Home > About Us >Travel Consultants >Leila

On this page, I have collected some of my customers' testimonials, articles and photos. I'm very proud to serve customers around the world, and with China Odyssey Tours, I'm able to tailor services to meet your specific needs.

You are not alone in China! - What my customers say!

dd

Dear Leila,

Thanks for your email. My husband and I had a great time in China and would like to thank you for all the arrangements that you made.

Everything went very smoothly and all of the guides were waiting when we arrived at the various airports.
The hotels and meals were great, as were the guides and drivers.

We were impressed with the knowledge of the guides, their flexibility to alter the itinerary and their willingness to help and make our holiday special.
They had good english and made the city tours very interesting. We would highly recommend Nancy in Guangzhou, David in Guilin and MJ in Xian they were excellent.

There were lots of highlights, we really enjoyed Guilin and Xian as they were both very pretty, loved seeing the pandas in Chengdu, riding bikes on the city wall in Xian, seeing the terracotta warriors and of course The Great Wall. We also enjoyed learning about the great history behind the Temples and the various gardens that we wandered through were so beautiful with all of the spring flowers. We also loved the boat trips, Guangzhou at night, Guilin at night and the trip down the Li River they were all very magical.

The only thing I didn't enjoy as much was the 798 Dashanzi Art District, parts of it were good but quite a lot of the shops were closed down, but everything else that we did was great.

I would certainly not hesitate to recommend China Odyssey Tours to anyone planning to visit China, it was a great experience.

Many, many thanks
Trudie

(April 20th, 2012)

dd

Dear Leila,

We all really enjoyed the trip. Everything was well organised, good guides, super food, exelent ship.
We enjoyed very much the ability to sit on the balcoly and enjoy the beatiful nature.

I only have a few things for making the trip better for other familys with kids.
Next time maybe tell the ship not to put families with kids on the deck just beneath the bar, it was a bit noisy.
The only other thing was we missed the opportunity to buy a snack in the afternoons on the ship, they only had noodles or maybe tell families with kids to bring snack on the boat.

We enjoyed your service and I am sure we will use you next time we are going on a china trip.

Thanks for all your help

Annette Baun

Sendt fra min iPad
(April 5th, 2012)

dd

Dear Leila,

We were still on holidays when I got this. China was great, we had a really good time. I think Xi'an was my favourite, it had snowed and wasn't as cold as Beijing. We really liked Ivan (our tour guide in Xi'an), Peggy (in Chengdu) and Chris (in Shanghai), they made the holiday lots of fun.

Our tour guide in Beijing (Peter) was good, but the van reeked of cigarette smoke and wasn't that pleasant. Thankfully the rest of the vans were clean and well kept, and the issue was never a problem again.

I have a favour to ask. Due to a weird tax law in Australia and because I work for a charity, I can package hotel accommodation tax free. Is it possible to get an invoice from you for just the hotel accommodation? It can't include the transfers/tour guides/meal etc, just the hotels. It is OK if you can't do it, I just thought I would ask.

Thanks again for organising the holiday, we had a good time.
Jayne

(March 16th, 2012)

dd

Dear Leila,

Yes, we made it home safely and had an amazing trip! Thank you for everything. And yes we were able to get on that flight to Hong Kong after all, so no need to feel sorry - it all worked out, and thank you for your help dealing with it. 

Our favorite parts of the trip were the Great Wall, the Terracotta Warriors and the river cruise in Guilin. But we truly enjoyed everything. We did take lots of pictures but still have to put them on our computer. I don't think we would change anything about the trip. All of our guides were great and all the itineraries were very fun and well organized! We have already started recommending China Odyssey to friends.

Thanks again for everything, and we will let you know the next time we plan a trip to China!

Best,

Josh

(March 14th, 2012)

dd

Dear Leila,

Our China Tour

Sorry just reply you so late. Cause we are very busy after take a holiday.. Yes we have very good time during this trip thanks to china odyssey to arrage this trip and especially to you Leila and our tour guide at shanghai Ms Vivian and our driver. If we go to china again definetly we use China Odyssey again.

