I'm looking at a China tour thru Pacific Delight Tour. The flights are via UAL from US and the hotels look to be very nice. I can't find any reviews from people who have taken their China tours. Can anyone help? I'd hate to make a mistake and be miserable.

I've never heard anything but positive reviews of Pacific Delight Tours-they have REALLY good value to Asia. You can try doing a search in the search box to see if there are any posts here on the company, but I would suggest as well that you go to Frommers website, as I have seen many posts on Pacific Delight Tours on their China board.

I have travelled to Hong Kong three times and to Beijing once with Pacific Delight Tours, PDT. My sister in law used PDT for a 14 day multi city tour of China three years ago.

From my own personal experience, PDT offers very good packages to Hong Kong and Beijing, and my sister in law was very pleased with her tour of China.

If you have more specific questions regarding PDT, please post again.

Hello! I used PDT last year in October (the 19 day Supervalue Yangtze River) and had a fabulous time. The hotels are unbelievably upscale and they delivered as promised. If you decide to go with them, you can request your tour director. I recommend asking for Renee Ho or Herbert Fong. They are both fantastic. If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them to the best of my ability.

I did a 15 night tour of China w/ Pacific Delight Tours in April, 2001, and it exceeded all expectations. I couldn't have booked the flights alone for the price of the tour, so it was like my hotels and tours were free.

One word of caution. Do not buy things on your shopping excursions with the groups. Pacific Delights, at least during my trip, receives a 40% kickback from the stores. So, if you spend $100, PD receives $40 back, and you therefore are overcharged by the merchants.

Instead, wait to do your shopping on your own. The prices will be drastically less. Don't fall for the "Discount Card" trick where your guide tells you this will entitle you to an extra 10% off. In reality, this is only to identify you as a PD customer to the merchant, who therefore knows they must charge you much more. You will see your tour guide meeting with the store manager at the end of each shopping excursion and that is because they are settling the account.

Otherwise, PDT is excellent.

I've made this point before, but I'll do it again.

The problem with 'shopping opportunities' happens on almost all organised tours in China. Almost all foreign travel organisations buy their ground handling from a limited number of officially approved local operations. It is the guides themselves, who may have paid these local operation for the benefit of leading the tour, who get the kick-back, not, in most cases, the local travel arranger, and NOT Pacific Delight.

You can complain to Pacific Delight, and ask the company to try and make better ground-handling arrangements, but the result will be more expensive tours, as corrupt guides (many earning very large sums of money per annum through kick-backs and unnecessary tipping) will decline to take out such tours without being compensated.

The problem is one for all tour companies, and in general the tour companies with the most shopping stops are the ones with the cheapest tours. Of course, time spent in shops even if it is spent avoiding buying any of the vastly overpriced merchandise, is still time lost in more rewarding pursuits.

Peter N-H
http://members.shaw.ca/pnhpublic/China.html

Pacific Delight is well known and, I think, highly respected for its selection and quality of tours in China. I have stayed in some of the hotels they use and they are very nice. We book our flights separately (too many MileagePlus FF miles!) but have taken a "land-only" tour with Pacific Delight and were very satisfied. Many of their tours are offered flying either United or Northwest if you prefer.

i did a 7 day beijing tour with them about 3 years ago and it was just fine...it was a low end cheapie...the hotel was the jinglung and was quite fine...not fancy but good location

i would use them again

We have traveled with Pacific Delight twice. We would use them again in a minute, in fact we are doing their Vietnam, Bangkok, Cambodia tour this fall. We were fortunate and had Herb Fong for our tour guide for the 1st China trip and he was our best guide ever. Wonderful hotels, the local tour guides and travel arrangements were perfect! One of our best trips ever! Enjoy!