Thorn Tree travel forum

agencies for travel to tibet from katmandu (etc. etc.)

hello everyone.

we are planning to travel to tibet via nepal in the autumn. unluckily, we are two of those people with a job (and thus have some money to travel), but only have very limited time for the trip - we are sure the area deserves a lot more time than we have.
our plan is to fly into katmandu on september 14 (arriving september 15) and arranging to embark on a tour to lhasa one or two days later (with an agency arranging the tibet permit and trip). we would like to go on a tour of about one week, visiting the sights en route to lhasa (including a view of mt. everest, not necessarily the base camp though). however, we do NOT want to travel back to katmandu after that (so there should be a way this is not included in the package or can be excluded). after this, we would like to spend another week in tibet, in and around lhasa and nam-tso. finally, we would like to take the beijing-lhasa express (tickets can be arranged via the agency, as i understand) and drive to beijing, stay there 2-3 days and fly back to germany.
does anyone have any recommendations on agencies in nepal that can arrange such a trip for us, at an affordable price - and where the trip back to katmandu is not included? we would like to book our flight soonish...
we realise that 22 days is a rather short time for this kind of trip, but we cannot stay away from work for any longer than that.
thanks so much for your recommendations.
greetings.
fee and gwen