China Odyssey Tours

Excellent service from Mike Gao who has organised and customised a trip for us to Vietnam. I was impressed by the prompt response and good communication for all queries, including over the Christmas period.

I will update this review once we return from our trip (we haven't gone yet) but so far our experience has been 100% positive. We are lucky enough to have travelled extensively and used services like this before and this is the best communication we have received in several years of travel.

My college age son and I went on a guided
tour of China with Odyssey Tours. Our
trip included historic sites in Beiging
including the Forbidden City. Our guide made a special effort for us to see the
antique porcelain collections and he
knew the dynasties and their marks. The Great Wall was excellent and we learned some martial arts while we were there. We went to a restaurant that served the best duck in the world and we were able to
see all the preparations. We toured Shanghai
and the architecture there as well as
visiting the neighborhoods there. Odyssey
Tours did an excellent job on our tour
and therefore deserves the highest
praise on this review.

I have been planing to go to Silk route in China and I come up with Odyessey Tours. I send my Initial inquiry about the tour. Leila promptly reply back to me with all the answers. After couple of emails I was happy with the itinerary thanks to Leila for understanding my needs and wishes. I am looking forward to the tour. I highly recommend Odyessey and Leila as they are highly professional and very good in prompt conversation.

Great Experience. Return customer!!!! Leila is very professional and efficient. This is our second tour with her. As we were planning to be in Asia for a wedding and had 7 extra days, I messaged Leila to put together a package for me and my husband to visit Vietnam/Cambodia. Leila was very prompt and right away she put something together for me. It took me a while to get back to her because our son was planning on joining us and I was waiting for his response. There was no pressure from Leila. I had to make a few changes and again Leila was very thorough. Thank You Leila. We will keep coming back for more!!!

China Odyssey has done an amazing job helping me plan our trip to China. Leila was assigned to work with me and she has been a pleasure, keeping in constant touch. She has accommodated all my requests and has answered all my questions very honestly. Leila and Odyssey have not tried to sell me anything and they have even made slight itinerary change recommendations to give us more sightseeing time. They have a guide set up to meet us in each city we go to, eliminating any worries, including about the language. They've also given us helpful tips about traveling in China that will better prepare us. We feel that with their great help planning, our trip will be a wonderful one. Can't wait!

We have just signed up with China Odyssey Tours.
We wanted to visit China for 2 weeks and sent off a request to several Chinese tour companies. Leila from Odyssey quickly answered and came up with a very nice plan for us with hotels, River cruise etc. so we decided to go for it. She also helped us to get the Chinese Visa.
So far the company has been very good and responded very quickly to all our questions via e-mails, so now we are confidently looking forward to our holiday.
Christina & Michael

We looked at a range of UK tour companies before deciding to go for a local agent in China. I'm so glad we did we have received personalised help and support backed by in-depth knowledge. We have set up what amounts to a private tour for six people with our own guides and drivers/vehicles. China Odyssey does not supply your International flights but handle all internal travel by train, plane and cruise and their prices are excellent.

Our two week China Odyssey tour was awesome. The organization and guides were always professional and provided great history and knowledge of China. The experience was super and we will definitely use Odyssey tours again for future vacations!

Created tour with help of Mason Li. Had many email conversations. He always responded immediately. He scheduled everything that we requested in a 16 day tour of China. We added a site and he made all the needed adjustments. We took all of his suggestions about lodging and they were wonderful…way beyond our expectations. Our guides were always on time and exactly where they said they would be. The in country flights-4 of them-were flawless. Our guides were easy to understand; very knowledgeable and willing to share. Any question we had they knew the answer or found it. We were always at ease and felt safe with them and their drivers. We were there in September; would highly recommend this month due to summer heat; Also would avoid October because the chinese are traveling.
Our guides were Felix Rong for Beijing and his driver Mr. Wang; encouraged us to jump into the culture; ordered us a variety of foods; made Tiananmen Square and history come alive for us; especially enjoyed our trip to the Wall!
Betty Jiao and her driver Mr."Horse" guided us through Xian; Terra Cotta soldiers were magnificent; She never rushed us; we had rain-which she worried about-but it did not dim our experience;her excitement was contagious; we asked for an alternative to Muslim street due to rain and she arranged a cultural museum stop which even included a caligraphy lesson!!
Gwen Lv and her driver Mr. Chen were our Guilin contact; because of weather our schedule was changed and we walked the rice field in the late afternoon;evening;she subtly urged us to the top; it was a perfect day; the hotel and food were superb; the history well told. We had had a problem with our credit card and Gwen loaned us money. She encouraged us to attend the light show and we were so glad she did. she shared all about the minority groups which was delightful. She accompanied us on the Li river cruise and taught me how to take panoramic pictures on my phone!
Lucy Xi waited @ the airport when our flight was delayed an hour and got us to ship on time.
Amber Tan met us when ship docked and arranged a lovely meal.
Avril Wang gave us a whirlwind tour of Shanghai with good history.
Sophie Lee accompanied us to our final flight home. She was very easy to talk to and charming. Would have been great to spend more time with her.
We have talked about China, Odyssey and our tour guides non-stop since getting home. Would HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT. We will definitely tour with this agency in another country.
I think they have spoiled us for any other kind of tour experience.
Steve and Jan Young

