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High Road to Tibet
14 days, Kathmandu to Kathmandu
Itinerary
Day 1Kathmandu
Arrive at any time.
There are no planned activities for today except for a welcome meeting in the early evening, followed by an optional dinner.
Your Welcome Moment: Welcome Moment - Meet Your CEO and Group
Your opportunity to meet your CEO and fellow travellers, and learn more about your tour. Opt to join the group for a local meal afterwards. Don't forget to see the notice in the lobby (or ask reception) for the official time and place to meet up with the group.
At this meeting, complete formalities for our Tibet entry permit.
Day 2Kathmandu
Take an orientation walk in Durbar Square before enjoying a free day to explore the fascinating city.
Opt to cycle around the city ring road to the ghats along the Bagmati River, stroll around the city's ancient streets, or get a cold drink at a rooftop garden restaurant, complete with traditional musicians.
Durbar Square Orientation Walk
Every orientation walk will be a little different, allowing our CEOs to show off their favourite bits of the square. Learn more about Durbar Square and Kathmandu and get a good introduction to Nepal.
Your Discover Moment
There's plenty to see and do in Kathmandu, and we wanted to make sure that you had some time to take it all in. Feel free to relax or try optional activities like visiting the Bodhnath Stupa, checking out the Swaymbhunath Temple, and enjoying the Pashupatinath ghats. Your CEO has more ideas if you need them. Just ask!
Optional Activities - Day 2 HideShow
Bagmati River Cycling
600NPR per personHop on a bike and ride along the Bagmati River. Enjoy the view.
Day 3Kathmandu/Lhasa
Take a morning flight to Lhasa. Enjoy an orientation walk around Barkhor Square and guided tour of the Potala Palace and Norbulingka, Jokhang Temple, and Sera Monastery.
With a relaxed pace to allow for the effects of altitude, explore this fantastic city on 'the roof of the world' over three days. Don't miss one of the evening debating sessions with the monks.
Barkhor Square Orientation Walk
Explore the square with your CEO and learn more about this city.
Days 4–6Lhasa
Spend three days exploring Lhasa, adjusting to the altitude, and learning more about the unique culture here.
Free Time
Spend time slowly exploring this fascinating city.
Potala Palace Tour
Enjoy a tour of Potala Palace, a magnificent structure and true architectural wonder built in the 1600s and steeped in history. This is where the Dalai Lamas would meditate, handle affairs of state, and eventually where their burial stupas remain. Check out the golden statues, three dimensional mandalas, ancient scriptures, and the devoted pilgrims who circle the palace day and night. This is truly a remarkable place.
Norbulingka Tour
Visit the Dalai Lama's Summer Palace, Norbulingka. Be sure to check out the beautiful flowers in the botanical garden.
Jokhang Temple Tour
Enjoy a tour of this beautiful temple, which has been called the spiritual heart of Tibet. Watch prostrating pilgrims circle the temple day and night, some of them traversing the extremes of the Tibetan landscape by foot to come here and celebrate their faith. Make a kora ("revolution" in Tibetan) of the Barkhor, the holiest devotional circuit, which surrounds the Jokhang and houses a market bazaar where people bargain for Buddha images, yak skulls with ruby eyes, woodcarvings, carpets, prayer wheels, and the odd goat's head.
Sera Monastery Tour
Visit the Sera Monastery and witness the monks engaged in lively debate, a philosophical practice they have held for hundreds of years.
Optional Activities - Days 4–6 HideShow
Evening Debate Session with Monks
55CNY per personWatch the monks engage in lively debate and pray.
Day 7Lhasa/Gyantse
Drive to Gyantse along beautiful Yamdrok Tso.
The drive to Gyantse is a spectacular one, crossing three passes over 5000m (16404ft) and skirting the shores of the beautiful turquoise lake, Yamdrok Tso.
Private Vehicle
Settle in and scan the scenery from the convenience of a private vehicle.
Day 8Gyantse/Xigazê
Visit the Pelkor Chode Monastery, Gyantse Kumbum, and Tashilunpo Monastery.
Take a short drive to Shigatse, Tibet's second-largest town, and the seat of the Panchen Lama, who ranks second in importance to the Dalai Lama.
Visit the Shigatse Bazaar. Stalls selling everything from slabs of yak butter to yak wool, prayer wheels, and rosaries, line the streets and Tibetans vie with each other to win a sale. Opt to join the pilgrims on their evening kora (Tibetan for "revolution") around the perimeter of the monastery.
Pelkor Chode Monastery and Gyantse Kumbum Visit
Enjoy a visit to these two significant places in Tibetan Buddhism. Pelkor Chode Monastery was founded in 1418 and is regarded as the centre of Gyantse. Gyantse Kumbum (meaning 100,000 images) is an 8 story structure containing a seemingly endless series of tiny chapels full of Buddhist images – Buddhas, demons, protectors, and saints.