Best regards

BILLY CHANDRA

INDONESIA
(January 16th, 2012)

dd

Dear Leila,

I know that my review was tooo long---but I got carried away. My 10 year old sent me a letter today

that said "That was the best vacation in my whole life! I loved the Harbin Ice festival" -- and the 15 year old granddaughter said "the trip was amazing I'll never have a family experience like that again. I love Shanghai and the ice festival was spectacular. I loved it!. "-----Have a wonderful Chinese New Year.....pat

Patricia Zelkowitz, M.D.
(January 10th, 2012)

dd

Hi Leila,

The fabulous Reed Flute Cave, Guilin

Just rated you on TripAdvisor. I like to rate where I've been. Don't worry, I gave you top marks.

I promised you a step by step evaluation so here goes.

I arrived in Shanghai AT 4:30 am leaving Phnom Penh close to midnight. I am pretty expert on Cambodia as this was my 4th volunteer mission. Also my private guide was Dr. Theavy Mok, a Cambodian surgeon who was also my "boss". Go to Sihanoukville, stay at the Sokha Beach Resort. You'll love it.

As we discussed 4:30 AM is a horrible time to arrive. Your driver was waiting for me just past where I picked up my bags, sign in hand with Elliott Brender - China Odyssey clearly visible. I was very happy to see him. He carried with my bags, loaded them into the van (it was raining) and we were off to the Grand Hyatt. I does help to be as Platinum member. They had a room ready for me. I was able to check in, get rid of my bags, wash up, take a little nap, have breakfast in the Regency Club and promptly at 8 AM Elaine arrived.

First - a walk along the Bund. I would have been happier if it wasn't raining but as that is not under our control we made the best of it. Next to the museum, indoors was very nice (and warm). I enjoyed the history of Shanghai and the miniature model of the city. It gave me a good overview of Shanghai. From there we went to Yu gardens. Very pretty. Had soup dumplings for lunch. I wanted to sample the local cuisine. Yum.

The Countryside of Guilin

From there we found a cellphone store so I could buy a local SIM card. I called Elaine's phone and then I had her call mine to make sure everything worked. By then I was tired so we called it a day and I went back to my hotel to take a nap. I went on my own to a restaurant called Lost Heaven on the Bund, Yunnan folk cuisine. Excellent. I would highly recommend it. I made reservations on line prior to my trip. Unfortunately I left my umbrella in the taxi and didn't get a receipt. No problem, I'll replace it. The company I bought it from gives you a code # in case you lose it so you can get a replacement (I guess I'm not the first to lost an umbrella). The hotel was nice to provide a replacement during my stay.

The next day Elaine arrives promptly and we went to the fishing village. Unfortunately it was very cold which makes wandering around less fun. Got to eat a pork rice mixture rolled into a banana leaf and some "stinky" tofu - smells bad but tastes good. Off to another dumpling restaurant for lunch - also really good. We walked Nanging road after lunch. We played a game - how many people would hit me up for a fake Rolex watch? 12 times. I taught Elaine how to spot a fake. I have several real Rolexes. Look at the sweep hand - a real Rolex is smooth. Also there is a crown on the winding stem. I needed to change money but had my passport locked in the room. Elaine found machines that did not require your passport. I had dinner at Jade on 36 in the Shangrila Hotel. Great French food but I was disappointed to find out the molecular dinner they advertized online was no longer. I also booked this online requesting the molecular dinner. You would think the hotel knowing the chef was gone might have told me by e-mail but it wasn't until I was at the hotel that they told me the chef had left (2 years ago). They also should update their web site. However the French meal was excellent.

By the last day the weather had improved so we went to the Pearl Tower. I had not done that so I enjoyed the experience. Elaine asked me where else I'd like to go as there was time so we went to the Temple of the Jade Buddha and the Jewish quarter. A friend told me about this by e-mail the night before. I did not know that before WWII Shanghai had an open door policy and harbored Jews escaping from Germany. Many of my family was exterminated during that war. It gave me a very warm feeling towards Shanghai.

They then got me to the airport and I was off to Guilin.

Again arriving in Guilin, I was met just past where you pick up baggage by Peggy and our diver, sign in hand, no problems. Off to the Shangrila Hotel for check in. Beautiful hotel. From there we were off to the Li River cruise. Peggy accompanied me and pointed out all the major scenery. After the cruise (5 hours) we went to the Dongling Resort, a major disappointment. The room was freezing cold and even with the room heater going full blast it never warmed up. OK, one night, I suffered through it. They had a restaurant at the hotel. The room was also freezing cold. Had dinner in full winter garb. Thank goodness you warned me or I would have been severely underdressed and very unhappy. After an unimpressive breakfast I got out of there. As I booked it myself how could I complain but that place sucked. Maybe it is much nicer (and warmer) during the summer but during the winter, YUK.

