Package or Improvise
 

My son and I will be traveling to Beijing and Shanghai next month. Airfare is purchased, but I'm debating whether I should do a package deal for hotel/food/attractions through CTS or just handle everything myself.

CTS wants to charge me $925 per person for a nine-day stay at 3-star hotels. A friend who has lived in Beijing says I can do all that on my own for about half the cost.

This is my first international trip. I don't mind paying a little extra for convenience and extra peace of mind, but I don't want to waste a pile of money, either.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

You should have no trouble making the arrangements yourself. You can see how we managed at
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34682619

For pricing, consider that last September my bro & wife paid 6187RMB/about $773 USD each (cash, not credit) for 6 day/5 nite package: flight from Shanghai to Beijing, 3 nites in 4-star Beijing Jianguo Garden Hotel, dinner at Beijing's Quanjude Restaurant--famous for Peking Duck, flight to Xian, one night at 4-star Xian Gloria Plaza hotel, flight to Shanghai and all entrance fees to what I consider "the usual" tourist sites, daily Breakfasts, private transfers to/from hotel, plus private car, driver and personal tour guide. I arranged this thru Toby at [email protected]. He's based in Shanghai. phone +86-21-6380-9006. They ask additional 2% for using a credit card. Can potentially negotiate part of this away or add other things for free cuz it's my opinion this is charged because people will pay it. (Restaurants and hotels don't charge extra % for using credit cards.) When negotiating anything, keep in mind drivers usually make around $1/hour and tour guides are probably only a little more.

You can probably do it cheaper, but for me it wasn't worth my worry about if my bro would able to find things okay. I personally prefer a dedicated car, driver and tour guide because then I don't have to do much thinking and organizing. As an example, I showed up in Xi'An with hotel booked and then arranged my own tour upon arrival, but felt that I could have better utilized my time had I had a guide and cost would probably have been about the same...and I speak enough Mandarin to negotiate and get around.

If you're not interested in this option you may want to try elong.net. It's Expedia's partner in China. You can book your hotels as well as group tours. At the very least you can see what the popular attractions are so you can start creating your itinerary.

Some of my Chinese colleagues use ctrip.com to book hotels. This site has a "Destinations Guide" as well.

Perhaps you can quote a package thru a few providers and compare to what you can do yourself then pick which is the least cost. Good luck!

We live in Xiamen Fujian China, arrange your own hotels and barter. We usually can get a 3 star hotel for a 100 to 150 rmb per night which is usually 40 percent of their asking rate. Chinese hotels are use to bartering. If you stay t western chain hotels don't expect to barter.

My daughter (22 yrs) and I just did 2 weeks on our own in Shanghai, Lijiang, Beijing. I arranged all hotels & internal flights via internet (wacts, sinohotels, asiarooms). Used guidebooks, hired drivers when needed. Marija'a travelogue was very helpful. We stayed at very nice hotels because my daughter had been backpacking thru SE Asia for 7 months & wanted a treat. Frankly, this was quite fun. Otherwise ate street food, minimal shopping, walked (a lot!). Taxis are ultra clean and cheap. Be sure to get "hotel card" so drivers can know where to take you and return you. Yes, I was a little nervous @ the do-it-yourself choice but no need to worry. It was a grand adventure! Learn a few words of Mandarin...it opens doors and hearts.

gomoos - you mention that you hired drivers as needed. How did you arrange for them? Through your hotels? Also, you mention getting a hotel card so your taxi driver will know where to take you. What about when you first arrive in a town and don't HAVE the hotel card? How did you communicate where you wanted to go? I've started working with Warriors tours (also known as Travel China Guide) and it seems I can get them to make as many or few arrangements as I want. Am considering having all transfers from airport to hotel plus all internal flights arranged by them. Was also thinking of getting them to set up guides for me in certain places (trip to Great Wall, for instance - we want to do the Jinshanling section - and also a daytrip to Tiger Leaping Gorge). How easy is it to arrange such things on the fly? Our time is limited, so we won't have a lot of time to make arrangements once there. Thanks!

About getting to a hotel on arrival in China, I'd suggest you go to the hotel's website if they have one and cut and paste the Chinese name and address and then print out and take with you.

K