Spending Christmas in Tibet on a Tibet Winter Tour

All around the western world, Christmas is a time of giving, a cherished time for family and friends, filled with love and peace, and for many a time to celebrate in the most expansive way possible. Christmas is a time celebrated in all Christian countries, and even in Tibet. Tibet winter tour is quite a special tour for the western travelers who are planned to celebrate the Christmas where there is least no number Christians.  While most of the plateau population is devoutly Buddhist. But there are a few remote places where Christianity has filtered into the culture. And even an entire village of devout Catholics in the Qamdo region, lying on the banks of the Lancang River.

Our clients at Potala Palace in Lhasa

While most of Tibet does not celebrate Christmas. But they do understand the importance of the celebration, and in most hotels in Tibet during the Christmas period. You can find decorations and Christmas trees, bedecked with tinsel and baubles, and crowned with a star. Many hotels and attraction places in Tibet will even provide a traditional Christmas Dinner for their guests on December 25. This is why the spending Christmas holidays in Tibet on your Tibet winter tour is one of the most memorable holidays of your life.

Why travel to Tibet at Christmas?

Unlike most of the western world, which celebrates Christmas as a major holiday, December is a low season for Tibetan tourism, and the fact that it is Christmas has little effect on the prices of a trip to Tibet. As the Tibet winter tour packages are the cheapest among other season tour packages.

While western holiday destination prices may double for the Christmas season. But Tibet still has the usual low prices of the winter months, making it a great place to travel to for Christmas. Winter is the low season for Tibetan tourism, and this often means lower prices on tours, hotels, flights, train tickets, and even on the price of the attractions. The Tibet winter tour is one of the best tours for the travelers.

Tibet Winter Tours by Explore Tibet

With fewer tourists traveling to the region, the hotels are often giving discounts on rooms, and removing the usual single room supplements in order to try and attract the few winter tourists that are brave enough to adventure to Tibet in the winter. Similarly, the low season can help you get cheaper flights to China, as it is also the low season there. Train Tickets are lower in winter than in summer, as demand in the summer inflates the price of the tickets.

Tours in Tibet are less expensive in the winter months too, with several deals available for the Tibet winter tour, and while the cost of most attractions is included in the price of the tour. This is also passed on to the tourists in the overall price reduction for a Tibet winter tour.

Tibetan Christmas Weather

Christmas weather in Tibet largely depends on where you are traveling within the region but is almost always pretty cold. In Lhasa, the temperatures can get low, to around 3-5 degrees during the day and as low as minus ten degrees at night, while in the west of Tibet, the area around Mount Everest can drop to as low as freezing even during the day, with nighttime temperatures of around minus fifteen degrees.

The advantage of the Christmas season in terms of weather is that it is almost always dry, with very little rain in any part of Tibet, and the skies are clear and bright, making the days warmer than they really are. The disadvantage is the intense wind that blows across the plateau from the west during the winter months, that can reduce the air temperature greatly, making you feel much colder, even in the bright sunshine.

Advantages of a Christmas Tour of Tibet

If you are thinking of traveling to Tibet in the winter, then you are in for a rare treat. With fewer tourists around, the attractions and monasteries are not crowded, and you can take your time exploring and discovering the stunning aspects of these awesome places.

The view of Potala Palace at sunrise

Touring around Lhasa in the winter is so much better than in the crowded summer months, and you have less chance of getting rained on. The Potala Palace is actually a much better sight in the winter, with a light frost covering its roofs and a little iciness to the air, making the photos crisper and clearer.

While the Jokhang Temple may be an amazing place to visit in Summer, the winter is when most Tibetan pilgrims make their journeys across the plateau to the most sacred temple in Tibet. The low season is when you will see more pilgrims prostrating in front of the temple, and performing the ritual kora around Barkhor Street, and this will give you a much better experience in understanding the Tibetan Buddhist culture.

While some of the places outside Lhasa may not be accessible, such as Lake Namtso, Mount Everest is still open for tourists, though the tent hotels and guesthouses have already packed up until spring. The base camp is a stunning sight in the winter months when covered in snow, and makes a much better photo, with the snowy beauty of the landscape and the vast mountain in the background.

Christmas Travel Tips

If you are thinking of traveling to Tibet in the winter months, then do not make the mistake of thinking that the fewer tourists will make getting the Tibet Travel permit much faster. The processing time is the same, whether you book in the busiest season or the slowest season. Since the processing of the permit can take around 15 to 20 days to complete, then it is still essential to book your trip in advance of your expected travel date, with more than enough time to process and receive the permits you require for your tour.

Tibetan Pilgrims in Bakhor street during the winter months

One of the disadvantages of traveling to Tibet in the winter low season months is the lack of accommodations in some areas. While Lhasa is usually fine, with plenty of hotels and guesthouses staying open throughout the winter for those winter tourists, though they may be few. However, in some of the more outlying areas, such as EBC, you may find that you have very limited options on where to stay. At EBC in the winter, the guesthouses at the base camp have packed up until spring, so your only option is the Rongbuk Monastery Guesthouse, with very basic facilities.

If you are looking for a white Christmas, then Tibet is one of the best places to find it. It may not snow much in Lhasa in December, but the surrounding mountains are often covered in snow throughout the winter, and many of the mountains of the Himalayas are snow mountains, covered with snow all year round. If you want to find snow on Christmas Day, then try Tibet for that white Christmas feeling.