China tour-private or small
 

My daughter and I are doing a "round the world" trip and have 9-10 days in china in Feb. Journey's price came back high and I am looking for another option. Anyone done Chinahighlights.com, Chinatour.com or travelchinaguide.com? We'd actually prefer a small group tour, but with our dates pretty limited, that may be hard. Thanks.

Sorry if this is a dup, but don't see other one.

Take a look at www.chinafocustravel.com. They have very reasonable rates. You can find a toll free number on the website to call them to see if you can hook up with a land only tour.

We went with them in December 1998 and are going again with them in March 2006. Everybody on our 1998 trip was very happy with their service.

i used chinahighlights for a trip we did this september (beijing-xi'an-guilin-suzhou-shanghai) and were very pleased with their services. i put together a small group of 8 and traveled as our own group, so it was really nice and flexible. you can design your own itinerary, have as many meals as you want/don't want, just be specific with your needs.
if you have any other questions, feel free to post.

Thanks to both. I saw another poster mention china focus, but they have tours and our dates are limited.

I am glad to get the feedback on china Highlights. Were your hotels OK? I saw some pretty mixed reviews one theirs on trip advisor.

hi marathon,

in general, our hotels were fine, all nice for the value. in beijing we stayed at the guangzhou hotel. it seems fairly new & clean, 15-20 min. walk to tienanmen/forbidden city.

in xian, we stayed at the bell tower. can't beat the location but the rooms were ok. some of the people in our group had older, moldier bathrooms, but ours was ok.

in guilin, we stayed at the guilin park. away from the city center, but along the picturesque gui lake & walking path, ok rooms.

in suzhou, we stayed at the bamboo grove. very nice, a bit away from the center of town but cheap cabs are available.

finally in shanghai, the pacific luck was a nice hotel, about a 15-20 min walk to the bund.

all except the bell tower were advertised as 4 star hotels, but are probably more like a nicer 3. the bell tower was probably equivalent to a nicer 2 star.

Thanks. This is exactly the info I wanted.