Tours to China?

oysterman

Looking through the notw, saw a tour to china run by archers direct.

1. Has anyone used this company before
2. Anyone toured china before & is best to do an escorted one or is it easy to
diy
3. Is it easy to get a visa for china.

Cheers in advance3

Kezza25_2

Hi Oyster,

1. Not sure - but going back with virgin next year (worth a look)
2. I went to Shanghai last year and because people's english isn't great, I'd suggest that if you want to get the best out of the trip an escorted tour is a good idea. Again, the Virgin one is part organised, part get on with it yourself.
3. I got a visa to China no problem, see other posts - I think https://www.russiadirect.com or something was mentioned.

Hope this helps - if you haven't been it's great - blows anywhere else away

fruitpie

Hi oysterman

We have just come back from 10 fabulous days in China. Beijing, Xian and Shanghai.

Sorry no idea about Archers - we went with Thomas Cook Signature, they arranged flights, hotels and tranfers only for us. See page 140 of their brochure.

Our thoughts and advise is this: If you are on a short time scale - like we were - then you need to be very organised in getting about these vast, sprawling, and very populated cities. (we were there for their National Day, except no one told us that their bank holiday continued for a week !!!! so the cities were jammed packed, and I mean jammed packed with tourist, and I don't mean Western ones either.

When the Thomas Cook rep met/collected us from the airport in Beijing he through CITS had tours already typed out including prices of various places we could visit. Prices were very good value, (much, much cheaper than advertised in the Thomas Cook brochure) and as there were 5 in our party we decided to do all our sightseeing with him/ CITS, the same driver, and same air con mini bus. This worked out very for us. His English was good, he was very pleasant, got us safely to our destinations (they drive like maniacs), also without any pressure to shop... infact we had 3 and a half great days with him.

I could go on, and on for ever Oysterman !!!, as we are all still buzzing after getting home from this fabulous, eye opening, and very enjoyable/exhausting holiday.

Oh, Visa's are dead easy to get - we got ours through Oriental Travel - ( see their web site as we did ) discounted if you need more then one visa. No problems at all with them, fast and efficient service.

How much more do you want to know ? .... oh such a great time was had by all. Off to look at my photos again now !!!! :beer:

oysterman

fruitpie wrote:

Hi oysterman

We have just come back from 10 fabulous days in China. Beijing, Xian and Shanghai.

Sorry no idea about Archers - we went with Thomas Cook Signature, they arranged flights, hotels and tranfers only for us. See page 140 of their brochure.

Our thoughts and advise is this: If you are on a short time scale - like we were - then you need to be very organised in getting about these vast, sprawling, and very populated cities. (we were there for their National Day, except no one told us that their bank holiday continued for a week !!!! so the cities were jammed packed, and I mean jammed packed with tourist, and I don't mean Western ones either.

When the Thomas Cook rep met/collected us from the airport in Beijing he through CITS had tours already typed out including prices of various places we could visit. Prices were very good value, (much, much cheaper than advertised in the Thomas Cook brochure) and as there were 5 in our party we decided to do all our sightseeing with him/ CITS, the same driver, and same air con mini bus. This worked out very for us. His English was good, he was very pleasant, got us safely to our destinations (they drive like maniacs), also without any pressure to shop... infact we had 3 and a half great days with him.

I could go on, and on for ever Oysterman !!!, as we are all still buzzing after getting home from this fabulous, eye opening, and very enjoyable/exhausting holiday.

Oh, Visa's are dead easy to get - we got ours through Oriental Travel - ( see their web site as we did ) discounted if you need more then one visa. No problems at all with them, fast and efficient service.

How much more do you want to know ? .... oh such a great time was had by all. Off to look at my photos again now !!!! :beer:

What time of year is it best to visit?
Were there any places not worth visiting?

nelly_2

Im going on friday

Weve been before
Beijing.

Great wall, summer palace, and the silk market stick out and Snack street on Wangfujing at night is wonderfull.

tearacotta army is ace too, we never did a tour we ad libbed it, although we had a lot of back up from the wifes mum who is a teacher there anf her students couldnt do enough for us.

tulip1_2

oysterman wrote:

Looking through the notw, saw a tour to china run by archers direct.

1. Has anyone used this company before
2. Anyone toured china before & is best to do an escorted one or is it easy to
diy
3. Is it easy to get a visa for china.

