10-DAY TIBET MOTORCYCLE TOUR

Tibet is arguably one of the most mysterious and beautiful places in the world, and this 10-day tour is our best-of route through it: stunning Tibetan landscapes, the most revered Buddhist sites in Lhasa, and the iconic Mt. Everest itself. No other tour in our catalog rides to the base of the tallest mountain on Earth. Everest — the name means "the top of the head of the sky" — is the highest peak of the Himalayas, and on day six of this itinerary you ascend Gyawu-La Pass for breathtaking views of Everest and its neighboring peaks, visit Rongbuk Monastery, and ride to Everest Base Camp. That single day is the reason most riders book this tour; the other nine are the reason they leave talking about the whole country.

What makes Tibet different from every road trip you have done at home is altitude, and we build the tour around it rather than pretending it is not there. Lhasa, where you arrive and acclimatize, already sits at 3,650 meters. From there the route steps up gradually — Shigatse at 3,800 meters, Tingri and Old Tingri at 4,300 meters, Damxung at 4,200 meters — before descending back to Lhasa. The first day is spent acclimatizing to the high altitude and exploring the city at your leisure, and we ask every rider to follow safety guidelines and consult a medical professional about high-altitude travel before joining. Three full days in Lhasa before the first riding day is not padding; it is what makes the 4,300-meter days later in the week feel like riding instead of suffering.

The reward for that patience is a landscape list that reads like a highlights reel of Asia: the sacred Yamdrok Lake and the Karola Glacier on the ride out of Lhasa, the pristine open country of the Tibetan Plateau, hot springs at Yangpachen, and Namtso Lake — reported by Chinese National Geographic magazine in 2005 as one of the most beautiful lakes in China — as the closing act on day nine. Between the lakes and the glaciers sit the monasteries: Jokhang Temple and Sera Monastery in Lhasa, Tashilhunpo in Shigatse, Rongbuk below Everest. A journey through Tibetan scenery that is enhanced at every stage by visits to some of Tibet's most revered Buddhist locations — that combination is why we say this adventure will stay with you for years to come.

We publish a terrain profile for every tour so you can match the route to your skills before you book. Tibet rates 5% off-road, 70% comfort and 100% fun. In plain words: this is a road-focused tour — around 95% of the riding is on pavement, so you do not need enduro experience — but the comfort score sits lower than our easiest road tours because you are operating on a high plateau, sleeping between 3,650 and 4,300 meters, and covering real distances at real altitude. If you are a confident street rider, the riding itself is well within reach; tours like Namibia are the ones we reserve for experienced dirt riders, not Tibet. What Tibet asks of you instead is fitness, patience with acclimatization, and respect for the mountain environment.

The riding is compressed into six honest days in the middle of the tour, roughly 1,675 km in total, and every one of them has a headline. Day four is the longest at 365 km, Lhasa to Shigatse, passing the sacred Yamdrok Lake and the Karola Glacier with a stop in Gyantse en route. Day five runs 240 km from Shigatse to Tingri, surrounded by stunning landscapes, after a morning visit to Tashilhunpo Monastery. Day six is the summit of the trip: 230 km from Tingri up over Gyawu-La Pass to Everest Base Camp and on to Old Tingri. Day seven retraces 300 km back to Shigatse through the same pristine landscapes — this time with Everest in your mirrors. Day eight crosses 300 km of the Tibetan Plateau to Damxung with a stop at the Yangpachen Hot Springs, and day nine closes the loop: Namtso Lake, then 240 km back to Lhasa via Damxung and Yangpachen before the motorcycles go back to the garage.

You never ride it alone. A professional bilingual tour leader heads the group, a local guide and support vehicle travel with you the entire way, and fuel and road tolls are covered. There is also a piece of paperwork unique to this tour that we handle on the ground: on day three, before the riding starts, we assist you in obtaining your local motorcycle driver's license in Lhasa — a requirement for riding in Tibet that would be genuinely difficult to arrange on your own, and one of the clearest arguments for doing this particular country with an operator. All nine nights are in accommodation with a shared room included, so the adventure is in the altitude and the landscapes, not in roughing it.

One honest note on flexibility: the itinerary may change without further notice due to weather, road conditions, or anything else that we or our guides feel would jeopardize the safety of the group. At these altitudes, that clause is not boilerplate — it is how we have kept riders safe for 17+ years, and safety first is the principle behind every destination, route, bike and partner we choose.

