Planning China trip for 2
#3
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I used China Focus (office in San Francisco) from LAX to China. They did an excellent tour and the cost can't be beat as far as I can tell. The national tour guide (with us thoughout the trip) and the city tour guides were great. If you would like a copy of my trip report, please e-mail me directly.
#4
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We used Laurus Travel out of Vancouver last year for our family of 12 including 4 small children. We thought about China Focus but chose Laurus Travel because 1) we live in Bellingam and wanted to go through Vancouver, 2) we demanded exactly the same itinerary as China Focus' 12-day Historic China and Laurus managed to beat that price but $50! The trip was terrific, much better than anticipated. We have since referred a lot of friends to the Vancouver company. I'm sure you'll have a great time going with them if they have the right tour for you. Good luck!
#6
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#7
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Hi, you did not mention how long you are planning to stay or price range. When we travel we usually only get the land only tour because sometimes we use frequent flyer miles (if you don't have enough some airlines will sell you some), as we go earlier - to China we left two days earlier because I have a problem with jet lag.
We just returned from a 22 day Panorama trip with Laurus Travel.Stayed in 4 or 5 star hotels. We started off with 12 people and two folks left after the 9th day as they were only taking the 12 day trip. Four people left after the 15th day as they were on the 18 day trip, which left six of us.
We chose this Canadian company after doing a lot of research and corresponding
with others. To make a long story short, we chose Laurus because 1. We did not
want to go on a tour group that would be large, 2. They go downstream on the
Yangtze River (which makes the whole tour more expensive for the tour company in
the sense that you will be visiting more places during your trip in addition to those on the cruise portion, which increases the cost to the tour company, i.e., transportation, accommodations, guides, etc.; in other words, the upstream cruise takes 5-6 days but cost the tour company the same as the 3-day downstream cruise), 3. They include items that other companies charge extra for, 4. We went to places where we had a demonstration how something was done and then they gave us about 20 minutes to look around. There was no pressure to buy during this time. The group also wanted to see a double-sided embroidery place which was not on the list and they accommodated us; I saw the women do the double-sided embroidery and it the quality of their work was hard to believe. 5. Most important for us is that they went to two places that were on our must do list: Dali and Lijiang. Lijiang is a UNESCO cultural city and has a culture unique to that area, as with Dali.
We are very delighted that we went to Yunnan Province as it is so different from the rest of China that we saw. It was rural China where we saw a daily life that focused on farming, going to market, etc. and not on going to work in a big city. And we were able to interact with minority groups. The scenery was magnificent - no tall skyscrapers.
You could identify the minority groups by the clothing they wore. The houses in Dali were uniquely decorated. They were one or two stories with pagoda style roofs and a pagoda style structure over many of the windows. The houses were painted white with paintings on them which were either black on white or in color. I could not believe the variety of art we saw and that the people who owned the houses were the ones who painted them.
For the cost of the trip we found it a "great buy" and Laurus Travel has an excellent reputation. Transportation in China is expensive and we went to many more places than other tour companies, and if you look at a map you will see how far it is to go to Yunnan Province.
We also went to Dazu which is also a UNESCO Heritage site. We went to a portion of the Great Wall where not too many tourists go, so therefore there were no aggressive people trying to sell us stuff. The guides we had - no problem understanding their English. I am not to sure why, but people from other tour groups joined our tour guides' presentations. They could be identified by the tags they wear.
Our contact person at Laurus was Julius. I found him to be knowledgeable,friendly, and very responsive.They offer tours of shorter duration and that cost less than the one we took. Following is their website: http://www.laurustravel.com
If you have any questions please write me.
We just returned from a 22 day Panorama trip with Laurus Travel.Stayed in 4 or 5 star hotels. We started off with 12 people and two folks left after the 9th day as they were only taking the 12 day trip. Four people left after the 15th day as they were on the 18 day trip, which left six of us.
We chose this Canadian company after doing a lot of research and corresponding
with others. To make a long story short, we chose Laurus because 1. We did not
want to go on a tour group that would be large, 2. They go downstream on the
Yangtze River (which makes the whole tour more expensive for the tour company in
the sense that you will be visiting more places during your trip in addition to those on the cruise portion, which increases the cost to the tour company, i.e., transportation, accommodations, guides, etc.; in other words, the upstream cruise takes 5-6 days but cost the tour company the same as the 3-day downstream cruise), 3. They include items that other companies charge extra for, 4. We went to places where we had a demonstration how something was done and then they gave us about 20 minutes to look around. There was no pressure to buy during this time. The group also wanted to see a double-sided embroidery place which was not on the list and they accommodated us; I saw the women do the double-sided embroidery and it the quality of their work was hard to believe. 5. Most important for us is that they went to two places that were on our must do list: Dali and Lijiang. Lijiang is a UNESCO cultural city and has a culture unique to that area, as with Dali.
We are very delighted that we went to Yunnan Province as it is so different from the rest of China that we saw. It was rural China where we saw a daily life that focused on farming, going to market, etc. and not on going to work in a big city. And we were able to interact with minority groups. The scenery was magnificent - no tall skyscrapers.
You could identify the minority groups by the clothing they wore. The houses in Dali were uniquely decorated. They were one or two stories with pagoda style roofs and a pagoda style structure over many of the windows. The houses were painted white with paintings on them which were either black on white or in color. I could not believe the variety of art we saw and that the people who owned the houses were the ones who painted them.
For the cost of the trip we found it a "great buy" and Laurus Travel has an excellent reputation. Transportation in China is expensive and we went to many more places than other tour companies, and if you look at a map you will see how far it is to go to Yunnan Province.
We also went to Dazu which is also a UNESCO Heritage site. We went to a portion of the Great Wall where not too many tourists go, so therefore there were no aggressive people trying to sell us stuff. The guides we had - no problem understanding their English. I am not to sure why, but people from other tour groups joined our tour guides' presentations. They could be identified by the tags they wear.
Our contact person at Laurus was Julius. I found him to be knowledgeable,friendly, and very responsive.They offer tours of shorter duration and that cost less than the one we took. Following is their website: http://www.laurustravel.com
If you have any questions please write me.
#8
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hi ,
I am a chinese girl,25 years old .Now I am a college student in Guangzhou -the biggest city in South China. welcome to china.
you have a play to go to china for travelling .you don't mention which city you want to visit. you come china along or with your friends? if you want to have a free travel , I am plenty of time to be your free guide in china. I am learning english now. as exchang you can teach me english.
tell me more about you travel .Maybe I can give you some useful advice.
I am a chinese girl,25 years old .Now I am a college student in Guangzhou -the biggest city in South China. welcome to china.
you have a play to go to china for travelling .you don't mention which city you want to visit. you come china along or with your friends? if you want to have a free travel , I am plenty of time to be your free guide in china. I am learning english now. as exchang you can teach me english.
tell me more about you travel .Maybe I can give you some useful advice.
#9
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Go with Smartours. Incredible value for the money. We have done several tours with them and could find nothing wrong. Someone mentioned Ritz Tours. My biggest travel mistake was using them for China. The best thing that could be said about them is that their brochure is a masterpiece of false advertising.
#11
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Another suggesstion: Used PacificBest Tours in July 01. I was the only one on the tour that particular time frame.
It was 10 day tour....around $1800 including airfare ($600 single supplement for me). Good Hotels, transportation, excellent guides...in all a wonderful experience.
It was 10 day tour....around $1800 including airfare ($600 single supplement for me). Good Hotels, transportation, excellent guides...in all a wonderful experience.
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iamles
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Jul 3rd, 2006 04:26 AM