China Tour Reviews-What people say about China Odyssey Tours

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China tour reviews - An article written by Mr. Mark King from Australia. In this article Mark will share with you his China tour experience in booking the tour from China Odyssey Tours and how he and his family were treated during the whole trip.

While our customers enjoyed the beautiful scenery in China and they also enjoyed the high-quality service which China Odyssey provided.

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Mark 

Dear Karen,

I just wanted to let you know that we had a great time in China. You and China Odyssey put together a vacation we will never forget. We have been a lot of places around the world but I must say that the China trip you put together for us ranks one the best trips we have every had. Thanks again and I cant keep from tell everyone I know about you and China Odyssey. Thanks again
Mark

(Oct 25th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Vinay 

Dear Karen,

Just wanted to let you know that four of us reached Ottawa couple of hours ago.  I also spoke to my wife who is in San Francisco with her friend and they also reached there safely.

Thank you so much for making sure everything went very well for us.  You also accommodated all our last minute requests.   In the end going to Suzhou was good.  We had rainy day but were able to do all activities and gardens were wonderful.

It was a pleasure to meet you in person.  I will send you pictures in couple of days.

I will also be in touch with you later.  Thanks again for providing wonderful memories of China and the tour gave all of us how wonderful your country is and the warmth the people showed throughout.  We did do shopping when we wanted to and it was an experience. 

Will be in touch soon.  You mentioned about post-trip survey or feedback so let me know if I need to fill out something.

Most of all, best wishes for you and your baby.  Would like to know when you deliver the baby.

Cheers

Vinay

(Oct 25th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Ben and Nicole Myers
And Jack and Pfeiffer 

Dear Maggie,

We’ve been back about 10 days now, and just wanted to write and thank you for all of your advice, correspondence, arrangements and hard work over the past months.

We had an absolutely wonderful time, and we couldn’t have done it or imagined it without your help.  Some of our highlight photos are attached.

Thanks for keeping in touch about getting on the cruise of our choice on the dates we wanted, with adjoining rooms; for keeping us informed of the Tibet permit situation; and for ensuring all our requests for soft pillows, and adjoining rooms, was met as far as was possible.

Everything went very smoothly.

With much appreciation,

Ben and Nicole Myers
And Jack and Pfeiffer

(Oct 24th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - MICK AND WENDY WEST 

Dear Karen,

JUST TO SAY THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP ON RECENT TOUR  IT WAS TRULY WONDERFUL. WHAT HAVE YOU ON SHORT TOUR 3 OR 4 NIGHTS LAOS TOUR STARTING BKK NO[ HARD WALKING] SEE WHAT YOU SUGGEST INCLUDING RETURN FLIGHT FROM BKK HOTEL AND TOUR 

KIND REGARDS

MICK AND WENDY WEST 

(Oct 23rd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Margaret Muller  

Dear Karen,

Yes we are back home now.
I would like to say a big "thank you" to you for your very efficient on-line arranging of our tour with China Odyssey Tours. You were always very prompt with your replies to my questions, gave lots of information and you made it very easy for us to enjoy our trip to China very much.
You were the "front face"/"first up" representative of your company for me and they should be very proud of you.
I would not hesitate to recommend you to everyone and I have completed the on-line feedback form from your customer service manager.
Sincerely
Margaret Muller

(Oct 22nd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Susanne  

Dear Tom,

Nice to hear from you and greetings to beautiful Guilin! Please find attached a few pictures I took on the trip. For me, the most enjoyable part of the tour was meeting Linda and learning more about life in China. I also very much loved the Chinese Medicine Museum that Dennis took me to see, he even interpreted for me so that I could buy some cough medicine.

The food was also amazing! The pork cooked in wine I had in Hangzhou was certainly the best pork I have ever had! Eating sticky rice out of a bamboo cane at Longji rice terrace was fun, too!
The trip was very well organised by you and everything worked out as planned, both of the drivers were very safe drivers and courteous towards me, helping me with luggage etc.

Your advice before my trip was unvaluable and I always received a very prompt response to my emails. As per previous email, I thought Linda was an outstanding guide! Dennis was good, too, very knowledgable with pride and interest in his home town.
My husband liked my tales and pictures of China so much that we are hoping to travel round China again in a few years from now and I am planning on booking some tours with China Odyseey again.
It was an amazing trip, thank you again to the whole team!
Regards,

Susanne.

(Oct 21st 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Barbara and Walter Trafton and Florence Reese

Dear Susan,

Thank you for a wonderful week in China.  All went exactly as planned and exactly wonderful. Steven Heo is a wonderful person to show us Beijing.  He took great care of us and Mr. Qin the driver was a driving miracle man -- the traffic worries just went away.  Anyone who gets to tour with Steven is in very good hands. 

More of a recommendation when I get home.  We are in Bangkok now and won't be home until Nov. 12, 2012.  Our guide in Xian was Lucy but we called her LuLu.  She is a bouncy ball of energy who is great fun to be with.  She took excellent care of us and she showed us the Terra Cotta Warriors with pride and great skill.  One of the most wonderful sites I have ever seen. 

All was exactly as we planned.  China Odyssey really means it when they say "You are not alone in China".  Your company provided us with a great tour and I will recomment you highly!

(Oct 21st, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Steve  

Dear Tom,

I just wanted to echo what Kyle said and communicate how much we really enjoyed our time in China.  All of our guides were terrific and were super helpful in every aspect.  Daniel and Amy were so great and we wanted to take them home with us!  Jimmy was really helpful getting through our first “airport experience” in Beijing.  I also want to add that our driver in Beijing for the 3 days was amazing. He was careful and always on time to pick us up with full waters.

In short, please communicate to all of your staff how much we enjoyed them personally and professionally.  Well done.

Steve

(Oct 17th 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Brian

Dear Leila,

Thank you,

I have about 500 photos so could bore you for hours!!!

My wife's favourite part of the trip was the pandas - especially as we got the chance to have her picture taken with one.

Mine was definitely the Li River Cruise and evening show - spectacular scenery.

Areas to improve ? - difficult, not many - but factory visits should be made optional, we are restricted on luggage allowances so are limited what we can buy. In Beijing we spent so long visiting factories that we could not get to the area of the Great Wall that you had recommended at Mutianyu and had to go to another part - I would not know if this was better or not. The guides overall were terrific but those in Beijing tended to rush things and we would have liked more time e.g we only spent half an hour at the summer palace, and on the visit to Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City we were back at our hotel by 2pm - a bit more time to savour these amazing experiences would have been valuable. The Peking Duck dinner evening was really no different from having crispy duck at home and was far too early at 5.30pm.

But,overall ,the tour was fantastic and once again we appreciate your help and hard work in putting this together for us.
I would definitely recommend you and your company to anyone visiting China.

(Oct 17th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Susanne 

Dear Tom,

Geetings from Hangzhou where I arrived yesterday. Before I am off to enjoy the second part of my tour I wanted to let you know that I was extremely pleased to have  Linda as a tour guide. I have travelled with a lot of tour guides in my life and Linda was the best of them all and I have nothing but praise for her! She is an asset to your company! She definitely went beyond what I would expect from a tour guide and looked after me very well. If you see her, please say "hi" for me.

The driver was very good as well, always smiley and friendly, drove safely and always helped me with my luggage etc, wonderful!

Your recommendation for the Orange Crystal in Hangzhou was excellent too, great hotel.

Off to see Hangxhou now. :-)

Thank you!

Susanne.

(Oct 15th 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Steve

Dear Karen,

I just wanted to write and say thank you.  We had a wonderful time and had a great  guide.  We enjoyed every minute.  I know we were hard work to figure things out but you worked with us until we were satisfied.  I look forward to China Tours in the future.

Best Wishes
Steve

P.S  You do a great job for the people who don’t know where to go

(Oct 14th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Kyle Martin 

Dear Tom,

Here is a little more feedback.

Jimmy was a really nice guy and he and the driver got us to the airport in Shanghai and picked us back up so we had no worries.

Amy was our guide in Beijing. We thought the world of her. She was extremely knowledgeable and spoke clear English. We packed a lot into 3 days, which is exactly what we wanted. The Hutong lunch was the highlight for my husband. For the Hutong lunch with the local family, our guide was Daniel. He was superb and we were so happy to meet him. We felt like our time with him was too short! Having lunch cooked by the local family was such a nice, uniquely personal touch. This was truly a great experience.

The Great Wall was the highlight for me. Driving up to the section was also a wonderful journey.

I wish we could have seen the mausoleums of the Ming Dynasty around the Shendao. We probably could have skipped the Bird’s Nest/Olympic area to fit the mausoleums in. (The Olympic area seemed a little neglected…)

The hotel was the only true disappointment. It was a bit lower standard than we would have liked. I suppose with the exchange rate what it is, you don’t get as much hotel room in downtown Beijing for the money as you do in the states. I have a lot of Marriott points, so I would have liked to have been able to choose the brand of hotel we stayed at – since we were staying at a “western” property.

I’ve attached a few pictures.

Thanks again for everything. (I’m happy to fill out a survey if you want to send along the link.)

Best Regards,

(Oct 14th 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Daniel Keller

Dear Reinself,

I hope this note finds you and your wife well.We are home and wanted to personally thank you for helping to make our trip such a Wonderfull Success. ALL of our Drivers and guides were absolutley GREAT representatives for China and China Oddsey Tours !!

All we can say is WOW !! All  were Professional,knowledgeable,Friendly and made us feel at home immediatley.They went out of there way to insure we were safe(Jack wouldn't leave the airport until we were headed to our gate) and the wonderfull young woman in Dalian waited outside our ship until I knew my wife (Joani got ill and missed the excursion that day) was ok.Because of our fantastic experience we hope to book a regular tour with Odessey in the future.

Again please pass on our thanks and Great appreciation to them for "Grandma",Candy,Joani and Dan.With Warm Regards and Thanks,

Daniel Keller

PS If you or ANY of our guides can visit the US in the future and are in the Southern Calif area please consider staying with us..We are within an hours drive from LA,San Diego,Disneyland etc.etc.Would LOVE to "GUIDE" and show the sights to all!!

(Oct 14th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Eileen

Dear Kalinda,

Thank you so much for arranging such a wonderful trip to China for us.  Though it was short, we were so pleased with what you had planned. We thank you sincerely!  Our tour guides took such good care of us and gave us a chance to learn not only historical and cultural info but they provided a real connection to the China of today. Betty in Xi'an was excellent and Crystal in Beijing was great. We so thoroughly enjoyed their guidance and company. We will happily recommend you and your company to our friends. Thank you once again.
Sincerely, 
Eileen

(Oct 13rd, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Michael

Dear Reinself,

It is good hearing from you but makes me think how much I would rather be back in China on vacation then here!
I had intended to write to you this weekend to thank you so much for all that you and your team did for us.
It was an amazing trip and I still can’t believe that you were able to coordinate all of it so well (especially managing to include the Tibet part).

As I said, I intended to write to you this weekend but developed a cold which I am just getting over – perhaps the price to pay for sitting on a plane for 16 hours.  =)  Obviously I  am also still trying to get caught up at work but I will certainly share my wonderful experience with trip advisor this weekend – and I also see that your office has sent a questionnaire so I will fill that out as well. 

Just FYI - I have been telling my friends and family what a great trip it was and if they would like to visit they should use your company.

Thank you again for all that you did to make my vacation such a fantastic experience.  I will certainly be in touch when I start to plan my next trip to Asia.

With much gratitude,
Michael

(Oct 12nd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Joan and Nigel 

Dear Maggie,

Good afternoon to you in Guilin. It was great to meet up with you during our visit just to say a personal thank-you for all your help and assistance throughout. Once again thank you for the chopstick set which we will make good use of and the chinese facemask ornaments which I have already found a place for in our home. We had a pleasant journey home and all went very well for us. We really enjoyed our holiday to China and have lots of photographs and many souvenirs to remind us of our visit. We both love the tea we bought and are now drinking it Chinese style with our beautiful new tea set. We found everyboby on your team to be very friendly and helpful and I will be delighted to fill out the online post-trip questionnaire. Meanwhile we are both back to work now and also busy catching up with family and friends so sorry for the delay in responding.
 
Kind Regards,
 
Joan and Nigel

(Oct 11st, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours- Kanu Patel 

Dear Maggie,

Sorry for not getting back sooner. I am very busy since I came back and was not able to spend time to send you our comments. I will do that this Friday. I will tell you our experience briefly in a couple of sentences. Everyone was very happy and felt this was the best trip they ever had. All the credits goes to you, China Odyssey and the people working for you. Everyone is still talking about it. For me it was a dream tour. Excellent service. Japan was OK, not because of anything you did, but we were spoiled by China tour. China has lot more to offer with great price, compare to Japan. I will definitely send you detailed comments.

Thanks again for giving us tour, we will never forget.

Kanu Patel

(Oct 11st, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Joseph

Dear Karen,

Many thanks to you and all your excellent tour guides and drivers.

We have enjoyed the trip tremendously and we still have vivid memories of it.  It could not have been better.  We are all frequent travellers and I must confirm the trip was one of the best I have done, thanks to you all.

Thank you once again and will surely contact you when I decide to visit that part of the world again.

God be with us all.

Joseph

Sent from my iPad

(Oct 9th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Khurshid and Reefat Drabu

Dear Karen,

We are back home and we thought we should write to thank you for helping us in getting the holiday organised. You did a great job and we had a wonderful time. We have fallen in love with China and we would not be surprised if we ask you for help again in a couple of years for another holiday!!!
Whilst we are happy to provide positive comments and as we said to you on the phone we will be gladly recommending your company to all our friends, we should mention two matters that we think you should bear in mind for the future.
Most of the guides you had arranged were fine - of course some better than others.
The other comment that we want to make is that you might find it helpful in future to ask clients for their diet preferences. We are Muslims and will not eat Pork or any other pig meat substance. As Pork is so common in restaurants in China, we could only order and eat fish and vegetable. So the food availability was a minus for us. However the problems that we had with the food were more than made up by the sights we saw.
With our best wishes and regards 

Khurshid and Reefat Drabu

(Oct 8th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours- Pascal 

Dear Maggie,

We just returned to Shanghai and we had a great time with COT! Thanks a lot for organizing so well our trip ahead of time. It all worked out really well. The guide, Teresa, was very knowledgeable and extremely kind. We had several meals with her as well, which gave us a chance to get to know her better. It was very busy, but still we enjoyed a lot our trip. We will reconnect as my wife will probably want to hire you for Hanghzhou trip in November.

Best

Pascal

(Oct 6th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Mila & Steve

Dear Karen,

Many thanks to you and all your excellent tour guides and drivers.

Organisation, attention to detail and your people all excellent.

Many thanks to you and all your staff for helping make our holiday so memorable.

(Sep 25th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Nita and Don Fraser

Dear Leila,

What a great holiday.  We were a little ill in Shanghai ( maybe a cold) but your guide was great.

Am passing all info to anyone I know.

Thank you

Nita and Don Fraser

(Sep 23rd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Charee and Ray Hooper

Dear Karen,

Thank you to your company for an amazing experience in China. We loved every moment. The drivers and guides were punctual, friendly, informative and great fun to be with. Henry had an exceptional knowledge of the history on China and really added another dimension to our trip.
 
As friends and clients have asked about our trip I have highly recommended your company. A very big thank you to your prompt, precise and thoughtful email responses prior to going. It mading the planning process easy and fun too.
 
Cheers,

(Sep 23rd, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Stacey

Dear Vincent,

We had an excellent relationship prior to leaving therefore our arrangements were well planned - also felt our guides were flexible in any changes we requested.

Regards.

(Sep 19th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Josie Burgess

Dear Leila,

Apologies for the delay in replying to you. We have been extremely busy since returning to Australia.
Thank you for arraning our tour to China last month, we had a wonderful time and have no regrets with booking with China Odyssey Tours.
Our guides were all very nice, spoke a high level of english, and were very knowledgable. The guide which stood out amongst the others was Kevin in Chengdu. He took the time to personalise our experience and spoke of his family, friends and colleagues. He took us to some of his favourite eating establishments as we conveyed to him how much we enjoyed trying new/different foods. Kevin had an exceptionally high level of english.
We were very happy with all of our drivers and cars.

In terms of improvements to the tour or itinerary:
- We felt that the dumpling meal in Xian was too touristy, and not authentic. Whilst it did showcase the various dumplings available in the area, it was very focussed towards western tourists, and eating in a large theatre style environment didnt feel very 'Chinese'. 
- The tipping rate suggested is very high, even by western standards. And whilst tipping is optional, it doesnt feel that way, it does feel that tipping is expected.
I would suggest the tipping be included in the overall tour costs so that there are no akward moments between guides/drivers/tourists.

Regards

(Sep 18th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Di

Dear Karen,

We were going to send you a thank you email today but got a little behind. 
We would like to thank you for a wonderful holiday.  Your guides and drivers were wonderful.  We had the best service and friendliness that could ever be expected.

Trusting Chine Odyssey goes from strength to strength.

Regards

Di

(Sep 16th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Elena

Dear Sophie,

We are already back at home and delighted of China and its people.
We had an incredible experience!
Regarding your services I can say that everything turned out perfectly. Schedules, guides, everything. All of our guides were excellent, always tried to make our journey pleasant and had very good attitude. My congratulations and thanks to all!
I hope we have the opportunity to make another trip to China and know more of your country.
Once again thank you very much
Warm regards
Elena

(Sep 10th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Trinka

Dear Leila,

We were thrilled with our experience, and were very happy with all our guides.  We felt we had excellent service and food all the way through, and our itinerary -- along with the flexibility our guides provided -- was perfect.  We fell in love with China, and hope to return someday.  Emily in Beijing and Roy in Guilin we felt went over and above any and all expectations one could hope for from a guide, and our family made special connections with both of them.  Although we did our best to thank them properly, perhaps your company can let them know once again how much we appreciated them, and feel they are especially suited to what they do.  We would recommend both of them personally to our friends.  Forest and Jolin were also very good.  Jolin especially had a difficult time with us at the airport because of our excess luggage, and I commend her on all she tried to do for us in a particularly difficult situation.  We hit up against some ornery airline workers, and ended up having a substantial delay, but Jolin made sure we were comfortable with a hotel room for the day.  She was treated quite disrespectfully by the China Eastern staff, but she continued to represent us with grace in spite of how they spoke to her.  That was our only real difficulty, and we brought it on ourselves because of our situation of moving between homes with our trip to China in between.  I did fill out a survey from China Odyssey Tours with more details.

Thank you, too, for all your help, Leila.  This was a trip arranged on very short notice, and you listened well to our needs and made arrangements for us accordingly.  You've done well by us, and we are grateful to you.

All the best!

Trinka

(Sep 4th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Purnima

Dear Vincent,

I hope everything is fine with you. I just now opened my computer to send e-mails. we have come back after a long/short beautiful trip of china. we really enjoyed the entire tour. ofcourse, all the guides were great and on-time and very caring and compassionate. one guide really was amazing in Xian, Ping or Pong, he was exceptionally good and very knowledgeble. we wanted to spend more time with him just listening to him talk about chinese history and culture.

The drivers were very patience with us even though my kids probably drove them crazy and the vans were very big and comfortable. I must thank you for all the wonderful arrangement you did. we will certainly recommend you to our friends.

Thanks again and take care.

(Aug 28th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - John Hutchinson

Dear Leila,

I am happy to provide feedback on our trip. In summary, we had a great time and were very happy with the guides, drivers and service from China Odyssey Tours. We were delighted by your service. The private tour arrangement where we had our own guide and driver was a great way to see the country. We will definitely contact you for any future plans to tour China.

Booking
You were very helpful in preparing our itinerary and accommodating our requests. You were prompt in the changes to the itinerary, email communications and very helpful with the invitation letter for visa processing.

Itinerary
The itinerary that you prepared fitted in all the main sites into our tight schedule. The ability to customise the itinerary with you before hand enabled all our requirements to be met. The itinerary that we ended up with exceeded my expectations whilst on the trip. It provided us with sufficient time at each site and also allowed for flexibility. It covered all the major sites at each city. Although I was taking many photos at each site, there was sufficient time and the guides and drivers were patient with us.

We really appreciated the flexibility in the itinerary. I mentioned to Summer that I wanted to see the Olympic stadium (Birds nest) and the Water Cube. She was able to arrange for us to drive past these on our way to the Great Wall. The day we went to the Great Wall was very well spaced out. We had time in the Sacred Road, then saw the mountainous scenery (through the haze!) on a back road to Mutianyu. Summer gave us the option of lunch first or after the Great Wall with her suggestion that the Great Wall would be less crowded in the afternoon. We had lunch first and had a wonderful time at the Great Wall with very few tourists. The free time to wander along the Great Wall suited us completely.

Our time in Xian was also well organised when visiting the key sites. Our guide, Stella, made sure we covered all the sites in the itinerary - Muslim street was covered on the second day in Xian where is was planned on the first day in the itinerary. This worked very well. Stella was also able to arrange for us to visit the government factory that made replica terra cotta warriors.

Guides
The two guides, Summer and Stella, spoke English very well and had very good knowledge of the sites in each city. I was impressed that they had both grown up in the cities that they were showing us around.

We really appreciated Summer and the driver picking us up at 2am in the morning from the airport on our arrival in Beijing. Summer had good knowledge of each site.

Stella had very good knowledge of the Han Yang Ling museum and the terra cotta warriors.

Drivers
The drivers at each city were very friendly and helpful. We thought the traffic was mayhem but they were able to get through it with no problems. We did notice that they took one or 2 calls on their mobile phone while driving which is listed in the guide book as something the drivers do not do. This did not concern us or put us in any danger.

Hotels
I appreciated that I was able to make my own hotel arrangements in Beijing and have this incorporated into the itinerary.

We were very happy with the Grand New World hotel in Xian. It was in the main city area and with a good room. Jenny appreciated the free wifi in the lobby and breakfast area.

Meals
No issue with breakfast at the hotels. The lunch and dinner meals we had were very filling - there was plenty of food. It was suited to westerner which was fine for us.

Areas for improvement
The only area I was a little disappointed was with the Hutongs. I was expecting a much more bustling area with markets and the locals buying and selling goods.

Photos
Here is a link to some photos that I have posted on the web. I am happy to share photos with you so please let me know if you want a copy and I can send you the original.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12164554@N04/sets/72157631139366276/

Attached are a few for you to look at.


Regards,

John Hutchinson
(Aug 27th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Nick & Bev

Dear Kalinda,

Our recent visit to China was enjoyable. Our guides Henry, Juddy, Zephyr, Annie & Tony ( oh and Shaun ) were all so very professional, so knowledgeable, such fun & very very helpful, we cannot speak highly enough about them, they were wonderful. The tour organisation by Odyssey Tours was done professionally with everything running smoothly.

We had a wonderful time in China, were impressed with the history, culture, loved the food, the scenic views were breath taking, hotels were excellent, everything we did made it a fantastic holiday.

Thank you very very much & we will certainly be back in touch with Odyssey when we have saved up for our next adventure.

Best Wishes
Nick & Bev

(Aug 25th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Eddie and Jennifer Mercado 

Dear Tom,

Myself and my wife had a wonderful time in China, we are extremely happy with your service and with Ping, the tour guide was very helpful and her assistance was great.
I have a website where all the pictures from our travels are, feel free to come around and check it out, you can use them if you want to.
www.adventuresofagroovycouple.weebly.com
If we ever come back to spend more time in China we will be happy to contact you again.
Regards,

Eddie and Jennifer Mercado

(Aug 24th 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours- Shirley

Dear Hatty,

The journey you organised was superb! We will happily fill in the questionnaire when we get home, or sooner. (I leave for home on Friday but Roy stays at his conference until tehe followibg week). You have certainly wheted our appetites for further travel in China - or why not Laos or Vietnam?

The shoes and camera arrived safely today. I am wearing them right now - they are so comfortaböe for walking when it is warm. You have gone way beyond what we could expect of a travel agent, as has Sofitel! Thank you so much! Is it possible to reimburse for the postage?

The weather in Beijing is surprisingly pleasant with clear blue skies and not too hot.

Best wishes

Shirley

(Aug 22nd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours- Karen Boyarsky 

Dear Maggie,

Thank you for organizing a great vacation for the family. All went well and we are back safely in Beijing.

Regards

Graeme, Louise and Girls

Sent from my iPhone

(AUG 20th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Bert and Anita

Dear Reinself,

We arrived back  in Singapore.
the cruise over the Yangtze River was unforgettable and we enjoyed the days very much.
we had a fantastic holiday on board the President Prime.
The Yangtze scenery is so beautifull, especially the Three Gorges.
The staff on board and also the guides on land were very friendly and helpful.

