2016 Customer Reviews

Dear Emily:

We are finally back in the US. We really enjoyed our tour with Travel China Guide.

The hotels were very convenient and breakfast was excellent in every place we stayed.

Kevin was wonderful in Beijing. We enjoyed his detailed explanation of every place we visited. I really liked it when he talked about his family - having two kids after the one child policy was changed.

Peter in Xian was excellent. He made sure we were comfortable in every way. I really appreciate his concern and making sure that we were safe by getting the boarding pass at airport and directing us to the security gate.

John in Guilin is another great guide. He took the time explain minute details. Suggested a cruise for the evening and took care of us in an excellent manner. John also got our boarding pass and accompanied us until the security gate.

Rachel in Shanghai was really really good. It is obvious that she knows Shanghai inside and out. She took us to a tea shop in a tucked away place when we asked her about a tea pet. Once again she stayed with us until we got the boarding pass and were ready to go to the immigration counter. Rachel is a really caring guide.

Each one of our guides was very professional, knowledgeable and extremely courteous. I cannot say enough good things about each one of them. 

Thank you arranging this trip which went off without a hitch. I really appreciate it.

Thanks
Umashankar

Greetings, Abbey!

It has been a busy month for us since we returned from our wonderful trip. Here is our China tour small group reviews.

We have been telling our friends about what a great trip we had, and showing them some of our many wonderful photographs. Our tour with Travel China Guide was excellent in every way, and you helped us very much with our planning and preparations.

It was easy paying our deposit with PayPal, and our final payment by wire transfer went very smoothly as a result of the detailed information you gave us. We were able to get our visa easily through the Visa for China service in Vancouver, using the letter and information you supplied. We found a lot of very useful information on your website about the local attractions at each destination, as well as information on what to pack and the weather we could expect. All of this helped us feel comfortable that we were well prepared for our trip.

We had excellent guides and drivers at each of our destinations. The guides were all very helpful, friendly and knowledgeable about the local sights and history. We were always met promptly at the airport and they helped us check into our hotels. The visits of each city were excellent, and filled with wonderful attractions. All our guides made an extra effort to make sure we enjoyed our time, and they all requested our feedback on the form you supplied, and gave us privacy to fill it out.

We found the hotels to be very comfortable, with delicious and extensive breakfast buffets included. The restaurants we were taken too were excellent as well, and it was nice to be able to enjoy the local food in each area. We especially liked the meal at the local family home in Xi'an, the dumpling dinner (with the Tang Dynasty show) in Xi'an, and the traditional hot pot restaurant we went to in Chengdu.

We are glad we chose you and definitely recommend your company. Thank you so much for making our vacation a memorable one!

Audrey Neal and Brian Tyers

Kelowna, Canada

Dear Sophie,

Highly recommended Travel China guide tour agent. We had joined the group in Nov for 8 day trip (Beijing- Xian- Shanghai) with family and friends. The hotels selected were high end hotels (4*/5*) with continental and Chinese breakfast, rooms and ambiance were perfect. Guides were knowledgeable. They would even help us with recommendations to buy souvenirs, how to bargain, and food to try. Lunch and dinner mentioned in the itinerary were high end restaurants selected with wide spread of authentic food. All in all, we loved the trip and special thanks to you for making our visit a memorable one.

Kudos to TCG for the professional service extended.

Best regards,

Saritha Zachariah

Hi Angela!

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to provide feedback!

First of all I would like to say that the trip was really great! It beat every expectation we had going into the trip. From the beginning to the end we felt very well looked after and always felt safe. The booking process with Olivia was great, it was simple, flexible, and so incredibly easy to arrange. Olivia was always able to answer our questions and very willing to help! In fact there wasn't an aspect of the tour that we could find a problem with. All of the guides were incredibly knowledgeable and friendly, the drivers were professional and drove clean cars, the hotels were great and all the meals were flexible in options and tasted delicious.
In particular though Carol, our guide in Xi'an, was exceptional. She always had a smile on her face, taught us all about the city and couldn't have been any better. Additionally the room in the hotel in Xi'an (Crowne Plaza) was fantastic. We definitely enjoyed our time in Xi'an and will be returning to Xi'an in the future.