Cheers in advance3

Hi
We have just returned from an escorted tour to China,two weeks ago and travelled with Kuoni. Can not praise them enough - had the holiday of a life time, travelled to Beijing, Chengde, Xian and Shanghai on an escorted basis then went to the Sanya Resort on Hainan Island and Hong Kong unescorted - organised by Kuoni. I Agree with fruitpie the country is so vast, that an escorted tour is the best option. If you do decide to diy it then the great wall, summer place, terrecotta worriors, acrobat show ( Shanghai), forbidden city, take the maglev train (7 mins to travel 15 miles into Shanghai reaches speeds of 286 mph), go up the Jin Mao88 tower 88 floors in worlds fastest lift- 36 secs to the top and have peking duck dinner in Beijing. The list is endless, but if you do it escorted its all sorted for you. Its the most amazing holiday- tiring but we would not have done it any other way. Kuoni also sort out the Visa's. They are not a cheap company I know but you get what you pay for. Kuoni had also told all the hotels we stayed in that it was our silver wedding treat to our selves, at each hotel we had champange, fruit baskets and room upgrades. They really take care of you. Happy planning !

Christal_2

Hi Oysterman, wonder if I can be some help here, as I came from Shanghai.

Q1, don't know as obvious reason.

Q2, it's entirely depends on how many days you want to spend there and where would you like to go, also how much do you want to see...if you will only be exploring the big cities like shanghai or beijing, with some good homework you don't necessarily need escorted tour, but you will have to do your homework, otherwise you could end up lost in the middle of no where. If you want to see more of China and go to historical sites in XiAn, ChengDu, Nanjing... then you definately need someone who can speak chinese.

Q3, it's easy to get a visa through agent or even do it yourself, just need to get up early and queue at the Chinese Embassy, that's all.

When is the best time to visit again depends on where do you want to go simply because China is a big country so while Shanghai is still about 25 degrees these days, ShengYang(a city in north china) is about 15 degrees cooler, and GuangZhou is still 30!! But normally Autumn is a good time to visit, especially if you go Shanghai in the next couple of weeks you could have the great tasty crab, god I miss it!

Let me know if you have more questions, love to help.

fruitpie

Hi Tulip

We were wondering how you had got on - glad you had a great time too.. wasn't it just amazing.

Thanks for mentioning the things I didn't - I thought that perhaps I had waffled on tooo much for Oysterman - I got so excited re-living our holiday !!!.

Like you, we too could not fault the service we received from Taxi drivers, Hotels, Airports and Airport Transfers, Guides - spot on.

The Chinese were very friendly, even if we did stick out like very sore thumbs, they loved it when we said - Ni hao, zaijian and ordered our beer in Chinese.

Maglev was just brilliant - we did the journey twice as it was so good the first time...

Cheers

fruitpie

oysterman wrote:

What time of year is it best to visit?
Were there any places not worth visiting?

We dropped in on the Ming Tombs (Beijing) - thought the place was pretty dull and un- interesting, and a bit of a waste of time really - mind you we had just come down from climbing The Great Wall - so I guess we were all on a high.

The Pearl t.v Tower is also cracking for views over the city in Shanghai.

We stayed in the Shangri la in the Pudong area - fantastic, as were all the Shangri la's - great bar and restaurant on the 38th floor - with awesome views over the Bund.

Go on - get your seats/holiday booked.. ?

spender

Archers Direct is the direct selling arm of COSMOS, my sister has just booked the china tour with them (Archers) only difference between that and the tour offer by Cosmos is that they will stay at a slightly lower rated hotel. However they will save a few hundred by booking with Archers, but all the Archers and Cosmos will be on the same coach!

oysterman

Christal wrote:

Hi Oysterman, wonder if I can be some help here, as I came from Shanghai.

Q1, don't know as obvious reason.

Q2, it's entirely depends on how many days you want to spend there and where would you like to go, also how much do you want to see...if you will only be exploring the big cities like shanghai or beijing, with some good homework you don't necessarily need escorted tour, but you will have to do your homework, otherwise you could end up lost in the middle of no where. If you want to see more of China and go to historical sites in XiAn, ChengDu, Nanjing... then you definately need someone who can speak chinese.

Q3, it's easy to get a visa through agent or even do it yourself, just need to get up early and queue at the Chinese Embassy, that's all.



When is the best time to visit again depends on where do you want to go simply because China is a big country so while Shanghai is still about 25 degrees these days, ShengYang(a city in north china) is about 15 degrees cooler, and GuangZhou is still 30!! But normally Autumn is a good time to visit, especially if you go Shanghai in the next couple of weeks you could have the great tasty crab, god I miss it!

Let me know if you have more questions, love to help.

Cheers for the reply, probably look for a 16- 20 day holiday to include poss Hong Kong.
Beijing,Great Wall,Xian & Shanghai would be on the list, but think we are going to have to do our homework to get the best out of a trip.