In the past, you have been so helpful in my planning a trip. My husband and I are planning on a trip to China the end of this year or beginning of 2009. I am asking for info again!
We wanna make this a good one and I am not sure about the length of time to travel this time. How long does it take? We leave from S.C. We have flown to Europe about 8 times and that seems long sometime. I have been looking at a Globus Tour or a Viking River Cruise. We would like to include the Three Gorges,Great Wall and Terra Cotta Warriors and The Forbidden City.Both tours groups include these places. Would like to stay about 2-3 weeks.
If anyone has any experience or advise on anything such as when is the best time of year to go, I would appreciate any suggestions or information. I am just in the planning stage. Thanks

Westminister - My husband and I returned from our Viking River Cruise trip to China on 10/4/07. We truly enjoyed it. Our intinerary included 3 nights in Lhasa, Tibet. Weather end of Sept/Oct was still hot (80's) but not unbearable. Our guide told us that Summer's are miserable and Winters have the wind that blows dust like crazy. He truly recommended Fall. I have a 12 page trip report in Word. If you want it, just e-mail me and I'll send it to you as well as answer any questions that I can about the company.

We traveled to China with Overseas Adventure Travel and had a wonderful trip. It included all the places that you mentioned wanting to see, plus the panda sanctuary in Chengdu, Hong Kong, and the highlight of the trip - 3 days in Lhasa, Tibet. OAT features groups of no more than 16, which we have found to be much better than the large groups. They also have excellent guides, good accommodations and good prices. I also would advise not going in summer or winter. We went in May and the weather was very nice. If I can answer any other questions, feel free to email me.

We went to China for 12 days, October 25, 2007, on a Gate1Travel tour. We loved it. It was around $2500 per person including airfare from Los Angeles, entrance fees to stuff, guides, most of the meals, some extras including the pandas at the zoo in Chongqing. For the money, you couldn't do better. We went to Beijing, Xian, Chongqing, a 3-day Yangtze River Cruise, Shanghai. We saw all the high points including the Great Wall, the Terracotta Soldiers, Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, Fengdu, the Yu Gardens, etc.We thought our main guide was great, he was with us the whole trip, and the local guides were good.It was a busy, active, challenging trip. More time in Shanghai would have been nice, so a couple more days there would have given us time to shop and see more there.

I meant to include: the weather was chilly but fine. A friend of mine went to the Special Olympics in Shanghai in early October and she said it was hot and humid. So mid October might be ideal. And not crowded like summer!

I would strongly suggest Vantage Tours and Travel for your China trip. They are a very good First Class/Deluxe travel company and I feel are also fairly reasonable for what you get.

We did their 21 day tour and felt we got to see everything on "our list" - from the Great Wall, Terra Cotta Soldiers, Li river at Guilin to a Yantze river cruise. It includes several highlight dinners, hutong, silk factory etc. etc.

I travel extensively 4 to 5 trips a year and this is one of the best I've done. You book with them directly - not through a travel agent.

Also, I forgot to mention, Vantage's rate includes airfare from the US and you stay in 5 star hotels. It is really designed for the mature traveler.

If interested, I'll be happy to send more info.