Nepal Tibet 9 Days Tour - 9 Days

Upon your arrival at the Kathmandu Airport, you will be greeted by one of the representatives from Himalayan Trekkers. Then he will transfer you to the designated hotel probably around the Thamel. After hotel check-in formalities, you will have time to rest and freshen up before we have a brief chat about this Nepal Tibet Tour. 

In case of early arrival, we will collect your passports, signatures, and necessary documents for the Chinese Group Visa applications after you check into your accommodation. But, if your arrival is late, we will pick up those documents on the following day. It takes three business/working days to acquire the visa. 
Then depending upon the remaining time,

We will take you for a stroll in Thamel, the main commercial neighborhood in Kathmandu. Thamel is renowned for its winding lanes lined with a variety of shops and street sellers. Hotels, eateries, bars, clubs, travel agencies, grocers, jewelry stores, curio shops, and more may be found there. Everything and anything can be found here.

Note: Also, if your arrival is in the morning or before noon, and you have no jet lag, then we can visit Boudhanath Stupa and Pashupatinath Temple. If not visited today, we will cover these sites in the upcoming days. 

Following a warm and delicious breakfast at the hotel, we will lead our journey toward another big tourist destination called Pokhara. Pokhara is the second biggest city in the country in terms of geography as well as tourism after Kathmandu due to its reputation as the "city of mountains and beautiful lakes”. 

As we cross the ahead of Thankot in Kathmandu, we can immediately feel the difference. The environment becomes much more peaceful, the views begin to widen and nature seems lively. We drive for around 7 hours to reach Pokhara city along the Prithivi Highway and the gushing Trishuli River down the road. We will pass by many beautiful terraced fields, small settlements, and lush hill views. Few stops for tea, lunch, & photography breaks are also there in this long scenic driving journey. If the weather is clear you can see the Ganesh Himal, Langtang Lirung, Manaslu, and Annapurna as soon as you start going down from Kathmandu.

Once we reach Pokhara, we will check in at our designated hotel accommodation and rest for a bit. In the evening, probably during the time of sunset, we will go for the boat ride in Phewa Lake and take in the view of the mountain shadow on the surface of Phewa Lake along with the sunset view. We will visit the Tal Barahi Temple riding the boat as the temple is located in the middle of the lake. After we visit, pray, and look at the views from Temple Island, we ride back to where we started. 

Then later, you can take a relaxing evening walk on the lakeside and admire the beauty nature has created. We return to the hotel for the night. 

After an early morning call, we will drive for 30 minutes to Sarangkot Hill station to observe the sunrise view and the Himalayan views. Sarangkot is one of the best hill stations in the region for the sunrise, the Himalayas as well as Pokhara city views. Once we get infused with the promising views, we return to our hotel and have a hearty breakfast. 

The remainder of the day today in Pokhara will be spent exploring the important natural, cultural, and historical sites of the city. We start off with some of the most visited sites there such as Davis Falls which was named to honor a young swiss woman who drowned there. It is called Patale Chhango in Nepali which means underworld’s waterfall. Then we will visit the Gupteshwor Mahadev Cave which is dedicated to Lord Shiva and believed to be the longest cave in the country. The view of Davis fall coming down from the other side. 

A 5 minutes walk from the Gupteshwor cave is the Tibetan refugee camp where you can see Tibetan refugees doing different kinds of work for livelihood such as making carpets, making jewelry with semi-precious stones, and selling things to tourists. After spending some time understanding Tibet and its political conditions in the area we head towards the Bindabasani temple and the Seti River gorge.

We will return to the hotel and enjoy the evening around the lakeside. 

We leave Pokhara after breakfast and hit on the same road to return to Kathmandu. As we drive back via the same route, we will again be offered the same scenic landscapes, settlements, and terraced farms. Once we enter the Kathmandu Valley and drive past Kalanki, we will visit the Swoyambhunath Stupa on our way to the hotel. Swoyambhunath Stupa is one of the oldest sacred sites in the country and is often referred to as the “monkey temple” because the monkeys have lived here forever and the number is no joke. 

We climb to the stupa from the western side but you can also climb the 365-step stone staircase that is on the other side of the stupa. Once we reach the top, the vast views of the Kathmandu valley are stunning from up here. The whitewashed dome dominating the sky with its giant Buddha eyes surrounded by many small monuments and temples of many other deities is visible from every other corner of the city as it is located on a hilltop.

After discovering the sacred site for both Buddhists and Hindus, we return to the parking area, hop onto our vehicle and drive to the hotel. 

Note: One of our representatives will collect your passports and visas for Tibet today.

If the passports and visas were not able to get collected yesterday, we collect them today as soon as the Chinese Embassy is opened.

We will spend the morning visiting Boudhanath Stupa and Pashupatinath Temple if we did not visit them on the first day. But, if we have explored those sites already, we will visit one of the three Durbar Squares in the Valley.  The three durbar squares in this medieval valley are Kathmandu Durbar Square, Patan Durbar Square, and Bhaktapur Durbar Square; each of them has similar yet different historical, cultural, art, and architectural values. 