Thank you very much for organising our tour!

With best regards from
Bert and Anita

(Aug 15th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours- Vince

Dear Hatty,

Thank you for a very memorable and wonderful holiday experience. The tour guides...Jackie Tao at Beijing and Scott at Xi'an were wonderful and very good English speakers. We need to specially mention their warmth and friendliness. They were a very big part in making the tour a success. The hotel arrangements at Beijing was wonderful. The hotel was very comfortable and the staff was courteous and helpful. The Hotel at Xi'an was comfortable but we did not enjoy the hospitality of the staff, they were not very friendly. The taxi service at Shenzhen was prompt and very efficient in taking us to HK.

Thank you and we will definitely be mentioning about your tours to our friends who are looking to touring china.

Regards, 

Lakshmi and Vishi

(Aug 12nd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Anna Hughes 

Dear Tom,

We are back home in the US! Thank you SO much for planning an amazing trip for us. We had a really great time. The guides made our trip great, they were so helpful, flexible and informative! We loved Jenny, Henry, and Michael!!! Please tell them how appreciative we are, the trip wouldn't have been the same without them! 

Can we have Michael's email address? He mentioned that he travels to DC sometimes and so we would love to stay in touch! 

Thanks SO much! 

Anna Hughes 

(Aug 12nd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours- Karen Boyarsky 

Dear Maggie,

We are home and rested, and still amazed by all the wonderful sights we saw, and the wonderful people that we met, in China!

I can't thank you enough for your outstanding efforts and organization on our behalf.  Please use my name as a commendation, or for any future recommendations, references, or suggestions for possible C.O.T. travelers.  

I completed Vera's online travel survey yesterday, and was fairly thorough, but if you review it, let me know if anything else comes to mind.  We are so happy that we were able to meet you, and I cherish the gifts that you shared (the decorative mask, and the lovely placemats and chopsticks).  It's been a little bit strange, having to eat with a fork again.  And, oh -- how I miss the food!!  Everything was so delicious.

We still miss our chance to have seen Tibet, but our wonderful photographs of the natural beauty of Jiuzhaigou, and the very few Western tourists there, will always remain a special memory.  Both Steve and Bob mentioned that the Li River, Guilin, and Yangshuo countryside were highlights of the trip!  Guilin was originally first on my list, but I also fell in love with Shanghai, and our private home lunches in Beijing's hutongs and in Xian.  Our guides were nearly all exceptional, and our drivers made travelling to so many locations much easier.  In each area, we were especially fortunate to have missed the heavy rains and poor weather.  

My best wishes and gratitude to everyone who made our journey so memorable!

Most sincerely,

Karen Boyarsky 

(AUG 10th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Mr. Jon Matthews

Dear Vincent and Vera,

please see that Lulu's manager in Xi'an sees this email.  I cannot say enough good things about both my tour guide so far, but Lulu really is awesome!  I am having a great time in China!  Thank you for all your help. 

To Whom It May Concern:

I write this email awaiting my flight from Xi’an to Guilin after spending two days with your tour guide Lulu.

I want to make sure that you know that Lulu was an excellent tour guide.  I cannot give her enough praise.  As I told her, being a tour guide and even doing an average job is a challenge – having to work with diverse people, tourist sites, airport transfers and all the other in the moment challenges that she must face requires a quick wit and great social skills.

Lulu has these qualities in abundance.  From the moment she picked me up at the airport, I knew I had an excellent guide.  We spoke at length on the ride to the airport and when we arrived, she quickly greeted the hotel staff and got me checked in.  She told me on the ride that she has been working as a guide in Xi’an for 4 years and as a result she knows everyone.  I can vouch for this. Knowing that your guide has these connections really sets a travelers mind at ease. 

While the New World Hotel was an excellent choice, I ran into a problem my first morning there as I attempted to exchange some travelers checks at the front desk.  The hotel clerk did not think one of my signatures matched up on the check so she would not exchange the money.  I was very upset, because of course I would have to be on the phone with American Express to report this problem and get issued new checks so I did not lose $200.  The hotel clerk was not understanding my argument – she finally agreed to change one of the checks.  This was ridiculous.  I asked her to speak to her manager.  She was on the phone for a few minutes and she handed me the receiver.  Who had she been talking to? Not her manager but Lulu!  Lulu saved the day by assuring the staff that my check was valid and she came up with a great solution to the problem that allowed me to cash both checks.  The very fact that the staff called Lulu and that she was able to resolve the problem in minutes goes a long way to showing her skill as a guide.

Everywhere we went, Lulu knew the staff and was able to quickly get us in and out of sites.  Always a smile on her face, she navigated long lines and proposed quick solutions.  The line for the Terracotta Museum shuttle bus too long?  Do you mind a short walk?  A nice stroll through a beautiful garden beats a shuttle bus any day!  A pushy salesperson in the Museum gift shop?  Lulu was quick to say, “He doesn’t want that”  when she could tell I was getting frustrated after already having spent $100 dollars and  she whisked me away. 

Lulu asked me if I wanted to see a performance in Xi’an.  After a day she knew me well enough to know that while I am the type of guy who wants to be able to say I saw an interesting performance of dance when I get back to America, I am not the type of guy who is going to want to spend a lot of money for the most expensive, best performance.  She offered me the performance in the hotel and arranged the ticket – I wouldn’t know a good Tang Dynasty dance from a bad one after all and the dance at the hotel was great.  A smile on her face again we talked to the ticket agent in the hotel and secured a seat.  We joked and chatted with the agent for awhile and later in the night when I came to see the show, the girl remembered me and called me by name even though she spoke no English.  It was not me who impressed her but Lulu – she felt such a connection to her that she treated me with respect and kindness.  What VIP treatment!

Sadly somewhere between the Terracotta Museum gift shop and my hotel my cash wallet disappeared.  Thankfully only a few hundred RMB were lost.  I purchased a traveling wallet just for this eventuality.  I was not very upset – of more concern was a business card that I lost that I had stuffed in the wallet.  My passport, my traveler’s checks and my credit card were not lost.   

Lulu was so upset at my loss that she immediately called the gift shop at the Museum and even the police office at the site to see if anyone had found my wallet.  This morning, when she picked me up she said her friend was going to the museum today and he would be asking personally about my missing wallet.  Even though I’m sure I was the victim of a pickpocket or my own foolishness, Lulu took it upon herself to find this wallet.  Even as she saw me off at the airport, she said she would mail me the wallet if she managed to find it. 

In America we have a term you may be familiar with called “homesickness.”  This morning, after 6 days in China I feel a little homesick but Lulu made me feel right at home with her bubbly personality and great kindness.  I told her that for the rest of my trip I would be Lulu sick. 

You have a very young woman doing a very challenging job and doing it very well.  As a high school teacher, I try to cultivate great responsibility in my students.  I want young men and young women who can think on their feet more than tell me what is in a book.  Such skills are so critical to success in today’s world and your tour guide Lulu has these skills in abundance.  She does her job with all her heart and really cares about her clients.  She is an outstanding asset to your company and on top of it, because I deal with young people all day, I know that she doesn’t even know how good she is - true humility on top of it all.   

Watch out, as I may someday steal her from you to come to the US and teach Chinese in my high school! 


--
Mr. Jon Matthews

(Aug 7th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours- Vince

Dear Hatty,

Sorry for getting back to you so late - once we got back we have been extremely busy.

We enjoyed our trip to China very much. It was nice to have our personal tour guide and driver while we were there.  The real value in booking our trip through China Odyssey was on our last day when our flight to Beijing was cancelled.  I'm sure you remember that well, also.
Fortunately, through your efforts we were able to get back to Beijing to make our return flight to the United States.  Thank-you very much for your efforts.

We appreciate the time you took to get to our final itinerary.  We were very happy with the cities we visited.  A couple additional things we did at the suggestion of our guides that were memorable were the biking on the city wall in Xian and the massages that my wife and daughter-in-law had in Yangshuo.

We have not yet, but will be filling out the survey this week.

Thanks again,
Vince

(Aug 4th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Jenne

Dear Leila,

Well we are at last home safe and sound after a fantastic 3 weeks in China.  Apart from the intervention from Mother Nature, which no-one can control our holiday was fantastic thanks to your organisation and wonderful local guides.  All of the guides were knowledgeable, friendly, helpful and in the case of Andy very patient and calm.  All the hotels were well equipped, comfortable and clean.  The experiences chosen were a good mix of the old and new China, we particularly enjoyed the concerts.  The biggest surprise I had was Beijing and how modern, clean and beautiful it is.  The hardest thing to get used to was the toilet and sanitation systems that at time posed a challenge.  China is still very much a cash economy compared to the western world so we did rely on ATMs more than we would at home where we use our cash and credit cards more, but that certainly didn't slow down the shopping.
The highlights for Peter and I would have to have been the Great Wall, Terracotta Warriors and the Impression light show.
I have attached a number of photos that capture our time in China.
Once again Leila thank you and your guides - particularly Michael, Suu, Tony and Andy - very much for a very memorable holiday.  Of course we must also mention the expertise and talent of the very capable bus drivers, they must have nerves of steel.  A very special thank you to Mr Fong for waiting so long for us at Beijing airport, twice. 
Regards,
Jenne

(July 31st, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - David McBain  

Dear Vincent,

All went very well Vincent – many many thanks. Pity about the cloudy weather at the Golden Temple that meant there was no Sea of Cloud. Re the Pandas – great visit but pity no baby pandas  arrive till this month.
The guide was excellent and the car driver – very comfortable car.
One highlight of the trip was to see the 3 hour live cultural show in the theatre in Emei – maybe it should be a built in part of the programme rather than an extra activity that I asked Simpson about ?
I mentioned to Simpson that you ought to provide a map of China and the provinces – the road map of Chengdu is far too small scale to read. My reason for visiting SE China was to demystify what goes on in China and the distances and positioning of the cities needs to be explained to westerners like me –  we have hardly any cities in Europe as large as Chengdu with 12 M people and the enormity of China needs explaining to tourists.
David McBain  

(July 30th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Melanie

Dear Tom,

Just wanted to say thank you to you for organising our trips in China and to Peggy and Stella for being our guides.Peggy and Stella were extremely helpful and very knowledgeable.

I will be leaving Shanghai on Thursday morning with Samantha and Stephanie and flying back to the UK, where we will have cooler weather!! but will also take back some great memories of our time in China. My sister Beverley will be flying to Australia with her husband and David.

Thanks again

Melanie

(July 29th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Nora

Dear Vincent,

Our trip was wonderful.  We have a great time and are thrilled that we traveled with China Odyssey.  I just finished filling out the review questionnaire.  Hopefully that will be helpful.  Thank you again for everything!

Best,
Nora

(July 28th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Kent Kelley

Dear Reinself,

Below is the infothat motivated me to go to that remote location. By the way, I am eighty years old.
We stayed overnight in Kunming, flying in from Xian.  It was the best hotel of the entire trip. It is the better part of a whole day’s drive from Kunming up to Dongchuan over a narrow, sometimes crowded road.  Our driver was expert.  There is now a hotel up there and we were one of two parties staying there. It was new and clean, but certainly not luxurious.  We did not expect it to be. The color of the crops will depend heavily on the season of the year you travel.  We were there in the last week of June and the crops were either green (corn), white (potato blossoms), lavender, or yellow (rape) but certainly not to the extent or intensity of the pictures below.  Nevertheless, it was one of the scenic highlights of our trip. Photographers are the main visitors, and we had one in our group.  She will be glad to share her experiences with her equipment with you if you wish.  It was overcast the day we visited, so we did not get a sunset shot.  We stopped at about a half dozen strategic spots and either took pictures from there and/or hiked short distances to get better vantage. There are very few roads, so I believe that one tour’s path would not vary much from any others. China Odyssey’s guides spoke very understandable English and were very knowledgeable, being of local upbringing in their area.  None had ever been abroad.
This two day trip is probably not for the typical casual tourist, but all of us have lived and traveled extensively.  I have lived seven years in Europe including one year in Newbury, Berks. My ancestors were English and Scottish. The food on our tour was outstanding.  The tour paid for our breakfasts and lunches, and we bought our own dinners mostly at restaurants chosen by our guides based on our desires. We did not eat in a Western restaurant while on tour. We suffered one person’s upset stomach one day on the whole trip! Our party of eight traveled in mini busses throughout. They were air conditioned and comfortable. The only substandard hotel was in Lijiang, the Wangfu Hotel.  The front desk operation was outstanding, but almost none of the staff spoke English, the breakfast was not up to par, and my room had a moldy smell. We apprised our guide of this, but it did not spoil our time there. The rest of the hotels were world-class four- star, so we did not feel slighted.
Overall, we feel that we got more than our money’s worth and had a marvelous time. I would recommend China Odyssey Tours to anyone. Please feel free to reply with more questions or comments.  I will put you in touch with Barb (our photographer if you like)
Best regards,
Kent Kelley

(July 26th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Alison

Dear Reinself,

Linda & I had a great holiday with the tour that you organised. The tour Guides were very good, transport & driver. We enjoyed your rich history. I have responded to the Questionaaire received. We are planning to visit China next year in September for a Dragon Boat race. Do you cover Mongolia? Some of us would be interested in visiting Mongolia & Tibet.
Closer to the date will get in touch with you.
Kind regards
Alison

(July 26th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Ambuja

Dear Kalinda,

Just wanted to give you a quick update on our Beijing stay. We had a great time there. Vera Wang and Yang Shifu were relly nice and took very good care of us. Vera Wang was very helpful with everything and gave us some amazing lunches that we thoroughly enjoyed.

Xi'an and Shanghai were also very nice. We had a great time in all (except for the Susan episode). Thank you for taking so much care to arrange every detail meticulously. The food and the transportation arrangements were great. We will certainly recommend your tour company to all of our friends.


Ambuja

(July 25th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours- Susan

Dear Hatty,

We had a wonderful trip in China!  We are still in Asia, now in Singapore visiting our son here. I will write a letter of recommendation when we get back to the states as we felt you provided an excellent service.  
I appreciate your help especially in Shanghai.
Susan

(July 25th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours- Roger

Dear Maggie,

We made it home safely.  It is very good to be home.  We were very pleased with both Jack and Chris as Tour Guides in Beijing and Shanghai.  It was a wonderful trip we will remember for a long time.

Thanks,
Roger

(July 23rd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Gareth Richards

Dear Tom,

Just to give you some feedback on this tour, which was Saturday.

The trip to Donglin Temple (about 70km) was no problem. After leaving the hotel in Pudong about 8.30am we arrived about 9.45. The temple was excellent, there is a 34meter new (2007) statue of Guan Yin which is absolutely spectacular. The rest of the temple is high quality also. And no tourists, just a few local people. If you have other people (like me) that are very interested in Buddhism, and they have the time for the longer drive, I recommend it highly.

After lunch we returned to Shanghai and visited Longhua Temple (peaceful, old traditional temple, I liked it a lot) and Jing'An temple (good, but too many tourists! because of the location).

Sean was a good guide, and, even though he was not an expert, he was able to help me with the Buddhist temple customs, because his grandparents are Buddhist. He was also very friendly and so we had a good day together. 

So, in the end, it was exactly the trip I wanted.

Many thanks

Gareth Richards

(July 23rd, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Kent

Dear Reinself,

Here is my trtravelogue:

NOTES ON OUR CHINA TRIP JUNE-JULY 2012

    Our tour group consisted of my daughter’s family (6), me, and an old friend from Versailles, France. We spent time in Beijing (BJ), Xian (XI), Kunming (KM), Dongchuan (DO), Shangri-La (SL), Lijiang (LI), Yangtze River Cruise (YZ), and Shanghai (SH). My two motivations for the trip was to give my grandkids, ages 14 and 16 an opportunity to see and learn about that part of the world firsthand, and to make the trip while I was still physically able. I believe that I learned more than they did because I could relate better to history than they.  I was never well read on Chinese history, and this trip was mind boggling for me.
    We arrived in BJ and stayed in a hotel that was far better engineered than our own **** class.  They provide gas masks for each guest (in case of fire you can walk out through the smoke).  They have a center console in the bed stand that controls everything in the room, and their breakfasts were world class brunches that catered to American, French, Scandinavian, Indian, and Chinese tradition.  Heavy smog day and night.  We did not see the sun in BJ.
TV had CNN, Discovery, and a lot of cute Chinese animation.
There are street cameras everywhere, and in Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City there were choke points manned by both the army and secret service watchers.  Throughout the trip, at every pagoda, temple, museum, or other cultural spots, our guide collected our passports and they were scanned before we entered.  Now that is control!  They have a better minute by minute record of our travels than we do.  The Great Wall was impressive but getting up there was a struggle for me.  It was meant to keep the Mongolians out. The impact of the Mongols on China over the millennia was huge.  Genghis Kahn ruled the largest empire in the world encompassing all of China, most of Russia and extended to central Europe and the Mid-East Asia. He controlled the Silk Road all the way.
    XI is the ancient walled city which is near the site of the Terracotta Warriors. A whole army arrayed in full battle formation and supported by a huge supply train was entombed in trenches covered over with wooden beams, mats and earth.  A farmer recently discovered them by digging a well!  One bronze sword displayed actually had a chrome edge to the blade. This was over 2050 years ago, and chrome was not invented until 1937 in Germany.  Go figure! Along those same lines, in the jade room of the museum in  SH, I spotted a jade carving of a silk worm dated 4000BC!  That is 1000 years before the pyramids.  Just imagine the technological state of our ancestors 6000 years ago!  XI  has a complete wall around it that is about 60 feet at the base and about 80 feet high with guard towers all within arrow range of each other and trap pits on the inside. In case someone got in (Mongols) they could be slaughtered from the towers.  There were originally only four gates and they were all closed nightly at sundown. XI is on the Yellow river and is the center of the wheat belt.  Open fields for as far as you can see, and modern farming practices.
    KM & DO.  We are now in Yunnan Provence which is about the size of Germany. Here we encountered many ethnic minorities, ancient markets and farming practices. Viet Nam is just east, and Myanmar is just west. This is the south eastern corner of Tibet.
We were not allowed to visit Lhasa due to unrest there.  There are 53 minorities in China and they do not all like each other. The Han are the majority by about 84%, and almost all are Buddhists. Tao, Muslim and Christian are a few of the lesser faiths.  Dongchuan was one of the highlights of landscape viewing of the trip. It is a World Heritage Scenic site.  You may recall a video I sent last year of these landscapes which motivated me to go there.  It is a remote location, with no hotels until a yea ago. Standing on a hill looking across a valley to 38 terraces, I looked down and saw a farmer plowing his terrace with a cow hitched to a wooden plow right out of the16th century.  Down the road 50 miles was a tractor with a 4 bottom modern plow attached.
    SL   is the site of the Flying Tigers base in WWII and the Burma Road which we helped build to supply China against the Japanese invaders. Here we visited the smaller version of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, but still the largest monastery of Tibetan Buddhism in Yunnan Province.  
    LI. This is another very ancient town. We visited an open air market that featured just about everything that a human would consider eating, and some things about which I had doubts.  Also, near here,
 was “Tiger Leaping Gorge” on the upper Yangtze which featured 17 km of the most awesome gorge I have ever seen.  It is the deepest and one of the most scenic gorges in the world. There are 22 different ethnic minorities in LI, and many of them dress in their traditional clothing which makes for not only a kaleidoscope of color, but also a photographer’s dream.  Barb, my daughter’s sister in law is a professional quality photographer carrying state of the art camera equipment.  She must have taken 3000 shots on this trip and intends to edit and publish a book in the future.
YZ.  On the three day cruise, a Chinese MD gave a riveting lecture on traditional Chinese medicine including   acupuncture, acupressure and herbal remedies. Thoroughly impressed with the longevity of their culture, I submitted my aching bones to him for a couple of hours, and managed to dance fast Viennese waltzes with one of the ship’s officers during the welcoming reception.  I have photos to prove it. One Chinese tourist got me to dance with his wife, and I had a ball.  The cruise passed beautiful sceneries and we even got into very small wooden boats oared by lower ethnic men to explore a small tributary amid towering cliffs.  We ended up at the Three Gorges Dam which is the world’s largest, putting out 32 gig watts of power.  The Lock system boggles the mind.
    SH. This is the financial and trade center of China, and has a varied past relationship with all of the European Powers and the USA. Here we visited the old French quarter, the huge Museum, and the world’s highest observatory atop the Financial Center. We were on the 105th floor.
 We were hosted to a full blown tea ceremony and toured a silk factory showing us the worms eating grape leaves, handling the cocoons, pulling the silk filaments, aggregating them, and some gorgeous products.  I bought some bedding and ties, my only major purchase.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

The Chinese people are extremely proud, hard working, and family bound. Our guides all spoke excellent English, but none had been out of the country. Each ethnic believes they are the best, and each region’s population believes the same.

The Government is in full, tight control of the population.  This is not viewed unfavorably by most. Asian culture subordinates the individual to the group (state) and this is why democracy will never flourish here.  However, due to rising incomes/life styles many of the upper classes are conflicted between individual initiative/freedom and duty to the family and state.

The air outside of BJ is clear, even in the industrial areas.  The newer factories are being outfitted with clean air devices. 

The food in the restaurants we visited was uniformly good.  There is very little meat as we know it, lots of vegetables, noodles, rice, and a million varieties of dumplings. We ate almost every lunch and dinner out on the town, and only one of us had an upset stomach for one day.  Remarkable!  The local beers were stellar, and cost a couple of bucks for a large bottle.  That limited my water intake, although good bottled water is available everywhere. KFC, McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns etc. are everywhere.
I had one whopper in the airport just prior to boarding for home.

The streets of the old towns were narrow, pedestrian only, cobblestoned walkways lined with shops catering to tourists of all nations.  We saw lots of European, Japanese, Indian, and
Chinese tourists, but only a few Americans.

The traffic is so jammed in BJ that you have to win a lottery in order to buy a car.  This is not so in other cities. We saw lots of Mercedes, Volkswagens, Audis, BMWs, some Volvos, Citroens, and Peugeots, but very few American made cars. The Japanese are second to Europe in foreign cars

Finally, the sum of my education in China is to predict that they will overtake us not only in economic strength, but also in world power.  They are determined to be the best and their ingrained cultural heritage of   hard work, education, savings and warrior nature will enable them to succeed in their goals, while we are on a slippery slope of spending   more than we produce, subsidizing those who are either unwilling to work or are too uneducated to contribute to our economy and who pay no taxes at all!  Our noble experiment in a capitalistic society with a republican form of government is only a little over 200 years old, a baby by any definition.  “Whether this nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated will long endure” is becoming more clear every day.
Kent

(July 22nd, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - John

Dear Reinself,

I had a very good time in Chna thanks for everything.

Ii want to say that our guide Amie in Beijin and the driver Mr. Lee, they were both VERY VERY NICE,
Amie is very friendly, she knows deeply about the history and she made sure that we were happy all the time. Please tell her one more time thanks for everything and please give her my email

Thanks
John

(July 20th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Ann & Joel 

Dear Karen,

I am really late in letting you know how much we enjoyed our journey to China.  It was made very special by all the arrangements and the itinerary which you layed out for us.  I can't add much to what Barbara has said below because we agree with all her praise of the trip based on your tour plan.  I commend you for your all the logistics of our trip which worked extremely well and also the pre-trip planning for which you were very patient with us.  You always answered all of our many questions and were extremely helpful and flexible.

It was the trip of a lifetime and we had many wonderful experiences in China.  We enjoyed our tour guides and I will write to you separately regarding them.  Also, our drivers were very skilled and made us feel very safe in their hands.

My one major recommendation would be not to schedule Mt. Emei on a weekend.  It was very crowded, and we waited in line for over two hours to go up in the cable car.  After climbing over 500 steps to get to the cable car, we were surprised at the long wait.  Otherwise, everything went smoothly, and we were very pleased.  I would definitely recommend that school stop to other tourists-it was an absolute highlight of our visit!

Thank you for an excellent visit to your country!

Regards,
Ann & Joel

(July 20th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Ivan and Elyse 

Dear Karen,

Just wanted to touch base and let you know that we had a fabulous time in China. Especially, in Beijing. Our guide Emily was FANTASTIC. She was very accomodating and helpful. The Great Wall was amazing – we had a very hot day BUT the trip was well worth it.
Thank you again for all your help in organising our trip.
Thank you.
Maria Capanna

(July 19th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours- Andrea Riha

Dear Maggie,

We have complete our visit in Beijing and are going to Shanghai this morning. Our Tour Guide, Jack, and Drive, Moo, provided us with excellent service every day. They made our visit in Beijing a wonderful experience. The only negative is the traffic jams in Beijing Central are terrible but expected in a city of 18 million people.

