We recently received a quote from iExplore for our 17 night trip to China & Thailand including just about everything (except a couple of meals & drinks)---all private touring for $9k. When I estimated myself (same hotels & flights only)--I came up with $4,800---so my question is, will my husband & I spend more than $250/per day on private tours, airport transfers, food & drinks on our own? This does not include international airfare but includes all flights within China and to Thailand.
We are visting: HK, BEJ, Xi'an, Shang, Bangkok & Phi Phi or Krabi.

Please help. Thanks.

pick a mid range for food and you might spend $100 per day...that's $1700...

can't believe you would spend that much on the other stuff...??

i find tours always cost way more than doing it on your own with the exception that often you can save on the flights by bundling things together...

with only 17 nites you are covering way too much territory imo....you would enjoy it much more if you would pick either thailand or china and save the other for another trip.....the way i see it you will spend more time travelling from one place to another than you will spend visiting places...

I absolutely agree. Go on your own, and choose one country at a time. You'll pay much less and see much more.

I was thinking that the tour seemed expensive. Thanks for your input.

I absolutely agree with the time frame but really if let's say we stuck to China only, we would still need to fly around from place to place given the fact that its such a large country. Plus the fact that we want to see the main attractions & move on to the next place. I don't know when we'll be back to Asia so I really want to see both countries while I'm there.

i can fully understand your need to see as much as you want, but think about it....anytime you change locations you are talking about a minimum of 1/2 day to do so and sometimes nearer to a full day....write yourself out a time line and you will see how little time you actually have for exploring...

on my last trip to thailand i spent more days in bkk than you have for your whole trip...

asia is not like europe....things move more slowly and distances are far greater....for instance to fly from tokyo to bangkok is 6 hours or more...

i think hong kong alone demands 5 days minimum....

We are re-thinking our itinerary...we need some countryside or beach if we were to stay in China, would you go to Lijiang, Leshan or Sanya?
I would still like 4 nights Bej, 3 nights Xi'an, 2 nights Suzhou, 2 nights Shanghai, 3 HK and that leaves 3 nights---would you add country or beach (Sanya) OR still spread them out w/ existing locations?