A guide to arrange your trip to Tibet is a one-stop post for a complete guide for international tourists visiting Tibet. Here, you will find all the essential information required for planning your trip to Tibet.
We hope it will make your travel planning more accessible and encourage many travellers to visit Tibet.
Visiting Tibet is different.
For sure, Tibet offers you a unique landscape, culture, and life-altering experiences. Everyone visiting Tibet returns as a different, spiritually elevated person.
Yet visiting Tibet comes with its hiccups, unlike visiting elsewhere in China and any other region of the World. Tibet has its travel regulations. Those regulations are essential for preserving the futile ecological balance of plateau, generating employment for its people and its regional sensitive.
Tibet Travel Regulation
The single primary point of the Tibet travel regulation is no international travelers can travel independently in Tibet. Your trip to Tibet has to be a guided tour. Hence the following requirement emerges for visiting Tibet.
Your trip to Tibet has to be arranged with a local Travel agency in Tibet. This travel agency is responsible for hiring you a tour guide, private vehicle and making Tibet Travel Permits.
Read More about the Tibet Travel Regulations here.
Tibet Travel Permit
The Tibet Travel Permit is a mandatory travel permit required for all foreign tourists visiting Tibet. The Tibet Tourism Bureau in Lhasa issues this permit. This permit is only obtainable in Lhasa through a local Tibetan travel agency.
You cannot obtain this permit from any Chinese Embassy or Government agencies in any other Chinese provinces. You will need this permit to enter Tibet. Therefore, your travel agency in Lhasa can apply it on your behalf.
Chinese Free Visa Policy
As of 2025, there are over 61 countries with a free visa policy in China. Citizens of those countries do not require a Visa to Travel to Tibet. If you are a citizen of one of these countries, you will only need to send copies of your passport to your travel agency in Tibet for the application process for your Tibet travel permit.
The free visa policy is valid for both travel routes to Tibet, whether via other cities in China or traveling from Nepal to Tibet.
Chinese Visa
The Chinese Visa required for visiting Tibet can differ depending on your travel route to Tibet.
You will need to obtain a regular Chinese Visa if you are traveling to Tibet from other cities in China or from Nepal to Tibet. Previously, you could come to Tibet from Chinese Cities with a regular visa. However, regular visas and free visas are now available for travel from Nepal to Tibet. Suppose you are applying for a visa for the sole purpose of visiting Tibet. It’s best not to mention Tibet as your travel destination on visa appilcation.
Could you please write Tibet as your travel destination? The embassy requires you to submit the Tibet travel permit to apply for your visa. However, we will obtain the license only after receiving the visa. To avoid the “egg first or Chicken first” confusion loop. It is recommended to apply for a visa without mentioning Tibet.
You can read more about the Chinese Visa from this link.
Chinese Group Visa
Previously, only a group visa can take you from nepal to Tibet, either by flight or overland journey. Now, this rule for mandatory group visas is not valid in the year 2025. You can enter Tibet from Nepal on a free visa policy, an Individual visa, and a Chinese Group Visa.
Whether you are coming to Tibet from Nepal or another route, if you are in a big group, you can apply for a Chinese Group Visa to travel to Tibet. The primary reason why it is instructed in all the Tibet travel information websites, not to mention your plan to visit Tibet, is that if the staff in the embassy learn about your plan to visit Tibet, they will ask you to get a visa invitation from the Tibet tourism bureau. This visa invitation is only applicable for groups with more than five passengers.
This group visa is only good if all the group members are in a fixed group plan, and no need to alter the tour plan at all. Like if you are in a group of 20 people traveling to Tibet only for Kailash, and you are all leaving back to Na case, each traveler’s safe time is as the tour leader would work on the group visa while others enjoy their time. In such case, each travel safe time as the tour leader would work on group visa while other enjoy they stay in Nepal.
Besides saving you from the hassle of applying for the visa. A Chinese group visa is not a very good idea.
The following are a few reasons why a group visa is not a good idea.
1) The visa invitation will be addressed only to the Chinese embassy in the capital city of your country. Hence, you will have to go to the capital city of your country. The Chinese consulate is located in a smaller town, as cities will not accept it.
2) The visa is issued on two separate pieces of paper, one for entry into China and one for departure from China. There is a greater chance of losing it.
3) With a Chinese Group Visa, all group members must enter and leave at the same time. There is no room for making changes in the tour plan at all.
4) With our 25 years of experience in operating tours in Tibet. We have only a successful group visa from Hungary, besides Nepal. From the rest of the world, we often receive rejections for the group visa due to its complex technicalities.
You can read More about the Chinese Group Visa from this link.
Finding a local Travel agency in Tibet.
The travel regulations for visiting Tibet also dictate the requirement of a local Tibetan travel agency in Tibet to arrange and organize your trip to Tibet. They are also responsible for obtaining your Tibet travel permit before you arrive in Tibet and providing you with a step-by-step guide to make your dream trips to Tibet a reality, not a nightmare.
Since you are reading this post, you have already discovered a highly experienced travel agency with a history spanning over two decades. Yet there are many good travel agencies in Lhasa. We recommend checking the website of Tibet Ecotravel Collective. All the travel agency lists are compiled by Tibetan tourism professionals, specifically native travel agencies.
Tenzin Travel is one of the greatest local Tibetan travel agencies in Tibet. Since you are already on our website, do let us know your plan, and we can help organize everything in Tibet for your pleasant travel in Tibet.
Engagement with your Travel agency in Lhasa
It is very convenient to communicate with the Tibetan travel agency in Lhasa. The most salesperson has a perfect command of English.
Email would be the prime mode of communication with your travel agency in Tibet. If you would choose to download and use WeChat, that y would be even more convenient than relying on email. We highly recommend you in using it for making a huge difference in planning your trip to Tibet.
