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Thread: Asia Trip - Hong Kong, China, Tokyo

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    Default Asia Trip - Hong Kong, China, Tokyo

    I'm planning to take my parents to Asia next year as we haven't really traveled together. We have family in Hong Kong and were thinking of visiting China and Tokyo as well.

    One of the things they wanted to do (which they did last year) was one of those cheap $99 China tours where you get accommodations, a "5* hotel", three meals a day, transportation and a tour guide for three or five days or something. Obviously super dirt cheap, but from what I hear it's just a shopping tour where half the time you're brought to their stores and relentlessly pressured to buy overpriced stuff.

    Anyone do these tours before? Any thoughts?

    I'm thinking it's more worth my time to pay for a real tour and not waste time going to their shops.

    Any recommendations for hotels in Hong Kong, Shanghai/Beijing and Tokyo, and any (English-speaking) tours you'd recommend?

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    For HK and Tokyo, depends on what you want to be 'central' to.

    I've been to both and can recommend hotels but depends on what you're looking for and what you want your surroundings to be.
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    GF and I went to Asia last year, for our four days in Beijing we joined a English Tour. We booked it at Dragon City (main floor right across from that sushi Tokyo place, i think its called pan asia)

    ill have to double check the price but i believe it was under 300 for both of us.

    English speaking guide with our own van, leather captain chairs so it was nice. Our own guide and own driver. He even stopped at places to get us snacks and for me to buy extra water for our hotel.

    Hotel was okay.....maybe 3 stars compared to here when the itinerary stated 5 star.

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    Originally posted by flipstah
    For HK and Tokyo, depends on what you want to be 'central' to.

    I've been to both and can recommend hotels but depends on what you're looking for and what you want your surroundings to be.
    I'll be with my parents so we're not exactly looking for night life, just somewhere where its fairly easy to get around to the main attractions, restaurants etc. We have family in HK and last time I was there 8 years ago I recall it being fairly easy to get around with the MTR.

    I know nothing about Tokyo so really open to suggestions.

    Originally posted by GQBalla
    GF and I went to Asia last year, for our four days in Beijing we joined a English Tour. We booked it at Dragon City (main floor right across from that sushi Tokyo place, i think its called pan asia)

    ill have to double check the price but i believe it was under 300 for both of us.

    English speaking guide with our own van, leather captain chairs so it was nice. Our own guide and own driver. He even stopped at places to get us snacks and for me to buy extra water for our hotel.

    Hotel was okay.....maybe 3 stars compared to here when the itinerary stated 5 star.
    Oh nice so it was a private tour? That's a pretty good price for a four day private tour. I might check out the travel place in Dragon City, thanks!


    Is it worth doing a tour or just better off doing it on your own? I like learning about the history and context so I kinda like tours and figure it would be good for China - don't think I'd need one for Tokyo. Plus if it includes transportation and such in China it feels like that would just make things more convenient.

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    Originally posted by anarchy


    Is it worth doing a tour or just better off doing it on your own? I like learning about the history and context so I kinda like tours and figure it would be good for China - don't think I'd need one for Tokyo. Plus if it includes transportation and such in China it feels like that would just make things more convenient.
    Never been on a tour in China but whenever I'm there working and want to see something I just pay a taxi driver a flat rate. Example I visited Beijing for 2 days. Gave him about $100.00/USD and he picked me up in the am and dropped me off in the evening. Took me wherever I wanted to go/do. I gave him a small tip, lunch (dirt cheap), and paid the tolls). Probably cost me $120.00/USD day. I picked a few spots I wanted to go and he suggested some. Overall I'd do it again.

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    Originally posted by anarchy


    I'll be with my parents so we're not exactly looking for night life, just somewhere where its fairly easy to get around to the main attractions, restaurants etc. We have family in HK and last time I was there 8 years ago I recall it being fairly easy to get around with the MTR.

    I know nothing about Tokyo so really open to suggestions.

    Yeah MTR in HK is awesome so you should be fine. Same as Japan. Get a Suica card which is their equivalent of an Octopus card.

    Shinjuku is a cheap district for hotels but they're tight and cramped setups. It's also a tad far from the attractions (Imperial Palace, shrines, Ueno Zoo) and you have to switch lines. APA or Dai-Ichi are good local brands.