This was the best decision we could have made while traveling in China. They were very friendly and helpful. Our tour guide, Jack, was perfect! He was friendly and very knowledgeable. He ate lunch with us a couple of days so that we could try new things that we wouldn't have knows to order for ourselves. Having a personal guide and driver made it so that we could enjoy our trip and not have to worry about food, travel, language, etc.

This is the fifth time that we have used China Odyssey and Andy has arranged each of them for us. This trip lasted six weeks and we visited Beijing, Mongolia, Nepal, Tibet, Kingdom of Bhutan, Xian and Shanghai. This was another flawless trip that Andy put together and all of the guides, without exception, were GREAT. The same goes for our drivers and the beautiful hotels that we stayed at. Our guides were always on time, spoke great English, were well informed of the history and all had great personalities. I cannot say enough good about Andy and this company!! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

My family recently returned from a 12 day, 5 city tour of China with China Odyssey Tours, and I highly recommend this company. We all had such a wonderful time! Our travel consultant, Reinself, was very helpful with the planning process. He was quick to reply to my questions and able to make adjustments to our itinerary so that we could see everything we wanted. We loved the concept of a private small group tour. We felt like such VIPs with our wonderful guides and drivers taking great care of us. One big bonus was that we often got to skip lines at the major sites because our tour guides, with their official licenses, were able to bypass these for us. The price was very reasonable 鈥?far less than we would have paid in the U.S., Europe, Japan, etc., and the 5 star hotels were luxurious. I was impressed by how much food we were able to get with our meal allowances. We were also grateful that there weren鈥檛 shopping excursions that many companies do. There was only one silk store in Shanghai, and they did give us some demonstrations and we didn鈥檛 feel pressured to buy. (We did want the chance to get some small souvenirs, and there were plenty of opportunities for that.)

We visited Beijing, Xian, Chengdu, Guilin, and Shanghai. Our tour guide in Beijing, Betty, was outstanding. She worked so hard and was so sweet, being there for us all day from start to finish, walking through the magnificent historic sites 鈥?Forbidden Palace, Great Wall, Summer Palace, etc., helping to translate all the menu options at meals, and delivering us to and from the kung fu show. In Xian, Eric was great too. He was really knowledgeable and gave us a fantastic historical lesson after picking us up. We loved the Terra Cotta Warriors, ancient City Walls, and beautiful "Tang Dynasty" area. Eric brought us to an awesome dinner place where we could sample a lot of different local foods and even watch them being prepared. Kevin in Chengdu was wonderful, very easy to talk to, and we learned a lot about Chinese life and culture from him. The pandas were of course the big highlight, but the city itself was also lovely, and the Sichuan hot pot meal Kevin arranged was awesome. We were a bit tired by this point and missed the Chengdu show but in retrospect probably should have gone.

From Chengdu we headed to Guilin, where Li took excellent care of us and was was warm and friendly. The scenery was amazing, and it was a nice change from the big cities. We especially enjoyed the Li River cruise and Longji rice terraces. The Impression of Sanjie Liu show was spectacular. Li was so kind as to tell us to just stay in our seats so that we wouldn鈥檛 get lost in the crowds finding our way out of the theater. He came back and personally picked us up right from our seats as soon as the show ended. In Shanghai, Jayjay deftly navigated us through the crowds. We were initially disappointed that the originally planned acrobatics show was sold out (it turned out we were there on a national holiday), but the acrobatics show Jayjay found to replace it turned out to be our favorite of the whole trip, the performers were amazingly skillful! We also loved our lunch at Din Tai Fung.

Thank you to all the wonderful staff and guides at China Odyssey Tours!

A couple tips: If you are sure you want to attend a particular show, you might ask that they arrange tickets in advance just in case in is sold out. Also, for the Guilin Impression show, consider the hard seats, which are actually closer than the upgraded bamboo seats.