In terms of a testimonial, I'm more than happy for you to put this up on the website with my name, but please do not publish my email address.

We really enjoyed our time with TravelChinaGuide and we will always book with you when we travel to your country.

Thanks again for such a great trip!

Alex

Dear Abbey,

Here is our review of our wonderful trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. Thank you so much for putting such an excellent tour together.

Hanoi:
Our Hotel, La Siesta Trendy, was excellent. It was our second favorite hotel of the trip. Hotel staff was very friendly and provided excellent service. Doan, our guide, was excellent. He was very knowledgeable of the sites, and very friendly. We enjoyed our walk through the old quarters. A very interesting mix of Asian and European architecture. The HoChiMinh Mausoleum was majestic and impressive. We also enjoyed seeing the one pillar pagoda and HoChiMinh's stilt house. The restaurants in Hanoi and at our hotel were great. We mostly enjoyed the restaurant on the second day where we had lunch. Ha Long Bay was very beautiful and majestic. We very much enjoyed our overnight cruise in the traditional junk with Indochina Sails. The Cruise manager was very attentive as words the crew staff. They even took into account my shellfish allergies and prepared me traditional Vietnamese spring rolls without shrimp or fish sauce. One of the best highlights of the Halong Bay Cruise is watching both the sunset and sunrise.

Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An:
Dan was an excellent guide. He is very knowledgeable of the sites, very friendly, and gave us good shopping recommendations. The citadel and forbidden city in Hue is very impressive, and at the same time sad when you see the ravages the war have caused to the monument. The Tu Hieu pagoda was another site we enjoyed very much. We feel very privileged to see the Buddhist monks during their rituals. We also enjoyed the dragon boat cruise in the perfume river. The Eldora Hotel in Hue was good. Luxurious looking accommodations at a very reasonable price, and very comfortable. The food at the hotel was excellent. We enjoyed the restaurant in Hue very much.

We enjoyed very much the noodle restaurant that Dan took us for lunch in Danang. Hoi An was our favorite stop and our favorite hotel was the essence hotel and spa in Hoi An. We enjoyed the visit in My Son sanctuary and learning about the Cham Pa culture. The staff at the hotel was very friendly and serviceable. The waitresses at the hotel restaurant did everything possible for me to enjoy typical Vietnamese dishes without the dangers of cross-contamination with shellfish ingredients due to my food allergies.

Ho Chi Minh City:
All of our guides were excellent, however Phuc was our favorite guide. During our visit to the war Reminence museum and to the Cu Chi Tunnels, Phuc organized the history of colonialism and resistance in Vietnam helping us understand the historical factors that brought on the unfortunate war, and the history of Vietnamese people's resistance to domination by foreign powers. Plus the War Remnants Museum and the Cu Chi Tunnels we're very educational. We also enjoyed the Cao Dai Temple very much. The Mekong Delta is beautiful and majestic. The only constructive criticism we have in the Mekong Delta portion is the part where we did bicycle riding. I recommend that the company be more aware of the quality of the bicycles given to tourist as mine needed to have a chain fixed and the brakes were average. Also, The heavy motorcycle traffic can make the bicycle writing portion a risk of serious injury. That is the only part of our trip which we recommend to seriously revise. Our favorite food in this portion of the trip was the different snack shops visited in the Mekong Delta.