    If you stick around the Chiyoda-ward, it should fit your itinerary.

    Last edited by flipstah; 04-27-2015 at 04:19 PM.
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    Originally posted by anarchy
    I'll be with my parents so we're not exactly looking for night life, just somewhere where its fairly easy to get around to the main attractions, restaurants etc. We have family in HK and last time I was there 8 years ago I recall it being fairly easy to get around with the MTR.
    Depends on where your HK family is. I know most of mine is actually not even in HK (the island) and are in KL/New Territories

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    All Japan Tours. Pricey IMO http://www.alljapantours.com

    I just did their cherry blossom korea/japan 11nights/12 day tour. It's not for everyone but I see the value in it. Chinese tours are going to be much much much cheaper.
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    I did a 4day Beijing tour with hi-ho travel years ago and it was around $300. I think the tours are gonna be all about the same. I would love to see Shanghai though! Have only been to the airport lol
    Originally posted by rage2
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    Default Re: Asia Trip - Hong Kong, China, Tokyo

    Originally posted by anarchy
    I'm planning to take my parents to Asia next year as we haven't really traveled together. We have family in Hong Kong and were thinking of visiting China and Tokyo as well.

    One of the things they wanted to do (which they did last year) was one of those cheap $99 China tours where you get accommodations, a "5* hotel", three meals a day, transportation and a tour guide for three or five days or something. Obviously super dirt cheap, but from what I hear it's just a shopping tour where half the time you're brought to their stores and relentlessly pressured to buy overpriced stuff.

    Anyone do these tours before? Any thoughts?

    I'm thinking it's more worth my time to pay for a real tour and not waste time going to their shops.

    Any recommendations for hotels in Hong Kong, Shanghai/Beijing and Tokyo, and any (English-speaking) tours you'd recommend?
    lol my parents did the $99 tour, they loved it. But they are as cheap Chinese as they can be. yes they went to a lot of shopping places but out of the day there is 3 shops and 1 main attraction and then FOOD is included. so basically they got paid to attend this tour. be careful though the sales tactics are harsh, the tour guide even yelled at my parents and said they had to buy something...my parents laughed and said no I paid for the tour, I'm attending all the shops, listening to their sales pitch, I don't have to buy anything. so basically 99$ got them 7 days hotel, food, and 7 main attractions with about 21 shops hahah


    if you plan on any trips with your parents I highly recommend doing it with tour groups whether private or join one. I tried a week long vacation with my parents. trust me you want other people there so you can kind of hide if you want to hahah they will start chatting it up with other people on the tour......
    please don't flame me, or i'll have to learn how to use the ban button

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    oh also all the Chinese tours includes shops but you probably get like 1 shop a day and 2 main attractions..........

    perhaps your parents want to buy jade, or even silk duvets or dragon well tea hahah
    please don't flame me, or i'll have to learn how to use the ban button

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    Beware of cheap tours if you goal is actually explore landmarks and museums.

    Also, sign up here as foreigners instead of signing up in HK or after you landed in China. They treat foreigners better than their own people. Relative just signed up something similar in Shanghai and ended up with 6hrs in shops every day with no more than 10mins per stop on the sightseeing. The $99 tours started after Beijing Olympic were way better then than now.

    Although, Chinese's society's economic prowess is increases way faster, inflation will follow. I expect these cheap $99 tours will either get more expensive or you will get stuck in more shopping malls.

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    Default Re: Re: Asia Trip - Hong Kong, China, Tokyo

    Originally posted by flipstah

    Yeah MTR in HK is awesome so you should be fine. Same as Japan. Get a Suica card which is their equivalent of an Octopus card.

    Shinjuku is a cheap district for hotels but they're tight and cramped setups. It's also a tad far from the attractions (Imperial Palace, shrines, Ueno Zoo) and you have to switch lines. APA or Dai-Ichi are good local brands.

    If you stick around the Chiyoda-ward, it should fit your itinerary.
    Sweet thanks - I'll look into those areas. I know transit in Asia (and Europe for that matter) is pretty convenient.