Tashilhunpo Monastery Visit
This massive complex is visited daily by hundreds of devotees, armed with yak butter to feed the lamps, who prostrate themselves around the stupas or walk up to the chapel that houses the 26m-high (85ft), gold-plated statue of the Maitreya (future) Buddha.
Private Vehicle
Settle in and scan the scenery from the convenience of a private vehicle.
Optional Activities - Day 8 HideShow
Evening Kora
Join the pilgrims on their evening kora ("revolution" in Tibetan) around the perimeter of the monastery.
Day 9Xigazê/Sakya
Travel to Sakya and visit the Sakya Gompa.
It is a 4-5 hour trip to Sakya, the base of the once politically powerful Sakya sect of Tibetan Buddhism. It’s huge fortified walls are testament to the turbulent past of the region.
There is time in the late afternoon or early morning to explore the monastery and the ruins of north Sakya across the river.
Private Vehicle
Settle in and scan the scenery from the convenience of a private vehicle.
Optional Activities - Day 9 HideShow
Sakya Gompa Visit
45CNY per personThe Sakya Gompa is the seat of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism, founded in 1073. Its Mongolian architecture is unique and very different from what you'd find in Lhasa.
Day 10Sakya/Rongpu Si
Visit Rongbuk, the highest monastery in the world. Hike to Everest Base Camp for a closer view of this magnificent mountain.
Private Vehicle
Settle in and scan the scenery from the convenience of a private vehicle.
Your Local Living Moment: Rongbuk Monastery Guesthouse
Rongbuk is the highest monastery in the world and its guesthouse offers very basic accommodation, but the views that surround it more than compensate. Lie in bed and watch the moonlight illuminate the mountain.
Everest Viewpoint (North)
Take a short hike up to an Everest viewpoint about 2.2km away from Everest Basecamp. Even though the viewpoint isn't from the Basecamp, it doesn't mean the views will be any less breathtaking. Pack some water and your camera and get hiking for a tiny taste of what it's like to scale this magnificent mountain.
Day 11Rongpu Si/Nyalam
Drive through Lao Tingri and continue on to Nyalam. This town may be a small outpost, but it offers up views that are truly spectacular.
The road down to Nyalam is a rough one – but spectacular views adequately compensate.
Private Vehicle
Settle in and scan the scenery from the convenience of a private vehicle.
Day 12Nyalam/Panauti
Leave the Tibetan Plateau and travel to the border town of Zhangmu. After completing Chinese immigration, we continue on to Panauti for a community homestay.
Many families in Panauti Village have come together to establish a homestay program.
Depending on the location, the home offers lovely views across surrounding fields or a post from which to observe street activity. As well as getting to know a local family and exploring this lovely village, you will assist with preparing your evening meal - learning how to cook local dishes - and eat together with your host family.
Private Vehicle
Settle in and scan the scenery from the convenience of a private vehicle.
Border Crossing (Tibet - Nepal)
Ready for a little more ink in your passport? Grab your bags and get ready to check another country off your bucket list.
Your G for Good Moment: Panauti Homestay
Set up in 2013, the Panauti Community Homestay is ran by a group of women who started the initiative as a way of challenging the lack of opportunity often faced by women in rural areas. The project allows them to raise their social status and income while also providing an opportunity to share their culture and customs with travellers. By sending our groups to a homestay, G Adventures is increasing income for the community and assisting with small business opportunities in hospitality. Although simple, rooms are clean, comfortable and typical of the households in which you are staying.
Day 13Panauti/Kathmandu
Travel to Kathmandu. Visit the Sisterhood of Survivors Project, a grassroots organization. Meet some of the women and learn how to make Nepalese momos (dumplings) before enjoying an authentic local lunch.
We drive to Kathmandu by early afternoon.
Completing Nepal immigration: it is only 132kms (82mi) to Kathmandu, but it can be a slow trip – the first section of the road is narrow and winding as it continues down the ravine and is occasionally blocked by landslides.
Private Vehicle
Settle in and scan the scenery from the convenience of a private vehicle.
Your G for Good Moment: Sisterhood of Survivors Project
Visit this G Adventures-supported grassroots organization that is helping to support rehabilitated survivors of human-trafficking and other at-risk women. SASANE, our project partners, train once vulnerable women to be certified paralegals, so that they are the first point of contact for other women coming out of abuse. Where survivors lack a high school diploma, the minimum requirements to be a paralegal, Planeterra and G Adventures have helped catalyze a hospitality program for these women to be reintegrated into a dignified work environment. The survivors will teach you how to make momos (traditional dumplings) as well as a Nepali lunch. The program helps support SASANE's outreach and education programs across Nepal.
Meals included:
LunchDay 14Kathmandu
Depart any time.