Does it Cost a Lot for an India Nepal Tibet Bhutan Tour? How to Save?

For anyone thinking of a combined trip of India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet, a lot of careful planning is required to combine these four intrepid destinations into one long trip. Visas will be needed for all four destinations, and you will need to book tours for both Tibet and Bhutan, as independent travel in these two destinations is prohibited. And for the trip to Bhutan, you will need to make sure you get your visa approval, or you will not be able to even book the flight.

However, this is a long trip that is highly possible, and not as complex to arrange as you think. The main concern is the cost. Traveling to four separate destinations is likely to be an expensive trip.

It can be Expensive to Visit India Nepal Tibet Bhutan Together

And you would be right to think that. Taking a four-destination tour in this area of Asia is going to be costly for a number of reasons. Firstly, you will need to have a guided tour that is pre-arranged for both Tibet and Bhutan, as you cannot travel to these two major destinations independently. And for Bhutan, there is a Minimum Daily Package fee of 200-250 dollars per person per night. This means that, for both Tibet and Bhutan, you are going to be paying a high cost for the trips to these destinations.

Then you have the fact that you cannot just stay in the destinations for a day, as that would be a waste of the cost of the visas alone, and you will likely be traveling around these four destinations for up to a month. And with limited ways to travel between most of the destinations, it can be hard to find cheaper ways to travel. Especially for the flights to Bhutan, for example. With only two airlines flying into the kingdom, both of which are regulated by the Bhutanese government and have the same flight cost for the trips, there is no cheaper option for getting to Bhutan.

The same can be said of the flights back from Bhutan, as well as travel into Tibet from Nepal, which can only be done by flight to Lhasa or overland across the border at Gyirong Port. However, there are certain tips you can use to help you to make some of the costs a little lower. While you cannot really make this a cheaper budget tour, you can still save money on certain things to reduce the overall cost a little.

How to Save the Cost for an India Nepal Tibet Bhutan Tour?

If you are looking at ways to save money on this epic adventure, then there are some ways you can do this. You do need to be flexible, though, in several areas of the trip, from the time of year you travel and the length you stay in each destination to joining group tours to reduce and share costs.

Avoid the Tourist Season

The peak season for tourism is always the most expensive time to travel. Fortunately, two of these four destinations do have somewhat similar peak seasons and low seasons. The exceptions are Tibet and India, which have different peak seasons. However, with Tibet being a year-round destination, travel in the low seasons is much easier than in some countries in Asia.

For India, generally speaking, the low season for tourism runs from around the end of October to the beginnings of March, depending on the weather. This is the cooler winter period, and is followed by the hot season and then the rainy monsoon season. Off season travel in India is best done in late march or late September, to avoid the worst of the hottest and wettest times of the year.

In Tibet, the peak season is the summer season, with the shoulder seasons being spring and autumn and the winter being the low season. In Nepal and Bhutan, the peak seasons are spring and autumn, from March to May and September to November, generally.

This does actually mean that there is no single time of year when it is not the peak season in at least one of the destinations. But this does mean that you can find times of the year when it is peak season only in one of the places you will visit. And if you make that place one of the cheaper destinations (such as Nepal and India), then you can still save money. December to February, India’s peak season, is the ideal time to travel, as the other three destinations are in the low seasons.

Allocate Travel Time Reasonably

Another way to reduce the overall expenses of the trip is to carefully allocate your time, and focus on the major tourist attractions that you want to visit most. This can not only increase the overall essence of the tour experience, but you can reduce the total travel time you are taking to reduce the cost.

The best examples of this are in the Tibet Autonomous Region and in Bhutan. In Tibet, if you take a shorter tour, you will pay less for the trip, though there are some things you will miss out on. However, for Bhutan. Compacting your trip into a defined visit to certain places of interest only means less days spent in the kingdom. And with the Minimum Daily Package fee costing 200-250 dollars per night, which can mean a bigger saving. The same can generally be said of any of the four destinations, in that a shorter trip is cheaper.

Join in Group Tour to Share Cost

Another way to reduce the cost of the trip is to join a Group Tour with other individuals that are traveling to the same places. Group tours are a great way to travel in destinations that have high travel costs, as they usually reduce the cost of certain parts of the trip by sharing an overall cost between all the members of the party. And for Tibet and Bhutan, this is an ideal opportunity to drastically reduce the cost of your overall trip.

Some of the higher costs of the tours to Tibet and Bhutan are the cost of the Guide, Driver, and private vehicle. On a private tour, you will pay the whole cost of all three, while on the Small Group Tours, the cost of these three items will be shared equally between all the paying members of the party. And with Group Tours comprising of up to 12 tourists, you can be paying less than ten percent of these costs.

Group tours in Bhutan also remove the single person supplement that is paid by solo travelers to the kingdom on top of the MDP fee. You can also find some tours of India and Nepal that allow you to join groups, which can reduce the cost a little, though these are often guided tours, and simply not having a guide and traveling independently can reduce the cost more.

Book India Nepal Tibet Bhutan Tour through the Same Travel Agency

Another way to reduce costs is to find a travel agency that can handle all the separate parts of your tour in one long trip. This means that you can save money on using separate travel agents and reduce the overall cost with the whole trip being n big organized tour. And if you book through us, with our amazing group tours to both Tibet and Bhutan, we can help you make the trip more affordable by arranging everything for you in one place.

Conclusion

So, while it does normally cost a lot for a combined tour of India, Nepal, Tibet, and Bhutan, it does not really have to break the bank. With a few simple hints and tips, some useful advice, and a little prudent planning, you can make that previously unobtainable dream an affordable reality.