Best regards,
Roger

(July 19th 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - George Williams

Dear Reinself,

Thank you for the email ,I would like to thankyou and china odyssey and all the staff across china for our lovely trip but next time we pick a cooler time it was hot but we did enjoy it . We would like to thank all the tour guides and drivers but a special thankyou to Monique in Guangzhou, but a double special thankyou to Sunny in Beijing who made us feel like part of her family. We would not hesitate to recommend your company or yourself. We would also like to stay in touch with you and your family  
Best wishes
George Williams

(July 18th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Sandra

Dear Vincent,

I can't say enough about how wonderful our trip was!! We enjoyed every minute, and the guides were fantastic.  I will definitely recommend your services to friends and family, and have completed the post-trip questionnaire.

I think our favorite city was Beijing, because we really felt like we were seeing the real China.  The people were so friendly and the sights were amazing!  Having said that, all the cities were wonderful and I couldn't imagine doing it without our guides.

I did know about the beds in the hotels, Susan and I had discussed this and decided we would book two rooms with 3 people in each room, so please don't worry about this.

Thank you for your help organizing this, we will keep you in mind for our next adventure!

Sandra

(July 17th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Alex

Dear Leila,

Everything about the organization went quite well. We know that we had some special requests and that we were not the easiest customer. Anyway your local guide dealt perfectly with the special situations (my leg problem and the fever of my daughter). We had some discussions with Howard on the last day about our request to go to a fastfood restaurant and his reservation in a recommended restaurant. He insisted on going to the restaurant and to skip the last agenda item in Xian (Han Mausoleum). I was not happy about this and tried to turn around, but we ended up in the restaurant. At the end we were able to make both (restaurant and Han Mausoleum) and I was very happy about this. I know this request from my side was a last minute request (especially since a part of my family stayed in the hotel this morning), so please forward my apologies to him again. He did a wonderful job and gave us a great guidance during our days in Xian.

All the other things (airport transfers, wheelchair organization, hotels) was almost perfect. Some minor issues was a quite noisy room in Xian (it was facing the street) and a cabin with a wet wall on the boat, but we got a new room, so it was solved on the ship. The weather could have been better, but this is of course not in your hand.

All in all we are very happy having booked this tour at China odyssey tours and we will come back for sure. We saw all the things we wanted to see in a most relaxing way. Thank you so much!

Thanks again for all your patience and updates.

Regards

Alex

(July 17th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Robert and Anne

Dear Tom,

your email came in on the day I was going to write to you!
We are home safe and sound and back to work this week, very sad to be back to very cold temperatures.

THANK YOU so much from Robert and myself for helping us with an incredible holiday experience, we loved every minute and your expertise, professionalism and efficiency secured  us a wonderful trip.
WE loved China and hope to definitely return in the not to distant future and will use and recommend China Odyssey for sure.

We were so sorry we didn't get to meet you in Guilin, but as our flight was 1 1/2 hours late we were under pressure to see the sights before the evening came and we only got back into the city centre about 6 :30 and Li told us you would have left the office by then.

Also he may have told you I wasn't so well in Yangshou, I suffered quite bad nose bleeds and Li was incredibley helpful. Therefore, please can you assist me? The same thing happened in Chongqing, and our guide was Remy. Remy went beyond her duties to help me and to sort out the boarding of the ship and helped Robert, whilst I was not well. I never got her email address, (I got all the other guides), please send me her email address so I can thank her properly, she was truly fantastic.

We can only keep on thanking you for making our holiday to China the most enjoyable trip we have had in the East, and we wish you well Tom.

Robert and Anne

(July 17h, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Laura and Luis

Dear Maple,

We are finnaly back to Brazil after our "trip around the world".
We had a wonderful time in China, a very beautiful country. The guides (Summer in Beijing, James in Xian and Min in Shanghai) took good care of us at all times. They, and the drivers, were very courteus and accomodating. They were very punctual.
We thought the planning you made for our trip worked very well.
The hotels were excelent and also the cars were very comfortable.
We will definetely recomend you and your team to our friends.
We are attaching some photos like you requested. 
Thank you for showing us your beautiful country.
Best regards,
Laura and Luis

(July 13th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Phil Smith

Dear Maple,

Just wanted to let you know how much we both enjoyed the tour that you organised for us. We enjoyed every part of the tour, particularly the Great wall and Kung fu show.

Would you also pass on our thanks to Carla, who we both thought was an exceptional tour guide, her knowledge of all the areas we visited was first class.
She really looked after us and made our first trip to Beijing a very special one.
So a big, big thank-you Carla!!!!!

I will definitely recommend your company and Carla to anyone thinking about visiting Beijing.
As there is still so much more to see in Beijing we are planning on visiting again soon, and when the time comes I will definitely be calling on yours and Carla’s services.

PS – please remind Carla to facebook both of us.
Thanks & Kind Regards
Phil Smith

(July 12nd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Ivan and Elyse 

Dear Karen,

We had a wonderful trip to China. We thank you for creating a great itinerary for us. Also, thank you very much for the anniversary present of a bottle of wine we received in Shanghai. We filled out the post-trip questionnaire. I hope our answers are useful. I've attached a picture so you will remember us.

Best regards,
Ivan and Elyse

(July 11st, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Bob Thorne

Dear Leila,

Bob and I loved this trip despite my knee pain and our early return to Shanghai.  We were disappointed we did not get to see the cave, but we saw so many other wonderful things prior to that, it was hard to feel disappointed. 

We are very pleased with your service!  We took a trip earlier this spring with China Tours and let’s just say you did a much better job than our contact at this company.  You were always very responsive, informative and we felt like your business practices were fair. This was the fourth or fifth area we have visited in China and I think it was my favorite!  We loved the rice terraces, the river cruise, but my favorite was the water show.  I’ve never seen anything quite like it. 
Bob Thorne

(July 10th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Frans

Dear Maple,

Just a note to let you know that our tour went very well and we enjoyed it immensely—all the arrangements worked well, and the guides in each city were first class. Thank you for your help—we will definitely use your Company again when we next tour to China.
With thanks
Frans

(July 9th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours- Andrea Riha

Dear Maggie,

Just wanted to say thank you for organizing our trip to China and the gifts. We had a lovely time and all went smoothly. Our only issue was the flights – all of them were badly delayed and we spent a lot of time sitting in airports. Would consider changing airline companies!

Regards,

Andrea Riha

(July 9th 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Sharad S. DHARAMSHI

Dear Leila,

We had a wonderful time. Everything went as per plan. We certainly have to thank you for all the arrangements. Tour guides from Beijing to Shanghai were all very courteous, knowledgeable and very helpful. Our special thanks to Jennifer in Xian. She did go out of her way to arrange for a doctor at Sofitel. Rita and myself both have to thank all the guides.
We will certainly recommend China Odessey Tours to our friends here in Canada and India as well.
Lotus Hotel in Yangshuo was a bit below our expectations but it did not affect our overall tour. Owen was quick in altering our plans. However, Yangshuo was a highlight of our trip.
Thank you again and wish you a nice day.

Sent from my iPhone
Sharad S. DHARAMSHI

(July 8th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Phil taylor

Dear Vincent,

We had a fantastic time in china and your company did a great job.  i've just filled out the questionaire that was sent, could you please let me know that you got it.  i have lots of comments about our guides, want to make sure you get them.

We'll be back in china within a few years and will definitely use your company again.  you should be very proud of your country, china is an amazing country

Best,

Phil taylor

(July 5th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Margaret Hunter 

Dear Karen,

I am writing to thank you for arranging our trip to China in April. We had a great time and everything you arranged for us was excellent. We would like to particularly mention April, our guide in Huangshan. She was absolutely wonderful, and everything she suggested was perfect for us.

We are returning to China next year and will contact you again soon for your help.

With best wishes,
Margaret Hunter

(July 5th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Michael

Dear Vincent,

Thank you for your email. I had intended to contact you as well to express my thanks for your help in arranging our tour. My wife and I had an enjoyable trip. One part that stands out from our whole experience was our guide in Bejing, Babbitt. He was an exceptional guide and a true ambassador of Chinese history and culture, we learned so much from him. He was so engaging and able to answer our questions with real depth. Not to mention he was very courteous and helpful. It was an absolute pleasure to have him tour us around. We were sad to say good bye to him.

One suggestion to improve the tour in Beijing would be to provide an option to visiting the home of a family in the hutong. Although this was interesting it is strange and awkward to just walk into someone's private home. Our guide in the hutong, Miki, was great but we would have prefered to skip the visit of the private home.


Pamela in Guilin was excellent. She was caring and considerate and always very helpful. Her knowledge had depth. She always had a smile on and had such a positive attitude. She was a real pleasure to be around.

I will also note all of our drivers were very friendly and were safe and cautious in their driving.

I hope these remarks will be of value to you.

Kindest regards,

Michael

(July 4th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Dennis Boylan

Dear Sophie,

The tour was conducted in a first rate manner. The guides (all of them) were outstanding; they were true professionals of the first order.

Here are the key points;

• On time — every pick up and drop off was on time.
• Knowledge - each guide provided detailed insight for the tour sites and Chinese culture, this was invaluable.
• Professional service — you quickly resolved the issue of the connecting rooms for the O'Sullivan's. The guides also tracked flight departures and anticipated any delays.
• Care - the guides looked out for our best interest and comfort.

The tour was a great success thanks to you and your staff and for that we are most appreciative. 

Today is July 4th, our Independence Day, so from Philadelphia, the city where our Declaration of Independence was written, many thanks and best wishes to everyone at China Odyssey Tours! Tonight we will celebrate our Independence with a great Chinese invention: fireworks!

(July 4th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Lee-Anne Howson

Dear Vincent,

We have arrived back in London from Hong Kong this morning
We have had a fantastic trip and enjoyed our time in China very much.
Xian was most interesting and out guide Marbersia was very nice and so knowledgable...her English was also very good.
The itinerary that you arranged was perfect and everything that we saw and did was well planned and worthwhile.
Thank you for your help.  I will certainly recommend you and your company to anyone visiting China.
Kind regards
Lee-Anne Howson

(July 3rd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours- Sandra

Dear Maggie,

John and I wish to thank you once more for your organisation of our trip to the Li river and it's surrounds.

We feel we were very fortunate to have the delightful Evelyn Lu as our guide as each experience was enhanced by her knowledge and wonderful attitude.

The accommodation further expanded our pleasure and provided a quiet space in the evenings.

We will certainly recommend your company to any friends in the future and if we should return to China will definitely be in touch.

Thank you sincerely
warm regards
Sandra

(July 2nd 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Derek pringle

Dear Maple,

Thank you for your greetings on my return to Auckland.  I really enjoyed my tour in Chengdu, especially the visit to the Panda Research Centre.  My tour guide, Linda, looked after me very well and the other places we visited were interesting too.  After my visit to Chengdu, I went on to spend a week in Yunnan with a small group and I enjoyed that too, especially the Stone Forest.

Thank you for your efficient and helpful service and I would be happy to use your services again if I return to China.

Kind regards
Derek pringle

(July 2nd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Sue and Lauren Szymanski

Dear Maggie,

It is hard to believe that our trip is over and we are back in the US.  I would like to personally thank you for organizing such a wonderful trip for us!!!  We had such a wonderful time and everyone treated us so nice. Also, thank you for the gifts!  They are very special and will always bring us wonderful memories!  If we ever have the opportunity to travel to China in the future, we will definitely look you up! 

Thanks again!

Sue and Lauren Szymanski

PS our guides and drivers were wonderful too....we really enjoyed Sally and Mr. E in Beijing!

Sent from my iPad=

(July 1st 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Anne Riddell

Good morning Ms Zhao and Dear Kalinda,

We recently spent 32 days in China organized by Kalinda Fu from China Odyssey Tours. Kalinda's care,attention to detail and professionalism were outstanding.
From our very first email enquiring about a tailored itinerary ,Kalinda was prompt, helpful, knowledgable and flexible. Nothing was a problem to her.She developed an itinerary that took us to Beijing,Xian,Dunhuang,Turpan,Urumqi, Kashgar,Shanghai,Guilin and Hong Kong with nine internal flights.Everything went smoothly.

When we were travelling,she often checked that all was satisfactory and she was ready to be of assistance.When we returned home she again checked that all went well.In every contact by phone or email she was pleasant and friendly.

We have travelled extensively for many years and believe that Kalinda's advice,followup and efficiency are the best we have encountered.You have a terrific member of staff in Kalinda and we will be recommending her and China Odyssey to travelers from Australia.
Sincerely
Mark and Anne Riddell
New Brighton
Australia

Anne Riddell

(June 27th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Paul

Dear Maggie,

Yes, we had a great trip to China and the Boat trip will give us great memories.
No plans at this stage for more trips but will keep you in mind if we are up that way again.
Cheers
Paul

(June 27th 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Lorraine Metivier

Dear Sophie,

Thank you for your patience and for the wonderful pictures which I will forward to our group.

I have been home since last Wednesday but the jet lag was the worse I have ever experienced. Today I am feeling better!

We had a wonderful time.  Jesse was wonderful in every way possible, always accommodating and resourceful.  Thank you for finding him for us.  Everyone just fell in love with him. It was a great trip and even better than I expected.  The family is all over Face Book with their pictures and their praises for China Odyssey.  My neighbors are asking questions, and except for the long plane ride seem interested.  I will put them in touch with you if need be.

I hope Simon is better and Jesse had a wonderful reunion with his family.  He taught us so much about Chinese culture and we all appreciate it.  The trip to the school was a delight , especially for the teachers and children in our group. Although the pandas turned their backs to us in the beginning, we were able to get some good pictures. The tea ceremony was very impressive and we all purchased a good quantity.  Of course, the meeting with Anqi and her mother was great

Would you please send me the address of the Railroad School?  We would like to thank them.

My two greatest disappointments (and I am sure you would like to know) were the Tang Dynasty Theatre presented in the hotel.  Of course everyone else enjoyed it but I missed the Chinese musicians who sat stage left and the wonderful flutist who appear in the main theatre. I also missed the Great Wall at Badeling.  The Ming wall is very pretty but  I really would have enjoyed to see the older part.

Again thanks to you and your company for putting together a wonderful tour.

Sincerely, Lorraine Metivier

(June 25th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Roberto

Dear Sophie,

Sorry for not replying sooner to your below mail.  First of all I want to thank you again for all your help and guidance during our recent trip. As a summary , please see below all the positive sides of the tour and some comments on matters I think can be improved.
1.- Your service/ Agency’s service:
Excellent.
2.- Hotels you reserved:
Very good. All well located and according to what we expected. The only comment is for the hotel in Hong Kong. The hotel is excellent and has a wonderful view, but is a little far away from downtown. The hotel’s bus service every ½ hour works well to and from Nathan road, but perhaps you should suggest as alternative other hotels nearer to downtown Kowloon , to give passengers the chance to go anywhere walking.
3.- Internal transportation / flights :
Worked  very well. Always on time, good cars and in time for all transfers. Flights Ok.
4.- Guides:
The level of knowledge of the Spanish language to explain everything and keep a normal conversation was not the same . In Beijing ( Juan ), Shanghai ( Martin ) and Guilin ( Cristina) it was OK. Pre and post Yangtze tour  was OK too.  In Hong Kong ( Juan) it was very basic, and more in Portuguese than in Spanish, and the difference with the English speaking guide that fetched us from the airport the evening we arrived was very big. Her explanations in English were excellent and no problem to understand. No new comment as to the bad guide in Xian. She did not understand the language and we already corresponded in length on that.
5.- Organised day tours:
OK. Well organized . But I think that a little more flexibility in Beijing to adapt the private tour to the visitor’s needs would be welcome. In Beijing what was not strictly  on the schedule had to be checked every time with you. No problem in Shanghai, Guilin and Hong Kong, where it was OK.
6.- Yangtse tour:
We had the time and could do it , but I would not recommend it as a must for future travelers. It is very interesting to do the visit on the ShenNong stream and visit the dam, but a 3 day cruise for that is a little too much time. The service on the ship itself was good, but there was not much to do, except the above tours and one to a Pagoda the first days.  
6.- Organised meals:
This part was weak. The meals were basic and not according to what we expected. The special “Peking duck” dinner in Beijing was nothing special and all we had of the duck was one more of all the dishes placed on the table. Nothing compared to other Peking Duck meals I have had elsewhere. You should consider changing this restaurant. On the contrary, the restaurant near the Great Wall was very good.
You should also consider not booking meals at lunchtime the day of midday flights. After a hearty buffet breakfast at the hotel early in the morning we could not have lunch at 11.00 am again. We corresponded on that and it was solved.

As you can see, overall very positive. I look forward to working with you again. I am sure I will return to China, on leasure or business, some time in the near future.
Till then with very best regards
Roberto

(June 25th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Churchill and Gay Roberts

Dear Leila,
As our tour consultant with China Odyssey, we would like to thank you for the outstanding job you did in arranging all our day tours while we were in China.  We greatly appreciate the way you worked with our requests and budget.  Our guides and drivers were all excellent.  It was interesting to have a different guide in each city as we could get each one’s perspective on China, what changes they had seen in their lifetime, etc.  They were always on-time, and the drivers furnished us with bottled water each day which was a very thoughtful gesture.  Some days proved to be long due to what our demands were ---- we wanted to see as much as we could in a short period of time so we were glad the guides and drivers were willing to put in long hours for us.  As you know, we had a total of 5 guides and 5 drivers for 5 cities for a total of almost 9 full days of tours.
I truly believe that the only way one can do China is to have at least day tours arranged, and we are so glad we picked your agency.
Thank you again for all your help and patience.  I will send additional photos separately so as not to “clog” up your e-mail.

Churchill and Gay Roberts
Gainesville, FL
USA

(June 22nd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Dheeraj Kapuria 

Dear Karen,

We got back home last night. Wanted to say thank you to your wonderful team-- Sally, Michael, Phoebe- and of course the drivers- they all made it a great experience we will cherish for a long time.

Needless to say that I would be recommending China Odyssey to all my friends.

Best

Dheeraj Kapuria

(June 21st, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Basil

Dear Sophie,

I have completed a detailed comment sheet for Ms. Zhao. I have given you exceptional grade as you deserve it.
I have also added comments about hotels, meals, cruise, and drivers. There was no area to comment on the guides. therefore I am providing this below:

Beijing guide, Andy: exceptionally good. He was the best- very good knowledge and great personality; knew exactly how much to talk and to listen.

Xian guide, Winnie: suggest retraining her. She is quite knowledgeable and competent. However, talks way too much and seems intent on finishing this task and does not give importance to listening. When she was not talking to us she carried on an endless loud conversation in Mandarin with the busdriver.

Chongqing guide,Anne: very charming lady; she even sang songs for us. Seems to be intimidated by the driver (the driver was unhelpful and rude). Will benefit from assertiveness training.
The driver ( and Anne) were unwilling to deviate a few blocks from the dock for us to pick up some American fast food as we needed a break from the Chinese food. At first we were told we can pick up for extra payment dinner buffet from the ship otherwise the only choice would be the local Hot Pot restaurant and for any other food we will have to go several miles and they were not authorized. After we insisted we find out the local KFC/Pizza Hut were just a few blocks away. Customers should be given a choice and trying to browbeat customers when they are hungry and tired in a foreign land is certainly not the right thing to do.
Shanghai guide, Mike: very competent, organized and helpful. Excellent; second only to Andy.
Hongkong guide, Chas: competent; overall satisfactory.

Hotels were very good; Sofitel, Le Meridien and Grand Balboa were exceptional.
all breakfast buffets were excellent.

Overall, the trip met our expectations and we are very satisfied.

Hope these have been helpful. Without hesitation I will recommend you to any friend who desires a China Tour.
Thank you so very much.

Regards,

(June 20th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Josefina and Luis

Dear Kalinda,

Back in the USA. Sad that we are back. I just wanted to thank you for all your work and perfect organization. We had a great time. Every single place had its own special flavor. All hotels, tourist places were great. The tourist guides and the drivers were all outstanding. All of you have to be very proud for your organization and most of all for the great country you have. 
I am looking forward to future visits.
Best regards
Josefina and Luis 

Sent from my iPhone

(June 14th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Bob

Dear Vincent,

We stayed in Hong Kong a few days after our tour before heading back home, so I am just now catching up on my email.

We really enjoyed our tour with Amy, Jessica, and John.  Jessica, in particular, was really thoughtful in arranging for a birthday cake for me in Xi'an. She also suggested a dumpling banquet together with the Tang Dynasty performance, both of which we really enjoyed.  In retrospect, we probably would have preferred to visit the Changling Ming tomb instead of the Dingling tomb but hadn't done our homework sufficiently before the trip to know this.

The seating on our flights was very good.  Michael and I were pleasantly surprised by the amount of leg room; it was much better than on the United Airlines flights from San Francisco to Hong Kong and back.

Regards,

Bob

(June 12nd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Barbara  Hoffman 

Dear Karen,

We have been home from China for a week, and all of us agree it was a wonderful adventure.  We were pleased with the logistical competence of your company's itinerary.  Everything worked perfectly.  We were met on time in each city, taken to the interesting things on our tour plan, and given the flexibility we wanted to add shopping trips and rest periods into our days.  At the end of our exciting journey, we all agreed that we were glad you routed us the way you did. Starting in Shanghai and ending in Hong Kong was perfect! It was a long and at times arduous trip what with many internal flights and hotel changes, but saving so many wonderful sights for the end gave us something fantastic to look forward to.

We will be glad to fill out the post-trip questionnaire, and I plan to write you some individual letters of commendation for several of our tour guides later this week.

One thing that was strikingly different in China from the USA was the driving.  It was unimaginable to us!  Every driver we had in every city was exceptional, but we especially liked our drivers in Guilin, Beijing, and Lhasa. In addition to being good drivers, they were friendly and helpful.  Our vehicles were new and comfortable, too.

Speaking only for myself, I have to say my favorite city was Xi'An.  It is a beautiful little city, and of course the Terracotta Warriors were amazing.  We loved the stone tablets, as well. Our guide there, Jennifer, was excellent, and she made our stay so memorable.  Another highlight was visiting the provincial school near Guilin.  We all loved meeting the children and talking to them.  We were happy it was not a "show" school but rather a regular elementary school that had never had Western visitors before.  The students and teachers were welcoming and we thoroughly enjoyed interacting with them.

I would absolutely recommend China Odyssey to anyone contemplating a trip to China.

Sincerely,
Barbara  Hoffman 

(June 12th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Ute

Dear Vincent,

We are now back in Germany and I have the time to write back to you.
First of all I want to thank you and Theresa and the driver Mr. Wei for our well organized tour in Guilin. We felt very comfortable during our trip.
It was a good decision to choose Odyssey Tours and there are no complains.
As we discussed before I was chocked about the tipping for driver and guide. I must say that this high amount is quite unusual for Europeans. Of course I would have given them a tip anyway.
In future you should inform your customers at least earlier about this fact. Or better you should include it in your offer and then the customer can add a personal tipping, this is at the end even better for driver and guide.

You all  made a very good job.
I wish all the best for you and you team.

Ute

(June 11st, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Gregory Mason

Dear Maggie,

Sorry I have not replied sooner
I want to thank you very much for helping to make my dream trip to china a reality everything went very smoothly I had a verywonderful and memorable trip. I was a little scared at first doing this alone on my own but your organization showed me there was nothing to it. All guides and drivers were nice to me and kept me comfortable throughout the whole trip they were always there at every city waiting for me upon my arrival.

Jack in Beijing always help me with my cameras, Zhang Bo in Luoyang was real good he was really helpful in taking me where I wanted to go. I really liked Zhang Bo if I ever go back to Luoyang I want him again,Henry in Xian always tried his best to keep me happy and to get me to the tombs I wanted to see. He was very suggestful and helped me to see the Tang Dynasty shows that were in Xian Yes I do miss Xian and the tang dynasty I want to return to Xian in a few years and I would like to have Henry as my guide again we both enjoyed each others company and both liked the tombs and chinese history.Adam in Dunhaung was a very good guide he showed me some good restaurants to eat at and I will never forget him taking me through the old markets in dunhaung I really liked Adam I will never forget him.