Then, we transfer to the airport in the afternoon for the scenic flight to Lhasa. The plane flies over the Himalayan ranges of both Nepal and Tibet and you will be able to get views of some of the highest on the earth such as Everest, Cho Oyu, Kailash, etc. 

You will meet our Tibetan representative at the Gonggar Airport. Then you will be transferred to the designated hotel in the heart of Lhasa town after around an hour’s drive from the airport. After check-in formalities, you can freshen up and rest for a bit. 

In the evening, we will stroll around the famous Barkhor Street which is also known as the “holy path” among Tibetans. We can also visit the Jokhang Temple, which is the oldest temple in the city. Jokhang was built by the king Songtsen Gampo who at that time conquered the whole of Tibet to reside the life-size statue of 12-year-old Jowa Sakyamuni, who is the most adored idol in the entire Tibetan region brought by his Chinese wife Wencheng Princess. 

This sacred monastery is valued very much because of its significant contribution to the growth of Buddhism in that country. The Jokhang Temple is surrounded by Barkhor Street full of authentic Tibetan shops, and eateries. We can first explore the temple or the street and get back to the hotel for the night.

We will spend our second day in Lhasa exploring the most prominent and famous sites of the town. 

We will first visit the grandiose Potala Palace that still commands the Lhasa skyline. Listed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994, the palace was built by King Songtsen Gampo in the 7th century. The palace complex is world known for its architectural splendor, attractiveness, and significant collections of priceless artwork. From the 17th century, Potala resided in the Dalai Lamas in winter, their administration, and places of worship. 

The Red Palace and White Palace's magnificent interiors are rich with fine Thangkas, numerous Buddha statues, vivid wall murals, and other works of Buddhist art, which you can discover by ascending their holy steps.

After being satisfied with the Potala exploration, we will drive to Norbulingka Palace, known as the summer residence of the Dalai Lamas. The palace consists of 374 rooms and the palace complex also has the largest man-made garden in the country named Norbulingka Park which translated to the “Jewel/treasure Park”. The lush vegetation, refreshing ponds, and cozy palaces make Norbulingka the ideal destination for a summer getaway. 

We will also visit Drepung Monastery after exploring Norbulingka, which was built by Chojey Tashi Palden in the 14th Century. Drepung is the largest among the three biggest Gelugpa sect monasteries and is one of the holiest monasteries in the country and was known as the mother of monasteries. It has four departments, of which Loseling, or "The Hermitage of the Radiant Mind," was the largest, housing more than three-quarters of Drepung's ten to fifteen thousand monks. Now it is one of Tibet’s premier monastic educational institutions. We end our day in Drepung and return to the hotel. 

Tibet is not only known for its fascinating culture. The country has some breathtaking natural splendors too. So, we will go today to the lovely Namtso Lake, which is located about 220 kilometers from Lhasa. Namtso Lake is the second-largest and one of the four major holy lakes in Tibet. It is also the world’s highest located saline water lake located at 4718 meters which is why the lake is also called the “Heavenly Lake” or “Sky Lake”. The lake is surrounded by Nyechen Tanglha Mountain ranges which are covered with snow all the time even in summers. 

We leave Lhasa early in the morning and start our scenic drive toward Namtso Lake. Along the journey, we will enjoy the view of the snow-capped Nyenchen Thanglha Mountain Ranges, as well as a large number of nomads and their tents, which are crowded with grazing yaks and sheep on the lush grassland during summertime. We will come across the 5,190-meter-high Legan La Pass which rewards us with an amazing view of the Sky-Road Railway against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains and the breathtaking panorama of Namtso Lake.

We explore the lake for an ample amount of time and after exploring it to the fullest, we drive back to Lhasa for the night.

Today we will explore the most beautiful monastery in the country, Sera Monastery. One of the three Gelugpa Sect Monasteries along with Drepung and Ganden was built in 1419 and housed more than 5,000 monks and five monastic colleges in its heyday. The name Sera means wild rose and was given to the monastery because it sits in a northern suburb of Lhasa, where wild roses are abundantly growing at a height of around 3700 meters above sea level. One of the most interesting parts of this Sera Monastery sightseeing is seeing the monks doing the monastic/Buddhism debates in the courtyard. 

After the sightseeing in the Sera ends, we will visit the local bazaar and unvisited nearby places in the town. The remainder of the day is on leisure. You can rest, and explore Barkhor Street to purchase some authentic Tibetan goods to take home. 

After breakfast, you will be transferred to the airport for your scheduled flight to mainland China or Nepal. There are a couple of flights from Lhasa to a couple of cities in Mainland China such as Chengdu, Guangzhou, and Beijing from where you can take the connecting flight to your home country or onward destination. Also, you can opt. to fly to Kathmandu after the trip ends in Lhasa. However, if the plan is made before the trip, it will be more fruitful and cost-effective. 

In case you fly back to Kathmandu, you will arrive in Kathmandu around noon. As a result, you can catch the late noon or evening flight to your onward destination from Kathmandu. 

However, if you want to spend overnight in Kathmandu, we can customize it at an additional cost and prior information.