China Private Travel
China Private Travel
4.5
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China Private Travel offers day tours of Guilin city and the surrounding areas like Yangshuo and Longsheng with government-licensed tour guide and driver.
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
4.5
21 reviews
Excellent
17
Very good
3
Average
0
Poor
1
Terrible
0
helen m
Kingaroy, Australia74 contributions
Sep 2019
All in all, it was a good experience. Alex organized everything well, everyone was there to meet us in the places specified, and the guides were good (mostly). Lily in Zian was not helpful, insisting on pushing my wheelchair and hitting peoples ankles because she had no idea how to push it safely.
Nancy in Beijing deserves a special mention as she went to all lengths to make our visit special.
Only thing we didn't like, was being asked for a tip in Shanghai from Ocean, considering he didn't pick us up or drive us to the airport for the trip home. One thinks about a tip being offered, not requested. I would still recommend this company.
Nancy in Beijing deserves a special mention as she went to all lengths to make our visit special.
Only thing we didn't like, was being asked for a tip in Shanghai from Ocean, considering he didn't pick us up or drive us to the airport for the trip home. One thinks about a tip being offered, not requested. I would still recommend this company.
Written September 24, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
veek07
Israel10 contributions
Nov 2016 • Couples
We are an elderly couple that is used to organise our trips and travel alone. For China, however, we decided to take a private tour. After some internet research we picked up the China Private Travel agency which turned out to be an excellent choice. In the trip preparation phase Lori Wang was most helpful in working with us in developing our itinerary and tailoring it to our expectations and needs.
Our three-weeks visit included Beijing, Chengdu, Xian, Guilin, Chongqing, Yangtze river cruise and Shanghai. All the local arrangements - transportation, local guides, attractions entries etc. were well timed and efficient.
During the entire trip Lori supervised the guides and the drivers from her office and was available for us to deal with any last moment changes or requests.
Overall, our trip turned out to be an unforgettable experience, smoothly managed by the China Private Travel. Thanks, Lori.
Our three-weeks visit included Beijing, Chengdu, Xian, Guilin, Chongqing, Yangtze river cruise and Shanghai. All the local arrangements - transportation, local guides, attractions entries etc. were well timed and efficient.
During the entire trip Lori supervised the guides and the drivers from her office and was available for us to deal with any last moment changes or requests.
Overall, our trip turned out to be an unforgettable experience, smoothly managed by the China Private Travel. Thanks, Lori.
Written October 21, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Jorge S
Texas6 contributions
Jun 2017 • Couples
Our tour of Hangzhou was excellent and we enjoyed it very much. David the tour guide was very informative and fun. Lori was always in communication to make sure everything was in order. Would highly recommend.
Written July 24, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
GoPlace8989
2 contributions
May 2019
At first i was hesitated to use this travel but we just go through with it. The planning and arrangement went smoothly.This is a trip that include seniors and kids so need more thoughts than usual like what to do or where to eat, etc etc. Thank you Alex for arranging this trip and be patient with our requests.
But i think the review is all depends on the guide. We went to shanghai and got guide named Andy. AWFUL tour guide with no knowledge at all. Avoid him if possible. Thank God we only got him for couple days.
Then when we went to Suzhou and surrounds we got a guide named WiIliam. He was awesome. Very helpful. Off course there's a hiccups here and there but i can see he's trying his best to accommodate us. Very recommended. Excellent service overall. We all were very enjoying this trip. Gonna use this travel again in the future.
But i think the review is all depends on the guide. We went to shanghai and got guide named Andy. AWFUL tour guide with no knowledge at all. Avoid him if possible. Thank God we only got him for couple days.
Then when we went to Suzhou and surrounds we got a guide named WiIliam. He was awesome. Very helpful. Off course there's a hiccups here and there but i can see he's trying his best to accommodate us. Very recommended. Excellent service overall. We all were very enjoying this trip. Gonna use this travel again in the future.
Written August 26, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Sandy789J
1 contribution
Nov 2018 • Couples
I worked with Lori Wang at China Private Travel and was very impressed with her professionalism and her recommendations on what to see in SW China and Tibet. While I was a little hesitant sending money overseas to a company I had never worked with, all went well without a hitch. Lori made sure everything was in order and even went beyond her call of duty by calling a relative in the Kaiping area, whom I had never met, to organize a trip to my parents ancestral villages. I couldn’t be happier with how things turned out. Thank you Lori!
