Luxury China Tours & Vacations

This travel agent planned our 3 week trip to explore China for our party of four.  We started in Beijing and walked on the Great Wall, learned much about Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, went to Xian for the Terracotta Warriors, to Chengdu for the Pandas, Hangzhou and Tunxi, then a hike up the Huangshan Mountain; Shanghai and the Shanghai Tower, Guilin for the amazing countryside and rice terraces, Shenzhen to visit our nephew and Hong Kong as the finale.  Transportation, guides, accommodations were wonderful and effortless for us.   In a land of millions of people and many tourists, the guides slid through the crowds and found places to explore that were not as crowded as others.

Our travel company helped us coordinate visas, travel insurance, and provided tipping and shopping guidance.  Any small concern (and they were minimal) were met with a smile and addressed.  They even sent a replacement van up Longji Mountain.

I would highly recommend the travel company for your China tour.

Overall, the trip was great. The longest stay in Chengdu was wonderful, the hotel, meals and all the activities. The pandas were especially a joy to see in a beautiful wooded park as well as the overnight trip to Emaishen mountain. The transfer to Chongqing was seamless and the ride on the fast train very comfortable. The river cruise was quite enjoyable, the accommodations very nice and the scenery excellent.  The only problems were not allowing enough time to get our first flight out of Shanghai which we nearly missed. The other was the last overnight slow train from Yichang to Shanghai. Although we agreed to take a shared sleeper cabin, the space in the cabin was cramped and other passengers would frequently leave and arrive at various places. The bathrooms also were not as clean on this train, people were constantly smoking in the aisles which affected the air quality and the food service required knowing some Chinese to figure out what to order. I think travelers should be forewarned about the lack of comfort, privacy and condition of the toilets when one is taking such a long trip on one of these trains. Had we known this, we would have preferred to have flown back to Shanghai. I don't know whether the fast train would have been much better, but at least it would have taken only about half the time. Our liaison at this travel agency tours was otherwise excellent in making sure all our connections were made and that we were enjoying the trip.

Very well planned trip and we liked the guides in each city.  Our guide in Beijing was our favorite and we really enjoyed the guide in Xi'an too.   There was always someone waiting for us at each destination and the transportation/drivers also did a good job.  We got to see everything we had hoped to - the Great Wall, the Terra Cotta Warriors, the high speed train, rickshaw ride, Forbidden City, CIty Wall in Xi'an, the skyline in Shanghai, Peking duck meal in Beijing (we actually had 2), the floating restaurant in Hong Kong, the harbor in Hong Kong and more.  We also got to experience pandas in Hong Kong at the amusement park on our free day, the Chinese calligraphy class, dancing with people in the French Park in Shanghai, and the meeting with the Cricket Master in Beijing was an unexpected trip highlight.   

The head of the tour company also gave us a very nice personalized gift of a stamp in Chinese of each of our names - the same stamps artists and collectors put on the art in China.  We also had our guide help us buy a full sized Terra Cotta Warrior for our garden that is going to be shipped in September.   

The guides gave us great information on the life of Chinese citizens as well.  The hotels were great  in that they were very upscale and well located for our day to day adventures.   I loved having a free day in each city as well - made the pacing of the trip better than in the past where we never had a down day that allowed us to sleep in a little and experience the city on our own terms.   

I was very very happy with the service overall.

Great trip! Guides / drivers were flexible as we made changes on the trip to skip some shows and instead go to antique / art markets. Since this was our first trip with a fully pre-planned itinerary, we didn't do as much research prior to the trip as we should have to locate markets, though these changes were mostly handled without problems. Guides handled our need for vegetarian food without a hassle, we had clean air-conditioned vehicles (including our travel company happily changing one that we requested to have changed after a pick-up vehicle that smelled of smoke), and guides that were interested in us and what they had to teach us. Yangshuo guide was a bit difficult to understand at times, but very pleasant and happy to be with us. Our agent checked in whenever there was an issue (i.e., hotel setting in Chengdu was under unanticipated construction - the area around the hotel was completely torn apart by renovation, which our travel company was unaware of; however, they offered to move us. We ultimately decided to stay because the hotel itself was great, and the area intriguing). Guides should give a 5-10 minute warning to clients that destinations are nearby - until our last guide we didn't have this and often didn't realize we were about to disembark until the car stopped suddenly and we had to scramble to get our belongings together. The itinerary should indicate approximate travel times during each day from one location to another - a couple times we got in the car in the morning to find out we were in for a 1-3 hour car ride to our destination, which we could not tell from the itinerary. On a future trip we would ask for lunch to be sometime between 1-3pm, vs. at 12 which was too early for us. For the Beijing hotel, the travel company should choose a hotel other than the hotel we stayed in, since there's nothing of interest to see / do / walk through in the evenings unless travelers are into mall shopping. We prefer to be within walking distance of sites / night markets / art districts / museums, etc. Overall, we had a wonderful experience and would use this company again.