Reviewed 19 Sep 2009 by Jennifer Ward
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Climbing the Great Wall
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
If I were to do it again I would only book Beijing to Hong Kong. I found the Hong Kong to Hanoi part was expensive and consisted mostly of travelling. I think I could have spent my money in better ways.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
I don't think it benefited local people in any major way but I don't think we impacted badly on the local people.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
It was a once in a lifetime experience and for that reason I will always cherish the memories.
Read the operator's response here:
Hi Jennifer. Thank you for your feedback, we are pleased to hear that you a great trip with us. I just wanted to clarify how our trips benefit the local community and minimise impacts to the environment. You should have been given a responsible travel bag at the beginning of the trip as we have plenty of opportunities to shop at local markets and say no to plastic. We also encourage travellers to eat with a reusable set of chopsticks to avoid the waste of a throwaway pair at every meal.
During your stay in Xi'an, you will have had opportunity to visit Huiling, a Chinese-run charity which provides support and education for young adults with disabilities. This is a charity we have been working with for a number of years. In the south of China we base ourselves in a small country guesthouse in Chaolong and use bikes as a less polluting and less intrusive means of discovering the Guangxi countryside. We have the chance to meet and learn about the culture of the minority people in this area. In Sapa we put on our trekking boots and follow the tracks to meet the local villagers.
Reviewed 10 Sep 2009 by Genevieve Boyle
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The hike on the great wall was simply fantastic- I just loved it. It would have been such a shame to arrive at the wall, take some photos and walk away. However, spending 4 hours climbing and sweating on the wall you begin to get a small sense of the massive collective effort it would have taken to build even a small part and then you can begin to wrap your mind around the huge feat it was to build the whole thing.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Be aware that you are moving every second day-you often stay two nights in one location but it is usually about 48 hours to explore at the most. Pack cleverly.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Yes I felt like the trip was mindful of that. I liked that we were given chopsticks in Beijing to minimise the waste of new chopsticks at every meal.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
I thought the holiday was very very good. I was extremely satisfied with Terry-tour guide from Hong Kong to Hanoi. He was so fantastic, went out of his way to help us with any queries and was so friendly with us in general. Also Jack-our cambodian tour guide was brilliant. He was very interested and well read about the local history and he had a great energy and went above and beyond for two of the group members when they had birthdays. I have to say that I would like to keep in touch with both of these tour guides.
However our first tour guide, while he meant well, was inflexible, not helpful(he would often lose his english when you had a problem), made it clear he didnt want to interact with us other than to bring us to places he had to-or only places he had organised before and whenever he suggested a meal he brought us somewhere expensive and i even saw him gettting a cut of the profits once.
The last tourguide to mention was - our Hanoi to Saigon tour leader. I have to say i was least satisfied with him. He dictated to us hours of lectures on tours when we hadnt asked for them(while i appreciate his interest in the local culture, i dont want strongly biased opinions shoved down my throat), reprimanded one of the guys on the trip for joking about his birthday-we didnt pay for a trip to have a parental figure and he seemed like he was so bored, just going through the motions.
I just felt i had to let you know how i felt about these guides because for the latter two I would have been serously dissatisfied with the tour(because that is the service you offer, a tour guide to help you around these amazing locations, the locations themselves is not actually your service) and the former two were so fantastic they deserve to be recognised.
Read the operator's response here:
Thank you for your feedback about the leaders on your trip. We select a variety of leaders who are both locals and westerners, but most importantly the qualities that we look for in our Leaders are a passion for the country that they are leading and a desire to share this with their travellers. It is through your feedback that we will be able to improve our trips and we will certainly pass your feedback along and work with our leaders for future groups.
