Best Way to Visit Tibet - Fly in and Take the Train out

Take a flight to Tibet is really time-saving and tourists could acclimatize to the plateau environment soon after you land on Lhasa. But it is a little expensive especially for tourists planning a budget tour. Be frankly, the price of the air tickets might even be lower than the price of the hard berth on the train in the low season. Tourists planning a Tibet tour by air between November and February could always get preferable discount from the airlines due to the less demand.

There is no doubt that the train journey to Tibet from any domestic cities is really a long journey. Tourists join the Tibet train tours have to spend at least 24 hours (from Xining to Lhasa) to more than 50 hours (from Guangzhou to Lhasa). A large number of tourists have a misunderstanding on the Tibet trains - the trains to Lhasa allow passengers to get adapted to the high altitude. Actually, there is oxygen supply on the train when it arrives in Golmud, which means there is sufficient oxygen content in the air on the train througout the journey. According to tourists who've visited Tibet for many times and have tried both the railway transportation and air transportation, the best way to visit Tibet is fly in and take the train out.

The flights to Lhasa take about 1.5 - 5 hours (70 minutes from Kathmandu and 5 hours from Beijing). Tourists still have enough oxygen saved up in your body in the first hours after you landing on Lhasa. Mostly, different levels of high altitude sickness would attack visitors in the deep night. But most tourists will be fine if you go to your hotel for rest directly from the airport.

The trains to Lhasa take about 24 - 55 hours. Most passengers would feel fatigue after such a long journey if you can't sleep well. In addition, the side effects of taking the train would be with you in the first two days. Some passengers might even feel the bed in the hotel is shaking like the bed on the train in the first two nights.

As a professional Tibet tour operator, Tibet Tour could provide air/train tickets booking service for our clients. In the low season, we could help our clients to book the Tibet train tickets on the official website of the Ministry of Railways easily, and there would not be any extra charge. It is difficult to book a train ticket on the internet due to large demand. To ensure tourists' the Tibet train tickets, we always suggest our clients to confirm your trip and send us the necessary documents at least 20 days in advance. Also, there is certain service charge in the train tickets in the high season. It should be noted that the train tickets out of Lhasa is always easier to get no matter in the high season or the low season.