Has anyone taken a Uniworld Tour in China. I'd love to see China, but feel I want my first experience to be guided. Is Uniworld reliable? Their prices seem pretty fair and the tour descriptions seem pretty extensive. Has anyone experienced problems with the tours, the flights, accomodations or food. Aside from Uniworld, how bad are the very long flights from the east coast. Any suggestions on precautions to take before or during the trip.

It has been several years since we used Uniworld for a China tour. Our Uniworld trip was a first-class operation. Hotels were 5-star, and the guide and driver were fantastic.

After the mainland China part of the tour, we spent several days in Hong Kong. We had added extra days to that part of the trip, and we were delighted to learn that Uniworld did not charge extra for our transfer to the airport.

Uniworld prices sometimes seem to be higher than other tours because they include everything. They do not have a list of "optional tours" in each town as that cost is in the original price.

We did not have much free time on our own, and I think at that time the Chinese government did want us wandering around on our own. Days are long, but you see and do many things.

Hi gunnie - Welcome to Fodors forum.

There is a lot of info on 'Uniworld' to see by putting the name into the search box.

That should have been the Chinese government did not want us unsupervised.

Susan, Thanks for the input. Do you recall if the in-country flights were acceptable. and when you are poking around on your own, is it safe.

When we were with Uniworld, we had 5 internal flights. The flights were acceptable, and they did serve food even on the short flights.

Our guide and driver had terrific timing. Our luggage was sent ahead to the airport, and we continued touring. Then we would arrive at the airport, the guide got the boarding passes, and we hurried to the plane to board. We did not waste time sitting around at airports. This was before 9/11.

We always felt safe. Vendors were persistent wanting to make a sale, but they were friendly.

Our tour started in Beijing, and our only regret was not making arrangements to arrive several days early to explore on our own.

Susan - when did you go to China? I started going in 1997, and I never had any difficulty in wandering around on my own.

We have been to China several times. The first was about 26 years ago. We had little freedom to wander. Over the years, we have noticed many changes. The Uniworld trip was 5-years ago. The last trip was 3-years ago, and we were able to wander without any problems. With a tour, I think guides do not want to be searching for lost tourists.

I think the wandering thing depends on the tour. My first was with the Smithsonian, and the tour manager got very agitated when I wanted to ride the metro (to catch up with the tour after taking off to do a hutong tour instead of another museum). The next trip I went with Intrepid, and they put up a note in the first hotel telling us to get out there, and advocating the metro.

Has anyone tried Globus for touring China?