Leo Hostel's Tibet Tour

I just went with Leo Hostel's Tibet tour 3 weeks ago and felt I had to share this agonising experience online.

My partner and I joined their 8 day Lhasa-EBC-Lhasa tour a month ago. We joined it, when Leo Hostel confirmed that they could get us tickets for at least one way of the journey by train. The train tickets were all booked out for Beijing to Lhasa during that time, so we were told the other option was to get a flight from Xi'an to Lhasa. The first problem we encountered was with Leo Hostel's ticket booking system, which we had also read about on thorntree's forum. Even though we paid the deposit for the tour, the staff at the reception wouldn't book the flight tickets from Xi'an to Lhasa for us at 1600Y each, until they see the money. So we were directed to an ATM, and by the time we got back with the money, we were told the price of the ticket had gone up to 2100Y each in the 1st class cabin. With the increase in price, we had to reconsider if it fits our budget, but that was booked out by the next day. We tried different calling up other agencies for tickets and spoke to the person in charge of the Tibet Tours, Lee, but the only option left was to fly from Beijing to Lhasa at 2400Y. We went to the aviation building to get the tickets ourselves to avoid paying Leo Hostel's booking fee and got the tickets quite easily. We didn't have trouble with the getting the permit through Leo Hostel.

As in the itinerary...
DAY 1: The guide will meet you at the airport or station and take you to your hotel. You can then rest overnight in Lhasa.
Our day 1: Our plane was delayed by 3 hours. We called up the Lhasa contact (given when we got the permit) and informed them. They managed to pick up the others in the tour group that flew from Xi'an to Lhasa that was on time. After we arrived, we couldn't find anyone waiting for us and after some time on the phone again, we were told to catch the airport bus into Lhasa, where the guide will pick us up and take us to the hotel. That too was fine, and we were glad to finally be in Tibet. We reminded the guide to get our train tickets out of Tibet, as instructed by Leo Hostel, which was met with assurance that we would get it the day before we leave.

DAY 2: Rest in Lhasa.
Our day 2: The guide informed us the time we would be picked up the next day.

DAY 3: Guided tour of Lhasa: the Potala Palace , the Jokhang Temple, and the Backhor Market
Our day 3: We went on the guided tour of Jokhang Temple and at Backhor Market, we were asked by the tour guide to do him a favour and look around the shops that he brought us to, which was full of pretty expensive stuff. They didn't manage to get the tickets for the Potala Palace so it was arranged to be at the last day. We reminded our guide again for the train tickets out of Tibet.

DAY 4: Day tour to Namtso Lake via Yangpachen hot-spring. On the way you will see Nyenchen Thanglha snow mountain ranges, and also you will pass the Nagela Pass. Rest overnight in Lhasa .
Our day 4: We drove to Namtso Lake (4-5hours drive) with this annoying guide who just hurried us through this magnificent place. Yangpachen hot-spring was an indoor and outdoor swimming pool filled with hot spring water, nothing exciting. But if you go into the indoor pool and use the toilet, you'll find that the hot spring water was also channel into it, as the continuously flowing flushing system.

DAY 5: Travel over Gangbala Pass, see Lake Yamdrok. Travel to Shigatse and then on to Gyanstse. Visit Kumpum stupa in Gyantse and then return to Shigatse. Overnight in Shigatse.

DAY 6: Drive to Rongbuk via Shegar and Gyatsola Pass. Trek from Rongbuk to the Everest Base Camp (EBC). Overnight at EBC in dorm, outside toilet.

DAY 7: Back to Rongbuk and on to Shigatse. Overnight in Shigatse.

DAY 8: Morning visit the Bachen Lama Set - Tashilunpo Monastery, which was Built in1447 by the first Dalai Lama . Drive back to Lhasa along Yarlong Tsangpo river by the Nepal friendship road. Overnight at Lhasa.

Our day 5-8: We had a good driver and a good local guide and had a really great time. On day 8 after we got back to Lhasa, we tried numerous times to contact our guide about the train tickets and Potala Palace tickets, but no one answered, which became a real worry when we were bound to leave less than 2 days and any delays would be disastrous for the rest trip, the flight tickets we already bought to leave Xi'an and the length of stay for our visa.

DAY 9: Transport to train station or airport. End tour.
Our day 9: In the morning we tried calling up the guide again to inform him that we found a place to stay near Backhor Market for the night. But there was no answer. We called up Leo Hostel's person in charge, Lee, who was unavailable, so we left a message but he didn't reply. Finally we tried asking the hotel to find the travel agency that booked our accomodation with them. The girl at the reception didn't know where this agency is because they have so many branches. But she gave us the number and we tried that, which thankfully, worked. It was then that we were told the guide who we always talked to have left to take a group to EBC and that he'll be helping us from then on. He told us that they manage to get the tickets for the Potala Palace for the 11am entry and that we'd get the train tickets in the evening. The news came as a huge relief, to know we'll be on the train the next day at 8am. We went to the palace and in the afternoon we called up to confirm the time that the tickets would be delivered. It was supposed to be at 6pm, in the main lobby. We waited for an hour and tried calling numerous times again, no one answered. We even tried calling up the hotel we stayed previously to find out if they have delivered it there by mistake. We called up Leo Hostel's person in charge, Lee, who said he'll try to help. Their service was really fustrating at that point, we even went around to ask for other means of getting out of Tibet from other agencies. All the flight for the next few days were fully booked. Finally the guide answered the phone at 9pm and said the tickets would be delivered at 11-12pm to our rooms.

Our day 10: So we waited some more, at 12pm, nothing came, so its back to the lobby for more phone calls. Then we were told they manage to get 3 tickets and are working on the 4th. All evening we waited, believing our tickets were secured, but it ended up they didn't manage to get the ones we wanted. We were furious and even when they tried to pacify us to sleep and that they'll deliver the tickets when they pick us up in the morning, we didn't trust them anymore till we saw and has the train tickets in our hands. At 1am, we had to compromise with 3 tickets from Lhasa to Zhengzhou and 1 ticket from Lhasa to Guangzhou and paid an average of about 800Y ticket per person for hard sleepers. It was 7hours to go before we had to get the train at 8am, that we got the tickets.

We also had to call up someone most nights to find out what was happening the next day and what time we'd be picked up, as the itinerary kept changing and I didn't have much confidence we'd get to do everything on the agenda.

It was too close and this is the most stressful and disorganised group tour I've ever been on.