Inexpensive China land tour to combine with cruise

[sparkers]

Anyone find any great inexpensive land tours to combine with their cruise. I noticed that Royal Caribbean Legend of the Seas is almost booked for the summer. I am on the June 27th sailing. I have booked my own air landing in Beijing and out of Shanghai. Too bad there aren't any tour companies that thought of packaging these two things together! Anyone find a reputable tour company to package with this?

thanks

Sparks

[travelfirst]

Anyone find any great inexpensive land tours to combine with their cruise. I noticed that Royal Caribbean Legend of the Seas is almost booked for the summer. I am on the June 27th sailing. I have booked my own air landing in Beijing and out of Shanghai. Too bad there aren't any tour companies that thought of packaging these two things together! Anyone find a reputable tour company to package with this?

thanks

Sparks

 

I am going on the "Imperial Jewels of China" tour with Viking River Cruises next week. It leaves from Bejing and ends up in Shanghai.

 

I am sure there are lots of other tours and someone who has been on them will post here.

[tommui987]

Anyone find any great inexpensive land tours to combine with their cruise. I noticed that Royal Caribbean Legend of the Seas is almost booked for the summer. I am on the June 27th sailing. I have booked my own air landing in Beijing and out of Shanghai. Too bad there aren't any tour companies that thought of packaging these two things together! Anyone find a reputable tour company to package with this?

thanks

Sparks

 

I agree with the previous poster - Viking River Cruise from Beijing to Shanghai (or vice versa) which is fairly complete with hotel, air (within China), meals and tours. You usually spend 4 days in Beijing, two in Xian, fly to Chungking (old spelling) to board the boat and eventually get back to Shanghai.

 

Was so impressed by that tour, we took two more trips with Viking and hope to do a few more too!

[greatam]

Anyone find any great inexpensive land tours to combine with their cruise. I noticed that Royal Caribbean Legend of the Seas is almost booked for the summer. I am on the June 27th sailing. I have booked my own air landing in Beijing and out of Shanghai. Too bad there aren't any tour companies that thought of packaging these two things together! Anyone find a reputable tour company to package with this?

thanks

Sparks

 

Contact China Highlights. http://www.chinahighlights.com/ Good service and a fair price. I HIGHLY recommend you pick a few things you would like to do, hotels you would like to stay in and NEGOTIATE somewhat when they come back with a package price. Or book your own hotels (I use AsiaRooms.com) and let China Highlights handle the touring.

 

I have used them for everything from a Yangtze cruise to a trip to Llhasa to setting up a business meeting/dinner at the Summer Palace for me with interpreters and drivers. They have always handled my requests with precision.

[maryann ns]

Thanks for the above suggestions. I am just waiting to be able to book flights for next year. Then I can start planning. I have seen China Highlights mentioned before and I like the fact that they are flexible.

 

I hope to leave from Shanghai, go to Zian and on to Beijing. Maybe we can do a river tour as well.

[SeaTheWorldBySea]

greatam - I am glad to see you recommending China Highlights. I am communicating with them now for tours in Shanaghai & Dalian, transfer from Xingang to Beijing, touring Beijing for a couple of days then taking a Yangtze River cruise ending in Shanghai.

 

They have given me a package price for the 6 of us. I would like your advice about negotiating with them. I asked for their package to be itemized because others on the cruise may want to join us for everything except the Yangtze River cruise. If adding others to those parts of our itinerary would not save us any $ there is no point in making our group bigger. They have not actually itemized the costs and what I have gotten from them does not make it look like it would be any cheaper for us to add others.

 

Have you had any similar experiences with them? Will they break down their package and give pricing for each day? Do they always price by person rather than by vehicle. If they only price by person, it does not save us to grow our group from 6 to 8 or 10.

[greatam]

greatam - I am glad to see you recommending China Highlights. I am communicating with them now for tours in Shanaghai & Dalian, transfer from Xingang to Beijing, touring Beijing for a couple of days then taking a Yangtze River cruise ending in Shanghai.

 

They have given me a package price for the 6 of us. I would like your advice about negotiating with them. I asked for their package to be itemized because others on the cruise may want to join us for everything except the Yangtze River cruise. If adding others to those parts of our itinerary would not save us any $ there is no point in making our group bigger. They have not actually itemized the costs and what I have gotten from them does not make it look like it would be any cheaper for us to add others.

 

Have you had any similar experiences with them? Will they break down their package and give pricing for each day? Do they always price by person rather than by vehicle. If they only price by person, it does not save us to grow our group from 6 to 8 or 10.

 

I can't answer your questions totally (because of all the variables) but I can give you my suggestions and how I would handle it.

 

Example: I want a transfer from the cruise ship to Beijing, need a hotel for 2 nights, want a tour of Forbidden City, Great Wall (you MUST pick which section you want to go to), all the tourist things in Beijing. And PICK your Yangtze cruise (use their website to find out where, when and which ship).

 

I would tell them it is for 2 people ONLY. The ONLY discount for more people you will get is the transfer and the day tours. Hotels will be the same per night per room, air fare is the same. USE their website-it is full of info for "seat in coach" tours which is a large bus.

