A very well organized trip - communication was very excellent. The driver was ready and waiting at the very clearly defined pick-up location. He was very competent and friendly, spoke good English and was happy to make stop if a needed to. Patrick, the tour guide, was also very friendly, spoke excellent English and clearly knew a lot about Leshan and the big Buddha. Despite bad weather, the trip to see the Buddha was well worth it and very impressive. Continuing to see the older parts of Leshan and the tea farm provided a wonderful, enlightening opportunity to see how people live.

Lois took us to the Chengdu panda base and we loved it. We went on a cool day in the morning so the pandas were very active! Lois knows a lot about pandas! After a great morning we took a 90 minute ride to the giant budha. A perfect restaurant for a tasty lunch, then a short boat ride to see the carved monument up close. A 90 minute drive home completed a full day. Thanks Lois!

One of my favourite days in China - I have lived here for 2 years. The panda sanctuary was great and to see them being looked after was amazing. We went in the morning and beat the huge crowds. Seeing the Leshan Giant Buddha was also magnificent- it truly is one of the seven wonders of China. Our tour guide Abby spoke better English than us and was incredibly helpful answering all our questions and giving us the facts about the two sites. I would recommend to everyone but go in the winter and in the morning!!!

Just horrible, went in Sept 2023, rude crowds and so much noise, megaphones and pushing. All Pandas indoors. All I saw were crowds and dirty windows. Its basically a Zoo. When I first saw Pandas in Beijing Zoo in 1985 the locals threw rocks at them in their barren concrete pits. Now they are the stars, strange how the attitudes change. I have seen pandas in Tokyo, Chang Mai and Adelaide all are a more pleasant experience and you can actually see them. Bypass this over promoted Zoo and go elsewhere to see Pandas.

We had a full day excursion to see the Panda base reserve and the Giant Buddha. Our guide, Abby, was punctual, kind, and provided us with all the information we needed covering both activities and general information about Chengdu and China. We also had a personal driver, who drove safely and was very nice. We highly recommend this excursion!

Our guide Wency was fantastic. We were the only 2 people on the trip so a car picked us us promptly at 730am and we headed out to see the pandas. Our driver had supplied us with bottled water and iced coffee which was a nice touch. It can get pretty crowded near the pandas even on a quiet day so be prepared to jostle for position when trying to take photos. Wency was very knowledgeable throughout and at the Panda centre we saw many pandas climbing trees, playing and eating. You need to go early as once they have eaten they just sleep. It’s is a beautiful area and very picturesque, be prepared for a good walk! From there we drove 2.5 hours to Leshan where we stopped for a dumpling lunch in the town before heading to the boat. It was a Monday and fairly quiet so there were no queues and we boarded quickly. We paid an extra 30 yen for a seat inside once on the boat, this is optional and they serve you tea or coffee in this price. We headed down the river to the Buddha which is spectacular, the biggest stone Buddha in the world. The boat stops for photos before returning back up the river the journey takes approximately 40 minutes. Our journey was by car so much quicker than if you were on a bus and waiting for others so we were very lucky. Wonderful day for us would highly recommend especially lovely Wency!

Chaotic and didn’t get the tour we paid for. Didn’t tell us they didn’t have the tickets until after 2.5 hour drive! No refund offered

Joy was very attentive. She contacted the hotel reception beforehand to make everything easy. Her explanations in perfect English were all very interesting, she told us about the history, traditions, religious beliefs and even science behind some local phenomena. The chauffeur Zhou was also very nice, he taught us some Chinese and his driving was very smooth, making us comfortable on the way from one place to another. I would totally recommend this tour ☺️

We recommend the services of Sheldon. Very nice and attentive guy. He brought us to a typical restaurant with delicious food.

If you go on this tour, I highly recommend you ask to leave Chengdu early (6:30) and tell the company what your priorities are -- I would think it should be relatively easy to customize as it is a private tour. We left at 8 a.m. and by the time we got to the pandas, 90% of them were napping because they are fed at 8 a.m., according to our guide. There is also a particularly famous panda that people were lined up to see. Our guide did not ask our interest in waiting to see this panda; we just walked by, probably because we needed to get on our way to see the Leshan Buddha. The crowds were extensive (as was our experience at every attraction in China), so that was not surprising but did make it a bit of a competition to see the pandas. We were able to see one panda awake and moving for about 20 seconds. The visit to the pandas felt rushed; having come thousands of miles to China, I would have gladly taken more time, so in retrospect, I would have shared this preference with the tour organizer ahead of time and gone earlier and/or skipped the Leshan Buddha. The buddha was interesting, but I am not sure it was worth the long drive and quick zip through the panda zoo. I also would have appreciated more information about the Leshan Buddha and Buddhism from our guide; Chinese tour groups on the boat appeared to be getting more information from their guides. Our guide was nice but reserved and maybe a bit rusty after years of pandemic-related lockdown. But my hunch is that the company has all the infrastructure to be able to create a great, customized tour, so I encourage you to give them a try.

Really excellent day with Patrick. He was full of information and really helped us get a feel for these places.

What a fantastic tour! My host, Sheldon, definitely went above and beyond when I experienced travel difficulties. I'd definitely recommend. If you're considering a trip to Chengdu, give it a go. The panda tour was definitely a highlight.

We had very bad experience in the Panda base. As it locates in the city, there is reallyyyy crowded. It basically is a panda zoo. Sure There are many pandas there but you can hardly see any panda as it is too crowded. The park is very big, and pandas are split, we walked a lot with the crowded people but we can’t see panda, as wherever there is a panda, where are thousands of people crowded there ,Very exhausted in the end.and very disappointed in the end. We paid more than 150$ for this half day private tour for 2 people .The tickets are around 8$ each,if you take taxi, round trip is about 20$. It is really not worth to book tour to Panda base, you can go by yourself if you don’t mind you can barely see any panda. At least you don’t waste your money. We went there on Wednesday, and it is not the peak time for travel, and it is still full. The tour guide can’t do anything to help you seeing panda better than other people, you need to be tall enough to see the panda, like above 2.5 meters high :).

We really enjoyed exploring and learning about Chinese culture and meeting the local people, it was great to visit unique areas hard to reach traveling solo.

+ Started in the morning from chengdu, visited the giant Buddha by using the boats. Chilled walkthrough in some hidden streets and end of the day harvested some green tea and learned how to cook and dry. It was a really nice experience to see in detail how to win tea and talk directly to the farmer about their business and the learn about their life story. Our Tourguide Sheldon was very young but shared a lot of facts during the hole trip. He was friendly and helpfully by everything. So we really enjoyed just to follow him and not to care about driving, paying or organizing something what can be easily a bit stressfully in china. -I am only a bit disappointed that we still have 130 air pollution values. Thought will be better outside from Chengdu