Disaster strikes and Peggy bails me out. While at the Dongling Resort I check my e-mail and to my surprise I see a notice from Expedia that my flight from Guilin to Shanghai has been cancelled. WTF – how am I going to get home. I had a connecting flight at Shanghai to the USA. Panicking I called Expedia with whom I booked the tickets . They told me the cancellation was by the airline and not their problem. They said deal with the airline. When you call the airline of course it is all in Chinese and I don’t understand a word. Apparently they in Chinese said press 2 for English but if you don’t understand Chinese, how are you supposed to know this? Peggy to the rescue. She found out that they did not cancel my flight. Everything was OK. Why this occurred I have no idea. I decided to upgraded to business class to ensure a good flight back. Peggy took care of this too. With this fixed I needed to change money. Off to town, to the Bank of China, taken care of and brought back to the resort.

The next day I was out of there. Peggy arrived on time at 10:00 AM and we were off to the Shangri-La hotel to check-in and resume touring. It's hard to say whether I liked the views from Yaoshan Mountain and the toboggan slide ride down or the Reed Flute caves the best. I've attached 2 of my best pictures. Elephant Trunk Hill was interesting but I noted the government planted trees specifically to block the natural view just so they could make money by charging to see what previously could have been seen for free. This gives the Chinese people a money grubbing character. Everywhere you go all they want to do is sell you something. As an American I see this as a character flaw and it appears to be throughout Chinese tourism. That is why I specified no silk factories, pearl factories, jade factories, rug factories, factories of all sorts with all they want is to see you something.

On departure from Guilin, Peggy stayed with me until I had my boarding card in hand. When we arrived at the airport at 4:00 PM the China East desk was closed and didn't open until 4:40 PM. Peggy waited patiently with me and the on buying my upgrade, they wouldn't take a credit card, so we raced to the bank in the airport that was now closing in 10 minutes. She made sure China East would watch my bags. We made it in time. She followed me to the inspection area and we said our goodbyes. Great trip.

Elliott
(December 12nd, 2011)

dd

Hi Leila,

Beijing 2008 Olympics Mascots

The tour was very well done! Our guide, Peter, was superb! He was so accommodating and very well versed with the history of the places that we went. The driver, Mr. Wan, was so good and cautious with the roads. Your staff were very punctual and at most times, early. Great professionalism! My family and myself, absolutely enjoyed the trip. Although we should not have under- estimated the weather...hahahaha. I was rather surprised to hear from your office personally, when we got there to check on us. Please take that as a personal gratitude of your agency's "personal- touch" approach. My kids have insisted that I bring them there again, in a couple of years time, in Autumn! And let me tell you this, I will personally call you again and arrange that trip with your agency! I am very please with your services and I'm really running out of superlatives to thank you, Peter and Mr. Wan and not forgetting Vera!

Thank you so much!

Please feel free to use my email and thank all, for their professional service.

PS: I have attached 2 pictures for you to see. I think the smiles on my family's face tell you, how we felt on this trip!

Thank you again

Hari
(December 9th, 2011)

dd

Dear Leila!

Now we are back in Sweden and we have a lot of nice and interesting memories from China.

We had a very good time on the cruise.We will thank you for a very good arrangement. It was a great experience!

The guide in Chongging, she was so charming and so helpful, the hotel was situated in a calm and beautiful area, with modern conveniences.

The river-tour was amazing and so interesting, we enjoyed every minute.The river-guide Luther made the trip extra with his good lectures about China, the Gorges and the dams and of course the the different entertainments during the days and evenings. The food was excellent.Of course we will return to China and hope you will serve us again

Best regards, Sylvi and Kent Sternheden
(November 20th, 2011)

dd

Dear Leila,

Thank you VERY MUCH for organization of the trip. It was great! The guide was also excellent, please send him our special thanks.

We will certainly come again.

We are in Beijing now and I'll send you some pictures when we are back to Israel.

Best regards,

Michael.
(November 20th, 2011)

dd

Dear Leila,

Thank you VERY MUCH for organization of the trip. It was great! The guide was also excellent, please send him our special thanks.

We will certainly come again.

We are in Beijing now and I'll send you some pictures when we are back to Israel.