My husband and I had a WONDERFUL time touring China with Odyssey Tours. Everything ran relatively on time with very few hiccups. Our tour guide in Beijing, Serena, was stellar. We could not have asked for a better guide. She was friendly, energetic and enthusiastic. She really made us feel like we were long time friends. Guilin was stunning and I would go back in a heart beat. The city had a very laid back vibe. Angel was our guide there and was lovely. She embodied the spirit of Guilin and helped us to enjoy the natural wonders of her city. During our trip we also visited Shanghai and Xi'an. Those cities were also very pleasant. Planning our trip with Odyssey was an unexpectedly enjoyable experience! Roger worked with me for months customizing our visit so that we spent the time doing the things we wanted and skipped over things we were less interested in. I would absolutely book a trip with Odyssey again.

This company is really the best. Every one of our needs was attended to. They helped us choosing all our food in restaurants and even saw that we got to the correct gate at the airport. This company acts with honesty and integrity and I would highly recommend them.

I highly recommend this tour company for visits to China. The 4 star hotels were exactly that… And then some. The guides and drivers were all very friendly and knowledgeable. One driver even invited us to his home for dinner. We were able to change our dailty itinerary a few times without hesitation and one guide even recommended a Chinese foot massage at the end of a long day. That was really a welcomed suggestion.

Thank you China Odyssey for an outstanding tour.

Our China tour by China Odyssey Tours was outstanding. Roger Lee was our contact at the tour company and he did a fantastic job for us. He was extremely thorough and responsive to every question or request that we sent him. He customized the tour for us and everything came together perfectly. The hotels in every city were great. The Yangtze Explorer river cruise was wonderful. All of our guides did a great job for us. They met us at the airports, train stations, or boat docks and they saw us off to the next destination. The guides helped us check-in to our hotels and even went to the rooms with us to ensure that we were happy with the accommodations. The guides helped us check-in at the airports and walked us to the security Gates. The guides also would accompany us to a bank ATM to make sure that we did not have a problem withdrawing cash. The guides took us to lunch and helped us order the foods that we wanted to try. The drivers were all very good and all of the vehicles were in excellent condition. If you are looking for a great tour of China, we very highly recommend China Odyssey Tours.

There cannot be any better tour organizers than Haley…professional, reliable, polite and friendly. All but one of the tour guides were also very good, even though with some, their English was difficult to understand.

The hotel in Beijing was supposed to be a non-smoking hotel. This was not the case, unfortunately, and our reporting this to the front desk didn't seem to be of much help. There was an unpleasant older woman on the front desk also.

Have put a memorable itinerary together for us and look forward to a problem free trip to China. Thank you Joan Qin.

Maple has been excellent so far. She customized our trip for me and my family without any problems. She was very helpful throughout the whole process and also was very prompt with her emails. I highly recommend working with China Odyssey Tours.

This company was amazing! They took care of every detail and kept us up-to-date on developments and opportunities with our trip package. They are very flexible, thorough, and caring. Susan Su, in particular, was very informative, left no detail unattended, was very professional, and very courteous. Thank you Susan and thank you China Odyssey Tours! It is with great pleasure that I award 5-STARS for your help and guidance!

I booked my tour from Australia. i just let Tom Zhou know waht I wanted to do and he did the rest. I'm an elderly person who has visted most countries in the world I travelled alone by train and plane. He answered all my questions and went above and beyond to make my tour perfenct. I would certainly recommend China Odyssey to overseas and domestic travellers.

I read a few reviews online and contacted Odessey to find out more info. I didn鈥檛 have to wait long to get an email back from one of the consultant who is Haley, she has an outstanding customer service. She gave me advices and help me from the beginning to the end of my trip. Services,tours and tour guides were excellent.
We went to Xian, arrived late at night and was pick up from the airport by Nancy. Again she was our Xian tour guide. We had a good time from the beginning to the end of our trip in Xian. Our kids love her very much!
Our next destination was Beijing, June and Kurt were our tour guides. They are all knowledgeable and do their best to make our trip memorable!
Through my experience, we have to have an English tour guide otherwise it is hard to get around!
Thanks to Hayley, Nancy, June, Kurt and Steven and especially the bus drivers for your hard work to make our trip went smoothly from the beginning to the end 🙂
Best regards,
LD

Fantastic friendly and knowledgeable guides, skillful drivers, a wonderful experience.

We are extremely pleased with each of the guides, drivers, tours and hotels while in Tianjin, Xian, and Beijing. Each of the guides and drivers were professional, on-time, knowledgable and extremely helpful including getting us checked in at the airports and hotels.

Our guides, Charlie in Tianjin, Andrew in Xian, and Alice in Beijing (and the drivers) were simply exceptional. We spent the most time with Alice in and around Beijing. She is a tremendous guide and we just adored her. She made our time in Beijing an experience of a lifetime and we will be forever grateful.

From the time we dealt with Roger at Odyssey Tours initially in the planning of our trip, through each experience, Odyssey came through and delivered a totally awesome experience.

Top marks for the Odyssey team.