Written November 12, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
piggyatzoo
Auckland, New Zealand1 contribution
Jun 2018 • Family
We got China Private Travel to arrange our family trip to Beijing, Xian and Zhangjiajie. My family included my aged mom and two kids and three other adults. We had a pleasant tour guide at Beijing and an excellent one at Xian but the guide for Zhangjiajie was a nightmare.
Her name was Sherry (or Summer). She is known for 2 names. The whole time during the Zhangjiajie tour, Sherry was addicted to her mobile phone and smiling away. She turned a deaf ear to our questions and let alone taking care us during the trip.
Sherry had pretty bad time management and a rather rude attitude. First day at Zhangjiajie, we requested to start our journey early but she refused. We ended up having lunch only at 3pm. All this time, she had never shared with us on what was expected for each trek/site that we will be visiting. She was like a total mute and only focus on her mobile messaging away.
We were kind enough to just bear with it and guess what?! It happened again.
On our last day of Zhangjiajie trip to the glass bridge, we finished the walk at around 1.15pm and Sherry insisted there was only street food and that the driver would have to drive us back to city, check-into the hotel and then get proper lunch. Lunch again will be around 2.45pm. We told her we had two starving kids and a 70+ aged mom that needed rest and food.
We refused and we directed the driver to a nearby restaurant and finally had lunch. The kids calmed down and we managed to fill our stomach and quench our thirst before headed back to the city. We were only given one bottle of drinking water each for the entire glass bridge walk on an extremely hot Summer day. Sherry, the tour guide completely forgot about bottled water until we reminded in the morning.
And this was not the end of the ordeal. When we arrived at the Best Western Grand Hotel at Zhangjiajie city, Sherry colluded with the hotel staff and refused to check us in despite having fully paid for the rooms. She instructed the hotel to hold our keys and made us wait at the lobby while Sherry was happily chatting away on her phone.
We demanded for the keys from the Best Western Hotel staff and they said it was up to Sherry because she was the one that made the hotel booking. True it was made on our behalf but we already paid up completely to China Private Travel.
We confronted Sherry and she just walked off leaving us in the lurch.
It was a terrible nightmare for us and never again we will want to return to Best Western Grand hotel and its agents.
Her name was Sherry (or Summer). She is known for 2 names. The whole time during the Zhangjiajie tour, Sherry was addicted to her mobile phone and smiling away. She turned a deaf ear to our questions and let alone taking care us during the trip.
Sherry had pretty bad time management and a rather rude attitude. First day at Zhangjiajie, we requested to start our journey early but she refused. We ended up having lunch only at 3pm. All this time, she had never shared with us on what was expected for each trek/site that we will be visiting. She was like a total mute and only focus on her mobile messaging away.
We were kind enough to just bear with it and guess what?! It happened again.
On our last day of Zhangjiajie trip to the glass bridge, we finished the walk at around 1.15pm and Sherry insisted there was only street food and that the driver would have to drive us back to city, check-into the hotel and then get proper lunch. Lunch again will be around 2.45pm. We told her we had two starving kids and a 70+ aged mom that needed rest and food.
We refused and we directed the driver to a nearby restaurant and finally had lunch. The kids calmed down and we managed to fill our stomach and quench our thirst before headed back to the city. We were only given one bottle of drinking water each for the entire glass bridge walk on an extremely hot Summer day. Sherry, the tour guide completely forgot about bottled water until we reminded in the morning.
And this was not the end of the ordeal. When we arrived at the Best Western Grand Hotel at Zhangjiajie city, Sherry colluded with the hotel staff and refused to check us in despite having fully paid for the rooms. She instructed the hotel to hold our keys and made us wait at the lobby while Sherry was happily chatting away on her phone.
We demanded for the keys from the Best Western Hotel staff and they said it was up to Sherry because she was the one that made the hotel booking. True it was made on our behalf but we already paid up completely to China Private Travel.
We confronted Sherry and she just walked off leaving us in the lurch.
It was a terrible nightmare for us and never again we will want to return to Best Western Grand hotel and its agents.
Written June 19, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Rob F
1 contribution
Mar 2017 • Solo
I first used China Private Travel in summer of '12 for a whirlwind tour of China while visiting for a friend's wedding. It was definitely the best vacation of my life. There were a few snags, but CPT was reliable in getting me through. Lori was on the phone with me until past 1am when I couldn't fly out of Chengdu because of the deadly torrential rains in Beijing that year. All my guides were at least pleasant experiences. Two in particular were awesome.
Now that I live in China, I used CPT to facilitate my mother's first visit in 2015. Again, they were great with her travel arrangements and guides for her and us. My mother is visiting again, with a friend, and they're currently using CPT again. So, this family is now using CPT for visits to China for the 3rd time, and we're expecting another good experience.
