How to Get There?

Getting to Tibet can be either very easy or very difficult, according to the way you travel.

Get to Tibet by Air Plane

For typical tourists, the best way to get there is to take a plane. There are flights to Gongkar airport, 95km (59mi) from Lhasa, from Beijing, Chengdu(daily departure!), Chongqing, Xining, Chamdo, Xi'an, Zhongdian, and Kathmandu. Click on the following link to get the full flight timetable on a new page.

A Full Flight Timetable in and out of Lhasa

Chengdu is a very important hub city for flights going to and from Tibet. There are at least two flights form Chengdu to Lhasa EVERYDAY. If you want to go there from Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou, you have to make a stop in Chengdu. Anyway, Chengdu is the best place to see Giant Panda Bears, and the Ancient Sanxingdui Ruins, the "terro-cotta warriors No. 2", is also in Chengdu. So an overnight stay in Chengdu is a good idea.

The flights going to Lhasa from Chengdu are all very early, and the planes are all Airbus A340, very comfortable ones. The flight itself is a great experience. When you look out of the window about 20 minutes before landing, you will see a breath-taking and incredibly beautiful view of the snow-capped mountains!

On the way to Lhasa, the plane flew ever soooo closely to the snow capped mountains, so close that I could almost touch the peaks! Never have I seen so many mountain peaks at an altitude of over 7000 meters concentrated in a single location! Yes, Tibet has numerous of them! It was quite an exhilarating experience even if I only got to see it from the inside of the plane.

-- by Sharrie

Drive to Tibet in 4 Wheel Vehicles!

For those very adventurous people, driving a 4 wheel-drive vehicle to Tibet is an incredible choice that will be remembered for the rest of your life. This drive does require a lot of courage and determination.

You can drive to Tibet via 5 routes:

Sichuan (Chengdu) to Lhasa : 2159 kilometers to 2407 km
Yunnan (Kunming) to Lhasa: 2317 kilometers
Qinghai (Xining) to Lhasa: 1947 kilometers
Xinjiang (Yecheng) to Lhasa: 2743 kilometers
Kathmandu to Lhasa

Among the above routes, driving from Qinghai or Kathmandu ("friendship highway") is the easiest route. We do not recommend that you drive to Tibet using any of the other routes unless you are a ‘professional driver’ and an adventurer with all of the necessary gear and backup support.

Access Tibet Tour can operate 4 wheel driving tours to Tibet. If you would like to take a real adventure by driving all the way to the rooftop of the world, please click here to contact us .

Travel to Tibet by Train

A modern train runing on the Qinghai-Tibet railway going to Lhasa

First time for the Tibetans taking a train on the roof of the world

Now you can take a train to Tibet on the world's highest Qinghai-Tibet railway! By traveling on a train to Tibet, although it takes much longer time than by plane, you can enjoy the wonderful landscapes and unique experience of seeing thousands of miles of the ‘world’s roof’. landscapes and unique experience on the thousands miles of "world-roof".

>>> Click here to go to the Train to Tibet page.

An important tip: Buy some books about Tibet before you go!