I have used China Odyssey Tours for several trips. The following is a review of our family trip to Qingdao with China Odyssey Tours.
Travel with China Odyssey Tours
I would (and probably will) return to China Odyssey Tours again and highly recommend that you contact them if you are trying to plan a trip in China and need help. The more you know about an area, the better you can plan your trip so that you can dictate what you want to see and do. However, China Odyssey Tours will be able to advise you well.
Pros
- Staff very willing to help and guide you in making decisions.
- Branches in China, so you are dealing with the same company in most places you visit.
- Quick response time for questions and comments, usually within the same day.
- Our Qingdao Guide was efficient, kind and patient (we had 3 children and a baby)
Cons
- It can be difficult to get off the beaten path with this company.
A review of your services
When I told China Odyssey Tours that I would be traveling with children, they had some good suggestions. One was a tour of Guilin that included cycling between karst mountains and rice fields, bamboo rafting on the Yulong River, rock climbing, mud bathing, and kayaking. His suggestions for Xi’an included learning peasant painting, making jiaozi, visiting cave dwellings, and touring the ancient wall by bicycle. These are great ideas if your children are over 8 years old. Mine at the time of writing are 5 years (my son) and 5 months (my daughter), so unfortunately, we cannot be that active.
Meanwhile, I decided on Qingdao. To give them credit, Odyssey Tours warned me that it might be difficult for them to put together a good guide and itinerary based on the fact that the Qingdao boat show and the International Beer Festival were both the weekend of our trip.
Despite the warning, Odyssey Tours had in a day or two several suggested itineraries that included things they thought our kids would enjoy. Climbing Mt. Laoshan was one (going the easy route up the mountain), seeing some of the old colonial architecture (my personal request), visiting some of the most famous beaches (fun for kids). In the end, despite his offer to fill our 4 days there, we opted to tour a full day and a half given our lack of free time and downtime with the kids.
Our group consisted of 2 adult friends, 3 children, a baby, and myself. Our guide and designated driver were very friendly. The guide, when our children managed to let him speak, was very knowledgeable about the area even though he was not originally from Qingdao. He probably could have told us a lot more than he was allowed to (kids are not very good at listening to history), but he was very kind and sympathetic to the fact that we were not a typical group. It was flexible, which is something that is sometimes difficult for guides.
For example, during our visit to the famous Qingdao pier that makes the illustration on a Tsingtao beer bottle, the crowds were so thick that we could not walk. While we were discussing what to do, our children decided to crawl up the embankment to the beach in search of shells. Our guide took it easy and stopped the tour until our kids finished hunting.
The use of a tourism company has 2 components. One is the planning component and if you have someone to help you who has good suggestions and is willing to work with you and your needs, this is a sign of a good agency. China Odyssey Tours scores very high here. The other aspect is your guide and with any tour you could be in a great location with a bad guide or in a bad location with a great guide. This will color your ride significantly. We enjoyed our guide and thought he did well despite our last minute changes and needs.
The tour services (guide + driver) during my trip to Qingdao were free and I thank China Odyssey Tours for organizing it.
China Odyssey Tours details and contact
- Tour Company Name: China Odyssey Tours
- Contact details: China Odyssey Tours contact information
- Location: The company operates from its main headquarters in Guilin. Their hours of operation are from 9 am to 5 pm (China time zone).
- The best way to contact: I advise contacting them mainly by email.
As is common in the travel industry, the writer received ancillary services for the purpose of review. While you have not influenced this review, About.com believes in full disclosure of all potential conflicts of interest. For more information, see our ethics policy.
