Tibet Group Tour: the Best Way to Tibet Visit for Many Tourists

For anyone planning to visit Tibet, a group tour is often the best way to see the major highlights of the Tibetan plateau. Here at Tibet Vista, we specialize in providing the best Tibet group tours for our clients and have a wide range of itineraries that include such spectacular places as Everest Base Camp, Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar, Rongbuk monastery, Shigatse’s Tashilhunpo Monastery, the Gyantse Kumbum and Pelkor Chode Monastery, and the stunning sights and delights of Lhasa. Group tours are beneficial in a number of ways for our clients and there are good reasons. Let's find out together.

Is Backpacking or Independent Travel Available in Tibet?

Backpacking or independent travel was once the best and cheapest way to visit Tibet. However, this has not been permitted by the government for many years now, and there is no longer any ability to travel around Tibet without a guide and private vehicle.

Since these options are no longer available for the international tourists, and all tourists are now required to be part of an organized tour with a registered tour operator. This is the only way to obtain the Tibet Travel Permit and other permits and passes, which are required for all international travelers to Tibet. Tour operators also provide the guide, driver and private vehicle required to travel in Tibet. 

Our client Took a Meditation on the Roof of Mount Kailash

What is Tibet Group Tour?

A Tibet Group Tour is a tour of the Tibet Autonomous Region as part of a group of like-minded people that are planning on traveling in the same areas as you. In Tibet, there are two kinds of tours available: a private tour, which can be arranged for just you or for you and a group of family or friends; and the group tour, which is a join-in tour where you join a tour that has a preset itinerary and leaves on a pre-arranged date. You will be traveling in a group tour with others that have booked the same tour, and it is not possible to deviate from the assigned itinerary. With a private tour, you have the option to change the itinerary at any time before and during the tour, though this can often cost you more for the changes to be made. 

A Tibet group tour and private tour comparison.

Why You Should Join Small Group Tour with Tibet Vista

Private tours to Tibet are often considered to be expensive, and with the cost of the package as well as having to pay for a tour guide, driver, and private vehicle all by yourself, it can be an expensive option. Private tours are normally booked by families that are traveling with kids or by groups of friends that are traveling to Tibet together.

Group tours are more cost-effective for the solo traveler, as you get to share the cost of some of the more expensive costs of the tour, such as the tour guide, the driver, the private vehicle, gasoline costs, and even the tips for the guide and driver. These are shared between all the members of the tour group, which can greatly reduce the cost of the tour to something more affordable for the budget traveler.

Here at Tibet Vista, we offer the widest range of Group Tours in Tibet and give the best support package for our group tourists. Our professional team of advisors can help you decide which tour is right for you and explain in more details the sights you will get to see on each of the various tours. We can also help you with the other details of the tour outside the actual tour package, such as aiding with obtaining flight and train tickets and even advising on the best hotel options for you whilst in Lhasa and the surrounding areas. 

We also have a fixed departure guarantee, which means that, even if there are only two people booked on the tour, it is guaranteed to leave on time with no additional costs to yourself. This is the most cost-effective option for solo travelers and budget travelers, as it guarantees that your tour will go ahead.

Just sit back to enjoy a lifetime Tibet trip with Tibet Vista

Our professional tour guides are all registered Tibetan guides with years of experience in providing tour guide services to international tourists in Tibet, and have an extensive knowledge of the Tibetan plateau, the people, the culture, and the Tibetan Buddhist religion. They are easily able to advise you on things you should avoid whilst in Tibet and give you any information you need about the places you are going to visit.

We make it easier for you to book your tour with us, advising you of the best options for your tour based on what you are expecting to see and where you would like to go. We provide you will all the required travel documents for touring in Tibet, such as the Tibet travel Permit, the Alien’s Travel Permit, etc., and provide you with an authentic Tibetan experience, instead of a dull tour of sites without any explanation of what it is and why it is important in Tibetan culture.

Our tour vehicles are either four-wheel drive vans or small tour buses, depending on the numbers of people in the group. We also guarantee smaller groups on a group tour, with a maximum of only 10-12 people per group, giving you a better service from the tour guide.

Top 3 Tibet Group Tour for You, highly recommended

For those traveling to Tibet and looking for a group tour to join, we have three great tours that are most recommended for solo travelers to join, and that are guaranteed departures with as few as just two tourists.

