China Tour Companies

This was the most amazing trip! The tour guides in every city, Bill & Lily in Beijing, Joe in Xi'an, and Helen in Shanghai made the trip first class and memorable. They are professional and knowledgeable and genuinely caring people. Bill went above and beyond and helped us order dinner in mandarin and assisted us when our alipay was not working. He did not have to stay overtime to help us. Lily waited patiently for us at the airport and was worried when she didn't see us. She made the extra effort to call the hotel to see if we arrived to the hotel on our own. She is super caring. Joe's love for Xi'an is super awesome. He was beaming with excitement and pride to show us his city. Joe's attention to detail was impressive. Joe even made sure there would be a western style bathroom near the restaurant after our meals. Helen made every effort to help us with wechat and alipay when they didn't work. She also would help us pay first and then get reimbursed when wechat and alipay didn't work in many parts of the country. They were all very responsive even when our tour was over for the day. They encouraged us to contact them if we had any problems in the evenings when we discovered the cities on our own. Their attention to detail is top notch. The drivers for all of the cities were excellent too. We really appreciate the first class service we received when we taken to the train and airports. We would have been unable to navigate the busy train station and airport solo. The care the guides took with walk

excellent. very well organized. very good support on site. very beautiful country. recommendable

The only reason this tour deserves one star in the rating is the incredible beautiful scenery in the nationalpark. I booked an English tour guide and unfortunately it wasn't. At the beginning I asked a couple of times if the tour was gonna be in English and she said yes. But she barely knew any English and mispronounced every word and also didn't understand me. Also, she answered "yes" to almost all of my questions, even when they started with "why", "how" or "when". She was nice and was trying every now and then, but we couldn't even exchange two sentances! Which meant, I barely learned anything about the country, but also i never knew what she wanted from me or where we were going and the organisation was very confusing: for example, she told me the drive would be about 1 hour but we arrived 10 minutes later and she told me tianmen mountain was not included in my itinerary but it was. If you're wondering how she told me: she translated online... except for buying tickets and transportation, i felt like i was traveling alone. Also i noticed other tour guides who spoke English very well - very frustrating. Also, the room in the first hotel was dirty and smelled badly. And before arriving in china i asked the travel agency if i could stay one night longer - they said no, there are no rooms available or its very expensive due to national day (which was not true, i booked one on my own for half the price in a much nicer hotel).

We had a great trip.

Good value for money and the guide was on point. Would definitely use them again as an option for budget travel. China would likely have been difficult and beat and undoable without a tour (and I am a fairly a seasoned traveler)

The best things about this trip was our CEO, Jennifer. She was knowledgeable, helpful and gave a lot of great suggestions about foods to try, what we could do in our free time, etc. The accommodations and food were good for the price. The amount of time spent in transit and carrying around luggage was the main downside. The sleeper trains were also hard to get a good sleep on.

We had a great guide but local provider was not so much

Several of the hotels were dusgusting!

The trip was very well organized by Silk Road Tour. The local tour guide and program were well coordinated and offered great insights with opportunities for independent exploration. A delicious and varied lunch was the daily highlight. The group was nice and small with four people. The tour guide and driver were responsive to special requests and I felt safe and comfortable.

I booked two consecutive tours with Silk Road Tours and Programme and organisation were perfect and in line with the description. Guides were very friendly and flexibe to accomodate individual wishes (special food, visits outside the programme etc); the large majority also had a very good background on local culture and history. Transportation was always ok, food was always good and accomodations as well. A very big thanks to Ben Yan from Silkroad for his perfect support answering my many individual questions and requests.

My Guide Arther and Driver were amazing, the itinerary was perfect, the hotels were great and the food was also great. It was very expensive due to traveling on my own but there weren’t any alternatives but it was a not to miss part of the world

Great guides, super well organized, amazing hotels. They send you a list of things to set up beforehand to deal with the “great firewall of China,” which was great though I would have liked it sooner. Thanks to our wonderful guides Kevin, Lily, and Johnny, as well as Wally and Sean for the airport pickups.

Very good tour with excellent guides, always on time and very knowledgeable, good accommodation.

! I took 26 days trip with The Dragon Trip company. It’s amazing trip ever ! So organized program , all leaders are very knowledgeable and helpful! The trip is goes so smooth and very well done job!

