Luxury China Vacation Review: Xi'an, Shanghai, Guilin, Biking On The Great Wall, Grandparent & Grandchild Trip

Review by traveler

Janet J.

4.21.2019

General Info

Traveler Review

Which Country (Countries) did you visit on this trip?

China

Your overall comments on the trip and the travel company:

My travel agent with this travel team was fantastic. Walking me through everything before the trip and being available when issues came up. He was very responsive and I would definitely use him again. Actually, when setting this trip up I told him I wanted to make another trip in the future to another part of China and he's already given my somes ideas on that. So I was very happy with him. I don't know if the guides are from this travel team or if they work for another company and are hired independently. I believe that's the case.
I have used Zicasso 3 times now and I would definitely use them again. The prior times were not for the whole trip but for parts of the trip. Such as guides to tour the Vatican, the Uffizi, Siena, and other various outings. I've always been incredibly pleased with those. No issues whatsoever.

What were the most enjoyable or memorable parts of your trip?

My biggest joy came from watching my grandson experience traveling to a foreign country. Since I've been to China before and saw lots of the same things it wasn't all new to me. A couple notes though: not all the guides really engaged with my grandson on the tour. Our guide in Xian did a great job of that. She asked him questions couched with multiple choice answers and that was great. Everyone commented how quiet he was but that was because they didn't talk to him directly as much. That could be a cultural thing.
They did include things to do for him though, such as a bike ride on the wall in Xian that he really enjoyed. It was intended for both of us but it's not true what they say about never forgetting how to ride a bike. Especially when you haven't ridden in 5 decades! The river trip in Guilin to see the Karst Hills was so beautiful and he liked that the most. He also liked the rice paddies and the hike up to see them.
It really was a fantastic trip, just some things I needed to learn for future travel not only to China but to other countries. I've traveled a lot and am planning to do a lot more.

If you could take your trip again, what would you do differently?

I would not schedule as many activities. The itinerary looked fantastic before I left and I collaborated with the travel agent on it. But, I didn't realize how much time would be spent traveling to all those sights and thinking about the fact that I'm not as energetic as I use to be and that my 12 year old grandson could only absorb so much each day. It was too much. Probably would have been fine for those that like to pack in as much as they can each day but that's not my travel style. I like just wandering around, have lunch at a cafe and people watching time also. The guides were very accommodating though and we made adjustments as each day progressed to change the itinerary for that day.
I would find a way to verify that the guides were very fluent in English. Unfortunately, I could only understand about half of what most of them were saying and got tired of having them repeat themselves constantly and still not understand so I just pretended I did. But, I ask a lot of questions when I travel and many times they didn't understand what I was asking. I could see this by how they answered the question and the blank look on their face when I asked it. So I would try to rephrase it and still no comprehension. They were all great guides in so many ways but this was hard. I certainly don't expect everyone in China to speak our language (far from it) but I do expect the guides that I'm paying to. This was my second trip to China and the guides on that trip were fantastic and I was probably spoiled by that and expected it to be the same this time.
I would also change my expectations on what to expect from the hotels I stay at. They were all 5 star and mostly okay but again the staff often didn't understand english and I couldn't get the services that I asked for. Again, everyone was lovely but they didn't speak english and often couldn't find a colleague that could to help me. At one hotel I sent some clothes to be washed and drycleaned. One bag for each, paperwork filled out showing that the slacks should be dry cleaned. They washed them. Obviously in hot water as they not only ruined the finish on the pants but they shrunk. Would this stop me from going to China again? Absolutely not. It's a beautiful country with lovely people that are really trying to do the best they can. But, I will have to make sure next time that I not only get better service but I also adjust my expectations. And you might have to use a travel company that's a little more expensive to get more fluent guides. I chalked this one off as a learning experience and it in no way ruined my trip.

Travel Company Comments:

Dear Janet,

Good day! How are you?

We have received your detailed comments on the trip from Zicasso.com. Thank you so much for your feedback on the trip.

Firstly, we highly appreciate your time on writing such a detailed review on the trip to China. Thanks for your trust and support. I just do what I should do. I tried my best to give you and your grandson a memorable trip to China. Especially it’s the first time for your grandson to China. I'm truly sorry that something unpleasant happened and affected your travel experience.

Regarding the tour guide service and the language skill, we collected all the Evaluation Forms from the four cities in the trip. I noticed that you satisfied with the guide in Xi'an and Shanghai most. The guide in Guilin was good as well. You rated “excellence” on guide language. For the guide in Beijing, you didn't give a rating on the guide language. You satisfied with the guide service and tour arrangement but not the language. I made a call to the guide yesterday and did a test on the language on her. Her English is overall okay but she carried a local accent. I think it probably the main reason why you mentioned that you could only understood about half of what the guide said. It's the truth that some of the tour guides in China speak English well but with the local accent as they are not the native speaker. However they do a great job on tour arrangement, guide service and other ways. We will focus on the issue, discuss with our team in each city and improve the guides' language skill in the future. Besides, as you mentioned, not all the guides really engaged with my grandson on the tour, expect the tour guide in Xi’an. Yes, I agree with you. The guides should engage with every guest in the trip especially you book the private tour. We will emphasis on your opinion and forward it to our local operators in each city.

For the tour guides, they are not coming from our company, but rather they are from our local partners. We carefully select our local operators to execute the land tour in each city. And we have a selection among the guides who work as the private tour guide in each city. We will rate the guides based on the Evaluation Form filled by guests after each quarter. Then we will decide to hire them or not in the future. Hope you understand how we hire the local guides for the guests.

Regarding the hotels, we selected all the 5 star international hotels for you. All the hotels which we selected for you have good rankings among other clients. It should be no problem for the Reception staff, Hotel Duty Manager and waitress of restaurants to communicate with our guests with English. In some hotels, it’s truth that the house-keeping staff or other staff might not speak English. We are sorry for the mistake on the laundry service happened in the hotel as you mentioned. If possible, please provide the hotel name to us, so we can forward the problem to the hotel accordingly. It also helps the hotel to improve their service in the future as well.

For the next trip, we will definitely mark out the estimated time on each site for you. So you can know whether it matches up with your trip idea. I should double check with you and avoid the issue. The trip should be more relaxing and not packing too much. I think it will be a perfect experience and keep a good balance before getting too tired.

Thanks again for your support and detailed proposal. It helps us know which portion has the problems.We will do our best to control the quality of the guide service and improve guide language skill. For me, I will also consider the guest’s request carefully and make the best recommendation on the trip. During the trip, I will also do more checking with our guests and make sure everything is good. Each guest is deserved to get the best service.

We look forward to serve you again in the future if you come to China for a third trip. Thanks in advance.

Best Regards!

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