Best regards,

Michael.
(November 19th, 2011)

dd

Hi Leila,

My trip was unbelievable! Efficiently organized, excellent, knowledgeable and caring guides made every day enjoyable and packed to the top with excursions and food and trips and more food. The days were well planned to maximize my time and the river trip a chance of a lifetime. I did find out that it’s not going to be nearly as enjoyable during the dry season because they will pull the reservoir down 100’s of feet leaving this big messy muddy bank to look at so the optimum time for this trip would be October – April. If you have any older guests planning a trip make sure that they do lots of exercise and can climb a lot of stairs!

I am in Shanghai now until Dec. 6. This will give me time to rest up and be here for Kendra’s baby. I will organize my photos and send some your way.

Could you please give me an accounting of what happened at the hotel in Xian with the charges? I will need to explain to my bookkeeper what happened and I can just forward it on to her. Internet service was nonexistent on the river cruise no matter what they say so I am just beginning to catch up.

Yes, I will certainly contact you first for my trip next year. I would like to see the Yunan province and Vietnam.

I look forward to hearing from you and will send pictures soon.

Thank you again,

Carolyn
(November 17th, 2011)

dd

Hi Leila:

M&S@Great Wall, 2011

We both want to thank you and Odyssey for a fantastic trip. Although it was a very fast tour, Joe, Emily, Ivan were all excellent!!! The effort they all put forth was outstanding. We enjoyed Beijing, with perfect weather. Xi-an was fascinating, with Ivan doing an excelent job of explaining the history of the area. We will be glad to recomend Odyssey to all of our friends. Thanks again for a wonderful experience.

Mick & Steph Sass
(November 14th, 2011)

dd

Hi Leila,

Thanks again for organizing our trip to beautiful China...we have indeed had an amazing time.

We have lots of favorites as each destination had its own charm and uniqueness, but if I have to pinpoint one in particular, I have to stay the Guilin /Youngsho portion of our trip....We had no idea how beautiful Youngsho was, if we knew, we would have allocated an extra day or two there.

The tour guides and drivers were all excellent and very professional, Peggy in particular was very helpful :)

The choice of most hotels was good with good location:

- We loved the Sofitel in Xi'an - excellent choice!

- Our least favorite was: the Sheraton in Guilin: although location was good but hotel itself was not at all a 5 star hotel....it will barely make it to 3.5 star; it was old, smelly and suspect bugs in the bedcovers as 3 of us wouldn't sleep well there from the constant itching!!!!!

- Also we didn't like much the Harbour Grand in Hong Kong: Hotel itself was ok but location was very inconvenient!

We have taken lots of pictures, but have to find the time to download them and see them and relive our trip to china :)

Many thanks again for all

Kind regards,

May
(November 1st, 2011)

dd

Hi Leila,

Thanks again for making this trip such an easy adventure to plan. We had an amazing time and could not believe how great the tour guides were.

We really liked Johnson a great deal! He was an amazing host and he really cared about us knowing everything there was to know about Beijing. We really would give him the highest recommendation of all.

We were not very pleased with the service we received from our guide in Xian - I can not even recall her name. It was definitely my favorite city and I think it could have been a better experience with a different guide.

T'laine was our guide in Shanghai and once again was an excellent host. Very informative, professional and friendly. She made sure we were comfortable and my food concerns were taken care of.

Overall, China was a great trip and I look forward to traveling with Odyssey again to China.

Sincerely,

Dana

(October 26th, 2011)

dd

Dear Leila,

Thank you very much for following up on our tour of China. We had a wonderful trip,our tour guiides and drivers were wonderful people, always punctual,always pleasant and imformative and generally an absolute necessity. Our hotel accommodations and meals were superb and our attractions were exemplary.

We especially enjoyed the Yangtze river cruise, but the Terra Cotta Warriors and Shanghai expo and urban planning exhibits were also excellent choices, As far as suggestions for improving, you did such an excellent job, there is little room for making it better. We did enjoy all of the Buddhist temples and monastaries very much but the only place to improve would be that we had maybe a little too many Temples and monastaries and there seemed to be some duplication of what we were seeing, so maybe perhaps if there was some other attractions that could have been visited would be a little better.

Everything taken into consideration it was a wonderful trip and I would recommend you and your company to anyone who would travel to China.

Again Thank you very much Leila for doing such a great job in seeing that we enjoyed travelling in your beautiful country.

Regards

James and Patsy Patterson

(October 20th, 2011)

dd

Dear Leila,

Thank you for your email; yes, my trip was most enjoyable, and the tour guides were very helpful in each city.

