed in both languages to carry with you.
Likewise, if you have any allergies or intolerances. I react badly to MSG, we did come across this additive several times.
Highlights of The Tibet Trip
Every day we stopped at view points. Most days we visited places of interest.
Yamdrok Lake is the most incredible colour. The water has purple and turquoise hues.
A stunning spot with furry tourist trap touches and popular for wedding photos. See Chef’s two new friends above.
One of the highlights of this part of the journey was the Panchen Lama’s monastery, the Tashi Lhumpo monastey at Shigatse.
Obviously this is a real political hot potato. It’s not something we could discuss publicly in Tibet and not something I’m going to discuss here.
The monastery was breathtaking and this, on day 2, was when we all felt we were really in Tibet.
Lhasa
We finally arrived in Lhasa late on day 5. Our hotel in Old Lhasa was filthy and that day was hard.
My son was sick, I was tired and hungry and couldn’t face going out to eat.
My husband (we call him Chef, because he is) went out to find food and struggled so that night we went without.
That was the low point of the trip, but the next day was a massive high.
Day 6 saw us spending the morning at the Potala Palace. It was incredibly emotional and that’s all I’m going to say right now.
We walked in the park surrounded by Tibetan people in traditional dress from every corner of the region before heading into Old Lhasa for a delicious lunch at Lhasa Kitchen.
Our afternoon stop was the Jokhang Temple, one of the most sacred places in Tibet and a short stroll from the restaurant.
We were lucky enough to be there for a festival.
Again, this experience was so intense that I can’t even start to describe it here. That blog post will come soon.
We enjoyed another delicious dinner with the other travelling family, then off to bed, ready for the next huge day.
Day 7, our last day in Tibet and we were given a choice, did we want to visit the Summer Palace or another monastery? The group unanimously decided to visit the Summer Palace and we were so glad we picked this place.
Debating Monks
Our afternoon took us to the Sera Monastery where monks sharpen their debating skills in a public forum. This is the stuff of dreams. I never thought I’d ever see this with my own eyes.
Our tour ended with a final celebratory yak sizzler for the kids and a walk around Old Lhasa- it’s so beautiful at night.
As always local people stared, smiled and welcomed us. All the attention was pretty overwhelming for our little blond girl so if you’re taking small cute kids, be ready for that.
The next morning we had to leave. None of us wanting to go.
Blue skies gave us perfect views of Everest and the whole of the Himalayan range as we flew back to Kathmandu. The plane was good, Lhasa airport was modern, this return flight is easy.
Want to Learn More About Tibet?
Here are a few classic books and movies that you could take a look at if you haven’t already. It feels as if you’re on the set of Seven Years in Tibet and Kundun at times.
I would strongly suggest reading up on Tibet’s history, religion, and culture before you go.
No books of this kind are allowed in Tibet and you will be searched, watched, and listened to at all times.
That’s all for now from our Tibet trip but I have so much more to tell about our experiences during this visit. We hope you stick around to see more of Tibet travel, Everest, and the Himalayas. Sign up to follow. Our Lhasa post and Sera monastery post (debating monks with video) are published. along with Tibetan food. Don’t forget to save to Pinterest! Thanks for reading.
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Wow, what a great blog and beautiful pictures.
I reflect my trip to Tibet two years ago. Great read
I went with a local Tibetan travel agency. They are a small Tibetan company in Lhasa providing us the best services ever. Tibetans are very honest, always smile, compassion and I want to visit there again in the future.
@Say Vera, Hi Say Vera
I’m looking for a reliable Tibetan travel agency that can provide an English speaking guide to travel through Tibet for three weeks in September 2023. Who was the travel agent you used? Thanks, Jossi Clyde
thank you for sharing your experiences of traveling in Tibet.
It is a piece of beautiful and useful information for future travelers. Who makes a plan a trip to Tibet. I read everything from beginning to end, and I like your blog very much and hope you will write an article for our company. We are an unfortunate tour company that never chance to arrange your memorable tour in Tibet. Nonetheless, we are so excited to connect with you.
I Hope, You will reply to our comments. Thanks and good luck
Sorry but I cannot disagree more about the “toilets in China are generally really bad” part. Yes in remote areas like Tibet it might be the case, but in all the major cities they offer the same kind of toilets like the other countries. The facilities in those major cities are definitely not worse than the Western countries.
OK, agreed, most modern places they’re good, as they are anywhere. But China is one of very few countries where we’ve had to use communal toilets and open trenches in the ground. The only other place I’ve seen that is Cuba. The modern public toilet blocks even, newly built by China, can still be door-less and have trenches flowing through in Tibet. Have you not seen those in other parts of China ? My husband had to use a public toilet in Beijing that was a trench in the floor with squatting arrangements. That was a very old one. It’s pretty unusual!
love the post on EBC and the scary video of the rope bridge. Had been contemplating this one myself but thinking twice now … that’s a good thing! Cheers for a great, honest, informative, post.
Thank you Emmydee! But I have a huge fear of heights, don’t worry because I worry, most people breeze accross, bounce up and down and take selfies. They are NUTS!
It feels like a remarkable joy after reading this blog, you have shared a very nice experiences form Tibet that is clearly seen through your photos. This is a great experience that you have made and thank you for sharing your daily travel update in Tibet. The culture and the mountain views are so pleasing, its like a heaven on the earth. This means a lot for new travelers and helps them by guiding what should you do or should not do while traveling. Thank you for sharing your beautiful experience of Tibet.
