www.smartours.com has a February departure to Beijing and Shanghai, 5 nights at the Capital Hotel in Beijing and 3 nights at the Holiday Inn Downtown in Shanghai. Includes air / hotel / daily breakfast and transfers to and from the hotels for $699.

This sounds too good to be true? Anyone know about this tour outfit? These hotels?

Thanks.

I have a friend going on this tour. Smart tours/friendly planet offer good tours. They are more laid back than most. They don`t get you up at the crack of dawn unless you need to be somewhere early, like the airport. There is a lot of free time, so you do need to do research. The only other thing is that they have optional tours, and if you want to take them, that adds to your cost. Of course, it`s the same for most tour companies. Most of the people on these tours are repeat customers, and some have been many times. The hotels and food were all very good, and hotels were not out of the city. We had people from age 26 to in their 70,s. It`s almost worth it to go for the cheap airfare.

Thanks Pat.

I have a friend who just took this trip in November 2005! She had a fabulous time and said everything was wonderful. She said the hotel in beijing was 'opulent', and the one in shanghai was a standard holiday inn, but the location was excellent. I was glad to hear this, as I am taking their vietnam/cambodia/thailand trip in april..

We went to China with a different tour company over Christmas 1998/1999. On our return to the U.S. we were on the plane with a lot of people who had toured with different companies, Smartours among them. ALL of us were very happy with our tours. Go for it! Have a great time. Think about adding a few days before your return flight if you can and seeing some other things. See if a side trip to Xian to see the terra cotta soliders is feasible. That is a fairly unbeatable price.

Just a note: We tried to delay our flight back from BKK to stay in Chaing Mai for a few extra days for the Flower Festival. No can do through Friendly Planet.