All hotels where nice I liked the Jianguo Garden hotel, Maple Leaf Hotel, and the Grand New World Hotel the best
I hope to return to china in a few years I will not hesitate to use China Odyssey tours again everything was set up perfectly

Again Thank You for helping to make my dream come true
                             
Gregory Mason

(June 4th 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Mario and Jane Arena

Dear Maple,

My wife and I want to thank you and your team (in particular Yoko) for the very efficient organization of our trip in China. The tour was wonderful and all of your services were very good.
In particular our guide RITA has been fantastic and really appreciated for her knowledge of history and places and for kindness and politeness.
This was our second trip with China Odyssey (in November 2010 we visited Miao New Year Festivals and minorities in Guizhou and the Tolou/ Hakka Earth Buildings near Xiamen / Nanjing) and also this time our opinion about your company is very good.
Please note that I have been in China four times in total, however I’m very fond of China and of all of its rich cultures and its different minorities. As a consequence, we’ll come back for sure in your wonderful country in order to visit Yunnan or Tibet or Luoyan area and, of course, we’ll contact you for the organization of our next tours.
Moreover, we'll suggest China Odyssey to all our friends who will decide to do a trip in China.
Thanks again for everything and we’ll be in contact soon.
Best regards

Marco and Maria Benaglia

(May 31st, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Eydie

Dear Susan,

We're home and made it back safely! Thank you so much for helping coordinate such a wonderful experience. We loved our tour guides and drivers and enjoyed all of our hotel accommodations. Everything was excellent! I'm looking forward to the survey so I can share my great experience with future China travelers.

We are planning on traveling to Cambodia and Vietnam in the next few years and will definitely use your sister company for Southeast Asia travel! We had such a GREAT experience with China Odyssey. I will be sure to share my great experience on Trip Advisor and other travel sites.

Thank you, again, and look forward to working with you again in the near future!

(May 31st, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Bill Brogdon

Dear Karen,

We had a really good trip in large part because of your service and your great guides.  We will be happy to fill out your questionnaire.  We have a lot of praise for China Odyssey and a few suggestions for your improvements.  

Bill Brogdon

(May 31st, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Peter and Julie

Dear Leila,
we arrived home safely this morning.
Thanks to yourself and your team for helping to make our trip a most enjoyable one.We would certainly recommend you.
Best Wishes
Peter and Julie

(May 30th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Jennifer

Dear Karen,

our trip was great!  Everything went very very smoothly and was exactly as hoped for.  Our guides were wonderful and we saw amazing things.  Thank you for all of your help.  I'd be happy to fill out a questionnaire.

Thanks!
Jennifer

(May 30th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Barbara Linde

Dear Maggie,

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to China and have only good things to say about our guides:  Ellie in Shanghai, Helen in Xian and Jason in Beijing.  Their services were impeccable.  I have not received a survey as yet but I do want to comment about some things.  First, your brochure should warn western travelers that the toilets in China often are not the same as we are accustomed to use and that people had better be prepared to bring their own toilet paper!  We found the hotels quite nice but the dinner meals we took within the hotels were not good, even the western style meals.  There were several which we could not eat at all and the others were just not good.  We were tired from the day's activities and did not care to venture from the hotel and expected much better food to be available.  The meals were costly and poor.   Breakfasts were good so we expected the dinners to be as well and were sorely disappointed.  Perhaps you could include dinners at good quality restaurants in your packages.  We enjoyed the lunches in the different areas. 
Also, we took the cable car to the Great Wall.  However, the path to the actual wall after exiting the cable car was so precarious that I was not able to get onto the wall.  A friend who is also handicapped went to the wall at a different location and was able to be on the wall.  It was a BIG disappointment to me to be denied that experience. 
I feel that the shopping trips schedules should be offered as a choice, not part of the scheduled trips.  Perhaps we could have spent more time at other sites if we did not have to include shopping venues.  We paid a great deal of money for the trip and should have been asked if we wanted shopping sites to take time away from our visits to other historic places. 
Again, your guides were excellent and we would recommend your agency.....except for the included shopping stops. 

Thank you, Barbara Linde

(May 30th 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - HUNG TRAN

Dear Vincent,

we just arrived back to Australia this morning.What a wonderful trip in China that we had during last two weeks.We would like to thank your company for your excellent and reliable service.Please pass on our special thanks to Micheal, Jim, Bill,Peter and Summer for their guided service during our stay.We certainly recommend our friends to your company in the future.

HUNG TRAN

(May 30th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Joanna Miazga

Dear Leila,

Finally I found some time to debrief our trip to you. First of all I want to let you know that we had a great time and the service was very good most of the time. In general, we were quite impressed by the standard highlights of your country. In between these highlights we found it a bit a pity though that there are so many construction activities all around the country, that doesn't make it more pretty...... Furthermore, the differences between our culture and yours was recepy for a good laugh througout our journey. Also we found travelling by train a perfect alternative for internal flights. We got to meet some sweet Chinese people in a more private and quiet way than we normally did on the streets. It also gave a good opportunity to absorp all the impressions in our brain in quiet surroundings. As Europeans we are not used to so much people, noises, smells, chaos all day, every day and everywhere. So the train was a good resting point .

Yes, we took hundreds of pictures! I will send you some in the future, when I have organised them all.

What we liked the best?? (in order of preference):

1、The Great Wall --> so impressive and the section where we went was peacefull and quiet

2、Rice Terraces of Yunnan --> absolutely georgeous!

3、Bamboo raft trip near Yangshou --> very peacefull, beautiful natural views and a good impression of rural life floating by

4、Panda-experience --> so much fun and so overwhelmingly sweet (especially the babies ofcourse)

5、Xi'an Terracotta Army --> impressive - impressive - impressive

6、Markets in Yunnan --> very colourfull people, great photo opportunities

7、Hike to Stone City --> we finally had the idea that we were a bit 'one with our 8、surroundings': peacefull, authentic and beautiful surroundings

9、Old City of Shanghai --> Gardens, markets and hip renovated quarters for dining: we loved it all!

10、Hot Springs of Huang Shan --> beautiful designed and peacefull/quiet

Parks in cities (especially People's Park in Chengdu) --> we had so much fun seeing the Chinese people of all generations have so much fun with dancing, singing, making music, playing cards/chess/mayong and imitating fashion shows!

Underneath I will sum up some things we didn't like so much. Not because we didn't find it beautiful, but basically for 1 reason: too touristy, too many people and too noisy.....

1、Huang Shan --> there was a traffic jam of 1 hour on a certain footpath and the mountain spilled over of thousands of people: not our idea of having an outdoor adventure

2、Stone Forest --> the place has a Disney World feel....

3、Downtown Yangshuo --> sooooooo touristy......

As a general tip I would say that I think Europeans of our age like a bit more adventure. Ofcourse it is very luxurous to be driven from 1 place to another by an airconditioned car, but part of an adventure in another country is to meet the local people, taste & feel the culture and get one with nature and the surroundings. So once again, the service of guides and drivers were most of the time very good to excellent, but we think it would be a good thing to introduce some more outdoor/adventurous stuff, instead of only a luxurious treatment.

Concluding: good to excellent service during preparations and execution of our trip, but stimulating the more adventurous spirits could be a win for your company. I surely would recommend your company to anybody who would want to visit China. I guess that's the biggest compliment.

Thank you very much!

Greetings from Holland,

Linda & Esther

(May 30th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Christine

Dear Karen,

I arrived back in Australia yesterday.

Thank you so much for your assistance with organising our trip to Huangshan.

We had a really good time and our guide “Peter” was really fantastic.

Next time we want to visit China we will contact you to assist us again.

Regards
Christine

(May 29th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Barbara

Dear Sophie,

Thank you for your email. I had every intention of writing to you as we indeed had a very happy experience on our holiday in China.

From the very beginning I was impressed with the way you, Sophie, kept in touch with me and answered all my questions and concerns.  I was also impressed with the colour presentation of our itinerary and the tour convered all we would have wanted to see and do.

On arrival in Shanghai Portia met us with her bright bubbly personality and escorted us to our hotel. She then came back and escorted us to the airport, again with her friendly manner.   
Susan in Guilin was marvelous. She was friendly, considerate and warm and took great care of us. We loved everything about Guilin.
Simpson in Changdu was also very helpful and of course I just loved the experience of having the panda sit on my lap!!!
James was great and my husband Tom had many conversations with him - we were blown away by the terracotta warriors.
Amy was a delight and Beijing was wonderful.
All our guides had a wealth of information and knowledge and we were most impressed with all of them.
One thing we did mention to James was the lack of toilet paper along our trip. Maybe when the tour guides give their clients the bottle of water each morning they could also provide a pack of tissues.
Thank you Sophie for a really great holiday and please pass on to all our guides our sincere appreciation for all their efforts.
I would certainly be recommending you and your tours.   
My warm wishes to you Sophie
Barbara

(May 29th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Judy Sterner

Dear Karen,

How are you.  YES we had a GREAT time and happy to fill out any questionaire.  The guides were wonderful and you put a great trip together.  We loved the hotels and especially the locations.  You did everything I requested and even more.

Our itinerary was great.  The guides, each and everyone of them were very special and wonderful.  I had an injury, fractured pelvis last year and needed help at times and they were there every moment.

I am just wondering.  We loved Jenny, our guide in Beijing.  My husband was still unsure about the tipping and we felt we did not tip her as well as the other guides in the destinations later on.  We were wondering if we could have you charge our card for $50 US 300 RMB to give to Jenny.  I don't know if that is possible but we would like her to have a little more money than we gave her.  She did so many special things for us and  I felt we did not tip her as well.  Let me know if that is possible.  I know she was very satisfied and would not expect this but we would like to do it if possible.

Thank you so much for all of your hard work.  You did a great job and we had a great time.  We celebrated our 40th anniversary which was very special.  I will recommend your agency to anyone I know who is interested in China.  Thanks again for a wonderful trip.

Best Regards,

Judy Sterner

(May 27th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Mario and Jane Arena

Dear Maple,

We had a great time in Beijing.  Our guide was nice and very courteous.  She was full of information about your city and your country. Visiting the Great Wall was our most memorable experience.  But, it made us realize one thing...China is very large and we saw only a small part of it.  We are interested in a tour for 2-3 weeks visiting Hong Kong, Singapore and the interior of China.  Perhaps and added river cruise.  We would appreciate your input and prices and what would be available sometime in late September, October or November 2012.

Thank you!
Mario and Jane Arena

(May 26th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Albrecht and Gitti

Dear Karen,

we're back since 1 week. Our tour was excellent, every single point, we enjoyed this so much. The river cruise was perfect. The best tour guide what ever we had, was in Chengdu and in Xi'an. Phoebe from Xi'an she was absolutely perfect (5stars), Donna in Chengdu (4,5 Stars). All the hotels are perfect. The only thing, the guide in Beijing was not the best, the driver was o.k. but the car, war really old and it smells horrible smoky. Thank you so much for everything. We are here now in Shanghai, on Sunday we fly back to Germany. We'll recommend China Odyssey Tour everybody, you made a really good job.
Big regards

Albrecht and Gitti

(May 26th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Armi

Dear Reinself,

We will definitely go back and visit China again, will contact you when we are ready.
 
Thank you again for all your assistance.  If you get a chance please say hello to Winnie (Xian) and Paula for us.
 
Regards,
Armi

(May 24th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Joanna Miazga

Dear Leila,
It was a pleasure travelling with you and with the local tour guides.   Everyone had lots of knowledge and information that was patiently shared with the group.
I have learned so much during our travels in China.  I was amazed at the diversity of the country.  I know that I knew little about China but I have had a long interest in visiting the country and never thought that a tour was possible for me.  I was thrilled that you helped me to reach the top of the Great Wall of China.  All the places that I wanted to see were part of this trip.  I wanted to see the Great Wall, the Terra Cotta warriors, Tiananmen Square, and the Yangtze River.  I think the city I liked best was Chengdu.  It was a pleasure to be in Tibet, unfortunately altitude sickness was not kind to me.

I have included some pictures from the trip that you might like to have.

I hope all is going well for you and that you will continue to have opportunities to travel with groups who are touring China.  I think you are a good and caring  guide  and I know with your help during the trip I was able to do so many things.  Maybe this experience will help when you are dealing with other tourists who have disabilities.  You will be able to advise them about the challenges of the trip and the possibilities to see the world from the eyes of other people.
Thank you Leila for assembling a wonderful tour package.  Now that I am home, I think of China as a good dream of travelling to a place that is so very different from my life and home.  It is my view that all travel is rewarding and leaves me with more ways to see the world and think about different cultures.  That is why I ask questions so often, I want to learn as much as I can from people in other countries.

I wish for you a long and happy life

Joanna Miazga

(May 24th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Rosemary

Dear Reinself,

Our cruise was very enjoyable.  I really appreciate all your help in making the arrangements.  Everything was exactly as you said it would be.  We were met in Chongqing and Yichang by very delightful guides.  I plan to put a message on TripAdvisor regarding our excellent experience with China Odyssey Tours.

Best regards,

David B. Smith

(May 23nd, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - John

Dear Leila,
Sorry to be so long in answering your email.  But I had a lot of work when I got back and I had some jetlag.  Also it gave me time to consider my response as I hope to tell you all I can.
CHINA and your company were both AMAZING and EXCELLENT.  I cannot recommend both to your potential customers.  And later I will have a proposal for you...but first let me tell you why my experience was so great:
From the minute the guide picked us up at Beijing (amazing terminal three!) to the moment we were got our seat to return to the US from Shanghai, your people were always there and always ready with helpful ideas, tips, and excellent handling of all the 'ins and outs' of getting the tickets, etc.  BUT, the really wonderful part was in each city, your guides were able to provide not only historic, cultural and local news; but they also all were very good and open about discussing their personal lives and goals and experiences.  This was an unexpected and always interesting and gave us a phenomenal insight into the lives and work of each guide in each city.
 In Datong (which I would I am very glad I visited), Leann was amazing.  She was very organized and was always ready to explain what we were seeing.  Her knowledge of Datong and what was happening there and  Buddhism was amazing and very entertaining.  She was also very funny and told some good jokes and her English was excellent.  She was also very consider of our well-being and guided over some hazardous bumps at the Caves and at the amazing Hanging Temple.  She shared her enthusiasm for the local leadership and the future of the city.  I was astounded by the amount of building and landscaping along the great roads and highways:  China seems to be a very prosperous land!  I ended up writing down a lot of what Lean told us, including the jokes!
Onto Xian where we met the very personable Kenny who also gave us history and background regarding the city and its historic honor.  He was well organized and kept us entertained and also told us about his life and goals.  The hotel was amazing as was the tours and sites we saw.  He seems to be a very bright young man and should be a great asset to your company.
The train rides were a little long but I loved seeing the countryside and more construction and signs of properity and growth.  I might recommend an early time if possible from Datong to Xian with a stop along the way to see Pingyao (spelling?).
Excellent flight to Guilin which was probably the highlight of the trip and I really regret not taking a few days there to see more of it.  The guide Jesse was also very good with information and helpful during the boat trip, but we did not find out a lot about his life and personal history.   His recommendation of the light show 'Impression' was a wonderful idea and I would probably include it in any package to Guilin.  The boat ride and Yangshuo was also amazing and I could have spent more time seeing more of the countryside. 
SHANGHAI....a great city and a wonderful tour guide Vivian.  She was so much fun to be with and showed us some things we would have missed on our own. 
We also had a free day so took a train on our own up to Suchou which was a nice time with two great gardens and some good experiences; but without the guide it certainly was challenging at times.
Over all, we loved every minute and the guides were so much better than we even hoped for. 
As far as negatives go, we were a little surprized at the lack of english speaking people on the street or in the neighborhood restaurants.  All the main hotels people were good.  My Chinese was not well understand and I ended up using a phrase book, pointed at the word/characters.
I also got into the habit of getting our guides to write down places and things we were looking for which helped great.
Also, we were surprized but fortunately prepared for the lack for credit card use 'off the beaten path.'  It could be an issue with visitors (especially perhaps americans) who are used to traveling and putting everything on a credit card. 
Oh, and all the drivers were excellent.  They were always on time and drove well and we were amazing at their ability in the amazingly busy streets of the major cities.
So....this is very long but as you can see I am totally pleased with the experience.  In fact, in a follow up letter I will suggest a way I would like to help with your business in the future.  And i will also send pictures soon!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR HELP AND ARRANGED A REALLY GRAND TOUR!
Sincerely, John

(May 23rd, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Elya&Bambang Lily&Vicky

Dear Vincent,

All of us are really happy and enjoyed a pleasant journey with the Zhanjiajie trip. We really appreciated all the arrangement, especially our guide, Victor, he is highly recommended. He is so kind, patient and nice. We think he is one of your best asset.

In fact, all the hotels provide the amenities, even such as transit hotel (three star hotel) in Guangzhou. Some dirty toilets we found in Zhangjiajie. Hopefully someday we will not find it anymore :-)
Anyway, all the Zhangjiajie spots are amazing, it's really recommended!
Thank you very much for everything you have arranged, Vincent.
Nice for having you as our travel consultant

Best Regards
Elya&Bambang
Lily&Vicky
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(May 23rd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - John and Sue

Dear Susan,

The trip was very good, particularly Guilin and Yangshue, and there
were few problems. Henri was an excellent guide and your planning went well.
We wish you good luck in the future and will think about further travel to
China and Indochina if that works out for us.
John and Sue

(May 23rd, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Rosemary

Dear Reinself,

Thank you Reinself.  Yes we are home again after a lovely time in Guangzhou.  Thank you for your arrangements which were perfect.  We enjoyed our time very much and will definitely contact you for our next China tourist trip and will recommend you if any of our friends are planning a China holiday.
 
Rosemary and Frank Kovachevich

(May 22nd, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Jennifer Jonas

Hi Vincent,

The trip was great and Teresa was a great tour guide. We are thinking about trying to do something the first week of October-not sure where you would recommend going at that time.  Was wondering if it would be a good time to see the pandas in Chengdu?  If you could recommend something I would appreciate it.  

Thank you.  

Jennifer Jonas

(May 21st, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Sanjey Bhoowanpursadh

Dear Susan,

Let me start by saying that my wife and I had a fabulous time in your country. I think

that there are lots of misconceptions about your country based on opinions in Western

media but in my view you really have to visit China to appreciate it as a country and

to obtain an unbiased view. I travel a lot and I must commend you on the superb

organisation. It truly was the best arranged tour that I have booked – from the

guides meeting us timeously to information which I may have requested.

In particular, Cissy Yang and Howard Dai were outstanding in terms of their local

knowledge, communication, timing, information sharing, recommendations, etc etc and I

would like to commend them on a job very well done. I felt that the guide in Shanghai,

Ellie, can improve. Although she did not do anything wrong, I felt the she lacked the

warmth showed by Cissy and Howard, and our Shanghai trip was more a checklist exercise

as opposed to engaging us in a way where we could enjoy the city…..which we did do on

our own later.

I would really appreciate it if you could please forward this mail to Cissy and Howard

and copy me in as I only have their telephone numbers and not their email addresses.

Cissy, Howard
Thank you for the excellent service which we received and I will definitely recommend

you to my friends should they choose to visit your country.

Kind Regards
Sanjey Bhoowanpursadh

(May 21st, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Darlene McKaig

Dear Karen,

Just a quick line to tell you that we had an absolute fabulous time in China;  the tour you arranged for us was fantastic and the service was terrific. We especially want to tell you that our guide in Beijing was especially perfect for us. Amy did everything she possibly could do for us, and more.  We want you to tell her boss that Amy is the best guide we have ever had in all the places we have travelled to. The driver too, (Mr. Goh) was very good also.

We will recommend China Odyssey Tours and Amy to anyone who asks about travelling to China. We had a great time.

Thank you Karen for all your help and all the arrangements you made for us.

Darlene McKaig, Nancy Susan Laughton and Mary Louise Cardiff.

(May 21st, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Evelyn Solorzano

Dear Maple,

You certainly live in a very beautiful country. We had many memorable experiences from food to sightseeing. Let me start by saying your professionalism and efficiency made us feel very comfortable from the beginning, this made us more willing to make this trip.

Something I believe what can work for younger travelers that have lots of energy is having flight earlier in the morning or later in the evening, this way as a traveler you can sightsee for half a day at least. We understand every group is different and we did some sightseeing on our own when it was possible. Loosing a whole day to move to a different city made us feel we were loosing valuable time. For us it was very exciting to use the subway and figure out how to move around in each city. Every guide did an outstanding job in helping us learn how each city works.

About local guides I have to say Estela has been the best tour guide we've ever had. Her attention to detail and the way she handled every aspect of our Xian visit was perfect. Her English is great, she has very good energy and was always a step ahead arranging details or double checking information. She accommodated our needs, made great suggestions and gave us so many details about the history of the places we visited. Estela is very knowledgeable about her city.

Our guide in Tibet, Puntsok was excellent, very patient with us as we took so many pictures of the monasteries, the beautiful old buildings by Jokhang Temple and the market. He knows a lot about Tibetan culture, he was always on time and took his time to show us the sights properly.

Joe in Shanghai did a great job asswell. He helped us cover the sights that were part of the tour plus a couple of stores we wanted to visit. He is flexible, his English is very good and knows the city very well.

In general all our guides did a fantastic job, sometimes we had a little difficulty understanding our Beijing and Chengdu guide. Their accent was a little strong but they did a good job.

Overall the hotels we stayed at were nice, clean and comfortable. The Gyantze hotel in Tibet even if it is two star hotel can definitely improve the conditions of the rooms. Their breakfast is great.
In Chengdu the trunk of the car couldn't fit all our luggage and we had to squeeze with our suitcase on the back seat of the car. I think I mentioned this to you when we spoke over the phone, our guide made a phone call to his manager and the next day we had a van similar as the ones we used in other cities.

Another detail I would like to add is that the food could have not been better, the selection of restaurants was perfect. We really liked Chinesse food.

We do consider returning to China and exploring a little more. We will recommend China Odyssey and are planning to write comments on tripadvisory website in the near future.

Kind regards,

Evelyn Solorzano

(May 17th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Wm. Mel Roberts

Dear Susan,

Yes, we are safely back at our daughter's and son-in-law's home in Korea.  We enjoyed the trip very much.  Because of my wife's injured foot and my injured knee, having private tour guides and drivers made the whole trip possible.  All the connections worked out perfectly.  The guides in Shanghai in particular were exceptionally good and your help was marvelous.  We will complete your post-trip questionnaire when we receive it from your customer service department.

Best regards,
Wm. Mel Roberts

(May 17th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Michelle

Dear Maggie,

Sorry I haven’t been in touch with you but have been flat out at work since I got back from holidays. I want to thank you so much for putting our trip together everyone had a great time and all the guides you provided were professional and very knowledgeable. I will be going onto trip advisor as soon as I get a moment to write a review of your company. I have already recommended you to several friends who are thinking of travelling to China in the future.

Once again thank you I will certainly be I contact with you when we return to your wonderful country.

Regards
Michelle

(May 11st 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Iype

Dear Sophie,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. We had been very busy for the last several days.

First of all we would like to thank you for organizing such a memorable trip for us.
You have done an excellent job in getting everything done. No issues any place.
Guilin was really remarkable and the Yangtze cruise was very enjoyable. If we had known about the river show in Guilin we would have seen it.

Regarding all the drivers and guides, they were all very polite and helpful. The guides were all good. They were all there on time with the car and the driver.please give our special thanks to them.
All the hotels were nice. 

If I had to re do it again , I will spend one more day inGuilin and cut out the Shaghai trip by a day.

Our friends are looking forward to the trip.
All the best

(May 8th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Hank & Doris

Dear Reinself,

Let me extend a deep hearted THANK YOU to you and your staff!!

Initially, we were a little apprehensive in booking such a tour with a (to us) totally unknown
overseas agency over the internet.  --  But we were pleasently surprised by the professional
organization, the deep history knowledge of our guides, but also by the extra effort of your
guides to make our stay in China a perfect experience!  We enjoyed it very much and now
also have a better understanding of China and its profound culture.

We will definitley recommend your agency within the circle of our friends.

As they say here in the US: "Keep on Trucking"; which means "keep on doing such a good
job as you move forward".

Best Regards,
Hank & Doris

(May 8th 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Jodie Brown

Dear Maggie,

I'm so sorry we didn't get a chance to meet.  I am trying to find some time to select some good photos that you can use for your website.  Did Shana happen to receive the pictures I sent to her email?  Would you find out for me?

I loved the experience I had with your company, everyone was so professional and from the beginning to the end, I felt safe and secure.  My guide and driver were exceptional and watched over me like a good friend.

Thank you for all your professional help.  I would recommend your company to any American who wants to see your beautiful country and its people.

Warm regards,

Jodie Brown, President,
Summit Solutions, LLC

(May 8th 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Frank

Dear Maple,

Hi Maple, thanks for your email and a very big thanks for all the work you put into arranging our itinerary. I have just completed the China Odyssey evaluation form that Vera sent to me and I hope I have covered all the points you mention in your email.