Thanks for sharing about your journey to Tibet. I was in Nepal in 2008 and we planned to travel to Tibet that same way but it closed to tourists due to unrest surrounding the Beijing Olympics. I’ll hopefully try again one day. I’m excited to hear the extended version of your travels.
Hi Diane, I’ll get back to the Tibet content ASAP. Did you see the Sera Monastery post and video? That was incredible. I’m tied up with Scuba Diving content right now, the kids have gone ocean crazy, but Tibet…soon ! I’m also hoping to get back there this year for Mt Kailash.
Tibet sounds like a fabulous place to visit, I love all your pictures giving a sneak peak into the experiences you have had around them. Thanks for all the indepth tips about the roads and weather acclimatization, so helpful! I am intrigued by the debating monks, I have never seen them in such animated expressions, I would’ve loved to hear their discussions and learn more about this lesson / tradition of theirs.
I have so much more to come on Tibet Arti! It was really intense and that trip was followed by a big transition for us, we’re home after almost 6 years, I have a lot of catching up to do.
Hi Alyson,
What a beautiful destination!
The sky was so clear and the weather seemed very nice.
I wish I could be there and take some photo with yak 🙂
I and my partner are preparing trekking equipment, but we are newbie ones.
You said you brought your everest trekking gear so could you suggest which one is proper for the beginner from this site? ( link removed)
Really appreciate your Tibet trip and thank you in advance for your recommend.
It really doesn’t matter much, a wooden stick will do. You can buy one for $5 in Namche or in Kathmandu. Just find one ( or two) you like, that feels comfortable. I like one that’s well sprung, with a good bit of bounce in it.
I am so happy and interested to read your post. Tibet has long been a place I’ve wanted to visit, and in particular, to see with my family. The last time I looked into it, the chances of doing so seemed very bad. But, we don’t take a lot of what we read at face value. I figured we still had time to research more, but I have wondered in the back of my mind if Tibet would be that one travel dream that I missed. You have no idea how intrigued I became when I saw your post on Facebook. It’s going to be a while until we are in Asia, but you can count on me scouring every word of your posts about Tibet. I know how it feels to be a full-time traveler and a fulltime writer…it can be so tough to keep up! But, today, I read your post as a work break from my own writing. It reminded me how revitalizing it is to do that.
It’s actually very easy to go, in terms of permissions. But go as soon as you can. History is being re-written and there is talk of the Potala Palace being closed to tourists from next year. It costs a lot. About $1000 each for this 8 day trip. But we didn’t need a China visa, just the group Tibet visa available from Nepal. We’re off to Bali then home to Australia, then Christmas and fixing up the house to sell…time is not something I have much of right now but thankfully the website keeps ticking over and making us a living without too much work. I’m looking forward to getting Tibet and Everest Base Camp finished. Plus of course, there is so much more to blogging these days. Every post needs a video, hundreds of photos to edit, one post can take a week of my time. But it’s worth it.You have no idea ( or maybe you do!) how satisfying it is to have such a complete and authoritative travel guide, that helps so many people…that I made all by myself. Just keep on blogging.
Great read and beautiful pictures. Looking forward to reading more about Tibet.
Fabulous post thank you. Gearing up to travel further afield as a family and find reading your adventures inspiring. Looking forward to reading more.
I’m not sure I could tolerate the altitude, but it sounds like you were well acclimatized by the time you had to deal with 4 and 5 thousand meters. I know you’ve seen so much of the world that I’m looking forward to your in depth posts about this trip that wowed even you. We actually have a Tibetan community here in Philadelphia. Seeing just your photos here, I can’t imagine how they deal with the culture shock.
Well….because it had been maybe a month since Everest Base Camp, I’m not sure that we had any residual acclimatisation. But we did OK. We took diamox for the first few days but having to pee all the time in those terrible toilets made us stop. At the first 5000 + m pass I was very dizzy, but because bus…not for long before we dropped down a thousand m or so. It was OK. But then I’m pretty good with altitude. It’s Chef that struggles usually, but he was OK too.
This sounds like it has been amazing!
And your photos are just divine.
But I have missed you Aysun and I don’t like it when you go to places where I cannot reach you. So stay local and be a good girl.
And I LOVE that little video thing you’ve got going on in the sidebar. Very cool!
Missed you my friend xxx
Thnk you. It’s Mediavine so I can’t help you with that. But be ready for when you join Mediavine by making short videos for as many posts as you can. And I mean short. 30 seconds to 1 minute. I’m fed up. Not fun to be around today. I have the going home blues.
Hi Alyson! A great read.. some of my wonders have been calmed and we are very much looking forward to our time in Tibet.
Welcome back, I hope everyone is feeling better!
We’ll be in KTM the 2nd so if you still around, a coffee with you would be high on my list ☺️
Enjoy the decompression
We’ll be in Bali sorry! How was your hike?
So fantastic to read. Looking forward to the rest in more detail than is already here. Not sure I could do it all myself, but totally love reading, and traveling with you via my office chair and your blogs. I will seek out all those movies too. I would like to time travel and skip all the wayward, rickety, dodgy transport trips and icky toilets and just be in the temples and at the festivals etc. However, I also realise that the journey is not just the destination but often the best memories come from the hardships and the mishaps and all the quirky stuff in between and the satisfaction that you coped and survived it all. I’m in awe of you all.
Great to have you along for the ride. Loads more to come on Tibet. Once in China the trip was pretty luxury, but nothing to be done about those public toilets! You don’t need the full horror story about just how sick Boo was…uggg!