Excellent trip with a brilliant tour guide Jin

This is a great tour that packs a lot in. Time flies as you see so much although you won't spend long at many of the sites. My favourite bits of the itinerary were: - The Great Wall at Mutianyu (Beijing) we took the chair lift option which meant we could ride the toboggan back down. - Terracotta Warriors (Xian) half day - Li River Cruise (Guilin) - Huangpu River Cruise (Shanghai) which luckily turned into an evening cruise as we couldn't get on the earlier one. Those are the highlights but there are so many other things such as the Tang Dynasty Dancing and Dumpling Dinner and Summer Palace in Beijng and Reed Flute Caves in Guilin. In particular Guilin so picturesque and Shanghai so modern. We were lucky with our first two guides, Tina (Beijing) and Celine (Xian) who were both excellent. Autumn in Guilin and Mindy in Shanghai were good too. Autumn stayed with us to help us find and order food in the evenings so a couple of long shifts for her. Celine helped arrange a birthday cake for one of our younger travellers. Included meals were excellent. Full banquets usually in local restaurants but we really enjoyed the home cooked lunch as well. Food was plentyful. We even enjoyed the set meal box on the cruise. Hotels were generally of a good standard. Check-in at The Great Wall Hotel in Beijing was really slow though and trying to find a table for breakfast was difficult and located a fair distance away from where the restaurants are (need to get the subway to reach them) The hotel in Guilin was the worst one, the rooms being some distance away from the lift and lobby and small bathrooms. The hotel in Shanghai was excellent. It was nice touch that we got framed photo souvenirs of our trip from Beijing although I think both myself and my sister should have received one each as we paid for single supplements. Some feedback I'd give would be that they need to let us know about the optional night tours that are available on the website/ itinerary before we come out so that we can budget properly. There was a night visit for the Big Goose Pagoda in Xian with the musical fountain light show which we would have liked to have gone to didn't go to due to the weather. We found that the night cruise in Guilin was expensive as the premium we paid for the guide to buy the tickets and come onboard with us was excessive. We could have just walked to the ticket office and bought the tickets ourselves. The night tour of Shanghai was just as expensive but at least that included a coach to drive us around as well as the guide. Having said that, we could have used the subway and got around ourselves and because it started so late, we didn't see much. It is worth going up Jin Mao Tower. Overall, we had a great time on this trip and would recommend Travel China Guide.

I found both the program and the tour guide on site very good. Everything was very well organized and the tour guide was very well informed, helpful and friendly.

It was a great tour, we saw so many things we wouldn't have seen if we had been traveling by ourselves! The days were very busy but the guides made everything simple and their suggestions/alternative plans were relevant. The food was delicious and the hotels were comfortable.

Delighted with this tour in particular with Lackdon, our guide from Great Tibet Tour. Super attentive and very knowledgeable about the history of Tibet.

The Tour was good with a caring, responsible informative guide.

A spanish language tour falsely marketed as an English language tour. Great opportunity to improve/refresh your spanish, as you'll be hearing it a lot over the loudspeakers in the bus. If you want an English language guided tour of China, shop elsewhere. Most of the time there were two guides, the second one for English speakers, but the Spanish guide took over the microphone in the bus (and one of the English language guides actually spoke Spanish better, and acted as a 2nd Spanish guide..). When a single guide was available, the guide was not certified as an English language guide, just Spanish (they explained very little in English, doing me a favour). For example, one may miss an early breakfast, as the announcement is made only in Spanish... Not a bad tour itinerary, much better for those who speak Spanish. Note: guides change multiple times over the trip, i.e. "local" guides. Their knowledge varied widely (one guide took pictures on a site, explaining it was her 1st time there, but she watched videos before...) Otherwise: 7 hour bus ride when 1.5hr ride by train was available; 2nd class train tickets (in very crowded trains); long bus rides in inappropriate buses that don't even have a lavatory; some of the hotels were not the ones promised, and some were in bad shape (10 min wait for an elevator, pilling wallpaper, etc.). Most hotels were good. So: itinerary - not bad; facilities - not that good. For non Spanish speakers - simply AVOID AVOID AVOID!

The cycle tour guide couldn't ride a bike, and the co. hadn't told me there was no group, so I cycled alone with a car waiting to guide me. The ancient villages were lovely and accommodation fine.

Leo and the team were amazing to deal with and the trip definetly exceeded my expectations. Would highly recommend them.