 

You have to be very careful about "growing your group". If you are requesting a private tour, their capacity is limited using THEIR OWN EQUIPMENT. PLUS their tour guides only want to handle about 6-8 people tops. Otherwise, you would be put on a bus and the "seat in coach" tours. Are you asking for an inclusive tour with food and everything or just day tours, transfer from the cruise port, internal airfare, etc. etc.? BIG difference, since you can't tell how many people will want to go with you. And it confuses them because they THINK you want the whole inclusive package tour price when maybe you only want to add a few people for the transfer and a day tour of Beijing.

 

I am VERY specific in what I want. I pick the hotels, I price out the day trips/excursions, I look at the airfare available. I then add up the price. IF they can compete, fine (and they usually can). Otherwise, book your own hotels (I use AsiaRooms, although I do compare prices with other online booking agencies). "Tour" class hotels are NOT in my vocabulary. Use them for the transfer and day tours, where you can add on extra people. If you need air, sometimes they have special discounted deals. But you will have to PIN them down-maybe an email with "how much is this, how much is that PER PERSON" will eliminate some of the confusion.

 

Depending on what Yangtze cruise you want, they MAY have the best price. I took one with them (Princess Jeanie which was really special as it went from Chongqing to Wuhan-no riding a bus from Yichang). Someone met me at the Chongqing airport, got me to the ship and picked me up in Wuhan to get me to the airport. I upgraded on the Princess Jeanie to a suite at boarding for $550. The regular cabins were very small. There are now no cruises that sail to Wuhan, but Regal China (Princess Jeanie and sister ships) sail to Jingzhou. It is good that you want to sail to Shanghai. It will most likely have to be on a Victoria ship, as few of the others go to Shanghai.

 

I also took a Victoria cruise, which I booked myself at Victoria's NYC office. The Victoria cruise, while more luxurious, was definitely more AMERICANIZED. No flying kites off the back end of the ship, no Chinese entertainment, not nearly as much "Chinesey" stuff as on the Princess Jeanie.

 

Check out ALL prices, find out everything you want. THEN start dealing with China Highlights. ONLY when you know EXACTLY what you want can you make an informed decision. It's the way I do it. Certainly not the only way, but I KNOW if the trip is a bummer, I can only blame myself. Hope this has been helpful.

[SeaTheWorldBySea]

I can't answer your questions totally (because of all the variables) but I can give you my suggestions and how I would handle it.

 

Example: I want a transfer from the cruise ship to Beijing, need a hotel for 2 nights, want a tour of Forbidden City, Great Wall (you MUST pick which section you want to go to), all the tourist things in Beijing. And PICK your Yangtze cruise (use their website to find out where, when and which ship).

 

I would tell them it is for 2 people ONLY. The ONLY discount for more people you will get is the transfer and the day tours. Hotels will be the same per night per room, air fare is the same. USE their website-it is full of info for "seat in coach" tours which is a large bus.

 

You have to be very careful about "growing your group". If you are requesting a private tour, their capacity is limited using THEIR OWN EQUIPMENT. PLUS their tour guides only want to handle about 6-8 people tops. Otherwise, you would be put on a bus and the "seat in coach" tours. Are you asking for an inclusive tour with food and everything or just day tours, transfer from the cruise port, internal airfare, etc. etc.? BIG difference, since you can't tell how many people will want to go with you. And it confuses them because they THINK you want the whole inclusive package tour price when maybe you only want to add a few people for the transfer and a day tour of Beijing.

 

I am VERY specific in what I want. I pick the hotels, I price out the day trips/excursions, I look at the airfare available. I then add up the price. IF they can compete, fine (and they usually can). Otherwise, book your own hotels (I use AsiaRooms, although I do compare prices with other online booking agencies). "Tour" class hotels are NOT in my vocabulary. Use them for the transfer and day tours, where you can add on extra people. If you need air, sometimes they have special discounted deals. But you will have to PIN them down-maybe an email with "how much is this, how much is that PER PERSON" will eliminate some of the confusion.

 

Depending on what Yangtze cruise you want, they MAY have the best price. I took one with them (Princess Jeanie which was really special as it went from Chongqing to Wuhan-no riding a bus from Yichang). Someone met me at the Chongqing airport, got me to the ship and picked me up in Wuhan to get me to the airport. I upgraded on the Princess Jeanie to a suite at boarding for $550. The regular cabins were very small. There are now no cruises that sail to Wuhan, but Regal China (Princess Jeanie and sister ships) sail to Jingzhou. It is good that you want to sail to Shanghai. It will most likely have to be on a Victoria ship, as few of the others go to Shanghai.

 

I also took a Victoria cruise, which I booked myself at Victoria's NYC office. The Victoria cruise, while more luxurious, was definitely more AMERICANIZED. No flying kites off the back end of the ship, no Chinese entertainment, not nearly as much "Chinesey" stuff as on the Princess Jeanie.

 

Check out ALL prices, find out everything you want. THEN start dealing with China Highlights. ONLY when you know EXACTLY what you want can you make an informed decision. It's the way I do it. Certainly not the only way, but I KNOW if the trip is a bummer, I can only blame myself. Hope this has been helpful.

 

This is a WEALTH of information and I am ever so grateful to you! I will get to work so that I can be more specific with my questions to work out the best deal for us. We already know that we do not want the hotel they were going to put us in in Beijing. THANK YOU!