Pacific Delights Tours
Jan 3rd, 2007, 06:12 AM
#2
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i went to beijing with them a few years ago and the tour was excellent...
they are very easy to deal with...
they tend to overbook side tours...not too many people, but too close together in time....if you tend to take these tours be aware of this....some of our people who wanted to take each tour offered complained that they did not return from one trip early enough to the hotel to even go to the bathroom before the next tour left....that may not be pd but rather the local tour company...
generally they get good marks and they are located in nyc for ease of communications
they are very easy to deal with...
they tend to overbook side tours...not too many people, but too close together in time....if you tend to take these tours be aware of this....some of our people who wanted to take each tour offered complained that they did not return from one trip early enough to the hotel to even go to the bathroom before the next tour left....that may not be pd but rather the local tour company...
generally they get good marks and they are located in nyc for ease of communications
Jan 3rd, 2007, 01:38 PM
#3
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I've taken independent trips to China with Pacific Delight Tours and they've always been a good value for the money. From my perspective, the only drawback was that they only offered a few hotel choices and, while they were centrally located, I would have liked a few more options. Other than that, very dependable and professional operation.
Jan 4th, 2007, 05:45 AM
#4
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It's about 10 years since I went to China with Pacific Delight. We took a 24 day tour which included everything we wanted to see and do. We would leave the hotel after breakfast and not return until after our evening activity. They have a whole range of tours. Just pick the one that covers what you would like to see. It was a fabulous trip!
Jan 4th, 2007, 01:45 PM
#5
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sheinberg:
I'll chime in from the distant past.
Being an inveterate independent travel junkie, I cringed when my wife planned a guided tour to China back in 1984.
My response: Can't we wing it alone? Answer: a definite NO way back then. Quite impossible.
So we booked PACIFIC DELIGHT along with two friends. It was for three weeks, then an extended 5 days in HK and Macao on our own. (20 people altoghether)
Meeting the tour at SeaTac (we had flown up from L.A.) we all anxiously awaited out PacDelight guide.
A cute little American teenybopper approached all of us and announced:
"I'm Tammy Silberman, your guide for the next 23 days."
My first awful thought was:
"And this mere child is going to lead us through Communist China?"
Well, Tammy turned out to be knowledgeable beyond words, (having gone two years to Nanjing University for a Masters in Chinese Literature), knew the language and the history and many off-the-path sights to see. She was courteous,caring, had a great sense of humor..and we all ended up happy as can be with the tour...and with her.
Those were the days where you had no side-trip options..the group was closely watched by the CITS guide who accompanied us everywhere...we had to be pretty much together all the time. Of course, some of us with independent travel experience frequently went off on our own much to the Chagrin of the aformentioned "Mr. Wu"..and Tammy covered for us.
Pacific Delight ran a very well -designed tour...not much we missed (Shangahi, Hangzhou, Suzhou, trip up the Grand Canal to Wuxi, Nanjing, Beijing, Xian, Guilin, Kunming, Guangzhou (Canton) and HK. Truly a delightful experience throughout. Lodgings in those days were fair to ugh!.Rats in our Kunming Hotel, three day elevator breakdown in Beijing's brand new Great Wall Hotel where Reagan had stayed, no running water in Xian for two days...etc...But we all had a ball. Cameraderie through the efforts of Tammy was very tight!
We had veritable banquets in all cities which were generally very special...had a 23-course lunch at a commune, and had to listen to some boring party-line speakers from time to time...but based on how well the tour was organized, I would choose them again.
Whew.
Thanks for listening. Want to see a few photos including Tammy's photo, please send me a letter...no digital camersa in them days!!
Stu T. [email protected]
Stu T.
I'll chime in from the distant past.
Being an inveterate independent travel junkie, I cringed when my wife planned a guided tour to China back in 1984.
My response: Can't we wing it alone? Answer: a definite NO way back then. Quite impossible.
So we booked PACIFIC DELIGHT along with two friends. It was for three weeks, then an extended 5 days in HK and Macao on our own. (20 people altoghether)
Meeting the tour at SeaTac (we had flown up from L.A.) we all anxiously awaited out PacDelight guide.
