The Long Way Up

Special Notes

Several things on this route follow the calendar, the altitude or a supplier's confirmation. Here they are, told straight.

• Bookings are not open — three things have to be real first. The Lhasa ground operator. Hotel rooms with in-room oxygen supply, on a specification we can verify. The Tibet permit service for this route. A fourth runs in parallel: the written health screening described below has to exist in final form. Until all of that is done we take no orders and no deposits. Tell us your dates and we will write to you on the day it opens.
• The Lhasa leg is outside the price — days nine to thirteen are written on this page so you can see the shape of the route, and that is all they are. They are not quoted, not confirmed and not sold as highlights. When the three items above are secured, that stretch moves into the inclusions and this page is updated.
• Oxygen is a prerequisite, not an upgrade — sleeping at 3,650 meters without in-room oxygen supply is outside what we sell on this route. That is a delivery standard, and it is the single item holding the plateau leg out of the price.
• Health screening before any order — four nights at 3,650 meters puts a real load on the heart and lungs. Before any order is taken, every guest completes a written screening covering cardiopulmonary history and any previous reaction to altitude. That form is being finalized, and no order is taken before it exists in final form.
• Departure window — October 8 to October 17, 2026, and nothing else this season. Two reasons. The plateau is not a route we sell from November through March, so the whole 15 days has to finish inside October: the latest departure that does is October 17. And no departure falls between October 1 and 7, the national holiday week, when crowds at the Terracotta Warriors peak. Requests in the closed window are declined at enquiry rather than held.
• Departure dates and Monday — dates are set so that day two never falls on a Monday, when the Forbidden City closes. Inside this window that affects the October 11 departure, and for that date days two and three change places.
• Tibet permit and the booking cutoff — every guest on this route needs a Tibet travel permit. It is pre-reviewed at least 15 days before departure and there is no expedited channel, so the booking cutoff is 20 days before departure. Inside 20 days of a date, we do not sell that date. One further point we will not paper over: whether a guest who enters China visa-free can obtain the permit has no written answer on file yet, and we will not confirm an order on the assumption that it can.
• Visa-free entry — most European passports currently enter China visa-free for stays days. UK, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand ones do too. Per order we check your 15 days plus any other days in China against that window. The current policy runs through December 31, 2026, and the whole October window sits inside it.
• US passports — the US is not on the 30-day visa-free list, and 15 days is longer than the ten-day visa-free transit policy allows, so a US guest would need a Chinese tourist or business visa. Whether this particular route is sold to US guests is under commercial review and has not been settled, so we are not quoting US enquiries at present. We would rather say that than take a booking we are not sure of.
• The pass to Yamdrok Lake — the road crosses a pass higher than Lhasa itself, and late-season conditions there are confirmed with the ground operator against your exact dates before that day is sold. We are not making a passability claim on this page.
• Rail times — both rail segments run on the current autumn schedule, which is checked against your exact dates before anything is charged. Your quote carries the train numbers, times and cabin class for your order.
• Confirmation and changes — the confirmation-time commitment and the change and refund terms are being finalized with our ground partners. Until they are settled, each quote states in writing its own confirmation deadline and its change and refund conditions. Note that a late date change on this route touches permit processing as well as trains and hotels.