I arrived home safely, but my bag went missing between Chicago and Houston, and I'm waiting for it to be delivered. The highlight was probably the Li River Cruise and the Longi terraces in Guillin, because the scenery was so special; all the shows were also memorable, especially in Yangshuo, although the seating was not too comfortable. I took a lot of photos and video, and I'll send some when I get them on the computer. I learned a lot about China, Chinese history, and Chinese food. The weather was good except the first day in Shanghai. If I had more time I would have liked to go to Mt. Emei, instead of the cave. The pressure to buy in the work shops in Shanghai and X'ian, was a little tough to deal with.

All in all this was a great experience for me, and I commend you and your company for the well organized way in which the trip was planned and arranged.

Steve Sheldon

(September 9th, 2011)

dd

Hi Leila,

Now back in Shanghai but lots of stress, the last three days here were bussy and tomorrow back to Germany. So I don't have the pics on my laptop just yet but I can send you some after I'm back home.

The tour was really great and lots of fun, we've seen so many nice places! Also the hotels were really good, nice interior and everything fine, just the last one, the Pacific Rim in Shagri La was absolutely horrible. I sugest you cut that from your programm and better use one of the really nice and small hostels or guesthouses in the Old Town. They are really cosey and much better located. The Hotel we had was really dirty, many hair and sunflower seeds and bugs on the carpet, it looked really bad, and we asked them to clean again but it didn't look different. The bathroom was also not the cleanest and you couldn't eat the breakfirst. I usually like chiense breakfirst, but this was also for me not eadable and my mom isn't used to chinese food in the morning. So we ended up two days without food in the morning.

But the guides were really nice, Lucy in Kunming was the best! We had a greate time. Just the guy in Shangri La, I forgot his name, was not really the right guy for the job. His english was really really hard to understand and sometimes he didn't know the words in english or chinese.... He also didn't talk much, we had to ask him if we wanted to know something and in the end with him we were happy when we had free time, it was kind of stressful with him. We also didn't go to the Tibetian Family, just took a quick look at a house from the outside and then left. On the itinerary we understood that we would at least have a tea there or so, we also took a little gift with us for the Family. That was the only thing disappointing.

But overall, it was great and we had a good time. I'll be happy to book a tour with you again, my mom also asks if you offer some kind of trekking tour, the area around Shangri La has really nice places for trekking.

Thank you Leila, for everything.

Hope to here from you again and maybe we'll book a tour with you again.

Bye, Judith

(August 24th, 2011)

dd

Dear Leila,

We are already in Hong Kong airport waiting for our flight back to Europe. Thanks very much for organizing our tour in Guilling and Yangshou, we really had a wonderful time. Anne is an amazing guide and we also enjoyed her company a lot.

I attach some pictures.

Regards,

Miguel

(August 22nd, 2011)

dd

Dear Leila,

We just got back from our trip. Thank you for your help in planning it. It turned out to be a very memorable experience! China is beautiful and the itinerary and guides really highlighted everything that was special about the cities we visited. We had an excellent time. We were very satisfied with the accommodations, the airport arrangements, the itinerary and especially the guides and drivers who worked tirelessly to make sure we had a great experience. We did manage to avoid the typhoon (by 1-2 days) and apart from one night of rain in Beijing, the weather was excellent (though hot) throughout the trip.

Thanks again for all of your help (including the restaurant reservations and alterations in the itinerary).

We have over 3000 photos. If we come across some good ones we will send them to you.

Hovig

(August 15th, 2011)

dd

Dear Leila,

We had a great time!! Thank you! We will definitely share our great experience with Odyssey with our friends & family!

Sincerely,

Nina Vitenson,

(July 8th, 2011)

dd

Dear Leila,

I would like to thank you for helping us organize our Beijing tour. I have to say that our tour guide and our driver, both were very professional, polite, always on time and above all, our tour guide spoke english perfectly. I already told all my friends and family about my experience and they will use your services for their trip to China.

I like to thank you again for everything

Beast regards,

Michael Reshad,

(July 7th, 2011)

dd

Dear Leila,

The trip was great fun and Peggy was very accommodating. I did enjoy the karst mountains, the Li River Cruise, and the Impression Liu Sanjie night show.

I am presently devilishly busy, since (as you can imagine) things piled up during my absence. As soon as I get a breather, I will send you some pics from the trip.

My best regards,
Lia Krusin

(June 22nd, 2011)