Pacific Delight or Ritz Tours?
 

Both of these companies offer small group tours and 5-star hotels. The prices are comparable. I am looking for RECENT reviews of these companies in order to consider their reputation from UNbiased sources. I cannot find much online.

If you've had any recent experiences with either Pacific Delight Tours or Ritz Tours, I would appreciate your comments. Thanks.

Have you done a search here? Click on advanced search, put in the name of the tour company, check the box for seaarch all replies and look for posts in the last three years.

www.booking.com will have honest reviews from recent guests

on all decent 5 star upscale hotels...

www.otel.com www.asiarooms.com www.betterbidding.com

best prices usually for me from $50 bidding priceline

Never heard of either of your companies...

www.affordable.com tours and www.zicasso.com for upscale

best usually...

www.affordabletours.com sorry typo good screening site 40% off

with Globus for me a few years ago was great for price

Beware Tripadvertizer many touts fake reviews

www.ctrip.com #1 local great tour prices with them for value

Ritz Tours (U.S.): The largest China tour operator in the U.S., with more than 20,000 visitors in 2002; after some complaints of lack of service and attention, now limits ...
http://www.frommers.com/destinations...717021094.html

Main complaints seem to be bait and switch on "5 star" hotels

Personally would check hotels personally and book my own...

or rely on a more upscale operator...

suntraveler:

Yes,.I dertainly understand that you want recent reviews. Can't help there, but perhaps my take on Pacific Delight c.1984 !! will throw some light on the philosophy and goals of the company. In '84, you had to come in with a tour...and we were "delighted with the crisp organization of Pacifc Delight"...so if they were on top of things back then when touring was much more difficult than today, I doubt their rep sank at all..if anythng it must certainly continue to give top notch tours according to everything I've read and heard on Fodors and other travel forums.

We independently did a good chunk of the country in '07 and had a great time for three weeks (hired local guides, mainly for their cars! in only two places), followed by a week in Japan. We have never been tour-group oriented , but I was impressed with PD's overall work ethic, care and kindnesses in '84....excellent local guides along with our PD assigned overall guide. As non-tour people, we went off seperately many times and our guide always ackonowledged this with a shrug but we never missed connections with the group. You must realize that we flew on rattle-trap DC 3's and Russian Tupelov's in '86. Hair-raisng. Obviously the lodgings were primitive compared to what's available now...China was not in the least geared to tourism then.

Sorry if this isn't good enough information for you. BUT PD is a company with years of experience, I have no qualms recommending them. Never heard of the other bunch.

Stu Tower (note: In '84 we took their 23 day tour covering in order, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, Nanking, Beijing, Xian, Guilin, Kunming (Stone Forest),Canton, HK ...and Macau (on our own).

Here are some scanned Kunming/Stone Forest pix for you, c.1984:

https://picasaweb.google.com/stuartt...ndStoneForest#

...and some scanned pix overall:
http://picasaweb.google.com/stuartto...4AndJapan1946#

If you want to see our digital pix from '07, just ask and I'll send.

Whatever you select I hope you have an illuminating experience!

Stuart Tower

Stu - I'm pretty sure PD changed owners in the last couple of years, so your opinion is REALLY out of date, lol. But if the OP does the search Kathie recommends s/he will find all the reasons to approach tours in China with extreme caution.

KW, I hadn' heard one way or the other about change of ownership. I began my post by stating cearly that my report on PD is OLD...and so am I. If I can be even obliquely helpful, I'll continue to do so.

Thanks for all the replies to my original question.

I'd pretty much already done all the research that these replies advised. But as I said, the problem is finding posts that are RECENT. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of recent opinions.

Thanks again.

My husband and I just got back from an 11-day tour of China with Ritz Tours. Overall, it was a good experience, however, there are certainly some red flags you should know in advance before booking.

As everyone else has mentioned, there are obligatory stops at a Jade Factory, a Pearl Factory, a Silk Factory, and a place that creates Terra Cotta soldier replicas. While we felt somewhat pressured into buying something, we didn't give in and found similar items at the airport and various other shops at similar prices- they weren't the 'best price' as the sales people would suggest.

All of the hotel accommodations were fine, except in Beijing. The New Otani Hotel is outdated- the rooms all smell of smoke and ours had moldy carpet, but they could not change our room because they were 'completely booked'. The breakfast at the New Otani also lacked, but the other hotels more than made up for it.

The domestic flights were not on Air China, as the tour advertised. Most of the flights were fine, but just be aware that you'll be flying smaller, lesser known airlines.

The cruise was nice. We were sequestered to the 'executive level' dining room on the top floor with the other Americans. It was somewhat odd how they kept us separate, but overall, the cruising experience was positive.

The food was terrible. We learned (the last day of our tour!), that tour guide is given an allowance and can take you anywhere he/she chooses. Had we known this earlier on, we would have asked to look at the menu as opposed to simply being served random fried items that were sitting in oil. The best food was the breakfast buffet at the hotels.

The Sheraton in Xi'an was brand new when we stayed there- we were one of their first guests, which was good and bad. They hadn't worked out all the kinks (i.e. the internet didn't work and the gym/spa was still under construction), but the rooms were very nice.

The guides were hit or miss. We got stuck with a young kid in Shanghai who didn't know much about the city- and he was a bit too shy to be giving tours, but most of the other guides were fine.

Overall, China itself is amazing- and the convenience of having someone plan all the transfers and meals is helpful, but be warned that it comes with a price tag.

China offers amazing food but you'll never see that in a tour.

I know that you didn't ask but China Plus (we used them in 2006) does an excellent job, with 4 and 5 star hotels. They limit the tour to 20 people. The Company is owned by a Chinese couple located in Dallas and one of them always leads the tour.
My wife and i recommend them very highly but they, too, also take you to some of the obligatory visits to a Jade Factory, etc.
Whatever you choose, have a great trip.