Visit Tibet on a Budget

Do you want to visit Tibet on a budget?

Travelling to Tibet is never cheap and independent travel is never allowed. But you can visit Tibet on a Budget. When you have local information. Lots of local Tibetan travel agencies in Lhasa fail to provide in-depth information about Tibet tourism; This makes lots of travel agencies make lots of extra money with the advantage of this miss information. But please keep in your mind that even the lowest Tibet tour packages price could be costly.

With our years of experience as a tour operator and being a tour guide for more than two-decade. We think there is a way you can avoid paying a massive amount of money to the travel agencies. We believe we have some ideas for reducing the tour price and letting you have the opportunity to travel to Tibet at a comparatively lower cost.

If you’re looking for the most affordable tour in Tibet, join our Tibet group tour. We offer Tibet group tours for seven different tour routes in Tibet, and our trips are significantly more affordable than those of other tour operators.

Here are some tips to help you travel to Tibet on a budget.

Many travel agencies would charge you more than 800 RMB for the permit. In reality, the permit is free of cost. We offer a complimentary travel permit service for anyone joining us for Tenzin Travel & Tours services.

There is a wide range of hotel options to choose from. The most basic one is the dormitories in Lhasa and family guesthouses in other regions. The cost of the dormitories would not exceed 100 RMB, while the stay in the family guest house would be.

The most popular grade of Hotels is the three-star hotels. There are many famous Tibetan-owned three-star hotels in the old Lhasa district; the most popular among frequent visitors are Kyichu Hotel and Yak Hotel. The very reasonable prices for those three-star hotels range from 300 RMB to 280 RMB. If you would like to stay in a Tibetan hotel for a truly authentic Tibetan experience, I recommend choosing the House of Shambhala and Shambhala Palace. But the stay at Shambhala would come at a higher price than those three-star hotels.

If you are looking for hotels with better star grading, you can choose from the St. Regis to the Shangri-La Lhasa. But to my knowledge, better star grading doesn’t mean better service.

According to the Tibet Travel Regulations, it is mandatory for every international visitor traveling to Tibet to have a private tour guide and a private vehicle. Travelers can use public transport only in Lhasa. Additionally, the traveler must have a private car. You can identify tourist vehicles by their plate numbers. All the tour cabs have a third letter L, which means ‘Lvyou’ in Mandarin, and it means ‘to travel’. The local travel agency can add some extra value to the price per kilometer. The ideal cost for the minivan would be 1200 RMB per day, and vehicles with more seats would be even higher.

It would be brilliant to calculate based on the number of days. You can consider not using the L vehicle and ask the travel agency to use a local Taxi for transportation within Lhasa. Please note that the cab is not included on free days. If you are taking free days outside Lhasa, travelers need to understand the drivers.

The Tibetan Tour Guide plays a significant role in the effectiveness of the tour. According to the practice of many travel agencies, the tour guide is responsible for operating the trip. Those are not the proper practices. But many do. Almost all the English-speaking tour guides would cost you 600 RMB per day. Most agencies would ask you to pay more. Some travel agencies pay more to their tour guides and employ the best Tibetan guides in Tibet. Ideally, the cost of an excellent tour guide would be 600 RMB per day.

The best way to find an excellent tour guide is through recommendations from friends and family members who have already visited Tibet. Maybe they can refer you to an excellent guide. The pointer: inquire about a travel agency and book the tour with them, and ask them if you need a specific tour guide. In this way, you will have the best trip in Tibet.

Then, joining a group tour is a prevalent practice among international travelers. Many travel agencies offer group tours to Tibet. However, please note that you’ll see the maximum number of group members per group. Some make a big group of more than 12 members per group. The ideal group tours to join are those with a maximum of eight members, offered by Tenzin Travel.

1) Be cautious of tour operators based outside of Tibet that offer Tibet tours.

We often meet international visitors in Coffee shops in Lhasa. Many were not all happy about the tour organized by the travel company outside Tibet. There are many travel websites and travel agencies from outside offering tours to Tibet. Many of them have a desirable price. However, in reality, they are not physically present in Tibet. They would sell the group to an unprofessional, low-profile tour company in Lhasa. This is why you will not get what you have been promised. The nightmares are a very ill skilled tour guide and the hotel which does not guarantee you.

2) The poor skilled tour guide

Every year we would meet foreign travellers at some tourist attraction requesting me if it is OK to come with my group to the attraction. The reason is the guide would not know any things about the specific attraction and their guide could not even speak understandable English.

3) Please remember travellers needs to Understand the facilities in Tibet.

Every traveller needs to understand what kind of facilities there would be used clearly. Some regions of Tibet do not have a kind of facilities; you might think it should be. The best tour company in Tibet could offer you the options you can choose from. We often send the links to the Hotels and the picture of the cab and the guide. I usually make sure the clients have very proper connections with the guide before the tour. It is extra but very helpful when I introduce the guide and let the guide and client interact for some time before coming to Tibet.

4) Please remember that the cheaper tour doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better.

Many websites advise people to visit the travel agency offering a cheaper tour, as they are more likely to be local. However, my experience suggests the complete opposite. My experience is that local travel agencies offer very reasonable tour prices. Since they are located in Tibet, they would have a very good understanding of the local price. Some people are writing to me to that they met only the tour guide and the driver and didn’t get the quality of service as they were promised. The best is to find a local travel agency. Ask the travel agency if you would like to meet them on Skype, and ask them to show you a few places surrounding them. A genuine local travel agency would not mind showing you a bit of Tibet before you visit Tibet.

5) Don’t use any travel agency using Christian or Western personal names and claiming to be a Tibetan.

We do not have a culture of using Christian names, except for our Tibetan name. Tibetan tour operators would never use any name other than their birth name. If you find any travel agency using Christian names, they are not Tibetan, and they are most likely not located in Tibet.

If you have any questions or would like my suggestions, please don’t hesitate to let me know. Please don’t hesitate to write to me even if you’re not using my service. Write to me 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.