Traveling from Chengdu to Tibet?

[rschofield]

Hi guys, I was wondering if there was anybody here has made the trip to Tibet from Chengdu. There are  several of us wanting to go  but we will only have six days for the entire trip including travel, which can take up top 44 hours on the train. so I wanted to know if anyone knows a good tour company to go with to get the most out of the time we have  there.

thanks

[Rick in China]

Unless the rules have changed, you can’t take a train to tibet (or land transport of any sort) and need to fly with a tour group that can provide you a permit.. you also can’t leave the tour group from what I know, gotta stick to their itinerary. Foreigners are pretty…restricted…as far as Tibet goes.

[Paul]

You can, but everything has to arranged through a travel service. The Land of Snow (here[/url] is some recommendations from The Land of Snows, a blog blocked here on the mainland). Generally things that deviate from the standard tend to be more expensive. If you are here in Chengdu, a good place to go to is Holly Hostel as they have a lot of advertisements about traveling there and lots of pamphlets (at least, my Tibetan friend reccommended that I do that).

Is there a train that goes straight from Chengdu to Lhasa (such a feat would be a huge technical marvel)? I thought the train goes all through Qinghai.

My link doesn’t seem to work. So here is the link

http://www.thelandofsnows.com/travel-in-tibet/arranging-travel-to-tibet/

[Paul]

Yes you can, though everything must be arranged through a tour guide. Here[/url] is an excellent site for information (though it is blocked on the mainland). More custom itineraries generally cost much more money (I can’t say how much, but I don’t think taking the train is that custom; it’s not like you are biking there). If you are in Chengdu, I reccommend going to Holly Hostel for information as a lot of advertising is done there.

Is there actually a train from directly Chengdu to Lhasa (though such a feat would be a huge technological marvel)? I thought the train goes all the way through Qinghai.

The link doesn’t seem to work

[vannina]

Hello rschofield,

When are you planning to go?
If you want to take the train and you only have 6 days you will mostly stay in Lhasa because you usually need at least 2 days to get acclimatized even if you take the train there. If you want to go outside Lhasa you won’t have much time but I would suggest saving time with flying in and out of Lhasa.

Also, I am planning to go on a tour with a friend starting on the 13th of november for a 8 day tour. We will go there by train and fly out of Lhasa. PM me if you want more information.

[iraglassismyhero]

Hi rschofield,

Ok, so this is admittedly shameless plugging, but I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think it’d be helpful: my husband is Tibetan (I’m American) and he runs the Chengdu office of a large travel company based in Lhasa, 圣地. Because it’s a large company, they can do things that other travel agents can’t; we just spent the October holiday in Lhasa and had a great time–just my husband, our son, and me.

My husband is currently in Lhasa on business, but if you think you might be interested, you can contact one of his associates, Frank, at

187 0284 1788

Frank speaks good English and can put together a travel plan and give you a quote at no cost. Feel free to compare to other companies, but they work hard to give good deals. They’ve done tours in Tibet and in parts of China for small and large groups of foreigners, and feedback has been positive.

Hope this helps!

[roxana]

Interesting…I was discussing with a friend about that today. Iraglassismyher do your husband offers fixed tours or is it only at request? do they have a website where I can check? Going to Tibet is something that I would like to do and somehow disregarded when I read about all the restrictions. I assume that spring/summer may be a better time for me to travel there.

@Vannina, if you can share your notes after your return, that will be awesome!

[iraglassismyhero]

Roxana,

Unfortunately, there isn’t a website at the moment, as most clients are business clients. However, the company would like to do more tours that cater to small groups of foreigners, so there may be an English-language website in the future. All their tours are designed for the specific group of clients and can be tailored to their needs.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Cheers,

Diane

[rschofield]

Hi Diane,

We are a group of four English people interested in going to Tibet. If we gave you our dates would you be able to make an itinerary for us taking in the highlights of Tibet?

Our dates would from the 16th to the 24th of January including travel to and from Chengdu.

Thanks look forward to hearing from you,

Richard

 

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