16 day Kailash, 4 day Kora I’m sharing this review in as many places as possible because, during my search for detailed feedback on this agency, I found very little. I do not recommend traveling with Tibet Vista if your goal is a spiritual journey. You’ll face numerous worries and constantly feel helpless and disregarded. We paid around $2,700, plus hotel upgrades, not to mention tickets, visas, and insurance. For that amount, you expect at least some quality; unfortunately, we experienced none, along with disrespect. Transportation: We were provided a bus with no AC or heating, sealed windows, and a broken roof window. You spend 6-8 hours a day in a bus with no airflow. Accommodation: We were given the cheapest and filthiest accommodations. Our Tibetan agent called it “basic,” but it was truly filthy. The towels and bedding hadn’t been washed in ages, plumbing was clogged with waste floating on the bathroom floor, and there were questionable stains on the blankets. You might think, “It’s a remote area; what do you expect?” Well, there are decent hotels nearby that cost only $20-30 more but are clean. Tibet Vista is simply too greedy to book them. Guide: Our guide had no touch with reality. He was just an interpreter. The guy had no idea nor about cultural heritage, nor if there is an ATM in the city. During the Kora, he left people behind and walked off on his own. On the second day, he arrived at the dorm long before the last group members, leaving them alone with the porters. His passive attitude cost four people a significant amount of money. Due to weather conditions, we were stuck in Gyirong and were unable to drive to Lhasa, which meant those four could not leave for Nepal. While other guides made sure their customers departed before the road closed (the night before the closure and early morning), ours was counting stars and didn’t do a thing, resulting in people being stranded for days and still had to drive to Lhasa in the end (the agency was inadequate as well, providing them with false information). Agency Management: The Chinese boss of Tibet Vista is quite deceptive. We signed up for a 16-day trip with a 4-day Kora. Upon arrival, the guide informed us that it was forbidden to approach Kailash due to recent deadly accidents. We are all in for safety, but we would want to know this prior to the trip, so that we could postpone it, as touching Kailash was our main goal and the agency was well aware of it. The agency attempted to push a 15-day itinerary on us instead. When we confronted our agent, she claimed ignorance, while the boss insisted he had permission for us to proceed. They even brought their YouTube star, Jamyang who swore on everything being safe because according to him he had just returned from touching Kailash. When we arrived in Tarchen, the agency made a big show of taking us to the police to secure permission to approach Kailash, but we were rudely turned away. Ultimately, we ended up doing a 3-day Kora, and on the evening of the third day, we received unexpected news that we could do the inner Kora and touch Kailash. Which was great and we did it. While that was a relief, we were informed it was a 5-6 km walk, but it turned out to be 20 km. Our guide disappeared ahead of us, forcing us to navigate on our own, which was quite challenging. If you still choose to travel with Tibet Vista, bring sleeping bags, as you will often find yourself sleeping in “filthy” conditions, which they label as “basic.” If you’re a vegetarian, pack food for at least a week, as vegetarian options are scarce and all meals (both veg and non-veg) are typically fried in one pot. Hotel breakdown: 1. Gang Gyan - Lhasa: You don’t want this place to be your first impression of Tibet. The rooms had fungus, no ventilation, and were dirty, with a terrifying bathroom and toilet. Previously used bedding and towels. All topped up by rude sour faces at the front desk. Upgrade to St. Regis. Yes, it’s more expensive, but you won’t feel like gagging when entering the bathroom. 2. Shigatse: I don’t recall the hotel’s name, but we arrived to find a clogged toilet and bathtub, with water and waste flooding the floor. This issue wasn’t resolved by the time we left. Upgrade to Hilton. 3. Everest Base Camp: Accommodation consists of small mobile homes that are warm and comfy. Recommendation: Upgrade to a private room; otherwise, you will end up sharing one large cot with 5-6 strangers back-to-back. 4. Saga: We stayed at the same hotel on the way to and from Kailash. It was pristine on the way there but surprisingly way less clean on the return trip. However, it was bearable, so an upgrade isn’t necessary. 5. Tarchen: A clean hotel; no upgrade necessary. 6. Kayirong/Gyirong (the last city before departing for Nepal): Recommendation: Upgrade to Qomolangzou. The original hotel was the filthiest of all. As for the dorms during the Kora, their condition was poor, but not that there was a decent hotel nearby, so it was understandable.

The guide Kunchok was very good. The hotel in Lhase was terrible. Front desk ladies service very unpleasant. The hotel has no air conditioning and I was arranged a room at the south side which was a boiler room. I woke up twice sweating during the night sleep and in the moring with bleexing nose. Complaint but was declined. Had to request the guide to deal the situation and finally received a change room at the north side which was cooler. Very unpleasant experience and first impression was minus towards this hotel in Lhasa.