China Tours & Vacations

I am going to break this into a couple different segments to more effectively provide my comments. Planning Phase Agent:Working with our agent during the planning phase was probably this lowest part of the trip.  I travel for work so it fell to my wife to make the arrangements.  She is a very good planner and had many specific requests for this trip.  Due to both of the travel companies lack of desire/ability? to change the itinerary we almost didn't book through either travel agent.  After we discussed it, we gave this travel company another shot and things were marginally better.  We felt like our voice wasn't being heard when we asked specific questions or about activities not on the itinerary.  We ended up booking because the trip that was pre-planned sounded good enough but the whole experience left my wife very unhappy.  Especially after we started the trip and some of the things requested that were denied, were definitely things we could have done.  Being more flexible with their itinerary would have done wonders to improving our satisfaction.   On-Trip Phase Agent:Once we were on the ground in China it was clear that this company had planned things very well.  In 18 days, with 6 domestic flights and 8 guides, there were no hiccups that the company could control.  Daily check-ins by the travel agent were also very welcome.  This was one of the best experiences we have had with a travel agent during a trip. Trip Negatives:-We had two guides that we didn't get along with.  One of them wouldn't speak to my wife and dragged us through our destinations.  The second was basically a second driver, only getting out of the car to get us tickets to the activity.  Both guides had a difficult time with the language but so did several others.  The problem was a conflict in expectations of what their job was. We expected guides, (which our other 6 met our expectations) not a forceful leader and a ticket machine. Trip Positives:Everything else!  Activities were great, accommodations were as expected (first hotel wasn't spectacular but was picked for location), and China was beautiful. Overall Trip:The trip was magnificent and memorable!  The activities were well planned and the weather co-operated as much as could be expected.  It was one of the busiest trips we have ever taken but it was hard to imagine removing any of the wonderful attractions in our itinerary.  Our only negative feelings are towards how the trip was planned and the two guides we didn't get along with.  If the travel company was a little more flexible with their itinerary, or listened to our requests, this would have been the perfect trip.  

This tour company was very easy to work with. They listened to what we wanted, which was not a standard China tour, and came back with good suggestions. They would guide us when we were asking to go somewhere that would take up a lot of time due to its remoteness and offer another option.