It was also lovely to meet you in Guilin and share a coffee/milkshake together. Norma so liked the milkshakes that we went back there the next day!

I'm sure we will return to China but it will have to wait a few years as there are other places we want to visit and family to see.

Once again our sincere thanks for all the work and effort you put into sorting out our itinerary, it made all the difference to our enjoyment of the trip.

Best wishes

Frank

(May 7nd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Frans 

Dear Sophie,

Your service was excellent, the arrangements were excellent and the Halong Bay tour was excellent. Some feedback as follows:

1. In hindsight, we probably did not need to stay in the centre of Hanoi on the first night. We could have probably gone from Hanoi airport straight to a hotel in Halong Bay so that we had less travelling. It's a minor point, but since we had no time to look around Hanoi, there was probably no reason to stay in Hanoi at all.
2. the Belhemy resort in Hoian was mixed. The apartment was clean and big and the pool excellent. However the restaurant service (especially at lunchtime and evening) was one of the worst I have encountered. The service was so slow it became a joke amongst some of the residents, even though it appeared they had enough staff. I think it was just the organisation - it seemed very inefficient. Also, the Belhemy resort had no shop of any kind. We needed some suncream and we had to go all the way into Hoian for that. It seemed strange a 5 star resort had no small shop. Also, some of the spa treatments were very poor - especially the nail services. The massages were very good !

That's all, and we will use your services again. Thanks.

Frans 

(May 4th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Lorraine

Dear Maple,

Thanks for checking that.
Here is our feedback:
 
Maple: very efficient, everything was well organised, even when we changed our arrival date at short notice, did a great job
Sally in Beijing: a lovely guide, very nice and very helpful, really enjoyed having Sally as our guide
Tracy in Xian: knowledgeable and helpful but very bossy, would prefer someone else if we return another time
 
Hotel in Beijing: room smelled badly of stale cigarettes, food was awful
Hotel in Xian: excellent
Hotel in Shanghai: excellent
 
The attractions we saw were amazing, China has some superb attractions for tourists but if you have the opportunity to give your government any feedback, please ask them to do something about the air pollution as it spoils the enjoyment of your country
 
Thanks again Maple
 
Lorraine

(May 2nd, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Joel

Hi Vincent,

Yes thanks so much. Roy n mr Zhang are very professional and friendly. Will definitely recommend china odyssey to our friends.

Thanks.
Joel

(May 2nd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Maui, Mei Ling

Dear Maple,

I JUST ARRIVED HOME TO MAUI LATE LAST NIGHT, AFTER STOPPING OVER IN HONOLULU FOR 4 DAYS.  I CAUGHT A BAD COLD AND COUGH AS SOON AS WE ARRIVED IN BEIJING LAST WEEK, AND HAD TO SLEEP AT THE HOTEL FOR 2 DAYS WITHOUT GETTING OUT OF BED!!  I HAD A FEVER ALL WEEK BUT MANAGED TO FLY HOME.  

I STILL DON'T FEEL WELL, BUT I HOPE TO GET BETTER NOW THAT I AM HOME!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK TO MAKE OUR TRIP SO WONDERFUL!!  WE THOROUGHLY ENJOYED OUR WHOLE TRIP TO CHINA!   ESPECIALLY THE  TRIP TO GUILIN AND THE YANGZI RIVER CRUISE.  IT WAS A BIG SURPRISE TO MEET ANDREW AND ERIC ON THE CRUISE.  ANDREW TRIED TO HELP US AND MAKE SURE WE WERE HAPPY!!

IT WAS SO WONDERFUL TO MEET YOU IN PERSON!!  THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE LOVELY GIFTS YOU PREPARED FOR US!!

I WILL E-MAIL YOU AGAIN TOMORROW AS I FEEL BETTER.THANKS AGAIN FOR EVERYTHING.  YOU AND YOUR COMPANY FAR EXCEEDED OUR EXPECTATIONS FOR EXCELLENCE AND SUPERIOR SERVICES!!  I AM VERY GLAD I FOUND YOU!!

WITH WARMEST ALOHA AND GRATITUDE--MEI LING.

--
Live... every moment; Laugh... every day; Love... beyond words.

Sunshine and SONshine from Maui, Mei Ling

(May 1st, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Mary Jane Newman

Hi Vincent,

Thank you very much for your efforts to make our China journey such a fantastic experience. Your staff in Hong Kong (Helen), Shanghai (Michael) and Beijing (Cecee) were superb. We could not have asked for better guides and friends! Our transportation went off without a hitch. I would recommend you highly to anyone traveling to China. Please give my kudos to Helen, Michael and Cecee. They all made our trip so much more informative and enjoyable. 
Kind regards,
Mary Jane Newman

(April 30th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Efrain

Dear Maple,

Hi Maple,
Please let every of our guides know we are extremely happy and thankful for their helps, guidance, support and very warm and professional job.
Everyone was truly remarkable and made our trip enjoyable and everlasting memories.

Thanks again.

Efrain

(April 27th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Ellen and Marc

Dear Reinself,

It was wonderful meeting you too. You organize a terrific service. It's so nice that we don't have to worry about a thing here.  Our guides and drivers have taken care of our every need.  Also, thank you for the nice presents you gave us. You were very thoughtful. 

Sincerely 
Ellen and Marc

Sent from my iPod

(April 26th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Delta

Dear Susan,

Sorry for my late response but I have been very busy since we came back and after such a great holidays.  I really appreciate all your help in order to help us experience an unforgettable travel.  Jessica in Guilin was someone important to highlight as if I were asked to highlight someone from such terrific guides, she deserves a special place, just for you to know, followed by Joe, our first guide in Shanghai.
 
I still have lot of work in terms of selecting the best photos from the more than 3,500 photos we took in total, so you can imagine that I still have not been able to resume the best of the trip in terms of a photo album or something like that; however, let me share a couple of photos with you so that you can put a face on us.
 
On the other hand, a last favour I would like to ask you: as we are members of Sky Team, which is an airlines alliance which has members mile program, I wonder if you could provide us some proof of the etickets you might have received, as we would need them in order to acumulate the miles of those trips on our accounts.  Airlines included in sky team are China airlines, China Eastern and China Southern, so flights tthat were carried out via any of those airlines are helpful to us.
 
Thanks again,

Delta Picazo

(April 26th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Paul

Dear Maggie,

Enjoying Hong Kong very much. Our guide is very good and very enthusiastic.

Well, maybe someday you'll get to Chiang Mai and we can reciprocate. One more day and we'll be going home. We miss our dog, housekeeper, friends in Chiang Mai and Chiang Mai.

Thank you again for every7thing. This has been a great learning experience.

Yours truly,
Paul

(April 24th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Zoe

Dear Reinself,

It was great to meet you while I was in Guilin. I had a fantastic time for the rest of my holiday and was so glad I chose to go with your company.

I would like to send emails to my guides personally to thank them and have all their email addresses apart from Jennifer in Xi'an. I was wondering if you could send me her email address or give her mine as I would especially like to thank her. She really went out of her way to ensure I had a great time.

I can't believe I've been back almost a week. It's been incredibly busy. I'm hoping to write an email soon, letting you know my thoughts and feelings of the whole holiday but overall, I loved it.

I hope you and your family are well.

Zoe

(April 21st, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Trudie

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)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours - Noel Fouts

Hi Vincent,

I have a few photos of Winnie and Shona that I would like to send them if that is possible.   I have Emily's email address so I already sent her a few photos.   Attached is one photo of Winnie and two photos of Shona.  Please send them on with our regards.

Sincerely,

Noel Fouts

(April 14th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Swen Neufeldt

Dear Karen,

We had a great trip and enjoyed it tremendously.
Thanks,

Swen Neufeldt

(April 13rd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Scott

Dear Maggie,

Just wanted to let you know we had a wonderful time in China and especially in Beijing!!
Steven was an amazing guide, and a real great person to show us around Beijing. We had great food, great shows and a great hotel.
May I suggest a different restaurant in Guilin, as it was our least favorite of the trip.
Thanks for all your help for everything,

Scott
Sent from my Mobile Device

(April 12nd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-June Callen

Dear Karen,

Our tour with your company was spectacular!  Everyone took such good care of us - I feel I have made many friends in China.  I never did make it back to the Cloisonne Factory but you did everything you could and I appreciate that.  I hope you will send me the email address for the factory I visited and I am going to try to purchase the bracelet through the Internet.
.
We will be happy to fill out the questionnaire.

Sincerely,

June Callen

(April 12th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Paula

Dear Reinself,

We had a lovely time in China.  Steven, Winnie and Micheal were very helpful and we enjoyed our time with them very much.

We will certainly contact you when we visit China again.

We will also recommend you to our friends.

Thanks again.

Cheers from,

Paula and the Team @ Speedy Office Solutions

(April 11st, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Dr James Hajovsky

Dear Maggie,

We still have wonderful memories of China. My wife did not know what to expect but she was happly surprised at all the sites and the wonderful arrangements you made for us.It was the trip of a life time and we look forward to visiting again in the future. I am sending you a testimonial letter addressed to how our driver and Tracy took care of us..Again I extend the offer to you to visit Houston as our guest in the future. Thanks again for your meticulous attention.
Sincerely,
Dr James Hajovsky

(April 10th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Joshua Divin

Dear Maggie,

We had a great trip last week!  Guilin and Yangshuo are very beautiful places and our guide Johnny was nice and very knowledgeable.

Thanks again for your good assistance.

Sincerely,
Joshua Divin

(April 9th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Barry & Carolyn Stephens

Dear Reinself,

Thanks for your email and we too are sorry not to have met you in person but were only there during the weekend it just didn't work out.

Thanks for all your help, we both enjoyed the Yangtze cruise very much.  Helen arrived on board with our train tickets to Xian and her driver took us to the train station as planned - Helen took us into the station to show us where to wait etc.  The arrangements worked well and we say thank you very much for your assistance and we will recommend your services to anyone coming to China.

We wish you well and good luck with your upcoming wedding, we ask that you have a happy life together.

Kind regards 

Barry & Carolyn Stephens

(April 9th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Eric

Dear Karen,

Yes everything went very well.  We are now home and enjoyed our stay in Xian.  Thank-you for your help in making our holiday enjoyable and memorable.  I would also like to give my appreciation to our guide, Ken.  He was an excellent guide who spoke English flawlessly, but more importantly, knew the history and important topics at each of the places that we toured.  Please let his supervisor know how much we appreciated his knowledge, and how helpful he was in getting us checked in at the hotel and airport.

Thanks again,

Eric

(April 9th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Dr. and Mrs. James H. Hajovsky

Dear Maggie,

I would like to write you a testimonial about the excellent job done for our tour of Beijing and the Great Wall. Our tour guide Tracy was with us every step of the way. As you promised, we were never alone in China. She and the driver, Mr. Jhang, were there to greet us at the airport even though the flight was delayed. They drove us to the Peninsula Hotel, which was more than nice accommodations. Tracy and Jhang took us to all the arranged destinations over the next 3 days and made it an experience of a lifetime. Tracy’s knowledge of Chinese history and culture was expert and Jeanette and I have a new perspective of the wonderful city of Beijing.
Without Tracy, we would not have experienced the inner city and the operations of such a diverse and interesting culture. I found China Odyssey on the internet and decided to take a chance on you and I was never let down. I will recommend you and Tracy to anyone thinking about a trip to China.

Thank you again for all your assistance,
Dr. and Mrs. James H. Hajovsky

(April 6th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Annette Baun

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)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Mark Yaremchuk

Hi Vincent,

We had a wonderful time on our tour!...Thank you so much for the great service in planning it...Everything about the tours, guides, and hotels was excellent! ...We will highly recommend your services to all of our friends..Best Wishes...

Mark Yaremchuk

(April 1st, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Linda

Dear Susan,

We are home from our wonderful China trip and wanted to thank you and your staff for all your hard work.  Your planning was expert from beginning to end.  We saw fabulous sites and enjoyed our personable and informed guides in each location.  Thank you!

Best,
Linda

(March 31st, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Gwenn and Dave Greenwood

Dear Maggie,

It is lovely to hear from you again.  We are back at work now which is why it has taken me a few days to reply!
I have just filled in the questionnaire from your service manager.  We were both so happy with every part of our trip with China Odyssey - thank you for making such a special trip happen!

I am not sure when or where we will go on our travels next, but we know that we can trust China Odyssey to provide a great holiday so we will keep you in mind!

Thank you again for everything you did for us,

Gwenn and Dave Greenwood
(picture of us at the top of the Great Wall attached)

(March 30th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Linda

Dear Susan,

Forgive me for not writing earlier. We have been trying to recover from our travels as it was a long trip all total and 30 hours to get home. But we are now back to normal.

I have just completed your questionnaire for Odyssey and gave your incredibly high marks for your expertise and extremely impressive customer service. We are so lucky to have had you creating our itinerary and working so carefully with us.  You are superb at what you do and we are grateful.  From our long correspondence to the actual trip, we feel that we had the very best advice, accommodations, guides, drivers and overall experience. It was wonderful!

As you know, I was dismayed by the lack of cleanliness at the Terra Cotta Soldiers restrooms.  I know this upset Winnie, but feel it is important to offer feedback in any given business situation. I fear she took it personally, which it was not intended to be.

Please know that all 4 of us had an extremely wonderful time and enjoyed all the many aspects of our trip. Your guides were terrific - well versed and accommodating with the best tour guide knowledge and demeanor. Let me know if you ever want a letter of recommendation for a prospective visitor.

Thank you a million times over. China is now part of a wonderful memory upon which we will reflect for a lifetime.

Best,
Linda Peterson Warren

(March 28th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Jag

Dear Karen,

We had great time and we will be happy to fill out the post trip evaluation.  We will definitely recommend your company to our friends.  I will also be posting a review on Trip Advisor in the next few days.  Good to know that you provide services in other neighboring countries.

Thanks again

Jag

(March 27th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Andrew

Dear Maggie,

Thank you for the email we had a wonderful trip.  Each of the guides and drivers were friendly, professional and on-time!

Specifically, in Beijing Yo Yo was amazing, patient and truly made the trip a success.  My family found her personality warm and inviting!  She was great and we would recommend her.

Jim in Chengdu has excellent English and an amazing knowledge of the panda base.  Jim navigated us around with ease up paths and trails leading to a more efficient visit to see the pandas. He also was excellent when we changed plans and adapted to our needs - we highly recommend Jim.

In Xian Forest proved to have very good English skills.  He was a professional guide who shared he detailed knowledge at each stop.  He added a stop to the mosque and still managed to keep us on schedule. 

Overall all was great! Thank you!
Andrew

(March 23rd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Elena Pollack

Dear Maple,

I wanted to thank you for organizing my husband and daughter's recent trip.  They had a great time.

They also wanted to say that all three guides exceeded their expectations.  They wanted to let China Odyssey know that they were very happy, and that the guides were excellent.  They would like to say that they highly recommend the guides.

Sincerely,

Elena Pollack

(March 21st, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Josh

Hi Vincent,

Thanks for coordinating a great trip in Shanghai / Hangzhou!  We had a great time with our guide and look forward to meeting our guide tomorrow morning.  So far, we are really impressed so thanks for all of your help coordinating the trip.

Josh

(March 20th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Lynne and Steven Logan

Dear Susan,

Just a quick note to say thank you so much for our well organised and very pleasant holiday organised by your company.   I would like to extend my warm congratulations to our guides, Robert Lee in Beijing, to Bai (Kenny) in Xi'an and to Chris in Shanghai.  

It was amazing to see and experience your culture and history and among the highlights were the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, The Terra Cotta Warriors, the Lingering Gardens, Pandas and many many other incredible sights! 

Please extend our sincere thanks to Robert, Bai and Chris, they were very friendly and professional as guides and in making our trip a memorable and happy experience!

Thanks also to you for making the arrangements so easy.  Our holiday to China is one we will never forget and we have a new appreciation for your incredible history and culture.

Kind Regards

Lynne and Steven Logan

(March18th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Tom and Carol Chapman

Dear Andy,

Carol and I just returned from our trip to Chengdu and Xian, and wanted to express our thanks to you for making the arrangements.  Our two tour guides, Kay in Chengdu and Howard in Xian had a fabulous understanding of the history and culture of the two cities and shared a great deal of historical information.  The two drivers did a great job of getting us around without getting in a wreck and all joking aside I am glad we did not have to navigate the streets. We look forward to future trips and will certainly recommend your agency when asked.  We have taken a number of pictures and will forward them to you and if you could then forward them on the Kay and Howard, we would appreciate it.  In addition the hotels were very nice and accommodating and in very accessible areas of the city.

If you could also forward our thanks on to Kay and Howard that would also be appreciated.

Tom and Carol Chapman

(March 16th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Jayne

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)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Sandra Shepperd

Dear Susan,

We had an enjoyable time in China and were looked after by our guides. The birthday cake for Marcus was very thoughtful, thankyou very much.

Regards Sandra Shepperd

(March15th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Josh

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)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Mohan Nair

Dear Maple and China Odyssey,

I and my wife had a wonderful trip to Beijing , Xi’an and Shanghai . This would not be possible without your Team.

First of all, my big thanks to Ms Maple for organizing such an enjoyable for us. I have been communicating with her for many months via email and telephone. She responses to my emails promptly and answers my calls even though it’s off work hours. I greatly appreciate Maple’s help in planning our trip. She gave good suggestions of the places to visit and the transportation to take during the trip. We were very happy with the hotels provided to us in Beijing , Xi’an and Shanghai .

We were amazed when we were at Great Wall of China . Now I know why it is one of the World Wonders. In Xi’an , the Terra Cotta Warriors were awesome. And lastly, in Shanghai the walking along the Bund Street in the evening was beautiful. Every city gave us memorable sceneries. Maple has done an excellent job in providing first class service to us.

The tour guides, Tracy, Ivan and Elle were wonderful. They were more like our friends than just tour guides. They were knowledgeable and helpful.

Overall, the whole trip was excellent and thanks China Odyssey for making our trip a memorable one.

The only thing I would like to highlight is that the food. I find the portion given to us is too much for 2 persons. And also the food is quite oily and salty. Other than that everything is perfect. In Xi’an the food was good.Pls get some choice of food selection.For westen and Asian tourist.We mostly prepare.Less oil and salty food.

We will recomment our friends to choose Odyssey for their china Trip.

Regards

Mohan Nair

(Feb 27th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Belle

Dear Yoko,

We already arrived Manila safely! We would like to thank you and your team for assisting us with our tour there in Beijing. We had so much fun and let me say that Peter gave us a brief yet educational background on the history of your beautiful place which made our trip more memorable. Please extend our sincerest thanks also to him.

Again, many thanks and till our next trip to China =)

Regards,

Belle
(Feb 26th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Poh

Dear Reinself,

We arrived home selfly. We enjoyed our trip to Guilin. It would have been better if it was warmer. Both of us came down with a cold and cough by the end of our tour. We would certainly consider contacting your company again when we decide to go on another tour. Would like to visit China again, also Vietnam and Cambodia. Thanks for looking ater us in Guilin.

Bye for now. Poh

(Feb 24th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Mohan Nair

Dear Maple,

We would like to thank you and your team for being so wonderful during our trip to Beijing , Xi’an and Shanghai . We will never forget this memorable trip to China .

We would like to thank Tracy ( Beijing ), Ivan ( Xi’an ) and Elle ( Shanghai ) for being such a wonderful tour guides. We are immensely impressed with their extensive knowledge of history of the places we have visited. They planned our meals well and told us to put on sufficient clothes to keep warm. They were punctual and always there with us at every place we visited.

Tracy, Ivan and Elle are an asset to the company and it will be definitely a factor in me to choose your agency in my future trips and recommend your company to my friends and colleagues. We enjoyed ourselves as we had a fantastic tour guides.

Not forgetting the drivers during our trip. They did an excellent job by driving us around safely.

Thank you again for providing an excellent service.

(Feb 24th, 2012)

Mohan Nair

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Nancy

Dear Susan,

I just wanted to let you know that my family and I had a wonderful time on the tour. Kenny was a terrific guide and the driver was very good too. We enjoyed seeing all of the sights and hearing about the history of Xian. Kenny was very knowledgeable and answered all of our questions. We will definitely use China Odyssey Tours for our next adventure and will tell our friends. Your company made it so much easier for us traveling with small children.

Thank you again for everything,

Nancy

(Feb 21st, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Barry

Dear Reinself,

Thanks for your email.

I have just now sent $167 AUD by PayPal to pay for the train tickets and transfer from Yichang Dock to Yichang East Station.

I have also attached copies of our passports.

Please confirm receipt of my PayPal payment.

Your office in Guilin, is it located at 8 Can Luan Road? If we have time we will certainly visit, it would be great to say Ni Hao to you!

I would also like to tell your supervisor how efficient you are at doing your job and providing information (we’ll tell him/her how good you are and suggest you get a salary increase. Nothing seems to be too much trouble for you and we really appreciate your help.

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding – you must still be a young man then. I hope you take lots of fantastic photos. Does your fiancé live in Guilin too? Is Guilin your home town or were you born somewhere else? Do you have other family in Guilin too?

Have you travelled overseas already? Australian travel agents are often given overseas trips so they can be better informed when discussing travel plans with their clients and I expect the same thing happens in China too.

Have a great weekend – do you work 6 days or 5?

Regards

Barry

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Sonia

Dear Susan,

Yes I recieved your messages, thank you!

And now is my turn to wish you a Very Happy New Chinese Year!!!!

It was 23 of January, wasnt it?

And,yes, I remembered a lot of you and Theresa! Nice memories of a very nice trip organized by you!

I hope you are doing well!

huggs

Sonia

(Feb 13rd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Carmen

Dear Maple,

Just to say thank you for your help and to let you know that I had a fantastic holidays. The tour guides were very proffesional, very nice and friendly people, I enjoyed a lot their company. China is a very beautiful country. I will put some favourable comments on the internet for future records.

Kind regards,

Carmen
(Feb 11st, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours- Mr. Santos

Dear Reinself,

We really enjoyed our tour in Beijing and Harbin, except for the hotel you gave in Harbin which classified as a 4-star hotel, but on the contrary it is only a 1-star hotel. I hope you will never let your other guest to stay in that hotel (Fu Lun hotel?, I can't remember anymore the name)

But the rest, specially our tour guide in Beijing Mr. Steven are all fabulous.

Thank you very much.

Mr. Santos

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-William

Dear Yoko,

Yes, thank you we really enjoyed our trip to China and thoroughly appreciated the good service that China Odyssey offered. Both our guides, Andy and Linda, were extremely helpful and gave as lots of good advice. We were able to see everything we wanted, and even a bit more, and the 2 hotels, Peninsular and Sofitel, were excellent and added to the pleasure of the trip. I'll be quite happy to complete a questionnaire for you when it arrives.

So, thank you for all your help. We will certainly recommend your company to our friends. As it happens, we now get go south to Australia where we hope to enjoy some sunshine.

With best wishes

William
(Feb 3rd, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Dave

Dear Maple,

Got back to oz today, great trip and Andy was an excellent guide, ethan did very well also. I would recommend andy if I know of anyone who is going to travel to china.

Thanks

Dave
(January 31st, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Melanie

Dear Reinself,

Yes, I did enjoy the trip very much, especially my days in Guilin and the Li river cruise. Peggy was very helpful and willing to spend time to help me when her relatives were celebrating the holiday. I too am sorry I did not get a chance to meet you and the staff there. I look forward to another trip with your group. Richard Chalquest

Kind regards,

Melanie
(Jan 30th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Sonia

Dear Sophie,

Yes I recieved your messages, thank you!

And now is my turn to wish you a Very Happy New Chinese Year!!!!

It was 23 of January, wasnt it?

And,yes, I remembered a lot of you and Theresa! Nice memories of a very nice trip organized by you!

I hope you are doing well!

huggs

Sonia

(Jan 25th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Julie

Dear Sophie,

Hello from Australia just wanted to thank you again for your help with our trip we had the most wonderful time and plan on coming back in a couple of years. I have attached a couple of photo's for you. Can you please pass the one of Winnie and myself to Winnie.

How do I write a review for you website?

Kind Regards Julie

(Jan 24th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Erin Ryan

Hi Vincent,

Our tour was amazing! We loved every trip, Steven and Tracy were amazing tour guides - extremely helpful and full of knowledge (and very friendly), and we can't wait to do another tour with you when we come back to China...there are still lots of places we want to see.

We loved that we never felt rushed and we had time to appreciate everything we saw.

One suggestion would be to find out from hotels if they require a room service/mini bar deposit on check-in, and then let your clients know in advance. In Xi'an, we were asked for a 300RMB deposit, which we had not budgeted for.