Now that I live in China, I used CPT to facilitate my mother's first visit in 2015. Again, they were great with her travel arrangements and guides for her and us. My mother is visiting again, with a friend, and they're currently using CPT again. So, this family is now using CPT for visits to China for the 3rd time, and we're expecting another good experience.
Written February 22, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Aleecv l
Castro Valley, CA144 contributions
Feb 2017 • Couples
I would highly recommend China Private Travel, in particular Lori Wang who was my travel consultant. Like many Tripadvisor members, I rely on TA reviews left by fellow travellers. When I first started planning my China trip, I started with travel agencies in the United States; however, I soon discovered that tours offered by US based and other Western agencies had set itineraries and dates and often involved large travel groups. I started looking into customized tours, but found that they were really expensive. I was fortunate to come across China Private Travel (CPT), which is based in Guilin China, who offered flexible private tours, for substantially less that the package tours from Western travel agencies. The only drawback was at the time I planned my trip, China Private Travel only had a handful of reviews, so I was somewhat reluctant to use them. But over the course of more than a month of email questions and correspondence with Lori Wang, I established a trust and appreciation of CPT. Lori was extremely helpful, highly responsive, really knowledgeable, professional and very patient, answering all of my questions providing detailed alternatives on type of tours, means of domestic travel with the price of different alternatives clearly broken out .
My custom China Private Travel tour included stops in Shanghai, Beijing, Xian, Guilin, Yangshou and Guangzhou, including hotels, tour guides and domestic air and high speed rail transportation. The local guides were knowledgeable and spoke good English and even waited for me at the airport even though one of my flights was delayed for 2 hours.
Some tips from my China trip are:
1. Consider high speed rail as an alternative to air for domestic travel within China. Based on Lori's suggestion I took high speed rail from Shanghai to Beijing and Beijing to Xian, as it was much cheaper and took similar amount time when factoring in time to get to the airport, clear security etc. Also it is common for domestic China flights to be delayed. I took 2 air flights within China and they were both delayed by 1 to 2 hours. FYI, when flights are delayed the airlines provide a free box meal, so if yours is delayed, watch out for a food cart. You'll notice the locals rushing up to get their meals, so be sure to take a meal.
2. Stay at in at least a 4 star hotel while in China. The hotel star ratings in China have star inflation by at least 1 star.
3. For some of the tours within China, you have a choice of not stopping at shopping places like jewelry or art stores, but the cost is slightly higher. I recommend paying a bit more to avoid the shopping stops. Not only do you save your precious vacation time, you save $ by not buying overpriced souvenirs that you may not want or need.
4. Research common tourist scams like locals trying to befriend you, as often times they're scams.
We really enjoyed our trip to China trip, thanks to China Private Travel and Lori!
My custom China Private Travel tour included stops in Shanghai, Beijing, Xian, Guilin, Yangshou and Guangzhou, including hotels, tour guides and domestic air and high speed rail transportation. The local guides were knowledgeable and spoke good English and even waited for me at the airport even though one of my flights was delayed for 2 hours.
Some tips from my China trip are:
1. Consider high speed rail as an alternative to air for domestic travel within China. Based on Lori's suggestion I took high speed rail from Shanghai to Beijing and Beijing to Xian, as it was much cheaper and took similar amount time when factoring in time to get to the airport, clear security etc. Also it is common for domestic China flights to be delayed. I took 2 air flights within China and they were both delayed by 1 to 2 hours. FYI, when flights are delayed the airlines provide a free box meal, so if yours is delayed, watch out for a food cart. You'll notice the locals rushing up to get their meals, so be sure to take a meal.
2. Stay at in at least a 4 star hotel while in China. The hotel star ratings in China have star inflation by at least 1 star.
3. For some of the tours within China, you have a choice of not stopping at shopping places like jewelry or art stores, but the cost is slightly higher. I recommend paying a bit more to avoid the shopping stops. Not only do you save your precious vacation time, you save $ by not buying overpriced souvenirs that you may not want or need.
4. Research common tourist scams like locals trying to befriend you, as often times they're scams.
We really enjoyed our trip to China trip, thanks to China Private Travel and Lori!
Written January 3, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Martin S
Singapore, Singapore1 contribution
Nov 2017 • Family
We booked a day tour with Lori with the itinerary: West Lake boating, Lingyin Temple, Feilai Peak, Dragon Well Tea Plantation, Hefang Street.