8-day Lhasa to EBC Small Group Tour

For first-timers to Tibet, this is one of the best tours to take, as it allows you to acclimatize to the higher altitudes over the course of two days while touring the sights and sounds of Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. It is also one of the best tour itineraries to cover all the main highlights of Tibet in one short tour of just eight days.

This tour is not rushed, and you will get plenty of time to view the sights of Lhasa and Tibet and visit the best places and attractions of the region. Starting in Lhasa with the Potala Palace, Jokhang temple, and Sera and Drepung Monasteries, this tour then takes you across Lhasa to Gyantse, Shigatse, and Everest Base Camp, where you will get the best views of Everest in the world. Then it is back to Lhasa, crossing the vast Tibetan plateau and getting chance to see some of the world’s most stunning landscapes up close before catching your train or flight out of the region.

Everest Base Camp Group Tour

7-day Lhasa to Kathmandu Overland Tour via EBC

A great way to see the sights of the Tibetan plateau first hand, this seven-day tour takes you from the stunning capital city of Lhasa to the exotic capital of Nepal, Kathmandu. Taking the Sino-Nepal Friendship Highway across the plateau, you will stop to visit the Gyantse Kumbum, the Tashilhunpo Monastery, and the Rongbuk Monastery, before heading off to EBC to get your first view of the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest.

After spending the day at the base camp of Mount Everest, you will be driven to Gyirong Town, the last habitable town before you get to the border with Nepal. There you will stay overnight before traveling to Gyirong Port, the new overland border crossing between Nepal and China. Crossing the Resuo Bridge, you will enter Nepal and travel by public bus to Kathmandu, the exotic capital in the stunning Kathmandu valley.

Lhasa to Kathmandu Group Tour

15-days Kailash and Manasarovar Small Group Tour via EBC

For those with a little more time to spend on the plateau, you get the opportunity to visit not only the amazing sights of Lhasa, Gyantse, and Shigatse, as well as Everest Base Camp, but you also get to visit the most sacred mountain in the world. Mount Kailash, which lies in Ngari Prefecture in western Tibet, is deemed to be the most sacred mountain in the world according to four separate religions; Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Bon. Mount Kailash is the highest peak in the Gangdise Mountain Range of the Trans-Himalayas and stands tall above the rest of the mountains close by, its pyramid of black rock clearly visible for miles in all directions.

The most unique tour in Tibet, you will also get to make the trek around the famous and holy Mount Kailash kora, a route used for thousands of years by Buddhist and Hindu pilgrims. The kora route, which covers 52 kilometers and takes three days to trek, is the best trek in Tibet, and you get to stay in monastery guesthouses at high altitudes as you travel around the kora route.

Tens of thousands of tourists and pilgrims visit this most sacred of mountains every year, and while the route around the kora is arduous and tough, you can have the option of making the trip on horseback if you are not up to the task of trekking at such high altitudes. It is the most spiritual journey any pilgrim can take, and it is believed that completing the circumambulation around the mountain removes the sins of a lifetime.

To the south of Mount Kailash lies the other spectacular site of this tour, Lake Manasarovar. One of the Great Three holy lakes of Tibet, along with Lakes Yamdrok and Namtso near Lhasa, it is believed to be the place where Maya conceived Buddha, and Buddha is recorded to have visited the lake to meditate on multiple occasions.

One of the best tours to take in Tibet, this will leave you with a sense of spiritual awakening that will have you yearning to come back for more.

Mount Kailash Group Tour

How to book Tibet Group Tour with us

Booking a tour with us is one of the easiest things to do, and out professional advisors can help you make the decision on which tour best suits your needs.

Simply email us your enquiry and some details of what you are looking for, or chat to us through the message option on our website, and one of our advisors will get in touch with you within 24 hours to discuss your needs.

Once you have decided on which tour to take, our advisor will help you with the booking details and the tour contract will be sent to your email address. Simply sign and return it and your tour is booked. You only need to pay a small percentage of the total tour cost as your securing deposit, and once you forward to us the scanned copies of your passport and Chinese Entry Visa (which you can apply for at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in your home country), we can then make the applications for your Tibet Travel Permit and other permits and passes on your behalf, ready for your tour to Tibet.