Trips Includes
- Accommodation on double occupancy basis.
- Daily Breakfast at your hotel.
- All transfers and sightseeing by a private van or bus.
- Sightseeing admission fees.
- English speaking local Tibet guide.
- Tibet Travel Permit.
Trip Does Not Include
- International and internal airfare. The bill for Internal airfare is separate.
- Airport Taxes.
- Chinese visa fee. You will have to apply for a Chinese visa beforehand.
- Lunch and dinner except as indicated.
- Drinks, tips, and other expenses of personal nature.
- Travel Health Insurance.
- All extra expenses caused due to nature or unforeseen events.
- Excess baggage charges.
- Tipping and items of personal nature such as drinks, laundry, internet usage, etc.
Chinese visa and permits
The remaining validity of your passport must be a minimum of six months after your trip. Make sure you have enough blank visa pages for visa sticker, entry and departure seals.
Traveling via mainland China
Apply for the Chinese visa in your country and provide us a copy of the visa and photo page of the passport a minimum of 45 days before your trip date. For some good reason, DO NOT disclose your Tibet intention; otherwise, the visa procedure becomes tedious. We will obtain your Tibet entry permit at Lhasa and will ship it to your address (e.g., hotel) at the gateway city in China, such as Chengdu or Beijing. In either place, you need to arrive a minimum a day before your flight to Lhasa. Tibetan tourism does not allow shipping permits to the foreign address. You will need to present the original permit to get on the flight to Lhasa. Besides Entry Permit, there will be a few other permits that your Guide will be holding for you.
Traveling via Kathmandu, Nepal
If you are going to Tibet via Kathmandu, Nepal, you don’t need to do anything at your end. In this case, the Tibet Tourism regulation requires that we apply for your Chinese visa in Kathmandu. We will obtain the Visa Invitation Letter for you from the Tibetan Tourism Bureau at Lhasa and submit this document with your passport and completed visa application forms at the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu. Chinese embassy accepts visa applications only on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Regular processing takes three business days. While this sounds complicated, we will take care of all these processes, leaving you free for sightseeing. Please bring one passport size photo.
Accommodations and facilities
The accommodation will be three-star hotels, by local standard. Please, do not compare them with western standard. Hospitality and professionalism in Tibet are still underway, and so please, do not distinguish these hotels with western hotels. You will have a private bathroom with running hot and cold water. In case you experience any issues in your room, we request your patience, and please report the housekeeping or ask your guide for help.
Food
Tour cost includes breakfast only. Hotel restaurants offer Chinese, Tibetan, Indian, Nepali, and western-style breakfasts. There will be no lunch and dinners added. So you should allow US$ 10-12 per meal in regular tourist standard restaurants and a few dollars more if you eat in your hotels. We can arrange set meals for groups on your request. Restaurants in town offer wide ranges of Chinese, Tibetan, Nepali, and Indian and Western dishes. You may want to bring some extra foods like dry fruits, chocolates, energy bars, vitamin supplements, etc.
Transportation
Tibetan roads are now much improved, and so there is no need for 4WD vehicles for most of the trips in central Tibet. We provide air-conditioned van and buses for all transfers and tours. Drivers speak little or no English.
Guide
You will be accompanied by experienced and knowledgeable English speaking local Tibetan guides throughout the tour. Besides, leading you on sightseeing excursions, your guide helps you check in the hotel and buy admission tickets in the monasteries and deals with check posts and bureaucracies. Guide and driver are different persons.
Health Concerns
There is no mandatory vaccination required to travel to Tibet. But you may consider vaccination against rabies, and Hep A. Travelers with cardiac-pulmonary issues or any other medical conditions should consult their physician. The primary health consideration in Tibet is altitude-related illness or Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS). You may experience some mild symptoms initially, such as headache, lethargy, nausea, and sleeplessness, but these should go away within a few days.
You should start some physical exercises about several weeks before the trip that helps you keep fit and lessen the chance of getting altitude sickness. You should have a good sleep the night before you fly into Lhasa and take complete rest on the first day. It's also advisable to drink 3-4 liters of water daily and consume liquid food.
International/Internal Airfare
The trip does not include any airfares, but we can help you book the airfares. Because you need to pick up Tibet entry permit locally, you need to plan to arrive in Beijing or Chengdu a minimum one day before your flight to Lhasa. You can collect Tibet entry permit when you check in your hotel in Chengdu (or Beijing). There is no hotel included in Beijing or Chengdu, but it's easy to book an airport hotel online. Ask your travel advisor for a suggestion.
Booking and Cancellation
When you are sure you are traveling, please don't delay in booking. The internal flights are the key factor in determining whether your trip can be realized or not. We request a deposit of US$300 on land plus the cost of domestic airfares along with the complete trip application form and passport copies.
Balance Payment
Balance payment is due 90 days before your departure. Depending on the number of applicants, we may set an early payment date.
Cancellations
- Ninety days prior departure: Administrative fee US$ 150 per person.
- Sixty-Eighty-nine day's prior departure: US$ 250 or 25% of the land cost whichever is higher.
- Forty-five days to Fifty-nine days before departure: US$ 450 or 50% of the land cost whichever is higher.
- Thirty days to Forty-four days before departure: US$ 600 or 75% of the land cost whichever is higher.
- Less than Thirty days: 100%.
Travel Protection Plan
We plan and do our best to make your trip smooth and seamless. But there may be chances of unforeseen events and conditions such as illness, accident, inclement weather, and flight cancellation or missed connection or loss of baggage, etc. It may cause interruption or delay or total cancellation of your trip, putting your hard-earned travel investment in jeopardy. It’s also possible that you may need medical assistance, emergency evacuation, or medical transportation when you are traveling in remote areas. Far & High’s Tour cost does not cover any of these expenses or losses. So we strongly recommend you that you should protect yourself and your travel investment against those unfavorable conditions.