Other than that everything was fabulous!

Thanks for all your help organising the tour, I will be in touch next time we come to China.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Erin Ryan

(January 22nd, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Daniel Wan

Dear Reinself,

My apologies for taking so long to respond to your email. I would like to begin by wishing you a very happy New Year and also a very Happy Chinese New Year. My family and my relatives all had a very good holiday in China and we all had a very enjoyable time – thank you again for all your good work for us. The only things I would mention which would have made the experience even better is if the lunches were of rather better standard (in passing I would mention that the first lunch we had in Beijing was in a Muslim restaurant – are you trying to convert us to Islam?) and the vehicles all had air conditioning as promised. However these were small matters and we are very happy to recommend you and your company to our relatives and friends; in fact I mentioned your name Kapil Bhatia who was interested in a China holiday and I think he has been in touch with you.

I attach a photo – the wife took a long time to give it to me, which explains partly why I have taken so long to write to you!

Thank you and all the guides again for your help and very best wishes,

Daniel Wan
(Jan 18th, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-BILLY CHANDRA

Dear Leila,

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)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Andrew

Hi Vincent,

This is to give you some feedback on our China trip, which we enjoyed very much.

Your recommendations for where to go and what to do worked out very well. The hotels were fine, although the Metropark was nto as convenient as the others to the main parts of the city.

Jerry responded to what we needed and was a reliable guide. He gave good recommendations for the evenings. The dynamic in Beijing was that he was very friendly with the bus driver, so there would be times when he and the bus driver would talk or eat together, and leave us more to ourseleves.

By contrast, Chris was much more connected with us in Shanghai. She ate with us and walked everywhere we went, and thus was able to provide a much more comprehensive tour. Her English is also better than Jerry's and she is more knowledgable, so this worked out especially well for us.

I appreciated the flexibility of the tour itinerary to get the most in. For example, switching the Great Wall and Forbidden City days in Beijing due to expected crowds at the Forbidden City was a very good idea. Similarly, we added the zoo in Beijing and a morning at the National Museum, which while not on the schedule were definitely enjoyed.

In Shanghai, particularly on the day we left, we could probably have seen a few more things, although what we did was done thoroughly.

The "factories" we went to were interesting, although they were not what I really had in mind as true factories, but more like tourist show rooms. I would have appreciated some guidance on how to look at prices at these places and what to expect to pay. In general, we did not buy very much, but for the big exception of an expensive jade bangle at Run-Ze Jade Garden, which I realized almost right away that I had way overpaid for. This was my mistake, but I would have appreciated a warning about how the prices were negotiable (since the cloisonné factory we had visited earlier seemed not to negotiate their prices).

Overall, we saw a lot more and learned a lot more on the trip with China Odyssey tours than if we had tried to go without. All the arrangements went very smoothly, and we felt consistently at ease with getting around and making appointments.

I am grateful to you and the whole staff for supporting our trip and we will not hesitate to share our good experience with others.

Best regards

Andrew

(January 11st, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Patricia Zelkowitz, M.D.

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)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Øyvin

Hi Vincent,

happy new (not Chinese) year!

I am very happy to inform you that absolutely everything went smoothly. We are all still full of our Chinese experiences and enjoy viewing our pictures on our computer screens all the time. (I will send you some more pictures later, not at home right now.)

Tony was really good at reorganizing everything in Hangzhou, and the program was fulfied in spite of one day less and traffic jams both ways to and from Wuzhen. We really loved Wuzhen, especially the shadow theatre and the song on the stage!

Sue was as excellent and professional as all the other guides. We just had to give her a copy of the programme schedule from you, as she had stepped in for Linda on very short notice, I understand. She thought it was not enough, of course due to the extra afternoon we got in Guilin because of the flight change. So, she showed us the city of Guilin, found fine restaurants for Christmas lunch and Christmas dinner, showed our youth were to shop what they wanted, and - last not least - managed to by tickets for the wonderful 4 lakes cruice the same evening. We also had time for a walk around the lake with the two pagodas on our own during the afternoon. -And she took us to the "waterfall" hotel after the lake cruise.

The river cruise to Yangshuo was wonderful, and we were very lucky with the sunny weather. (We also got acquainted with a very nice family from America, sharing table with us during the cruise.) The only disappointment that day was the butterfly spring, as they did not have any butterflies at all because of the winter. -But the cave and nature around was worth a visit anyway. Last not least Sue - after having waited for a telephone all day - managed to get tickets for the really big and interesting show by the river in the evening. That was terrific, actually the very last this season, we were told. Lucky us!

The third day in Guilin was as planned (City tour with the two hills and the cave in Guilin). In addition Sue took us up to the highest mountain with cable cars and bob sliding down again. And a nice place to eat combined late lunch/dinner (near the city hill with the stone carved Buddhas). And even a pearl "factory". All attractions were intereresting, especially the wonderful cave, the very last thing we did before leaving Guilin at 8 in the evening.

(The rest of our trip was nice as well, and we managed to see many thing in Hong Kong by our own. But not as efettively as the part of the holiday planned by you. Thanks to your guides and drivers we were able to get much more out of our holiday. We went to Macau the second last day. Interesting, but terrible long waiting through the passport control. Inside Macau we actually met a bureau offering us a guide/driver (one person) for the day, and we did that. Very interexsting city with an interesting history. The last day in HK was spent in Ocean park, an my wife and oldest daughter met and kissed the dolphins there.)

Thank you one more time for superb organizing of our holiday! If we go back to China any time (we still have not seen Yunnan, Tibet, Chengdu, Beijing, the wall etc. etc.), I certainly know who to ask once more!

Best regards

your friend

Øyvin

(January 4th, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Walter and Emma Rous

Dear Maple,

Some specific suggestions:
It was not necessary to have an audio player in the Shanghai Museum because the English labeling is excellent.

We found the Pacific Hotel in Shanghai to be excellent. The rooms were spacious, the location was very central, and it is historically significant. Anyone who asks for a traditional experience will love the Spring Garden Courtyard Hotel in Beijing. It has only 8 rooms and is a genuine former courtyard house with traditional furnishings on a small alley with a good, low cost restaurant right down the street. We loved it, as well as the Castle Hotel in Lijiang, another traditional courtyard residence with great views of the old town. If there is free time in the itinerary, the guides should be sure the travelers have a city map and perhaps a few suggestions about what to do. Although it was often cold, winter was a good time to travel because places were less crowded and prices were lower.

We thank you for all of your help and wish you a happy 2012 and a good year of the dragon.

Walter and Emma Rous

(January 1st, 2012)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Mike

Hi Vincent,

The tour was wonderful. Is there a ‘feedback’ form that we can fill out. Our tour guide Emma and the driver Mr. Chen were fantastic. We would really like for both of them to receive the recognition that they deserve.

Mike

(January 1st, 2012)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Marv and Kay Braman

Dear Maggie,

Belatelly, we want to express our sincere appreciation for the outstanding perfessional support you provided for our recent visit to China.

From the early planning stages through final arrangements you were always prompt and courteous, and your many suggestions were always appreciated.

Throughout our trip the guides and drivers were uniformly excellent and we would like to express our special thanks to Chris Tang (Shanghai and Suzhou), Lee Dan (Hangzhou) and Jilly in Beijing. they were all outstanding. the transportation arrangements (air,rail and auto) were all excellent. Our hotel in Shanghai was conveniently located, well appointed and the service excellent. We would want you to know, for your future guests, that the Jianguo Garden Hotel in Beijing was less satisfactory. While the room was fine, we found the front desk staff to be less than courteous and helpful. the staff in the Business office was actually rude when we sought computer assistance. every other aspect of our tour arrangements would suggest that China Odyssey Tours expect better than this from its contract hotels and vendors.

Again, we thank you for all you did to make our visit to China such a wonderful, memorable experience.

Hopefully, at some future date we'll be able to work with you on another visit to the interior of China.

We wish you a Happy New Year!

Sincerely,

Marv and Kay Braman

((December 25th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Ehab

Dear Sophie,

Hello from Australia just wanted to thank you again for your help with our trip we had the most wonderful time and plan on coming back in a couple of years. I have attached a couple of photo's for you. Can you please pass the one of Winnie and myself to Winnie.

How are you. I hope all is well. We were very glad to hear from you again. We can never forget you or our beautiful trip to beautiful china. It was a trip of a life time for us thanks to you and your hard work. Helen, Bryan, Helen and I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year. May 2012 be the best year ever for you. We also hope you come and visit us in California soon. Take care

Best regards,

Ehab

(December 22nd, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Martha Luz

Dear Karen,

I am now in the plane flying back home. We had a great experience in China and everything went just right. Thanks a lot for taking such good care of us.

Best regards

Martha Luz
(December 19th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Paula and Richard Grace

Hi Vincent,

From Richard and Paula Grace - Just wanted to thank your company for providing us with a wonderful China vacation. We were met without fail at every stop and taken care of by all your guides and drivers. Emma in Beijing was without doubt the most caring person and informed tour guide you could have there. Also, the tour guide in Xian, Ba,(hope I spelled correctly) even provided a birthday cake on my birthday at dinner. I will always remember that birthday. We will recommend your tour company to all our colleagues at Delta Airlines, and any friends who wish to go to China. Again, our sincere thanks and we look forward to using your company to arrange a tour to Guilin in the near future from Hong Kong.

With sincere thanks,

Paula and Richard Grace

(December 19th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Kevin

Hi Vincent,

Thank you so much for planning our trip. It was WONDERFUL!!!! Emma in Beijing was very good and was always on time, actually always there early before she was suppose to meet us. We were met everywhere, and had no problems. I didn't have to worry about anything, we arrived at the airport in time for flights and arrangements were good. I will recommend you and the company for anyone I know going to China.

Thank you for planning our trip in such a short time. We all had a wonderful time.

Kevin

(December 18th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-(Elaine and Frederick Lee Cheng

Dear Andy,

My husband and I returned from Yunnan yesterday. We have had a a wonderful time. Your guides, especially Lucy, Sally and Sue, were excellent, and driver Lee who drove us around Dali, Lijiang and Shangri-la, was especially wonderful. They have taken great care of us and saw to our every need. The accommodation and itinerary were thoughtfully planned and we are very grateful. We were glad we stayed at the hotels in the Old Towns of Dali and Lijiang because not only were they comfortable, they were in the heart of the old towns and we could soak in the local culture. The guides and driver Lee were especially patient with us because my husband is a photographer and needed more time in some scenic locations. They even took us to places where we could take pictures even if they were not in the itinerary. They were understanding and caring, and went the extra mile for us.

All in all, we have had a wonderful time and I would like to thank you and all we h ave met on our trip for taking such good care of us and making our holiday a memorable one.

Best wishes,

Ng Gek Choo

(Elaine and Frederick Lee Cheng Soon)
(December 14th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Melanie

Dear Reinself,

Thank you again for your help arranging the tour. I very much enjoyed Xian and Guilin. To be honest, the Yangtze cruise was a disappointment for me – not what I expected. But the rest of the trip was excellent.

I have already recommend your company to a few people looking to travel in China. My parents will be emailing you next year to help them organize their voyage as well!

I will send photos in a few weeks when I have downloaded them

Kind regards,

Melanie
(December 13rd, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Elliott

Dear Leila,

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.

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)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Doreen

Dear Karen,

Thank you for your note. Yes, we arrived home safely last night. We had a wonderful trip in China, we found your country very beautiful and I appreciate all your prompt assistance. I look forward to filling out your questionnaire, I have many good things along with some improvement suggestions. I also appreciate all our guides support, I have to say Mr. Li was my favorite. I did not know your office was in Guilin. I would have liked to meet you.

Have a great day.

Doreen
(December 9th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Julia

Dear Reinself,

Sorry to have missed you and I am very sorry for your family, We enjoyed our tour immensely and if we ever travel in China again we will book through you.

Your companies service was beyond expectation, the giudes were great we both thought Ivan was wonderful, mum wanted to take him home he was so much fun and so polite.

The drivers were incredible the traffic!!

The hotels were excellent we could not fault anything and I will recommend your company to my freinds.

As I am still in Hong Kong I have not sorted any photos but I will send you some when I get sorted at home.

Thank you again and I will recommend you on tripadvisor when I get home

Julia
(December 9th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Hari

Dear Leila,

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)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Veronica

Dear Sophie,

Just want to thank you for organizing a wonderful trip!

Both Richard (Beijing) and Tony (Xi’an) were great guides. I must admit that Tony’s love and passion for his provinces and country is very evident in tour.

Veronica

(November 29th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Louise

Dear Yoko, and greetings from cold Montreal (-13 degrees)

We have finally sorted our 600 or so pictures down to approx. 100. It was such a difficult choice because every photo had such good memories. I am sending you 14 of those pictures and again many thanks for making this trip so memorable.

Louise
(November 28th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Ellen

Hi Vincent,

Thank you for your followup. I’m back in the States now following my trip to Beijing and Tokyo.

Joanna and I both thought that our guide, Babbitt, was professional, courteous, helpful, nice and very interested in providing excellent customer service. I appreciated the care he took to check us in at the hotel and make sure to pick us up at the hotel each morning. He and the driver made our travel in Beijing worry-free and quite easy.

As a suggestion for the future: we included the 798 Art Zone in our visit on the recommendation of a friend of my daughter’s and we both found it a very worthwhile and lovely part of the city. In fact, it was a highlight of our trip! We could have spent much more time there than we did because we went there on the last day since it was in the direction of the airport. What I’m suggesting, is that as a general rule, you may want to include it in the itinerary for most of your visiting Western guests who we think would be interested in visiting that area. It’s lovely to see the art that’s coming out of Beijing these days (as opposed to ancient art). And for many of us who have an interest in art, it tells the story of a culture’s development, and is an opportunity to see how Chinese artists perceive their culture. We loved it there. Frankly, it’s also good for the Beijing economy because Westerners may purchase art that is on display at the various galleries in that area.

Please let me know if there’s other information you’d like about our trip. We appreciate all your help!

Many thanks,

Ellen

(November 28th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Vaughan.

Dear Simon,

Thank you for your email, I must be truthfull but we have been very busy since we have been home (1 week) and although I have downloaded some photo's I haven't done the ones from the office I will make it a priority in the next day or two

I did mean to mention when we saw you that at any time you have a request from a potential client that requires reassurance about the service they may expect from Odyssey please refer them to me as I am able to tell them that they will not experience better service from any other tour operator. The tour was perfect and we were unable to find any problems, the guides and drivers were wonderfull. I will be in communication with you as we are already thinking there is more of china we wish to see. I have also had a request from Vera Zhao, customer service for some feedback on our trip. I will also reply to her in the next day or two.I will also share our reccommendations on Trip Adviser. Be in contact soon. Great to hear from you.

Thanks again!

Vaughan.
(November 26th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Gary & Zofi

Dear Maggie,

Thankyou for your email.

We would like to say that we had an absolutely fantastic time. We were a little worried about booking a tour via the internet but it is obvious from the start of our holiday that your company is very professional and we had no problems at all.

Our tour guides and drivers were first class, knowledgeable and very friendly. Please pass on our thanks to Sally, Ivan and Run as well as the drivers. Our guides also were great in suggesting and arranging additional activities such as going to a tea house in Beijing; the Kung Fu show, Chinese Opera in Xian, Acrobatic show and Dinner River cruise in Shanghai (we wanted to do it all). We have no hesitation in recommending your company to our family and friends.

Our holiday was made very pleasant as we did not have to arrange anything, China Odyssey took care of everything for us. The hotels were great, the food was fantastic and the places we visited were extraordinary. We took around 1000 photographs and 6 hours of video. After having such an amazing time in China we would like to come back and see more of it. It is good to hear that your company also arranges tours in Indochina as well. We are already planning our next trip with you in the near future.

Once again thankyou very much to China Odyssey tours, yourself, the tour guides and the drivers for making our holiday so enjoyable.

Kind Regards

Gary & Zofi

(November 25th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Erlinda Ong and Tonielyn Blundell

A thanks letter to Andy,

To the Management of China Odyssey Tour,

Dear Sir/Madam,

My daughter (Tonielyn Blundell) and I, ( Erlinda Ong ) was so lucky to travel with your fabulous company for 9 days visiting Bei Jing, Shiang Hai, Xi An and Su Zhou on the 14th of October to 23rd October, arriving here in Sydney, Australia on the 24th October. After arriving home, we were so busy that we neglected to let you know how satisfied, happy and appreciative we were with your service throughout our travel. It was indeed a fascinating and unforgetable experience that we can say we will definitely be back there with your Company's travel arrangement. We will also be very happy to recommend your good Company to all our friends and relatives who wish to travel in the years to come.

We would like to mention in particular all the three tour guides ( Nick, Julie and Joe) that showed us around. All three of them were very efficient, punctual, helpful and knowledgeable. At the end of the day, we all become friends. Joe, in particular was so friendly and always cater to our needs, taking some of his extra time to help us in finding a nice restaurant and cheap but quality shopping places. I think your Company should boast for having such a fantastic excellent tour guide which is one of the most important part of promoting your travel.

Thank you for giving us an excellent travel to remember!

Faithfully yours,

Erlinda Ong and Tonielyn Blundell
(November 24th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Albert

Hi Vincent,

Indeed, I was still busy working.

We enjoyed our journey and particularly the care and attention we got from our guides. Everything went pretty smoothly and we were happy with the experience.

Thanks.

Albert

(November 23rd, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Sylvi and Kent Sternheden

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)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Peter & Kay Young

Dear Simon,

Just a note to thank you for your organisation of our trip. All went very well and we were very happy with your planning.

The trains and planes were very efficient and always on time. The tour guides were very good, particularly in Chengdu, with Angela and Mr.Wang and in Guilin, with Shauna.

The Li River Retreat was a good choice of hotels, as it was away from the noise of the city and it was very comfortable and friendly. Also, it was easy walking distance, along the road beside the river, into Yangshuo.

We are likely to do a trip to Beijing, Xian and perhaps Harbin and Tanging, next May and if so, we will most certainly be in touch with you in late February, 2012.

The weather was very good in November and that clearly was one of the best months to travel in south and west China.

The Three Gorges Dam trip was a good experience, though the only day it rained, was when we were at the dam wall.

We paid to upgrade our cabin and whilst it was expensive, it was a good option. We thoroughly enjoyed the cruise.

Thank you once again for all your professional assistance in planning our trip. We will most definitely recommend both you and your company's services to our friends.

Kind Regards,

Peter & Kay Young
(November 20th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Michael

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)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Albert

Hi Vincent,

Sherry, Adam and I enjoyed our China trip, I have already recommended Odysseus Tours to a friend who plans to travel next year to China.

The hotels that were booked were extremely clean and very modern, the location of the hotels in Shanghai and Beijing were good for visitors, many places were in walking distance. This certainly helps for our 4 free days in Beijing.

Daily activities were well planned by the tour guides that allowed for some extras activities to be added when we requested them.

Juni, James and Tracey were very knowledgeable on the cities, China history and activities. If you could pass on our compliments it would be appreciate it.

Thank you for your planning on the trip for us.

Albert

(November 17th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Carolyn

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)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Fabian

Hi Will,

In general we were very satisfied with the overall organization and the service involved.Please find below our feedback regarding our China Tour.

Hotels:

All Hotel except the one in Emei met our expectations regarding cleanness, breakfast and Service quality.

Guides:

Very Satisfied, command of english language fine, very helpful and friendly. Nothing to complain about.

Transportation:

Friendly drivers, save driving, clean cars, always on time. Airlines were also fine.

Thanks a lot for your help, we had a great time in China.

Wish you all the best

Fabian
(November 15th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Peter Elliott

Dear Pamela & Sophie

I just want to send you an e-mail to thank you for your wonderful work as our tour guide when we were in Guilin.

It was lovely to meet you and be shown around your lovely city and beautiful river scenery. You did a wonderful job to make us comfortable and inform us of all the things we should be looking at while we were under your care. We will never forget our trip and it is people like you who make it so unforgettable.

It was doubly wonderful to meet you, a member of an ethnic minority, and one as pretty as you...and cute, too!! We all hope and wish that you find your "Mr Right" soon, fall in love, get married and have lots of children... after all you are an ethnic minority - you can have more than one!

As someone who teaches Chinese (and other) students here in Australia to speak clearly, I assure you that your knowledge and use of English was excellent and I told you so at the time, didn't I!

For us the highlight of our trip to your city, Guilin was the overnight stay downstream on the river in that hotel which was so nice. We had a wonderful evening strolling around the city (West St) and buying lots of presents for our friends back home. The drive back to Guilin was also pretty wonderful and I should mention how nice the driver was.

I shall send you herewith some photos we took while we were with you.

I would like to send a copy of this letter to Sophie and I will wait for your permission before I do that. I will keep a copy of this until I hear from you.

Xie xie!!!

Best wishes to you and your family and again many thanks for your good service... from

The Elliott, Jesson and Lynch families (Oct 9th 2011)

Peter Elliott

(November 15th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Mick & Steph Sass

Hi Leila,

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)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Gerard Silveira

Dear Sophie,

I would like to thank you for arranging our trip to beijing.

Was a wonderful holiday and was made even more special by Leo and Ms Zhang.

I would like to add a personal thank you to Leo, for his guidance and information during our trip.

I would be happy to recommend china odyssey tours to any of my friends for future travel to china.

Thanks once again

Sincerely

Gerard Silveira

(November 9th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Fran Block

Dear Reinself,

We have been back in Chicago since Saturday night (November 5). We want to thank-you for all of your wonderful planning. Yes, I worried about everything, but you were so correct that everything would work out and it did.

All the guides picked us up on time, and we liked all of them. All the flights worked out, except for the fog delay in Beijing, which was out of your control. We enjoyed everything that you planned for us.

It was a pleasure working with you, and I would certainly recommend you and China Odyssey Tours if I knew someone going to China.

I'm so glad we were able to meet in Guilin. We appreciated our names on your video screens, and our special gift bag!

I have 2 suggestions for your next clients.

First, when we visited the Great Wall, we went to the Mutianyu section. It was a long, uphill walk to the cable cars. Once on the Wall, there were many steep steps, and few railings. I didn't feel very comfortable walking around that section. I went back to the Great Wall on a tour arranged from my husband's firm to the Badaling Section. There were also cable cars, but not a long uphill walk to get to them. It was much easier to walk at the Badaling Section, and I was able to see much more of the wall. Your other clients may also perfer Badaling to Mutianyu.

Next, we liked the Sofitel in Xian, and the Westin in Shanghai, but really didn't like the Sheraton in Guilin. I don't know if there is a hotel in Guilin that is better, but the Sheraton was not nearly as good as the other hotels.

Best wishes,

Fran Block
(November 8th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Emily & Chris

Dear Maggie,

Thanks for the great trip, Maggie!

Attached(Email) are our photos from our office visit!

Emily & Chris

(November 7th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Jocelyn Coralie.

Dear Karen,

Please find attached a letter(as following) I would like to pass to your company management.

I will also also put an update in Tripadvisor in the near future.

Regards,

Jocelyn Coralie.

Dear China Odyssey Management,

I would like to give you and your staff a great thanks for making our first Chinese Holiday a successful and memorable one.

All the guides we had we very professional and friendly.I would like to mention two persons that made our experience with company one of the best.

Firstly we were very nervous to deal a travel company online and my wife and I had never done it before. Karen Yang made our online experience an easy one. She provided us all the information we needed and never said no to any of our request. Karen made the whole online booking experience stress free.

Secondly as would be aware, when we arrived at the hotel after being pickup by Tracie at the Beijing airport, we didn’t have a hotel room. We were not very happy because we were very tired after a 16 hour flight. Tracie was very professional in the way the handle the situation. Tracie made sure that we had another room for the night and was at the hotel in the morning to make sure that everything was in order. Tracie went out of her way to make sure that nothing else went wrong during our visit in Beijing. On my birthday which was on the 23rd October (the date we left for Xi’an) Tracie gave me a birthday cake. The birthday cake made our visit in Beijing a memorable one. Please give Tracie a special thank-you from my wife and me.

I can tell you that as a result of the service I received from Karen and Tracie, I will use your service again and recommend my friend to your company for their holiday in future.

Regards,

Jocelyn Coralie.
(November 6th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Kok Siang

Hi Will,

Nice to hear from you.

Sorry for late reply your mail. I've been rush to settle my job in the past one week.

So, i have been done a post-trip questionnaire to your company. You can read it from your Vera Zhao.

Last but not least, i really enjoy to travel with China Odyssey which under your arrangement. Make me feel comfortable and confident.

I will going to plan my next trip to China Guilin by cruise in next year after winter season. And other place like shanghai, hangzhou, suzhou as well.

