When you plan for your Tibet trip, definitely you would like to arrange the tour in your budget. As per my opinion, the most effective way to cut cost is by visiting Tibet in low season – in winter, you will get around 40% discount as compare to peak season. All the services are very cheap in winter season. Though visiting Tibet in April and May could be better than winter but the price raises are high than it is in low season.
There are many things where you can save a lot of money on your Tibet tour. For example- you can use cheaper domestic transportation as it will greatly reduce the price. If you enter and leave Tibet by train instead of flight then you will be able to save more than 50% of the domestic tour fee. In fact travelling to Lhasa via train has become more popular than flight nowadays. You can get huge reduction on cost and enjoy the beautiful scenery of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It takes 45 hours from Beijing to reach Lhasa.
Let us know how to save money after entering Tibet.
Tour guide– Though tour guide fee is just a minute part of overall tour cost but it could not be removed because as per Chinese law having a fully guided tour for tourists is compulsory. The English and Chinese speaking guides are cheap as compare to guides for other languages. So always prefer to hire an English speaking tour guide.
Vehicle– You can save a lot of money by hiring a tourist bus if you have more people, if less than 4 people you can hire land cruiser.
Accommodations– you can prefer to stay in cheap hotels such as two star hotel, quasi three star hotels or Tibetan Style Inn. In these hotels you will get 12-24 hour hot water supply and private bath room except places outside of Lhasa and Shigatse will not have shower but there will be hot water.
Meals-You can try local noodles and tea to save money as they are the cheapest food in Tibet. You have option to try all other different types of food in Lhasa and Shigatse.
Shopping– You can visit new bhakor market to save some money from shopping.
Travel in groups– Always prefer to travel in a group as it will help you to share the cost of travelling, eating and other things.