I Went on a Cheap Tour to China. This is What Happened.

You have probably seen it on Travelzoo or Groupon or some other wholesale travel discount website. ~$299 for 10 days in China, including ALL flights and hotels, plus guided tours. Even if you have no burning desire to go to China (me) and you have sworn off group tours forever and ever (also me), it's hard not to be tempted. And you immediately start being skeptical - maybe it's a scam?

It was such a sweet deal to pass up on and after doing some minimal due diligence, I decided that it wasn't a scam and went for it. If all you came here for is to find out if it's a scam or not, the short answer is NO - THIS DEAL IS 100% legit. I found the deal on Travelzoo and the trip was arranged by UTO Vacations out of Richmond in Ontario, Canada. In fact, the deal runs every year and it's on right now here: https://www.utovacation.com/2019-China-Price-Buster10Days-Us-Depart

The Deal

The package is for 10 days in China inclusive of flights from the US or Canada and it starts at $299 and is dependent on your date of departure. We picked to travel the week before Thanksgiving and paid $299 plus a compulsory tip for all the guides of $149. All in, that's just a whopping $448 which won't even get you a round-trip ticket to Asia.

Here are the inclusions:

1. Direct flights from SFO to Beijing on United Airlines, Beijing to Shanghai on Air China, and Shanghai to San Francisco direct on United Airlines. Note that UTO Vacation has full discretion which airline to book you on. We learned that we lucked out on flights - there were other travelers on the same tour who came from the Bay Area but they had a connection in Seattle. We didn't receive our full itinerary until about 30 days from the date of departure. This gave us enough time to apply for visas in person at the San Francisco consulate. Also, note that flights from other cities may require a surcharge.

2. Speaking of visas, the package excludes visas, which are required for most passports (including American and European). The application fee in November 2019 is $149 for an American passport. It's quite steep but we were told the default for American tourists is 10-year multiple entry.

3. Nine (9) Nights in hotels which range in quality. For the most part, they put us up in hotels away from the city center (except in one city), but it was never an issue for us. 50% of the time, I would say the quality is so-so (but they were always clean - just dated), but the other 50%, were in luxury hotels, one of which, we suspected would fall in the six-star category.

4. A tour to the Joyungguan section of The Great Wall of China. In November, it is void of tourists. We had the place pretty much to ourselves!

5. The other tours are optional and are extra. Many travelers took advantage of many (if not all) of the optional tours but we actually skipped all of them but one. We loved that we were able to wander on our own for a few days in Beijing upon arrival, taking the metro/subway and navigating the capital on our own. We also skipped the Shanghai group tour. We booked our own hotel there and did our own sightseeing.

6. All breakfasts are included at the hotel, but lunch and dinner are on your own. Again, we loved this because we are independent travelers and we'd rather explore the local food options ourselves rather than relying on Westernized and diluted versions of Chinese food.

7. Driver and English-speaking guide through Beijing, The Great Wall of China, and then off to the south to Suzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou and finally, Shanghai

8. Shopping and cultural stops. After all, this is why they can make this trip so cheap! They take you to at least one site everyday where you learn about culture - then get you to open your purse strings afterwards to spend on what they just pitched you. We didn't mind this because we actually learned a lot from these shopping stops (such as jade workshop, Chinese embroidery, mulberry silk factory, pearl warehouse, and green tea plantation).

It is worth noting that it is no secret that the Chinese government partially subsidizes the tour to make it this cheap. We were told that the reason is that the Chinese government wants the world to understand modern China. Part of it could be that China has fallen into recession in recent years and what better stimulus than to have foreigners spend on silk and pearls?

The Upside

We never would have traveled to China had it not been for this deal. The price is so amazing that it is not one to pass up on. This tour got us to a country that we learned is so fascinating and complex.

As much as we hate group tours, we would later on admit that in China, you almost need to travel with a guide. We were surprised that even in the modern capital of Beijing, it was difficult to find hotel or metro or restaurant staff who spoke English. Needless to say, during the times we were by ourselves, Google Translate became our intimate companion.

For a group tour, this provided for lots of independent and free time if you choose not to join any of the optional tours. For us, this was an advantage because it's closer to how we travel anyway.

Traveling with a pre-determined itinerary also allowed us to discover parts of old China that we probably would not have gotten to ourselves. We traveled to cities we've never even heard of like Suzhou, Wuxi and Hangzhou. We could also appreciate that because we were not engrossed in plotting destinations in maps, navigating local traffic, finding parking, and driving in a foreign country, The Dutch and I had a very relaxing time. Who knew there was so much pleasure in being shuttled around and all you need to do is climb in and out of a tour bus?

The Downside

One of the obvious downsides was that they put us up in hotels far from the city center. If you are not brave enough to wander on your own, you're left to join all the optional tours for a fee. Although inconvenient, it wasn't really a problem for us because we were able to navigate the metro system on our own having done the research before we arrived in China.

The shopping stops take time and you have to wait for everyone to be done with shopping before the bus can leave. This wasn't a big issue for us though because although we didn't buy (a lot), we did find the shops interesting because they all touched on local culture and trade. This may be a downside for some and I could see how the shopping pitches could get old quick for some people.

The Bottomline

So you've seen the deal and you're wondering if it's not a scam and if it's worth it. If you have even the slightest curiosity about China, this is absolutely the way to go. There are other tours similar to this out there, but it's not quite the same value. Keep an open mind, but also educate yourself about China's history and politics prior to your trip. We came back from the trip feeling like we have literally just came back from the far east. That tension between old versus new, traditional versus cosmopolitan, communist versus capitalist is also very interesting to observe, albeit from a glass window. It is still very strange, and exotic relative to everywhere else we have been and having to touch something just so radically foreign and confounding has been totally worth it for us.

#asia #travel #china