We want to recommend you ask them a lot of questions. Also, read a lot of posts and ask loads of questions to them, some times what seems obvious isn’t to you and vice versa. Asking them lots of questions helps peel the layers for them give you the much-required information.
Hiring a tour guide
Besides you and the travel agency, the tour guide is the third most important person on your journey to Tibet. The ethics and professionalism of the tour guide hold a very significant part in the tour’s success. The more adventurous and remote region your journey takes, the more dependent you and your group members are on the tour guide.
So it is highly recommended you have your friends recommend you are the tour guide. Once you book the travel agency tour, you can ask them to hire that particular tour guide for the journey.
Getting to Tibet
Getting to Tibet is another important point to know when arranging your trip to Tibet. There are two primary gateways to get to Tibet. One is from other regions or cities of China, and the other is traveling to Tibet from Nepal. The permit and Visa situation will differ base on your travel route to Tibet. So it is of utmost importance to know the pros and cons of choosing a particular travel route.
Travel to Tibet from other cities of China
Traveling from other cities of China to Tibet is very convenient and easy. Here you will have more transportation options. You can choose from Train, flight and overland journey to Lhasa.
Chinese Visa for traveling to Tibet from China
You can use any preexisting Chinese visa you may have on your passport to get to Lhasa for this route. If you don’t have one, you can get a Chinese tourist visa from the Chinese Embassy or consulate in your region.
When applying for a tourist visa, it is best not to mention Tibet as your travel destination. If you do, you will be asked to submit the visa invitation from the Tibet tourism bureau. With this invitation, there is a minimum requirement of four people.
With this invitation, You can only apply for a visa at the Chinese embassy, not the consulate. For this, you may end going to the capital city of your residential country.
With this invitation, you will only get a China group visa. It is a visa on a piece of paper. Here it is unrenewable, and all the group member listed has to enter and leave China at the same time from the same port.
Below we will discuss permit policy based on the mode of your transportation.
Tibet travel permit policy for taking a flight to Lhasa
There are daily flights to Lhasa from all the major cities in China. Compared to all the cities of China, Chengdu has the most number of daily flights to Lhasa.
For those how are taking flights from other parts of China, you need to have the original Tibet travel permit in your hand while boarding the flight to Lhasa.
We can either help send the permit to your hotel in any city in China or arrange for someone to deliver the permit at the Chengdu airport before you board the flight to Lhasa.
Tibet travel permit policy for taking a train to Lhasa
Traveling to Tibet has become easy after the completion of the Qinghai-Lhasa railways line. Now travelers can choose to take the train from any part of China to Lhasa.
Taking the train to Tibet is not only economical, but it also takes you through an incredible region of the plateau where you wouldn’t arrive otherwise. Many experts refused the idea of taking the train to help acclimatize Tibet’s elevation as the train compartments are pressurized.
Here you will only need to have a copy of your permit while boarding the train to Lhasa. We will send you the permit’s scan photo, and you will have to make a printout.
If you are taking the train from Chongqing to Lhasa, you will need the flight section’s original permit. We can send the permit to your hotel, or you can change the departure city to somewhere else.
Tibet travel permit policy for the overland journey to Lhasa
It is sporadic and expensive for international travelers to take an overland journey to Tibet. You can travel overland from any province of China or Nepal, and You can also bring your RV or bike to Tibet.
Yet, if you are coming overland to Tibet, we will have to send your tour guide to meet you at the Tibet autonomous region’s border. He will have the Travel permit with him.
Traveling to Tibet from Nepal
Nepal is the only international destination where you can travel directly to Tibet. It is a trendy gateway to reach Tibet. But traveling to Tibet from Nepal comes with its drawbacks.
Traveling on this route involves a different permit situation compared to traveling to Tibet from China. We can make your Tibet travel permit only with your passport. You will have to send a copy of your passport to obtain the Tibet travel permit. Your tour guide will have the Tibet Travel Permit with them and will assist you in checking in with China Customs.
Previously, it was mandatory to obtain a Chinese group visa from the Chinese Embassy in Nepal to travel directly to Tibet. However, as of this year (see Tibet travel update). It is not compulsory to get a Group visa. You can access Tibet via Nepal under a free visa policy, individual tourist visas, and group visas.
Read more about traveling to Tibet from Nepal here.
Conclusion of Guide to arrange your trip to Tibet
We hope this post on planning your trip to Tibet will help you with comprehensive information for your trip. Although we attempted to include all the information, we recognize that we missed many details. This is to make the post easier to read and understand.
As you read this post, we invite you to contact us for a step-by-step guide when booking your Tibet tour with us.
If you still have any questions about traveling to Tibet. We will be more than happy to help you with the correct information. Please do write to us at info@itibettravel.com.
Tenzin Travel is the best Tibetan Travel agency in Tibet. Our agency is one of Tibet’s most experienced tour operators, with over 20 years in the industry. Founded by a local Tibetan family with decades of expertise as guides, managers, and route planners. We craft personalized itineraries for every traveler. Our agency is the highest-rated and most recommended Tibet travel agency on TripAdvisor, Google, and Lonely Planet.
We can make holistic arrangements for your trip to Tibet. Including a Tibet Travel Permit, a Tibetan tour guide, flight tickets, train tickets, vehicle arrangements, and hotel bookings in Tibet.
Our Lhasa office is just steps from Barkhor Square. All our Tibetan team ensures deep cultural, linguistic, and religious insights, setting us apart from other agencies.
Beyond tourism, we support Tibetan communities by donating a portion of each tour to local projects. Your travel to Tibet is about more than profit—it’s about the opportunity for us to give back.
