Kailash Mansarovar Tour via Lhasa

The first day of your Kailash Mansarovar tour via Lhasa will begin from Kathmandu. You will board a flight from Kathmandu International Airport to go to Tibet. The flight will take you to the Gonggar International Airport of Lhasa. It will be a short flight that will take less than 2 hours. Upon arrival, you will be transferred to your overnight stay hotel in Lhasa. You can spend the rest of the day just relaxing and adjusting to the high altitude of Tibet.

Today will be the first day of touring Tibet in your 11-day-long Kailash Mansarovar tour. We will spend the whole day sightseeing around Lhasa. You will explore many significant landmarks like the Jokhang Temple, Barkhor Street, and the Potala Palace.

The Jokhang Temple is a significant attraction point famous for its architecture. It is a three-storied temple with an open roof and beautiful chambers and chapels. Barkhor Street is another attraction point that lies near the Jokhang temple and is an important part of the Lhasa tour. You will also be able to visit the Potala Palace from the outside. The palace was used as the Dalai Lama’s winter palace. It is a 400-meter-tall building with sloping stone walls.

After you visit these significant points in Lhasa, you will return to your overnight stay location. Have a good meal and get a good night’s rest. This will mark the end of day two.

We will now commence our journey towards Lake Manasarovar and the Kailash Parikrama. The next stop on our journey will be the town of Shigatse or Xigaze. It is the capital of the Tsang province and the largest city after Lhasa in the Tibet Autonomous Region. After about 7 to 8 hours of road driving, you will reach Shigatse. You will find interesting locations like the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, which was built by the first Dalai Lama in 1447.

You will check into your hotel in Shigatse for your evening meals and sleep. This will be the end of day three.

Today, we will leave Shigatse, further aiming to reach our major destinations of the tour. We will leave Shigatse today to head to Saga. Saga in Tibetan means “lovely place” or “happy land”. Naturally, you can expect something awesome while touring this city. Saga is a significant stop on this tour as it joins the Dargye Tsanpo river pass and joins the Brahmaputra at Saga Chakzam.

You will head for the destination by road. The drive will be quite picturesque as the roads take you to the beautiful Tibetan plains. It will take around 9 hours to reach Saga. The town welcomes you at the intersection of three major roads. It lies in the midst of Lhatse in the East, Kerong in the South, and Kailash in the West.

Upon arrival, you will be transferred to your accommodation spot in Saga. This will mark the end of day four.

On the fifth day of our tour, we will head to our major destination of Lake Mansarovar. We will cross the Mayumla Pass and Prayang country and drive through a scenic route. There will be certain checkpoints to examine your permits during today’s journey. After the necessary examination is complete, we will have to change our vehicle and take a local bus under the Tibetan authority. It will be quite comfortable and quaint. The journey today will be great as you will be getting amazing views of the Kailash mountain during your trip today.

After around 8 hours of travel, you will finally reach the holy Mansarovar Lake. The lake will bless you with breathtaking views, with a body of freshwater surrounded by the ethereal Mount Kailash. You can find a separate place to isolate and meditate on your own. Then you are free to perform your religious rituals and dip in the lake. However, those rituals are preferred in the morning.

Later at night, you will be checking into a dormitory-style living space. This will be the overnight stay spot for the day.

Today, you can experience the holy lake in a full-fledged way. You will see the lake under the beautiful, bright sky, and the landscape will be beautiful. The lake lies between Mount Kailash and Gurla Mandhata and looks like a dream. People mostly perform their religious rituals and take a trip around the lake early in the morning. Perform your religious rituals and take a dip in the holy water. People believe you ought to dip thrice to wash off your sins in the water.

After your rituals, we will leave Lake Mansarovar to finish the latter half of the Kailash Parikrama. Kailash Parikrama is basically the trek around various significant places around Kailash. Our next step to complete this trek will be to head to Darchen. We will head to Darchen by road. It will be a short one-hour drive from Lake Mansarovar. Upon arrival, check into your overnight stay’s lodges and call it a day.

Today, we will officially begin our Kailash Parikrama journey. Firstly, we will begin by taking a short drive from Darchen to Yam Dwar, which will be the initial point of our trek. Yam Dwar is popularly known to be the entrance to Lord Shiva’s home in Kailash. Yam Dwar literally translates to the “gate of the god of death.” Myths believe that the god of death, Yam Raj, is the guard or protector of Kailash Parbat and Lord Shiva’s home at Yam Dwar. Hence, it's a major part of the Kailash Parikrama.

We will continue walking from Yam Dwar on foot. Our trip will be a steady ascent passing the bank of a glacier river. Deraphuk is a lovely spot, closer to Kailash and significantly colder than Darchen. The view of Kailash from here is incredibly exquisite, particularly at night. When the stars shine brightly beside the mountain, creating a mystical ambiance. After a long day of hiking, we will check into a local guest house with spectacular views to eat and recover.

We will cross one of the most significant parts of the trip today. Our hike will take us to the highest point of our tour. We will cross the Dolma La Pass at the height of 5,630 m today. After hours of hiking, you will reach the tip marked with a boulder. This boulder is a representation of the Goddess called Dolma or Tara and is commemorated with a prayer flag. It is physically the trek's highest point, but people also consider it spiritually the highest point of this tour.

From this height, we just have to go downhill. We will then head towards the bottom of the hill towards the Gauri Kunda. The journey will take us further to the Zutul Puk Gompa. The literal meaning of Zutul is a cave. The monastery or Gompa in the place is named after the cave of the revered saint Milarepa. Milarepa is believed to be an ancient saint who meditated in this cave. The roof of the gompa is believed to house his footprints still.

Zutulphuk will be the last point of today, and we will check into our accommodation here for our overnight stop.

We will finish the trekking part of our Kailash Mansarovar Tour via Lhasa. We will leave Zutulphuk early in the morning. Today’s walk will also include descents. We will pass through plain lands that are surrounded by many walls. Our route takes us through a gorge along a narrow valley heading west in Darchen. Toward the end of our trek, Darchen will surprise us with some exciting, dramatic vistas. We will exit from the valley into plain land that houses many walls made up of actual yak skulls. A total of 3 hours of trek will finally lead us to Darchen.

From Darchen, we will continue with our regular by-road travels. You will get back to Saga through a long road drive. Approximately 450 km worth of road driving will take us from Darchen to Sanga. We will transfer into our overnight accommodations at Saga and call it a day.

We will now aim to head back to Nepal from Tibet. For this, we will leave Saga today and head to Kerong to return to Kathmandu. It will be a memorable road trip. We will travel to spectacular passes along the Himalayas and get amazing mountain views. We will also cross the Brahmaputra River. It is a sacred river and a major water body flowing from the Tibetan Himalayas to India.

Upon arrival at Kerong, we will check into our hotel and call it a day.

Today will be the last day of our tour as we will leave Tibet and travel to Nepal. After a few hours of traveling, we will arrive at the Nepal-Tibet border in Rasuwagadhi. We will go through the requisite checks, customs, and documentation procedures. Following that, we will drive for an hour to Syabrubenshi. It offers a pleasant hilly temperate atmosphere and access to the Langtang trails.

We will then drive uphill to Dhunche, an important town in Rasuwa, Langtang. As we go, we will pass through numerous Himalayas, including the stunning Langtang Himal. We will drop towards the hills and pass through farmland settlements. Finally, after a few more hours of driving, we will arrive in Kathmandu, where we will check into our hotels and mark the end of this tour.