A cute little American teenybopper approached all of us and announced:
"I'm Tammy Silberman, your guide for the next 23 days."
My first awful thought was:
"And this mere child is going to lead us through Communist China?"
Well, Tammy turned out to be knowledgeable beyond words, (having gone two years to Nanjing University for a Masters in Chinese Literature), knew the language and the history and many off-the-path sights to see. She was courteous,caring, had a great sense of humor..and we all ended up happy as can be with the tour...and with her.
Those were the days where you had no side-trip options..the group was closely watched by the CITS guide who accompanied us everywhere...we had to be pretty much together all the time. Of course, some of us with independent travel experience frequently went off on our own much to the Chagrin of the aformentioned "Mr. Wu"..and Tammy covered for us.
Pacific Delight ran a very well -designed tour...not much we missed (Shangahi, Hangzhou, Suzhou, trip up the Grand Canal to Wuxi, Nanjing, Beijing, Xian, Guilin, Kunming, Guangzhou (Canton) and HK. Truly a delightful experience throughout. Lodgings in those days were fair to ugh!.Rats in our Kunming Hotel, three day elevator breakdown in Beijing's brand new Great Wall Hotel where Reagan had stayed, no running water in Xian for two days...etc...But we all had a ball. Cameraderie through the efforts of Tammy was very tight!
We had veritable banquets in all cities which were generally very special...had a 23-course lunch at a commune, and had to listen to some boring party-line speakers from time to time...but based on how well the tour was organized, I would choose them again.
Whew.
Thanks for listening. Want to see a few photos including Tammy's photo, please send me a letter...no digital camersa in them days!!
Stu T. [email protected]
Stu T.
Jan 4th, 2007, 04:32 PM
#6
Join Date: Jun 2004
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I don't know where you're thinking of going with Pacific Delight, but since everyone else has responded that they used them for China, I thought I would let you know that I used them for Thailand in 2004. I took my daughter for a 12-day Pacific Delight tour as her high school graduation gift. This was only my second trip overseas, but I was very particular about choosing the tour to book. Previously I'd been on a Ritz tour in China and, although we saw a lot, we were always so rushed, we never had any free time to shop or explore on our own. I wanted to make sure that I found a tour that would offer an acceptable balance of seeing the sights we wanted to see, but allowed us some time on our own. My China tour also had a group of about 40+ people, which made it difficult (if not impossible) to hear the tour guide at times. Pacific Delight limits the number of people in their tours to a much smaller number and will even go with as few as 3-4 people. Just prior to our leaving, I learned that the mother of a friend of mine had used Pacific Delight to tour Vietnam with 3 friends and they were the only people in their group. They ended up having almost a private, customized tour as they were able to request changes on the fly, which the tour operator easily and gladly accommodated.
Our tour to Thailand was great. We only had 13 people in our group, so the small number of people made our itinerary a bit more flexible as well. We were also able to make some changes mid-tour when the guide said that it seemed that we were getting "templed-out" and asked if we wanted to visit an elephant hospital and a jungle market instead of another planned temple and when he asked if we'd like to fit in a brief visit to Laos and Myannmar. Of course, this was all done by the in-country operator rather than Pacific Delight, but their ability to use competent, flexible and accommodating in-country operators was great.
If you're interested in reading about our trip, you can go to:
homepage.smc.edu/louff_judy
and click on Thailand.
Our tour to Thailand was great. We only had 13 people in our group, so the small number of people made our itinerary a bit more flexible as well. We were also able to make some changes mid-tour when the guide said that it seemed that we were getting "templed-out" and asked if we wanted to visit an elephant hospital and a jungle market instead of another planned temple and when he asked if we'd like to fit in a brief visit to Laos and Myannmar. Of course, this was all done by the in-country operator rather than Pacific Delight, but their ability to use competent, flexible and accommodating in-country operators was great.
If you're interested in reading about our trip, you can go to:
homepage.smc.edu/louff_judy
and click on Thailand.
