In this post, we will give you a selection of the most beloved Tibet tours, broken down by region. To learn more about group tours that suit your needs, or to customize your personal journey, ask us to connect you to a reliable Tibetan-owned travel agent here.
2026 Travel Advisory:
• No March closure: Our Lhasa contacts report that the usual annual Tibet Autonomous Region shutdown will not take place in 2026. Tibet is expected to remain open through winter and spring.
• Border update: The Kyirong Nepal–Tibet border reopened in late December 2025, with a temporary bridge.
• Visa update: The special Chinese Group Visa is no longer required for travel from Nepal to Tibet. You can use an individual visa issued from your home country. A Tibet travel permit is still required to be arranged by an official agency.
Need help? We’ll connect you – for free – with an official, Tibetan-owned agency we trust.
Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR)
For Tibetan people, the term “Tibet” refers to all of the lands on the vast Tibetan Plateau. The piece that the Chinese government calls the Tibetan Autonomous Region (T.A.R.) is about half of the Tibetan Plateau. (The Chinese also refer to the T.A.R. as “Tibet” and “Xizang.”) This is the region that the Chinese government most tightly restricts, and for which you need a permit to enter. It includes Lhasa, Mount Everest, Mt. Kailash, and most of the most famous and iconically Tibetan sights and experiences. To visit Tibet – that is, the Tibetan Autonomous Region – you must have a Tibet travel permit, a guide, and be on a “tour.” Keep in mind that your Tibet tour can be just you with a guide and driver on a private tour, or two or three friends or family traveling together.
See the top 5 most popular Tibet tours here >>
Kham/Amdo: No Permit Required
The Eastern half of the Tibetan Plateau is historically, ethnically and culturally Tibetan, but is not part of the “T.A.R.” and is therefor far less restricted or controlled. You don’t need a special permit to travel here, though some specific areas are off-limits or sometimes closed for political reasons. Although the non-T.A.R. areas of Kham and Amdo allow individual, backpacker-syle travel, we do not recommend it unless you speak Chinese and/or the local Tibetan dialects, and possibly not even then. These areas are not set up for western tourists the way that Nepal or India are — we generally recommend that you hire a guide and driver to travel in them.