Everything that I've been reading says that the only way to (legally) travel from Kathmandu to Lhasa is on an organized (overpriced) tour. Most of the tours I see are more than $400. But I also read that the governments might ease up on the tour thing and let individual travelers make the trip. Does anybody know about this?

Ideally I am wanting to fly to Delhi, go up to Nepal, then Lhasa, then take the train to Beijing. But if I have to pay $400 or more to get to Lhasa I think I will just fly to SE Asia and go overland to China.

I have heard it is insanely expensive to travel from the Nepali side. I have only ever done it coming from China (via Golmud- this was in 1996). This route was quite cheap. I arrived in the small town of Golmud in the early afternoon and was on a bus to Lhasa within a couple of hours, no permit, no hassle, nothing. This may have been a fluke, but at any rate, I know it is much easier from the Chinese side. Four hundred sounds about right coming from Nepal, and I believe I have heard even higher than that in the past.

I'm heading the same way in July '08. There's a guy here on the boards that has local knowledge and he runs a tour company from Kathmandu. nakulnepal is his screen name. His deal from Ktm to Lxa is about $350 USD. I'm probably gonna use his services. I'll post my comments afterwards for sure.

Hey everyone, my gf and I are planning on travelling this route in May-June of 2008 and have a bunch of questions. I did some research on this for a solo trip back in 2005, but didn't end up taking that route, and don't know if the info I gathered then is still valid.

Has anyone tried to get a Chinese visa with a Tibet permit before leaving home? (It would be at the Consulate-General in Toronto in my case, but any experiences you'd like to share are welcome.)

Would this make it any easier to travel independently, or does a lack of public transport from KTM-Lhasa and/or restrictions on travel outside of Lhasa mean that you're still effectively stuck with a tour?

From what I gather if you're travelling as a pair then it shouldn't be too much trouble to get a visa and permit that will allow you to exit Tibet into China and then travel onwards to SEA. Is this so?

Thanks for any advice you all might have!