Thanks you and best regards,

Kok Siang
(November 6th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-John and Angela Denning.

Dear Karen,

We must thank you for arranging such a wonderful holiday for us. The Tour ran perfectly, without any problems. A big thankyou for this must also go to your guides--they were all superb, organising many extra visits which were not on the itinerary! The drivers were also very flexable.

Maybe a special mention should go to Leo in Beijing,who was not only 100% efficient, but a great personallity who did everything possible to make our visit so memorable. (resturants, shows, shops, etc). A very good ambasador for your company.

Sorry we could not find the time to visit you in Guilin---maybe next time!

Please feel free to give my Email to anyone who wants a recommendation.

Thanks again. John and Angela Denning.
(November 5th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Anne and Alain Sattiva

Dear Maple

Thank you for the travel you organised for us, we had a vwonderful stay in China ! Plenty of new impressions, surprises and discoveries, that we have now to « assimilate »… Thank you also to have called to check if everythink was ok for us.

No doubt that if we visit China once again, we’ll ask you to organise our trip ! I hope we have not been too demanding clients, but we are very satisfied with the choices we made and the options you chose for us.

Best regards and thank you again.

Anne and Alain Sattiva
(November 4th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Marcia and Ken Weiss

Hi Will,

Thanks for the picture!!

I was going to write to you anyway to tell you that we are at the Harbor Grand Kowloon and we love it, especially the location!

Thank you so much for helping us plan this fantastic trip and for taking such good care of us while we were in China.

I have been thinking of ways in which you could enhance your credibility in the U.S. One way might be to take out advertisements in newsletters that are given out at conventions-for example, the American Bar Association (lawyers), the American Medical Association (doctors), the Massachusetts Bar Association. The ads are fairly low cost and would increase your exposure and make it seem as though the organization was endorsing you.

Of course you may contact me after I return to the U.S.. We hope to travel with your again.

Sincerely, Marcia and Ken Weiss
(November 1st, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Matt

Hi Vincent,

Thanks for your follow up email.

We had an unreal time in China, we really enjoyed ourselves, learnt a lot, and can't wait to go back and see more sometime down the road.

Some feedback:

The tour guides that we had in Xian (Stella) and Chengdu (Ben) are absolute assets to your business, they were fantastic, went above and beyond to help us.

Stella was really good in helping us learn Chinese history

Ben was really good how he picked restaurants where he could eat with us a much as possible, this helped us learn more about the food and Chinese life.

The guide that we had for fill in on our first day in Shanghai was also brilliant. (Forgot name)

Please ensure that our high praises are passed to these staff again, and importantly to yourself for organising such a great tour.

The other guides were good, but these were just brilliant and fantastic.

We really liked how in most cities the guides would make small adjustments to the tours to fit more in, or go at times that would have shorter queues, streamined driving and travel, therefore allowing us to take in more, in a more relaxed way.

We have attached just three pics of our top three places. We took over 1200 pictures.

Thanks again

Matt

(November 1st, 2011)

P.S. - Do you have an agency (sister company) that organises tours in Cambodia or Vietnam that you can recommend?

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-May

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)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Margaret

Hello Will!!!

Than you very much for organization out trip. Everything was great, the guides was prepered excellent they showed us everything what was planned and much more, we went to more places with them than suposed to go, guiders was english speaking very well.

Your country is beautifull and we are possitive surprised, hotels excellent, food also.

We took so many photos but I didn't printed yet. Last week was very crazy, so much laundry, souvenires to give family and friends, so probobly I'm gonna send you some picktures soon.

Thank you very much for everything.

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Bob and Diane Butscher

Dear Reinself,

The whole China tour that you put together for us was just the BEST. You were so kind to work with us on all the little changes we made through out the planning of our trip.

We wanted to let you know how pleased we were with our guides, Shanghai it was Vivian, and Guilin it was Anne,

Xi'an it was Kenny and then Andy picked us up from our cruise. We just fell in love with Andy. He was so considerate and could communicate with us and planned some wonder Chinese dinners that were out of this world!!!!!!

As I said we really were happy with all the things we got to visit but was so impressed with Andy and the manner he did the tour. I wanted to send a thanks to you and am copying Andy as a thank you also.He was the BEST GUIDE EVER!!!!!!!!!!

We are now home, safe and a bit tired from our travels but are so thankful for the oppoutunity to visit all the 7 countries we visited and China was a favorite of ours.

Thanks again to you Reinself for the over all tour and for the personal touch you gave with the birthday cake and gifts for Bob. We so appreciated your thoughtfulness and so glad we could meet you in person.

Best,

Bob and Diane Butscher
(October 30th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Jim

Dear Maggie,

Very interesting and well organized. Bus to Wuhan was a little different. Never been on a bus that long, but I survived . Guide met me in Wuhan when I arrived and took me to train for return. . I got a cold on the cruise and have not not been feeling as well as I would like. Feeling much better today though. Thanks for all your help and support. Really glad I finally saw the Yangtze. Truly beautiful. Wuhan was impressive with all the construction. Truly amazing what China is doing. Exciting time for Chinese. Train from Wuhan to Beijing was fine too. I am staying at the CBD Qianyuan Business Hotel. Very impressive and inexpensive. Great location too. Just for your information.

Thanks again.

Jim

(October 31st, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Yan

Dear Simon,

Sorry that I have not replied earlier. Yes we had a great time in China! The China Odyssey Tour made the huge difference. Everything went as expected and we can't say enough about how well this was organized by you guys.

Thank you for all your work. And yes we will definitely contact you again for our next trip!

Best regards ...

Yan
(October 30th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-John

Dear Karen,

We had a perfect tour thanks to all your help!

The fireworks festival was better than we thought possible. Our hotel room was located in perfect position for photographing the fireworks. Wow!!!! We were also interviewed by local newspaper that night as they were curious as to how we came to be there.

We were very lucky with clear blue sky in Beijing which was perfect for photography of great wall and other tours. Also had perfect weather for Panda photography in Chengdu and all the Pandas were very active and moving around a lot.

We were also very lucky with clear blue sky while visiting top of Yellow mountains making perfect mountain pictures. Very impressive!! Sunrise was outstanding on mountain top next morning!

Weather was good for Guilin tours and really enjoyed everything there. The Impression show that night was outstanding!

The guides that you assigned to us were all very good and we enjoyed being with them.

In a couple weeks we will post some of our best pictures on web.

Thanks Again!!

John

(October 28th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Bruce

Hi Vincent,

I have returned to the States from Beijing and catching up on email.

Thank you again for arranging the tours for Guilin, Yangshuo, and Xi'an, we enjoyed ourselves very much. You were a delight to work with.

Special thanks to our guide Amy, she was absolutely amazing! The best guide we had during our 17 days in China.

I just completed a customer survey Vera sent, so you have all my feedback there. Overall an excellent experience.

Best,

Bruce

(October 28th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Colleen Walsh

Dear Sophie,

I am sorry I haven't contacted you sooner. WE HAD A BALL! Michael and I enjoyed everything you arranged for us. Our guides were professional and courteous, the drivers were on time and we loved the way were checked in at airports and collected from others.

I have told my friends about your company and how reliable it is.I filled in the questionnaire. Michael and I would like to recommend Will in Beijing and Stella in Xi'an for the best guides!

Thank you for all your work. The holiday was a memorable experience.

Colleen Walsh

(October 28th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Karen Harlan

Dear Vera,

Thank you so much for arranging such a lovely vacation for us. All of our guides and drivers were exceptional as were most of the hotels.

It was a very memorable vacation. Thank you once again.

Sincerely,

Karen Harlan

(October 26th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Dana

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)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Elodie VILLAUME

Dear Mister&Reinself,

We sincerely would like to thank you for the trip you organized for us in China. Everything was perfect and very well prepared. We spent a lot of time in the airports and train stations, but it definitely worst it !!

I really loved the Terracotta army warriors while my husband had a crush for the great wall.

We would like to send a postcard and a little souvenir from our Pacific island to some of our guides. Could you please give us their addresses? - Nick (Beijing); - Peter (Xian); - Joy (Chengdu); - and Pamela (Guilin).

Thank you in advance.

Best regards,

Elodie VILLAUME

(October 24th, 2011)

China Tour Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Phil & Maru Hutchins

Dear Vera,

Now that we have returned to Mexico we just wanted to congratulate you on the tour you arranged for us. Everything went very well and all the guides were excellent except for the one in Xian (Alex) who suffers from a serious problem with his attitude. It seems that he did not understand who was the customer and who was the guide and was actually quite rude to us. However, we particularly liked the guide in Guiling, Theresa, who was delightful as well as very knowledgeable. Emma in Beijing was also excellent.

If I might make one suggestion it would be to skip the overnight stop in Yangshuo after the boat ride from Guiling. The show on the water was fantastic but that Green Lotus Hotel really was not up to the standard of the other hotels we stayed at. It would probably be better to return the passengers to Guiling the same evening.

We were a little apprehensive about spending 3 days on the boat trip along the Yangste River but it turned out to be excellent and we really enjoyed the experience. All the arrangements regarding flights and road transportation worked very well. We will certainly recommend your company to any friends or colleagues who are planning to visit your beautiful and fascinating country.

Kind regards and thanks once again,

Phil & Maru Hutchins

(October 24th, 2011)

China Tour Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Bammi

Dear Jenny,

Many thanks for your message. No problem about the Shangri-la program, it all worked out well and I have happy memories of the entire trip! Will be happy to send you some photos once I have downloaded them, and please feel free to use on your web-site. Yunnan is indeed a very beautiful part of China.

I also have a favor to ask you; could you please send me the e-mail address of my guide in Kunming - Mr. Nunchakus. I bought some very good Yunnan tea there, and want to ask him about getting some more in the future.

Thanks and warm regards,

Bammi

(October 23th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-John and Jane

Dear Karen,

I just wanted to let you know how much we enjoyed our trip and say thank you for all your organization. All your arrangements for us went very smoothly and the hotels you chose for us in Beijing and Xian were excellent both in location and comfort.

I wanted to give you some feedback about the hotel in Pingyao, not as a complaint but just so you know for other guests. When we wre there, there was no hot water to have a shower in the afternoon or before 8am in the morning so we had to have cold showers before we left for Taiyuan. There was also no electricity to make a cup of tea in the mornings.

I also wanted to say thank you for making arrangements in Xian at such short notice. Our guide Stella was fantastic. She was knowledgeable, friendly and went out of her way to make our stay as enjoyable as possible. We are so glad we chose to have a guide, we certainly wouldn't have seen or learnt so much without Stella showing us around. We will happily recommend your company to our friends. Thank you.

John and Jane

(October 21th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-James and Patsy Patterson

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)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-John

Dear Sophie,

We are now back home after our holiday in China. We had a wonderful time and everything was organised, as expected, with Chinese precision.

Our Guides and Drivers were absolutely first class and could not be bettered. My one regret was that we did not manage to see the Shaolin Temple; may be next time.

Thank you so much for organising such a memorable and pleasurable tour. Xei xei

Kind regards

John

(October 19th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Regards Mary Walsh

Dear Karen,

We are safely back in Australia. It has been a wonderful trip, we have seen lots of beautiful sights and achieved what we set out to do. Your country is amazing. Your staff, in the drivers and the girls who took us on the tours, were fanastic.

The girls were all pleasant and caring and attended to all our requests and needs. They were all very knowledgable, it was very impressive. They did their very, very best and I recommend them to anyone of your customers. The drivers are very impressive drivers. The traffic in each state was very difficult conditions to drive in and I was not concerned at any stage of coming to any harm. They were there on time and took us safely to and from our accommodation.

With reference to accommodation, flights, meals and sights we are happy to make both positive and negative comments for you so you can fine tune your arrangements for other tours such as ours.

Regards Mary Walsh

(October 19th, 2011)

China Tourl Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Paul Treacy

Dear Maple

Henry and I have returned safely to Australia and I would like to take this opportunity to thank China Odyssey for a good trip. Firstly to you personally: I think I sent you about 26 emails during the course of planning the trip and you were always patient and helpful. That the trip was confirmed relatively late and you still managed to get us booked in everywhere is a credit to you. All the guides on the trip were excellent. They really looked after us and I am especially grateful to them for the attention they paid to Henry who, as you know, is 82 years old. All the transfers went smoothly and it was very helpful to have them check us in at the airport on departure.

I would especially like to thank Julia in Chengdu and Dolkar in Lhasa as they really made us feel welcome as if we were old friends come to stay. Dol kar went out of her way to ensure we found and got good service at local venues, and our afternoon with Julia was the most relaxed and enjoyable of the trip. They are both outstanding tour guides. I would recommend them to anyone who may visit those cities in the future. I appreciated the refund for the change of details for the last day of the trip. Tourist lunch venues are hit and miss in any country so I would like to make particular mention of the ones we found the best ie: all Beijing venues were very agreeable as was the Tibet Steak house. Be assured though, we certainly have no complaints otherwise.

Our accommodation was satisfactory. Thank you. I was a little perplexed by the different prices and standards of accommodation, one hotel costing Y400 and another Y1500. Our Xian location was an easy winner for comfort and service. Finally, we congratulate the drivers who got us safely around in some amazing traffic. They are gold.

Thank you again. On that experience I hope I have another chance to get to China soon.

Regards and good luck to you,

Paul Treacy

(October 18th, 2011)

China Tour Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Bammi

Dear Jenny,

I'm back in Jakarta after another fabulous trip with COT! Thanks again for the careful preparation and the guides everywhere were prompt and helpful; the driver who stayed with me from Dali to Shangri-la (Mr. Dong) is excellent - very courteous and friendly, and a safe driver. There was a slight problem at Lijiang and Shangri-la, where the guides seemed to have a different tour program compared to my written itinerary, but we managed to work it out and I got to see everything!

I was also lucky with the weather - it was sunny and nice on all days except the visit to the park at Shangri-la, where you could feel that winter was near!

It was good to speak to you from Kunming, and I hope to make further tours with COT such as Guilin, Shanghai-Suzhou-Hangzhou, and Beijing-Xian-Dunhuang (but I'm not sure of the timing yet!). Please do keep in touch.

With best wishes and warm regards,

Bammi

(October 18th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Peter (Tony) Elliott

Dear Sophie,

I am attaching the letter I sent to Steven in Beijing for you to read. He certainly was the best tour guide we had with the clearest command of English. We would love him to be able to have a holiday in Australia and he is the only person we made that offer to. He is aware I am sending you this copy - I would not have done it without his permission.

There is no need to reply to this...you have enough to do!

Best wishes as ever

Xie xie

Peter (Tony) Elliott

(October 18th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Dalton

Dear Sophie,

It has been almost one month we arrived back home. Sorry for taking so long to write you.

At first my wife and I would like to thank you very much for the terrific hot pot dinner you offered us - It was so romantic and unforgetable. Our tour was fine. As allways China has surprised us for its beauty and magnificence. Our fist time in Indochina convinced us that we must go back some day. I would like to comment that the arrangements made for Indochina were better than the ones for China in terms of hotels, cars and guides.

Just one more important thing I would like to mention: We had some problems at the New Era Kunming hotel, which made me very mad. It had never happened to me all my life. Our guide, Mr.Jack (if I am not wrong) was with us during the hotel check out when occurred a very unpleasant situation, and he can report you. Finally, thank you for everything and I hope to get in touch with you soon.

Best regards,

Dalton

(October 14th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Peter Elliott

Dear Sophie,

I am finally making time to write to you to thank you for your wonderful ability to organise a perfect tour in China. One of the reasons I have taken so long to write to you is that I have written to every one of the guides who you had looking after us to thank them for their kindness and expertise. In each e-mail to them I asked would they like me to forward a copy of the thank you letter to you. I have only so far had two replies and I will attach them to this e-mail.

You must know by now how much we appreciate China Odyssey Tours in general and you in particular because this is our second trip to China with you and there will probably one more smaller one next year (which I will talk to you about another time). Last time when we were in your good hands with Mr Geoff Bateman , I remember his wife, Corinne, saying to me halfway through the trip, "Wow! I thought yesterday was wonderful but the day is even better, and you know what? I have thought that everyday!" This sums up the attitude of the 11 people in our group this time. One of our pax was, I think, a bit too sick to be attempting such a long and busy trip but he came anyway and our guide in Shanghai, Avril was amazingly helpful. Anyway at one part of the trip he joked to me, "I think we should all go home now because we have had more than our money's worth !" And my brother, John Elliott, with his usual silly sense of humour said to me, "The trouble with China is that everything is the same." I was shocked. How could he say that about this wonderful country? But then he went on, "Yes, everything is the same - amazing!"

I have read on your website all the complimentary things people have said about you and COT, so I won't bore you by repeating it all once again. You know that I would never recommend anyone else except you and COT so you don't need to worry about that.

Thank you again, Sophie and thanks to all your wonderful staff. I am forwarding to you here with two e-mails I have sent to the guides, one in Shanghai (Avril) and one in Xi'an (Kenny) [the others have not replied yet]

Best wishes to you and your family,

Peter Elliott

(October 11th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Guillaume

Dear Reinself,

Thanks a lot for your confirmation.

I want to thank you for your incredibly fast, very professional and efficient service! In case the trip to Mt Huangshan is as well organised as the booking, then we will definitely have a fantastic experience.

Thanks again for your great job!

Best regards,

Guillaume.,

(October 10th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Adrienne Bishop

Dear Maggie,

Thankyou so much for your lovely gifts, it was a great surprise. Thankyou also for all your help in organising such a great trip. It was really wonderful. Our kids really enjoyed meeting each and every guide at each city- they particularly liked Kenny!! We would be more than happy to recommend your company and also to include some photos- we have 1000! Our kids felt like celebrities as everyone wanted to have their photo taken with 4 blonde children!

One comment that I think might be helpful to share with you was that several of the guides were very good at realizing how we were feeling. Evelyn and Kenny were particularly good at sensing that the children were very tired and couldn't do everything that we had included on the itinerary. However when we were in Beijing the traffic was horrendous from the week long celebrations. Our guide changed the order of our activities from one day to another which was no trouble.

When we finally decided to go to the Great wall the kids were made to get up really early. It took 6 hours to finally get there because he made us visit a factory which produced the cloisenne products and then we had to go to the Jade factory because the guide and the bus driver had to have their lunch. We just stood there waiting. With tired kids this was just ridiculous and they were not even slightly interested in either of these destinations that were not included as far as we were concerned. Will said that he had to take us to these places because it was company policy. If we hadn't gone to these places we would've been at the great Wall by 11.30 instead of 3.30pm!

We will add photos when you need them,

Thanks again,

Adrienne Bishop

PS The accomodation was excellent. We particularly enjoyed the hotel inBeijing, Guilin and Yangshuo.

(October 9th, 2011)

China Tour Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Ed (USA), Carol(USA), and Jeab(Thailand)

Dear Maple

Just wanted to drop you a note to say that the tour went perfectly!

Billy was great. He's flexible, punctual, and has a very cheerful demeanor. He's also very good at knowing how much information to give while traveling around. I have been on tours inwhich the guide gives information to the point of exhaustion; this was not the case with Billy, he knew exactly how much information to give. Simply put, from an American (and Thai) point of view, Billy is an ideal guide...I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND him. The driver was also excellent as he kept SAFETY as his primary concern.

As for the tour and the sites, it EXCEEDED expectations...great job in arranging that! Thanks again for being creative in planning a trip that met our particular needs.

For sure, we will use your agency again.

Ed (USA), Carol(USA), and Jeab(Thailand)

(October 9th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Ken

Dear Sophie,

I have just entered this review of China Odyssey on Trip Advisor, it takes a few days to be posted I think. As you can see I think it is an excellent review of the company and I want to re-iterate that you were an excellent assistant to me in putting it all together. Thanks you for your help and patience. You were excellent and instrumental in making the trip a success!

I was fascinated by China, and would like to return there soon. I was considering a trip to Shanghai in December 2011. I realize it may be cold then but that is the time that is available to me unless I wait until 9/2012. I would spend about 5 days in Shanghai and 5-6 days in nearby cities. I had looked at the map and was considering D trains to Suzhou, then Nanjing, then QingDao - each for several nights. I don't think I need a local guide this time, but I would like to hear your ideas to recommend an itinerary. If I go, I might use your services to book the hotels, trains, and air back to Shanghai.

Thanks again,

Ken

(October 9th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-William C. Jordan

Dear Karen,

We are back from our trip and I just wanted to let you know we had a great time. Our guides Chris and Tracey were great. Very professional, fun, organized and flexible. All went well and we got to see a tremendous amount of Chinese history. Thank you for your guidance and planning assistance. We will definitely use China Odyssey Tours again.

The one thing we learned, as it says in your tour guide book, is that the Chinese 4 star hotels are not what we (Westerners) were expecting. The hotels were very old and needed much repair and paint. The rooms were small with tiny bathrooms. The Beijing hotel did not even have an open bar in/near the lobby for evening cocktails. I am not blaming you or China Odyssey Tours it was my decision but I guess I was going on the US star rating. Some (luxury) differences between 4 star and 5 star but don't lose much going with 4 star. Next trip we will know better.

Thanks for the support and patience. Please pass on our thanks to your management staff for setting up a great trip.

What do you have in the way of a Yangtze River tour? Days, debarking ports, arriving ports, stops along the way, etc.

Thanks again.

William C. Jordan

(October 8th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Jacob and Jessie (Mary) Thomas

Dear Sophie,

T Since, we returned to US, we are quite busy with our office work and few other social programs. We did not even had a chance to look and edit our pictures from our trip. Our apologies that it took a while for us to send a thank you note for the excellent trip arrangements you did. The only regret we have is that Iype and Annie were not able to join the trip, although Iype did all the work from our side.

We returned to the U.S safely and it took a while to settle back at home and work. We had a fabulous time in China – primarily because the travel arrangements in each city worked exactly as planned, tour guides were knowledgeable and accommodating, the choice of sights/tours were excellent. All Tour guides and drivers were on time. Also they accommodated our requests to see couple of acrobatic shows in Beijing and Shanghai. Thank you so much for arranging this memorable trip. Some of our friends may be interested in a trip to China and we hope you would not mind if we give your name.

Regards,

Jacob and Jessie (Mary) Thomas

Austin, Texas, USA

(October 7th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Rich McCurdy

Dear Sophie,

Thanks for the note. We have been recovering from jet lag and colds since our return.

We really enjoyed our visit to the Guilin area. After being in so many huge cites, it was nice to see the countryside. We both grew up on farms in Iowa and enjoyed seeing the fields and farming activities. Our trip to China would have been far less rewarding without the Guilin portion.

The arrangements from your company were excellent. We were a little nervous since this was our first time booking a trip over the Internet. But once we were met at the airport, all ran great. You should give David a bit more time off so he can rest up.

I have three small suggestions for improvement, all in Yangshou. The Green Lotus Hotel was good and a great location. But I would have paid more for a room with a river view. You should offer that as an option. I could have upgraded on my own, but we were already in our room and it seemed like too much trouble. But if had known in advance, I would have picked the river view.

The other two suggestions relate to Water Show. The guide should remind the guests to bring binoculars if they have them. We wished we had our binoculars but didn't think of them until we were seated. Secondly, it would be good if the guide would give a brief explanation of the story before the show. We didn't ask about it until after the show. The show was spectacular, but we might have appreciated it a bit more if we knew the story.

Hope my comments help. We had a wonderful tour and would recommend your company to our friends and family.

Thank you once again to all concerned in making our trip a very enjoyable and memorable one.

Rich McCurdy

(October 7th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Marie Clayton

Dear Vera,

I have recently returned to Australia after a wonderful tour of your country arranged by Karen from your Guilin office.

I was initially hesitant to use an overseas internet company,especially as I was organising for myself and husband plus 8 other friends.

Karen soon put my mind at ease with all the information regarding your companies background that she emailed to me.

Our tour was excellent,no hitches,all hotels of a good standard ( loved our upgrade to 20th floor at The Bund in Shanghai ) tour guides were very knowledgeable, helpful,well dressed. I would like to mention Joy,John and Michael whom we found especially good.

I asked to meet Karen (as I wanted to thank her for all her efforts ). Our group of 10 were taken to karen's office in Guilin where we were all made welcome. Karen presented each couple with a lovely gift bag of mementoes,this lovely gesture was much appreciated by all.

Putting this tour together for our group of 10 was made easy by Karen's helpful manner. All queries were answered promptly,nothing was too much trouble.

Thank you once again to all concerned in making our trip a very enjoyable and memorable one.

We will have no hesitation in recommending Karen and China Odyssey Tours at any opportunity.