The guide Tony who met up with us in Hangzhou was excellent. Both knowledgeable and entertaining. My wife initially wanted to book with one of the larger international tour organizers but booking with Lori gave us the same itinerary with a much lesser cost. And we for sure couldn't have asked for a better tour! And the guide Tony really made the trip a very memorable one. Many thanks!
The guide Tony who met up with us in Hangzhou was excellent. Both knowledgeable and entertaining. My wife initially wanted to book with one of the larger international tour organizers but booking with Lori gave us the same itinerary with a much lesser cost. And we for sure couldn't have asked for a better tour! And the guide Tony really made the trip a very memorable one. Many thanks!
Written December 29, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
umec2017
Bruhl, Germany6 contributions
Oct 2017
Our first trip to China to see our son, who lives in Shanghai now, in October 2017 soon became much more than just a family reunion. Searching the internet for a travel agent to organize our visit, we came across China Private Travel and stayed with Lori Wang.
She offered everything we wanted and on top we can say now that we received excellent value for our money. We finally agreed on a perfect round trip just a few days after we had contacted Lori Wang for the first time. And our tour offered more space for activities than we thought and was , nevertheless, very relaxed with almost always more than one night in the same hotel.
We started our tour in Beijing (Forbidden City, Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Beijing Opera and much more), took the bullet train to Xi’an (Terracotta Warriors, Great Mosque, Wild Goose Pagoda), flew to Guillin (Red Flute Cave, Li River Cruise, Longji Rice Terraces), another flight to Chongqing (Yangtse Cruise) and Shanghai. The local guides were great! Friendly, helpful, creative. As soon as they realized that we had read our guidebooks, they could offer additional knowledge, answer specific questions and help us to find for example fresh fruit directly from a local farmer, local dumplings, tea at a driver’s home in an old farm house and, and….And, by the way, they all spoke good English. Thus it became easy to communicate more than just basic ideas.
Lori knows exactly what she expects from her guides. So we continuously received an excellent service during the entire journey. We made friends with other tourists on the cruises and could not stop laughing that one couple had booked with the same travel agency and was as happy with them as we were. We can highly recommend Lori Wang and China Private Travel and we will definitely travel again with her next year – to see our son again and more of China.
One last thing: We decided to plan next year’s trip as a private tour all the way through, even in Shanghai with our son. The reason is obvious: We found out this year how much more we could do with a guide and a driver compared to what we managed to do on our own even though we were accompanied by a girl from China who could speak English very well during our stay in Shanghai.
Guide and driver help to make any trip comfortable and relaxing. I think I am getting addicted to that way of travelling.
Concidering everything we can highly recommend China Private Travel.
She offered everything we wanted and on top we can say now that we received excellent value for our money. We finally agreed on a perfect round trip just a few days after we had contacted Lori Wang for the first time. And our tour offered more space for activities than we thought and was , nevertheless, very relaxed with almost always more than one night in the same hotel.
We started our tour in Beijing (Forbidden City, Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Beijing Opera and much more), took the bullet train to Xi’an (Terracotta Warriors, Great Mosque, Wild Goose Pagoda), flew to Guillin (Red Flute Cave, Li River Cruise, Longji Rice Terraces), another flight to Chongqing (Yangtse Cruise) and Shanghai. The local guides were great! Friendly, helpful, creative. As soon as they realized that we had read our guidebooks, they could offer additional knowledge, answer specific questions and help us to find for example fresh fruit directly from a local farmer, local dumplings, tea at a driver’s home in an old farm house and, and….And, by the way, they all spoke good English. Thus it became easy to communicate more than just basic ideas.
Lori knows exactly what she expects from her guides. So we continuously received an excellent service during the entire journey. We made friends with other tourists on the cruises and could not stop laughing that one couple had booked with the same travel agency and was as happy with them as we were. We can highly recommend Lori Wang and China Private Travel and we will definitely travel again with her next year – to see our son again and more of China.
One last thing: We decided to plan next year’s trip as a private tour all the way through, even in Shanghai with our son. The reason is obvious: We found out this year how much more we could do with a guide and a driver compared to what we managed to do on our own even though we were accompanied by a girl from China who could speak English very well during our stay in Shanghai.
Guide and driver help to make any trip comfortable and relaxing. I think I am getting addicted to that way of travelling.
Concidering everything we can highly recommend China Private Travel.
Written December 2, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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*Likely to sell out: Based on Viator’s booking data and information from the provider from the past 30 days, it seems likely this experience will sell out through Viator, a Tripadvisor company.