Siem Reap, Cambodia:
Narin was an excellent and very knowledgeable guide. We enjoyed all of the monuments in Siem Reap, especially watching the sunrise at Angkor Wat. The lunch restaurant at Angkor Wat was average. The lunch restaurant on day 14 was our favorite in Cambodia. The curry chicken stuffed inside a coconut was delicious. We enjoyed very much getting to meet local farmers and having a sample try of rice farming work. The Aspara Dance Show was beautiful. The food at the Aspara Theater was great. Our hotel, the Sokha Angkor resort was excellent. The only constructive criticism we have to offer in this portion of the trip is that for customers who have very late evening flights to their next destination, some type of evening activity should be included in order to avoid long waits at the airport due to the fact that Siem Reap airport does not let you check into the flight and enter the terminals, where all the shops, restaurants and rest areas are located; until two hours before the flight.

Overall we enjoyed our vacation. Thank you so much for putting such an excellent vacation together. Travelchibaguide.com will always be your first choice of travel agency for trips to East Asia.

Our very best,

Xavier and Coralee

Hello Abbey Cheng.

I have many positive China small group tour reviews to leave for you. I would like to pat special mention to Sara, our first guide. Among our group, we rated Sara as being the best and the guides went downhill from there. But Jacky and the other guy were quite up to the task. It was just that Sara was a standout.

As the standard of guides went downhill, during the tour, so the standard of the hotels rose as we progressed. But once again, that is only being very critical and all hotels were very good.

The places we went to and the sites we saw were amazing and plentiful. I think we even went to more places than advertised in the brochures. The days were always very full on, but also very interesting. The guides knew their stuff and provided a lot of information about the areas we were visiting.

The only problem to complain about was the early plane flight from Beijing to Xian. It almost caused a mutiny, but some light hearted banter from some of us other passengers smoothed things a bit. But it was an early start after a big day prior and then another full on day. I reckon everyone was glad to finally get into the hotel that night. Jacky tried explaining that there were only limited flights into Xian so we had to be satisfied with that.

But all in all, a very enjoyable trip. I learnt so much more about China and want to come back. If you remember, I was there over a week early to attend my son's wedding in Jiutai where I met friends and family of the bride. Although language was a problem naturally, we made do with a translator app on my phone and were able to communicate very well. My son and myself hit it off well with family and friends and have open invitations to come back next year and they will take us to the ski fields. There are some coming to Australia to visit us for Christmas, so we will see what happens.

I have already raved to my friends about how great the trip was and have passed on your contact details. I hope my friends will go to your country to experience the same enjoyment as I did and I am sure that they will make contact with you.

Thank you to yourself and all your staff for such a memorable time.

John Hennessy

Dear Wendy,

Many thanks for a wonderful and most enjoyable tour in China.

This has been an exceptionally well organized trip - from my first email to your company, to our final departure from our last hotel in Hong Kong. I have only praise for all the people who worked so hard to make our visit so memorable. It has also been exceptionally good value. The hotels that we stayed in were excellent. The buses that we travelled on were clean and in good condition. The restaurants that we were taken to were first class. The shows/entertainment were most enjoyable. Overall it was an excellent experience.

And of course I have to mention our guides. They all worked very hard, and some very long days, to ensure that we were well looked after. We were kept well informed about where we were travelling. Great detailed information. Lots of stories and good humor. All-in-all, they were excellent.

We especially enjoyed our visits to the local families. When staying in international hotels we can be cut off from getting to know local people, but the visits that we made to local houses gave us a glimpse into local peoples' daily lives. Our visit to the farm on route from Yangshuo to Guilin was delightful. These absolutely wonderful country people made us feel so very welcome. Please thank them for allowing us into their home.

So Wendy, I find it difficult to summarize our trip in one quotable sentence. For many years we had heard stories about the Great Wall, beautiful countryside, spectacular river cruises and fantastic cities and indeed China lived up to our expectations. When we finally decided to visit the country and we searched the web for a travel company to help us, we found TCG. Now we are so happy that we decided to travel with TCG. We can say that it has been a most memorable and enjoyable experience, and we definitely can recommend this company for outstanding service and value.

Thank you,

Denis Mahony