Tibet rewards riders who get off the bike, and this itinerary builds more culture into its ten days than any comparable route we run. These are the anchors, day by day:

• Lhasa (days 1–3 and 9–10). Tibet's enchanting capital opens and closes the tour. Day two is the concentrated highlights day: the iconic Potala Palace — built on the red hill by King Songtsen Gampo during the seventh century — then Jokhang Temple, a stroll along Barkhor Street, and the chance to witness monks debating in the traditional courtyard. Day three is yours to explore the city at your own pace while you finish acclimatizing and we sort your local riding license.
• Yamdrok Lake, Karola Glacier and Gyantse (day 4). The first riding day delivers three of the tour's headline sights in one 365 km run: the sacred turquoise waters of Yamdrok, the ice wall of the Karola Glacier beside the road, and a visit to Gyantse before the night in Shigatse.
• Tashilhunpo Monastery, Shigatse (day 5). The seat of the Panchen Lama, visited before the ride to Tingri — one of the most significant monasteries in Tibet, and a very different atmosphere from the pilgrim bustle of Lhasa.
• Rongbuk Monastery and Everest Base Camp (day 6). The emotional peak of the tour. After the views from Gyawu-La Pass, you visit Rongbuk Monastery and then reach Everest Base Camp itself, standing at the foot of the tallest mountain on Earth with your motorcycle parked behind you.
• Yangpachen Hot Springs (day 8). A stop on the plateau crossing to Damxung — the kind of place the support vehicle makes easy and a solo rider would blast past.
• Namtso Lake (day 9). The final full day is built around exploring Namtso, the lake Chinese National Geographic ranked among the most beautiful in China, before the last descent back to Lhasa.

Group activities and entry fees for these stops are included in the tour price, so there is no ticket-counter arithmetic along the way — when the group walks into the Potala Palace, everyone walks in.

The motorcycles. The base bike is the BMW F750GS, included in the tour price. If you prefer more displacement, three upgrades are available: the Husqvarna Norden 901 for +$499, the BMW R1250GS for +$599, or the flagship BMW R1300GS for +$799. All bikes are latest-model, professionally maintained machines, and both a damage and theft liability reduction insurance and the mandatory third-party liability insurance are already included. A refundable security deposit on your credit card is required before any bike leaves the rental facility, sized according to the rental bike you choose.

The group. We keep Tibet deliberately small: minimum 6 riders, maximum 10, led by a professional bilingual tour leader with a local guide and support vehicle alongside. Riding two-up? The Add Pillion/Passenger option (+$2,999) covers your co-rider. Accommodation is in shared rooms by default, with a single-room upgrade available for +$799.

What the price covers. The tour starts at $5,499 per rider on the BMW F750GS in a shared room. That includes 9 nights of accommodation, all breakfasts, the base motorcycle rental, fuel and road tolls, both insurance covers, group activities and entry fees, transfers to and from Lhasa International Airport (LXA) on official arrival and departure days, a pre-tour preparation guide and briefing, a MotoDreamer apparel gift, up to 25% discount on riding gear and accessories from our partners Klim, Giant Loop and Mosko Moto, and all taxes. Airfare, lunches, dinners and drinks, tips, and personal paperwork, permits and visas are not included — and for travel and evacuation insurance with cancellation coverage, which we strongly recommend at these altitudes, we point riders to Global Rescue.

The visa — start early. This is the one deadline that is genuinely non-negotiable: your Chinese visa must be obtained at least one month prior to the tour start, because we need it in hand to organize the special travel permits for Tibet. Book the tour, then start your visa application well ahead of that one-month cutoff.

Booking and payment. Hit Book Now, pick your date and pay the deposit; we accept bank transfer, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, PayPal and Bitcoin, and you can split the balance into monthly payments with no interest. Booking as a group is rewarded: when 5 riders pay, rider number 6 travels free, valid on the base tour price. Every booking is backed by our price match and departure guarantees. The next confirmed departure is September 18 to 27, 2026, with only 4 spots left at the time of writing — and the October 2027 departure is already sold out, which tells you how quickly Tibet fills. Private or customized group dates are available on request.

Who can join. You need to be 20 or older with at least one year of experience on a 500cc-or-bigger motorcycle, hold a valid driver's license with motorcycle endorsement, and carry a passport with at least six months' validity at tour start — plus, uniquely for Tibet, the Chinese visa above and the local riding license we help you obtain in Lhasa. You must also be physically and mentally fit to ride, which matters more here than on any sea-level tour we run.

Seventeen-plus years of operating tours and more than 4,000 riders have taught us that the trips people talk about forever are the ones that feel impossible to organize alone. Riding a motorcycle to Everest Base Camp is exactly that kind of trip — and with the permits, licenses, guides and support vehicle handled, all that is left for you is the riding.