Private Custom Tour: Beijing in One Day

I would not recommend this tour to others frankly. First, Unlike other tours.. you have to contact your guide first.. however.. our operator Hangtantour could not recieve my emails, calls.. and even Viator's customers service team couldn't reach them. We wanted to cancel the tour.. but Viator said that there was nothing that they could do. It was when we arrived at the hotel at beijing when we got the call. Very dissapointing and unconvinient. Also, our guide, Carolin.. was nice and fun but didn't possess any real tour knowledge. Rather than i certificated guide.. i think they just send beijing locals.. to have a good trip. Also she forced us in to some souviner shops in the forbidden city and other places which we didn't know want to buy. We did have a Fun time.. but did not have Fun Tour.. it was okay.. but we really wanted to hear about the history and other things that we couldn't get out from our guide book. It was mostly about just friend talks.. or chit chatting all the time. I would recommend to go on a group tour or a professional tour.. rather than this tour.

great guide. very professional and knowledgeable. we enjoyed every minute of this tour.

We again arranged this individual tour thru Viator and fortunately we got William from our first tour of Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, etc. They way it works for individual tour, William met us at the hotel and we told him what we had already seen and what did he recommend. You pay his way as well as yours to the attractions or restaurants. We told him what we had already seen and said we wanted to see the Pandas. He took us to the zoo by subway. Again William was informative, was patient with us with our questions and an overall joy to be with. He was a wealth of information and proud to explain about his country's history and accomplishments. After the zoo we went to the old Beijing where he booked us a rickshaw ride while he narrated on a rental bike from the street. We entered a house of one of the inhabitants who was so proud to show how he lived. He obtained tickets for us for the Circus which was colorful and amazing. He stayed with us the whole time and ensured we enjoyed ourselves and returned us to our hotel. It was a wonderful experience traveling through the different modes of transport with no worries. We met many folks who just wanted to take their photo with Americans. I would highly recommend Viator's individual tour if you can get William.

The tour was supposed to be customized but despite the fact I sent several emails to the email register during our booking, I received response the night before the tour. So for that reason we did not have time to plan the activities we wanted to enjoy. The guide was very good but since we failed to plan the entire tour she could not give us the best services she wanted for the lack of planning. I think wendy has answer more prompt the messages so clients can plan much better the activities they want to do. I think the more critical factor here was the delay when we contacted the tour company and from there everything was destined to not comply with our expectations. I wont recommend this tour unless the company answers the messages with promptness before the tour starts, not a night before, as it was advertised 48 hours before, but this condition was not met for the tour operator.

It was the worth experience ever. When we payed for tour we got an email address of the tour operator. We payed 3 days in advance It was a fake. The email didn't exist. It was bouncing back!!!. Unfortunately we didn't have time to investigate as we were in Moscow and our time was limited. We hopped to contact our guide from airport by phone. In airport we got SMS from Michele What you want to do? We replay that we want him to meet us at 10am in our hotel. He replay that he want to book a car for 2000rnb to drive us around. We wanted to have a walk as our hotel was just 10 min walk from Forbidden City. At 11 am he still was at home telling us that to get to our hotel for him is 2 hours. He didn't want to do the job. He just wanted us to pay for car what we didn't want. So after 1 our of unpleasant communication we told him that we are not required his service. We have a day on our own. The Beijing is not a city that you can see on your own. We have just 3 days and 1 was destroyed by Michele. Very very unpleasant experience. I would not recommended it to anyone.