Tour companies in China
 

We are a group of friends putting together a private trip to China as part of attending a wedding. To make it easier we're planning on using a tour group with customization. The companies we are getting proposals from are Odyssey Tours, China Tours, and Access Asia. Has anyone used any of these and if so what was your experience? One of the companies is significantly cheaper than the other and we're flying blind. Thank you.

Advice on the many problems with tour companies has been given so often here, I'll just direct you to this summary:

Tours

Use a tour company if you must, but ask the important questions given, be aware of the drawbacks, and go in with your eyes open and your wallet firmly shut.

Some have a lot of reviews on TripAdvisor, some I never heard of before. So check there.
One doesn't need a tour to visit China but I can see the benefit if you are a group. You can certainly have a private tour customized to your interests. Make sure and demand that there should be no shopping stops or factory tours.

Do keep in mind that travel to China is relatively easy to manage and plan on one's own.
And definitely pay close and careful attention to the cautionary notes and guidance if using a tour!

Or perhaps do what we did, which was to get a driver that took us where WE wanted to go, and who kept his mouth shut. No propaganda came out of his mouth, and we did not visit any gift shops. And yes, as kja said, it was all very easy to plan. I hired the drivers from our hotels, and they helped me plan the itineraries in advance. We flew from city to city, and had the drivers meet us.

Thanks everyone. This is such a helpful forum. China Odyssey gets hundreds of excellent reviews and we chose all the hotels, number of days in each city, etc. They get very high marks for flexibility and quality of their guides. With so many people involved this was easier. I've only done one organized tour as part of a trip to Viet Nam so I was hesitant but I think we're OK.

I am looking for Shanghai tour operators

@ emilyquirq: If you are willing to do so, travel to / in Shanghai is something you can easily plan on your own.

I second kja's comments about not needing a guide in Shanghai. We stayed at the Marriott there, and they arranged drivers for us for out of town trips. While in the city, we either walked or took a taxi.

It may be worth mentioning that if you choose to organise cars and drivers through your hotel you will pay an arm, a leg, and half a torso more then is necessary. It is far more economical (as much as a third of the price) to organise a taxi yourself. You may still choose to use the hotel, but be aware what convenience costs you.

I searched on google and got in here.

My partner and I ever traveled to Tibet via Easy Tibet Travel that really helped us by offering a cost-efficient tour, although getting the Tibet travel permit did seem a bit problematic.

We're planning to travel in India or Nepal this fall.

Your post of shopping stops really gives an alert. I was ever forced to shop, very uncomfortable experience.

And now absorbed into another company, or operating under a different name, so impossible to assess. None of the links to tours work, no testimonials since early 2018, and no Facebook postings since 2016. Operating honest tours (if that's what these were, and no Chinese ground handler was used to book accommodation or meals) will usually make them very much pricier than all the companies offering pell-mell itineraries for a seemingly impossible low price, but who line their pockets at your expense in so many other ways.

Just exactly what information can we believe when it is coming out of china? Hardly any i'd say.

In June I posted a question about tour companies in China. We just came back. We used Odyssey Tours which is also Odynovo Tours. It was perfect in every way. It's based in China and was about half the price of the American company. It's fully customizable and the guides were wonderful. Lunch was included each day and all were delicious. Don't hesitate to use them. And China was a great destination.
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Just my two cents on tour guides in Asia in general. It's hard to find English speaking people that anyone who speaks English good enough to be a tour guide can land much better and more prestigious job. It is not like Europe where many people speak more than one language. Often English is their second language or third.