Regards

Marie Clayton

(October 6th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Julian

Dear Sophie,

As our tour winds up to an end, I would like to let you know that Minerva and I have been pleased with our tour. I just want to confirm with you that we are leaving on the 7th and would like to be sure that our pick up at the Salvo hotel will be at 11.30am to be brought to the airport. Kindly make sure that we are not late for our check in. Thank you so far for a great time in China.

Regards

Julian

(October 5th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Kevin Kennedy

Dear Karen,

Once again thank you for arranging our recent short trip to Shanghai. We were very pleased with the arrangements After we left Shanghai we flew to Vancouver where we joined the Holland America "Volendam" for the cruise from Vancouver to Sydney. We arrived home only yesterday and so I have not had the opportunity to thank you earlier.

We hope to arrange another tour within China in the next year or so and will contact you again then

Kind regards

Kevin Kennedy

(October 2nd, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Balan Sivasubramaniam

Dear Sophie,

I throughly enjoyed the holiday. I was very impressed with your organization and promptness in your communication.

Lee, my tour guide was fantastic and made my experience in China very memorable. I will be planing another holiday with my family soon. I will be in touch with you. I have attached the evaluation form. Please accept my apologies for the delay.

Kind regards

Balan Sivasubramaniam

(October 2nd, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Jan and Ria van Ertk Bali

Dear Maggie,

Thanks again for a pertfectly arranged holliday. Have to tell you we were stunned by the whole organization.

Never had to wait for anyone. Of course, filling in the forms for the guides was a laugh. Better not do that through the tourguide. There is always good and better. We only had one tourguide that really missed the idea of helping the tourist. Just the minimal help and without any interest at all. But that is no problem. This one did NOT get any bonus. As soon as we know WHEN we want to come to China again we will let you know.

Thanks again and regards,

Jan and Ria van Ertk Bali

(September 29th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Maggie

Dear Maggie,

thank you and I will be pleased to send our comments!

By and large everything worked fine. We sure missed out on the Yantzee cruise (flooding) and the train from Lhasa to Xingning was a harder experience than we ever expected! (how to reconstitute noodle dinners, unpleasant bathrooms and not knowing when to board or when to exit were all challenges which we faced on our own)

We are glad we had your help getting out of Chongqing AND with our extra day in Peking.

Thanks again for our wonderful gifts and we have many great memories of our time in your very special country.

(September 29th, 2011)

China Tour Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Lonrho Plc

Dear Maple

Thank you for all your help in our last holiday in China.

The tours and activities you organised were the best part of our holiday and we much appreciate it and both of the tour guides peggy and forrest were brilliant.

I am now starting to plan next year and would appreciate your assistance.

We are travelling from Beijing to Moscow on the Trans Siberian Railway and have 5 days in China before we leave on Sunday 19th August 2012.

I have a rough idea of an itinerary but would appreciate your ideas of what China odyssey can suggest as an itinerary. We arrive in Beijing on Sunday 12th at 9.30am on British airways flight from London.

We have already hotels booked in Beijing as part of our trans Siberian trip for 12th 13th and 18th august but nothing yet for Chengdu.

In Beijing we would like an airport transfer and to visit Temple of Heaven and forbidden city on 12th We would like a visit to summer palace on 13th and airport transfer and return tickets to Chengdu early on 14th, 3 nights in Chengdu at a 4 star hotel of your recommendation.

Returning to Beijing early afternoon flight and transfer from airport to hotel in Beijing.

Whilst in Chengdu we would like to visit Chengdu Panda reserve one morning as early as possible and would also like to visit the Leshan Giant Budda, Wenshu Monastery and Du fu cottage while we are in Chengdu plus anything else you can suggest we have time for Look forward to your thoughts.

Best regards,

Dennis Bowers

Financial controller

Lonrho Plc

(September 28th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Paul Coffey

Dear Maggie,

Yes we enjoyed our trip. The guides were all good. Bruce in Shenzhen went above and beyond the call of duty. The Holiday Inn Express was a shameful experience and Bruce did everything he could to make the situation better. He also said to me that you could sent us a copy of the receipt or booking info for this hotel as we are members of Priority Reward, so we get frequent flyer points for this stay. It will also be to prove to the Priority Rewards people that we stayed. If you could do this for us quickly it would be appreciated.

Thank You

Paul Coffey

(September 28th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Salujas

Dear Karen,

Salujas and us are back to New York. Dhalls are in Japan.

We had a wonderful time in China. The tour guides (Willie in Beijing, Tony in Xian and Junie in ShangHai ) were great and very professional.

Thank you for being so patient with us.

We will be more than happy to recommend China Odyssey Tour co and especially you to anyone interested in going to China

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

(September 27th, 2011)

China Tour Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Linda

Dear Sussan

Thanks for you note. We had a wonderful time. Toby was a great guide and very informative. He was on time, very helpful with lunch spots and shopping for DVDs we were trying to find.

The only area of concern was when the driver took me to the airport he was dialing his phone and making phone calls. I asked him not to and he abided but it is a safety risk to drive and talk on the phone.

Best regards,

Thanks, Linda

(September 20th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Theo

Dear Sophie,

Just writing to inform you that my trip has come to an end. My visit was absolutely amazing and the services of China Odyssey excellent.

Thank you so much for all your help. I wish all tour agents were as efficient as you. I am already thinking of two additional trips to China in the near future: Inner Mongolia & Silk Roads and Tibet. Would love to travel with you guys again if possible.

Best regards,

Theo

(September 20st, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Steve Sheldon

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)

China Tour Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Sandy

Dear Simon,

We are back in S Korea now with our daughter, returned last nite from Shanghai. We were fortunate to return on time before any bad weather.

We want to thank you so much for an amazing journey in China. Everything was much more than I had ever dreamed possible. Our tour company does a wonderful job. Both of our tour guides Leo and Billy were wonderful.... Everything went as scheduled and liike I said an amazing journey. We love China!!

Thanks again......

Sandy
(August 28th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Sophie

Dear Sophie,

It was a pleasure meeting you in Guilin and thank you so much for the presents you gave us all. You are so friendly and sweet and I must thank you for all the emails you sent so promptly. You have been a great help in organising our tour and I have to say it was perfect in every way. Your planning was superb and we enjoyed every minute of our stay in China. Everything from the picking up at the airports to the tour guides was so well planned. Thanks again for all your hard work.

Also, thank you so much for sending the flowers to my room which my husband asked you to organise. That was very touching and I did read the email you sent him. Yes, I am very lucky to have him in my life and thank God everyday for that.

I have to say that the tour guides were great especially Toni in Xian, Susan in Guilin and ofcourse Chris in Shanghai. They were exceptional guides and you must let their bosses know that that they did have a good knowledge of all that they showed us and also were very flexible and kind too. We were very, very happy with them and please do let them know that too.

One of my friends want to visit China sometime next year and I am going to give her your name and email address. You can make up an itinerary for her when she decides to come to China.

Thanks so much Sophie for all the help and if ever you come to the US, please come and stay with us and be our guest in our home. We live very close to NY city and I am sure you will like that.

Keep in touch and best wishes always.

The others in my group send their regards too.......................gita

PS: Is there anything else I need to do for the tour guides like filling out a form or anything like that? Do let me know. I will be happy to do that.

(August 26th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Miguel

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)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Jacqueline Coetzee

Dear Sophie,

I just wanted to write to say thank you for all your help with the tour.

We had a great time and the guides were amazing!

We will definitely recommend you guys to any of our friends travelling to China!!

Thank you again!

Jacqueline Coetzee

HR/Office Manager

(August 21st, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Lucy Moloney

Dear Sophie,

Beijing was a very amazing city to visit and I am very impressed with all the sights and the Great Wall was very special. Our guide Tina was exceptional, she was a very kind, caring and sweet young lady and I am very happy to have met her. Mr.Lee was such a fantastic driver and I felt very safe all the time.

Our time in Xian was also very interesting, the weather here was so hot but the history was so wonderful you soon forget about the heat or untill you must walk to the car again!! I really enjoyed the bike ride around the city wall. Stephen was a very interesting man and was very passionate about his city.

I was so impressed with Guilin and Yangshuo these two places were absolutely beautiful. Lauren and I were very happy here and had such a lovely time in these beautiful places. The people here were happy and very friendly. Our guide Lynda was outstanding, she was very kind, caring and sweet and we really enjoyed her company. She has a beautiful voice and taught me a chinese song which I can sing and remember the words! Mr.Moor our driver was a very kind man also.

Our trip to Shanghai was very short but the weather while we were here was gorgeous. Our hotel was also very lovely.

I'm so grateful for your great quality service at China Odyssey tours you made our trip very smooth and very enjoyable. Thank you for all your fast email correspondence and the lovely gifts waiting for us in Guilin.

I feel very happy that I have been able to visit China it's a very diverse, interesting and culturally rich country. I have many photos and memories which I will treasure forever.

Thank you again for all your hard work Sophie

Many best wishes to you

I have attached a photo of Lauren (Red Top) and myself (Green Dress) on the bikes on the City Wall Xian. If you wish for any more photos please feel free to ask.

Kind Regards,

Lucy Moloney

(August 18th, 2011)

China Tour Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Gabor

Dear Simon,

We made it! We are back from China with millions of great memories.

I would like to thank you your professional arrangements, I can confirm that we had no any problem during 3 weeks travel. I was really impressed by your organization, we had professional and very nice guides everywhere; on time, cars, hotels, admission tickets, attractions, all were perfect.

I would be glad to serve as a reference, if you wish please feel free to give my e-mail or phone number to your potential clients who require a reference.

Thank you again, if we come to Asia again - we plan an Indochina trip next year - I will definitely contact you or your agency.

Best regards

Gabor
(August 18th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Omur &Kemal

Dear Sophie,

Sorry I coudn't write answer. It was very bussy time for me .Of course ,We had a really really good time .Every things was perpect.I will write letter soon.

We know "WE WASN'T ALONE CHINA" Again thank you very much...

Omur &Kemal

Loves from us to everyone

(August 17th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Hovig

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)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Farhana

Dear Maple

Thank you so much for everything. We thoroughly enjoyed our trip. Everything was great:) Please do not feel bad about the hotel in Yangshuo. That is the only thing I would suggest you inform prospective clients about...that it is not up to the standard of 5 star hotels...it is more like a 3 1/2 star hotel, and they can then make the choice between staying there or going back to Guilin city. I am very glad I took the beautiful Shangri la hotel in Guilin as opposed to the Sheraton, as we did have lunch there on our last day, and it was more a 4 star or so, and pretty old.

Thank you for arranging to take us to the skatepark in Shanghai. My son really enjoyed it and we took him back there by subway the next day.

We were very happy with the Crowne Plaza in Beijing, the Sofitel on Renmin Square in Xian, the Shangri la in Guilin and the Westin in Shanghai.

All in all, thank you for responding to my queries throughout our confirmation process. The service was great! You were great! Please say hello to David for us. We really enjoyed his company and insight he gave us.

I will fill in the detailed questionaire form from China Odyssey some time soon. I will definitely recommend your services to others interested in visiting China in the future.

Take care,

Farhana

(August 10th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Miguel

Dear Sophie,

We fell in love with China. We had a wonderful experience and we are very grateful.

All guides were very high quality and very knowledgeable. We specially remark the performance of our guide in Guilin, Theresa. I also think your service was great, very efficient and very organized.

I hope to go to china again and trust me I will recommend you with our friends.

I also include a picture of my family. I think you will recognize the place.

My best wishes for you

Warmest regards,

Miguel

(August 5th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Sonia and Vera

Dear Sophie,

How are you?

I have been home now for 2 weeks, and I still have the good feelings of our travel to Guilin/Yangshuo! It was a dream coming true: you are so lucky living in such a place. Here I would like to thank you and your group, like Teresa our guide, and Way our driver, for the kindness and professionalism that took place in our visit!!!

Also your sugestions about what to do there, and mainly that marvelous and amazing light-show in Yangshuo: indescriptable even without understanding the language at all!!!

Health and good lucky for you!

Sinceraly

Sonia and Vera

(August 2nd, 2011)

China Tour Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Garry and Jenny Wescombe

Dear Andy,

Just to let you know we are home safe after one of the great adventures of our lives. Your country and its people astounded us and we loved every moment. Our guides in every area were first rate and we made new friends. I will report more in detail as you requested later but for the moment am concentrating on unpacking and getting ready to go back to work in a weeks time. Thank you again for your support during the process it was much appreciated.

Garry and Jenny Wescombe

(July 23rd, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Chris

Hi Shona,

I would just like to thank you very much for showing me all the sights in Guilin and Yongshuo, and particularly the cruise down the Li river, the "Impressions" show, and the outstanding scenery.

I arrived back in New Zealand and have been adjusting to normal routines (as well as the cold winter weather!), as well as telling everyone over here about my wonderful experiences in China.

I hope that you are keeping well, and I attach some photos of the trip

Kind regards,

Chris

(July 22nd, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Chris Bonugli

Dear Sophie,

I arrived back in New Zealand about a week ago, and have just had time to adjust again to the normal routines and tell everyone about my wonderful holiday in China.

I would like to thank you very much for putting together such a varied and exciting programme: I was always on the go, with many different parts of the country to visit and experience, everything was way beyond my expectations.

I would just like to share with you some of my "highlights":

1. Shanghai: The Maglev train was exciting: over 300 km/hr! Interestingly, the last thing I saw – the visit to the Urban Planning Department – which didn't sound that exciting, amazed me when I saw that the whole of Shanghai has been almost completely rebuilt into a very modern city within the last 30 years, with literally thousands of high-rise buildings and massive infrastructure. This was really quite staggering.

2. The 4-day cruise up the Yangtze, past the Three Gorges, and the Dam. Very high standard of accommodation, food, service and entertainment. Also, apart from the unique scenery of the Three Gorges, the organisation on the boat was very professional: always something interesting going on.

3. Chongqing: the Stilwell Museum, again surprisingly, was so interesting. I hadn't been aware that the Americans and Chinese had fought together, on the same side, like this, during the Second World War. I also enjoyed the spicy hotpot!

4. The train journey from Chongqing to Chengdu. Amazing achievement building this high-speed railway in such mountainous country: many tunnels and beautiful countryside, paddy fields etc.

5. Chengdu: The unique Panda visit and the Sichuan Opera, which was very artistic, amusing, and graceful.

6. Guilin: This is a lovely quieter country area than the other places I had visited. I particularly enjoyed the evening cruise on the waterways of Guilin, with the lights and the entertainment provided at various places on the banks.

7. Cruise down the Li river: This, together with the light show at Yongshuo, was probably the most unexpected highlight of my whole China trip. The scenery from the river was absolutely outstanding, totally unique, and what a way to see it! I also enjoyed the country drive: "off the beaten track".

8. Yongshuo: I had not heard of the Sanjie Liu "Impressions" show before – I probably should have – but, it almost defies description: I felt privileged to have attended, I have never seen anything like it before.

9. Xi'an: A fascinating introduction to the Qin, Han, and Tang dynasties, the remarkable achievements of Emperor QinShihuang, and Feng Shui. Apart from the Terra Cotta Warriors, and the walls of Xi'an, I was also impressed by the Han emperor's tomb and warriors, and the Tang Dynasty show.

10. Beijing: The sheer spectacle of the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, then the artistic delights, and skilful action of the Beijing Opera.

Most of all though, I found that your slogan – "You are not alone In China" – really says it all. Venturing into a vast and complex country like China, without any knowledge of the language, could have been quite daunting, but at each step, each city, your guides were there to meet me and take care of me. All of them were enthusiastic, knowledgeable, friendly, keen to show me the best things about their city and China, and to ensure my security and peace of mind. I think that this made a huge difference to the enjoyment of my trip.

I would be very happy to be a reference for China Odyssey Tours and would recommend it to anyone.

I wonder if you could please send me the e-mail addresses of Shona in Guilin and Tracy in Xi'an: I would like to send them both a thank you note and a couple of photos.

I also attach above a few photos from my trip.

Best regards,

Chris Bonugli

(July 8th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Nina Vitenson

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)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Michael Reshad,

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)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Nina Vitenson

Dear Simon,

I wanted to thank you for planning our trip to China. We had such a great time. This will truly be an unforgettable trip!

All of our our guides were very attentive, flexible, friendly, and a pleasure to work with! Our favorite hotels were the Harbor Grand in Hong Kong and the Hyatt in Shanghai--they were absolutely OUTSTANDING!!!!

I also wanted to ask you if I would be able to send a letter to Karen/Ting-Ting? I'm not sure if the address for your office in Guilin would be acceptable, or if there is another mailing address I can use to contact her aside from email?

Many thanks,

Nina Vitenson

(July 2nd, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Linda Poore

Dear Vera,

I want to commend Karen Yang for the excellent job she did in planning our trip. I did extensive research and had a million questions and almost as many emails to her. She responded immediately to every email, even on the weekend to say she receive my questions or changes and would respond first thing Monday.

She listened, gave suggestions, revised plans, and adapted to our needs, planning an itinerary that worked for us. I had other companies that I emailed but Karen shone above everyone as diligent, helpful, and willing to keep trying until we were satisfied we had the perfect trip for us. We went places Americans rarely go (Jiuzhaigou & Zhangjiajie) and found them fascinating.

She picked great guides who were interesting, knowledgeable, experienced, and good English speakers. They made sure we were safe and satisfied at the end of each day.

With all the personal research I did for 3 months we could have easily booked this trip ourselves. I booked with Karen because I was confident that “we would not be alone in China”.

I am glad I booked with your company and Karen. She did an excellent job.

Sincerely,

Linda Poore

(June 28th, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Susan Sims and family

Dear Louisa,

We returned home on Wednesday this week. I just wanted to write to thank you and all of the staff at China Odyssey Tours for your excellent tour service. We are already recommending to friends that they should visit your website and arrange for tours if they are going to China. Your organization really provided what you promised. Not every company can say the same.

With the exception of the Beijing-Shanghai flight, everything proceeded smoothly. We felt very well cared for by each tour guide, and we were impressed with the quality of the vehicles and hotels that were used.

We might suggest a nicer 5-star hotel in Beijing, however, as the Crown Plaza was old and not as well appointed as our other hotels. The Harbour Grand in Hong Kong was wonderful. We might also suggest that guides be prepared to give different types of information to groups with children, as it was uncomfortable in Beijing to hear talk of concubines. This is not particularly good information for children. Simply a suggestion.

We especially loved our time in Guilin, partly because Tony was a most outstanding guide and partly because of our excellent itinerary and experiences. Our friends living in Shanghai will probably be contacting you for a short tour of Guilin for October. Do please inform Tony that our time with him was our most favorite. But there are things we loved about each city we visited, and we felt that each guide was well-prepared.

In any event, I just wanted to thank you for making our tour of China safe, memorable, and efficient.

We wish you all the best in the future.

Sincerely,

Susan Sims and family

(July 2nd, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Lia Krusin

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)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Harry Guiles

Hi Sophie,

Happy Summer Equinox. I love the longest day of the year. I'm in the Ukraine now. Just left Russia.

Just want to drop you a line that I thoroughly enjoyed the tours, hotels etc. that you set up for me in China. They were the swankiest hotels I have been in on this whole trip.

I would also like to single out your tour guide Candy in Xian. She and I really hit it off for the two brief days we knew each other. She knows her stuff, and she knows English well.

Thank you again for bearing with me through all the money problems I had relating to my tour, and my anxieties about being met at the airports, and my transport to the airports. I know I am meticulous about such things. Maybe some day I can bring a group to China?

I will certainly recommend your services to anyone who is interested in going there in the future. Stay well and positive as you normally are.

Regards,

Harry Guiles

(June 22nd, 2011)

China tour reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Carlos Molina

Hi Leila,

Thank you for the last minute planning for the trip.

Yes, we all enjoyed the visit and the weather was great. It only rained at night and during the days it was sunny. We liked the visit to the Great Wall and to Xi An.

The dinner arrangements were great and we also went to see the Kung Fu and the acrobatics show.

Mary did a great job during the tour and her and the driver were always on time. Tracy also did a great job at Xi An.

Regards,

Carlos Molina

(June 20th, 2011)

China Tour Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Glen Tibbits

Dear Will,

I apologize - I realize now that the VISA charge was for an expensive silk embroidery that I bought near LiJiang while touring and not from the hotel.

As for the guides I liked all three. In Shangri-La, Mr. Aten Phuntsek was very helpful, had excellent English skills, very knowledgeable about Tibetan culture and Buddhism. I found him to be a very personable mature young man who was a pleasure to be with. In Lijiang, Ms. Lee was very helpful and knowledgeable about Naxi language and culture. In Kunming, I was most impressed with Ms. Sulu Li. Her English is almost perfect, her knowledge of Yunnan in general and Kunming in particular is excellent and she has excellent interpersonal skills and I give her my highest recommendation. Unfortunately when she and the driver dropped me off at the Kunming airport, I did not have enough cash on hand to tip her properly. What is the best way for me to send her the tip that she deserves?

Regards,

Glen Tibbits

(June 16th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Sophie

Dear Sophie,

Thank you for your note. Joe and I are still on holiday. Our cruise finished this morning in Vancouver, Canada and we are presently in Seattle, USA.

I will send you a longer note when we return home at the end of this week. Yes, we had a most wonderful adventure and Andy did an amazing job of keeping us busy. Also our time in Xian was also amazing our tour guide was excellent and he also kept busy.

Thank you,
Claire and Joe

(May 29th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Greg and Pam Beauvais

Dear Ms. Lu,

I am so glad you sent me this follow up email----it will give me a chance to THANK YOU and everyone at China Odyssey Tours.

Everything arranged by you and your company went exactly as planned. Our guide in Xian and the driver were excellent. We were met at the airport as scheduled and had a wonderful 2 days of sightseeing. They were both prompt for our return to the airport on the final day. We also appreciated the extra advice given to us from our guide on local places to eat in the evening and places we could walk to from our hotel at night. Our guide also made sure we were checked in for our departing flights before leaving the airport.

I would like to thank you as well for doing such a good job on all of the arrangements. It was a great trip. China is full of adventure and we both hope to return again in the future to explore your beautiful country.

Regards,
Greg and Pam Beauvais

(May 26th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Alain Dogniaux

Dear Sophie,

Thank you for your mail. We were indeed very satisfied again of COT's prestations.

I am pleased to let you know that your guide in Chengdu, Linda, has been very helpful, competent, caring, available and friendly. She treated us as friends and not as a single guide.

My pictures will be on my Facebook wall (after some sorting as I took more than 3000). If you cannot access Facebook I shall sent you a link.

s a suggestion, I shall let you know what I visited in my additional one and a half days in Chengdu:
---Jinsha archeologic site & museum. A UNESCO world heritage site.(in town). We could use our morning free time before Marie-France's plane to see it and visit throughfully;
---Sanxindui, also UNESCO World heritage site (40 km north of town, can be grouped with Panda base as it is also north of town);
---Du Fu (great poet) tatched cottage and surrouding park (in town);
---WuHu Si (in town).

Altogether, a wonderful experience! You can give my email to other customers or prospects , I shall be glad to share with them.

Take care,
Alain Dogniaux

(May 26th, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Cecilia Santos

Hi Jenny,

We had a great time in China. Thank you for all the arrangements. You did a great job!!

We loved China and hope to go back in the future; the cities we liked the most were Shanghai and Guilin.

About the hotels, the one we liked the most was the one in Shanghai (Greenland) the room was big and was close to the Bund, breakfast was good too. The one in Xian looked great from the outside, but the room was smelly. Also the bathroom looked really old; but they had a great view from the top where the breakfast was served.

In regards of the tour guides they were all very friendly and certainly know their jobs. We liked Patrick from Beijing a lot. He is very funny and enthusiastic (also would like to mention Annie and Ivan).

One thing that I suggest you to do is the pick up/drop off from/to the airports. I don't see the need of a guide. I think only the driver is enough (they don't need to be bilingual either). At least in our case we can do the checking in at the airport by ourselves.

Thanks, again Jenny for all!! I'm sending you a couple of pics.

Cecilia Santos

(May 22nd, 2011)

China Travel Reviews with China Odyssey Tours-Rajiv Patil

Dear Sophie,

Hope you are fine. I here by want to tell you that it was a memorable experience to visit China. We enjoyed a lot. Each & every place we visited was amazing & new experience for us. Thank you for arranging such an amazing tour for us.

I know we didn't meet up as we had planed. Jessica, our Guilin tour guide, told us that you weren't in town at that period time. But never mind. Next time we visit China we'll surely meet up. Everything was up to the mark. Tour Guides (Will, Tony, Jessica, Chris) were very good at their jobs.

Hope we meet in future if we visit China again.

Again thanking you,

Regard,
Rajiv Patil

(May 22nd, 2011)