ChinaTour.comReviews of chinatour.com

Great tour at an affordable price.

The trip was really nice and the tour guides May and David were excellent

great trip. Professional company, well planned out itinerary.

Over all the tour is good. I was thinking is a small group but more than 40 people for 1 tour too much people. For Dinner is late hour is hard to find the place to eat. If there's inst. where can we get the dinner is better.

We traveled to China in March with China Tour and had a wonderful experience. Having never obtained a Visa, I was unsure of the process and they took care of everything. Our tour guides were very knowledgable and friendly. We learned a lot about the country and its people. The busses were clean and the drivers were amazing! The schedule kept us on our toes - I only wish we had more time at some of the breathtaking scenic spots. Reason enough to plan a return visit! The additional side trips were well worth the time and money. We always felt safe and taken care of. Thank you for giving us the experience of a lifetime!

Everything was exactly as promised, no surprises!

There is no better value. Great accommodations and travel. Be ready for a few possible changes to your excursion itinerary.

First, the price of the tour was amazing and in retrospect I would have paid the listed price plus the surprise price additions for the Japanese portion of the tour alone. Sub-contracted Japanese tour guide (don't know the company's name) Chiyomi Kuroishi made the trip an amazing experience with all the extra history and cultural info she added plus adapting the trip in route to keep the price down while focusing on our interests. The tour guide in China was absolutely fine but a little rigid--definitely showed concern when we left the medicine shop sales pitch without buying anything. We honestly felt we were respectful enough by staying through the talk and individual "analysis" without laughing at the pitch (think old Western movies where the guy comes into town to sell a bottled cure for all ills). Now on to the company that organized the tour-- 1. Mistakes in booking due to not double checking their standard tour play (day 1, day 2, day 3 style) with the actual days of the week and times of the flights. 2. Crazy lay overs and flight times booked requiring you to stay up over 24 hours and remain in the airport to catch the next connecting flight (We finally figures how to get a "day pass" from the airport in China to go get some sleep at a nearby hotel). 3. The times of our arrival were not communicated to the tour guide in one country, but luckily they tracked down the possible flights the missing guests (including us) would be on. 4. Our original gateway airport was cancelled close enough to the trip to make getting an economical flight from New York gateway during Thanksgiving holiday impossible. 5. Note that tour guide fees/gratuities are listed by selling company as optional but they ARE NOT--they are the only way those tour guides get paid--so they are not an option. Also, the optional tours are really not very optional (at least in the Chinese part of the tour). In sum: What is so sad is that the company could avoid the scheduling mistakes by applying their standard itinerary to an excel spreadsheet then just filling in the flight times for each individual tour so they could see the days/dates side by side--list the tour participant arrivals on same--make decisions on low purchase gateways early so customers can book additional economic flights--update excel sheet on tour member arrivals and forward to in-country tour guides. State ALL REQUIRED parts of tour clearly up front--don't bait and switch!!!!--Tour is still reasonable enough and more valuable without the stress! If tour requires fourteen hour or similar lay over in airport in China send step by step pictures and instructions for free exit and re-entrance to airport (available from fellow travelers by googling on web), standard US web sites provide plain, clean, super cheap sleep hotels near airport ($20 or so). That way for the price of a sit down meal you can recoup enough sleep to make the tour workable. Finally, the Chinese part of the tour seems more highly subsidized by required stops. That is necessary I guess, but when you stop at a place with merchandise to sell (like jewelry), everyone knows it up front and it doesn't seem devious. We bought something small to support the tour and some members loved the jewelry part and bought a good amount. But, the medicine shop folks should do an exit survey that would hopefully open their eyes to how shady they seem in terms of their product push. They snagged only one person from our tour group. If they had taken a more reasonable approach about the benefits of Chinese medicine that are acceptable to even people who believe in science they would likely have increased their income by gaining some sales from most tour members. They would have also saved their image. We were all honestly itching to get out of the room they closed us up in before we started laughing. Now, with our review I hope you can check the tour price (add in "optional costs") and see if the current tour price offered is still a bargain--It likely is--If so, make the adjustments listed above yourself (or double check tour schedule/gateway options in advance on own) and you will have a bargain tour. Or maybe the tour company adjusts after hearing above info from several customers and provides a tour that is still a stress free bargain for customers and local tour guides as well as a profit maker for China Tours--That is my best hope!