    Originally posted by max_boost

    I did a 4day Beijing tour with hi-ho travel years ago and it was around $300. I think the tours are gonna be all about the same. I would love to see Shanghai though! Have only been to the airport lol
    Thanks Sam - did you book the tours here in Calgary? $300 isn't bad, I think I'd rather pay that and book my own hotels than to cheap out and get stuck in jade shops.

    Originally posted by gkAeris


    lol my parents did the $99 tour, they loved it. But they are as cheap Chinese as they can be. yes they went to a lot of shopping places but out of the day there is 3 shops and 1 main attraction and then FOOD is included. so basically they got paid to attend this tour. be careful though the sales tactics are harsh, the tour guide even yelled at my parents and said they had to buy something...my parents laughed and said no I paid for the tour, I'm attending all the shops, listening to their sales pitch, I don't have to buy anything. so basically 99$ got them 7 days hotel, food, and 7 main attractions with about 21 shops hahah


    if you plan on any trips with your parents I highly recommend doing it with tour groups whether private or join one. I tried a week long vacation with my parents. trust me you want other people there so you can kind of hide if you want to hahah they will start chatting it up with other people on the tour......
    I should have thought of you when looking into this - of course you and your family have done it lol! But you're exactly right - pretty sure I'll go crazy if I try to do everything on my own without a tour for three straight weeks with my parents.

    I'm still feeling a bit allergic to the cheap tours though. I get annoyed easily by pushy sales people.
    Last edited by anarchy; 04-29-2015 at 11:11 AM.

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    I heard that the sales people are no longer as pushy as they use to be. Apparently the tour companies were talked to by the government about this but I'm not sure how true that is.

    Anyways, I'm headed to China next week. Going to be doing the $99 Beijing tour and $49 Shanghai tour. I'm the easily annoyed type too so I hope I don't get too pissed off and plan on buying as minimum as possible from the shops (hopefully nothing). I'll report back afterwards.

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    Originally posted by Speed_69
    I heard that the sales people are no longer as pushy as they use to be. Apparently the tour companies were talked to by the government about this but I'm not sure how true that is.

    Anyways, I'm headed to China next week. Going to be doing the $99 Beijing tour and $49 Shanghai tour. I'm the easily annoyed type too so I hope I don't get too pissed off and plan on buying as minimum as possible from the shops (hopefully nothing). I'll report back afterwards.
    Awesome! I'd love to hear how your experience goes.

    Have a great trip!

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    Originally posted by Speed_69
    I heard that the sales people are no longer as pushy as they use to be. Apparently the tour companies were talked to by the government about this but I'm not sure how true that is.

    Anyways, I'm headed to China next week. Going to be doing the $99 Beijing tour and $49 Shanghai tour. I'm the easily annoyed type too so I hope I don't get too pissed off and plan on buying as minimum as possible from the shops (hopefully nothing). I'll report back afterwards.
    Any updates on your experience?

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    I did a $99 tour to Beijing with my family about 3 years back. My experience with it, I'd give it a 7/10. We had a pretty good tour guide that did a pretty good job explaining all the places. An as mentioned before, the shops that we were taken to, the sales staff tried pretty hard to sell us stuff. The food was just terrible though. Seemed like they just fed us the scraps from all the food. I thought it was strange that the Peking Duck served in Calgary tasted better than in Beijing The hotel was nice, but out in the middle of nowhere, so you can't really do much exploring at night unless you cab it. Some cabs didn't even want to go to the hotel because it was so far. Also those tours go from 7 am in the morning till about 8 pm at night, so by the time you get back to the hotel you are just bagged and don't wanna do any exploring on your own.

    But that was back 3 years ago, I don't know how it is now personally. My aunt and uncle went to a couple more $99 tours in other places, and they said it sucks even more now.

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    Originally posted by V6-BoI
    The food was just terrible though. Seemed like they just fed us the scraps from all the food. I thought it was strange that the Peking Duck served in Calgary tasted better than in Beijing
    My dad is one of those people who doesn't care what he eats as long as it's decently edible. He said the tour guides always asked "Is everyone full?" rather than "Did everyone enjoy the meal?"

    Re: duck. For all you whities that don't know - Peking is Cantonese for "BeiJing". They are both names for the same place.

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