What a Kailash tour includes

What does a Kailash Mansarovar tour include?

Permits, a licensed guide, a vehicle with driver, a bed for every night and the main entrance tickets. Flights, most meals, kora porters and insurance are usually extra.

The table sums up a typical 15-day group trip from Lhasa, based on the published inclusion lists of Explore Tibet and Tibet Vista. Each tour on this site has its own list on its tour page, so treat this as the usual pattern, not a promise.

Which permits and entrance tickets are included?

On a foreign-passport tour, all of them: the Tibet Travel Permit, the Alien's Travel Permit, the Military Area Entry Permit and the frontier papers, plus the lake and kora tickets.

Ngari is a border region, so a Kailash trip needs more paperwork than a Lhasa city break. Tibet Vista's permit guide lists the Tibet Travel Permit, the Alien's Travel Permit, the Military Area Entry Permit, a Foreign Affairs permit and a frontier pass. Only a registered agency can apply, and the Military Area permit needs three to four weeks of notice. You send scans of your passport and visa. The agency does the rest, and your guide carries the papers through the checkpoints.

Entrance tickets work the same way. The Manasarovar scenic area ticket and the kora entry are normally built into the tour and handled by the guide. A tour that lists them as extra is the exception, so read the excluded list. Permits also carry a timing risk: in 2026 Explore Tibet reported Kailash permits suspended from 20 October.

What hotels, guesthouses and meals are included?

Three-star hotels in Lhasa and Shigatse, then simple guesthouses in Saga, Darchen, at the lake and on the kora. Breakfast is usually included; most other meals are not.

The standard drops as you go west. Lhasa and Shigatse have proper hotels with heating and hot showers. From Saga onward you sleep in guesthouses: thin walls, and shared bathrooms in many places. At Dirapuk and Zutulpuk on the kora, a bed in a shared room is normal and toilets are basic.

Most tours include one night by the lake, usually at a guesthouse below Chiu Gompa. If that night is missing from an itinerary, ask why. A single room is often a supplement, and on the kora it may not be available at all.

Explore Tibet and Tibet Vista both list breakfast as included and most lunches and dinners as extra on their Kailash group tours. West of Shigatse the menu narrows to noodles, rice dishes and momos. Bring cash for meals, porters and tips: mobile payment is unreliable on the kora and foreign cards rarely work in Darchen.

Are porters, yaks and horses included for the kora?

Usually not. Porters, yaks and horses are hired in Darchen through your guide and paid for separately, together with the herder or horseman.

The kora takes three days over about 52 km (Tibet Vista kora guide), with the Dolma La at about 5,630 m on day two. Many visitors hand their main bag to a porter or a yak and carry only a daypack. A yak comes with its herder, and you pay for both. A horse with a horseman is the option for people who cannot walk the pass. There is no vehicle access between Dirapuk and Zutulpuk, so decide in Darchen.

Ask your guide to book a day ahead. Demand rises in the busy weeks around Saga Dawa, so say early if you want help on the trail.

What travel insurance do you need for Kailash?

A policy that names Tibet, covers trekking to at least 5,700 m and includes helicopter evacuation. Tours usually leave it to you.

Plenty of travel policies cap trekking altitude well below the Dolma La, or leave trekking out. Read the altitude limit in the policy wording, not the summary. Then check three more lines: medical evacuation by helicopter, repatriation, and cancellation cover for border or permit closures. Both hit Kailash trips in 2026, with the Kyirong flood in August and the kora closure in September.

The CDC altitude chapter is worth reading before you buy, and the altitude guide explains the risks on this route.

How does tipping work on a Kailash tour?

Tips go to the guide and the driver, and to porters, herders and horsemen on the kora. Agencies list them among the extras.

Tour operators such as Tibet Vista list tips outside the package price, and most travellers give them. The usual pattern: tip the guide and the driver separately, in cash, at the end of the trip. Tip kora porters and herders when the walk ends, at Zutulpuk or back in Darchen. In a group, one envelope from everyone keeps it simple.

Ask your agency for its suggested daily amount when you book, so you bring enough cash. A guide who handled an altitude problem or a road closure well has earned more than the suggestion.

What changes between a group and a private tour?

The pace and the company, not the route. Permits, guesthouses and the kora are the same; a private trip lets you set the schedule.

On a fixed group departure you share the vehicle, the guide and the dates. A Land Cruiser carries four guests. Larger groups ride in a minibus, which is slower at every stop. A private trip follows the same route with your own vehicle and guide, so you can add a rest day before the kora, stay longer at the lake or detour to the Guge kingdom ruins. It costs more per person, and the gap is widest for a solo traveller, who also loses the company on the Dolma La.

Our flagship Lhasa tour is a small-group trip, and its tour page lists what it includes. Fixed departures for 2027 already appear on operator calendars, such as Explore Tibet's from 5 April to 18 October 2027.

Small group, 15 days from Lhasa: acclimatisation days, a night at the lake and the full kora.

15-Day Kailash & Manasarovar Small Group · 15 days

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How do the route and the season change what you get?

The route sets the days, the paperwork and where you sleep. The season sets the crowds and the closure risk, and the peak weeks are the priciest.

A Lhasa tour includes acclimatisation days in Lhasa and Shigatse. The Nepal route via Simikot and Hilsa swaps those for flights and a helicopter hop, and reaches the lake within a few days. The MEA yatra for Indian citizens is a different package again, run by the government with its own list of what is covered (the yatra guide for Indians). Here is how the route types compare:

On the season: Tibet Vista names Saga Dawa, July and August, and late September as its peak windows, with April, May and late October quieter. The quiet end carries more risk. In 2026 snow closed the kora on 26 September, and a late date is worth little if the road shuts (the kora closure post). Pick a month with the best time guide.

Everest Base Camp is not part of these Kailash tours. The 9-day Everest Base Camp and Namtso tour runs from Lhasa as a separate trip, before or after.

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