China Travel Forum

[Daniel]

My wife and I will be travelling to Beijing shortly and we re wondering should we book day tours of Beijing with a 'Tour' company, such as Panda tours, or should we book a car and driver through a hotel.
We would appreciate any feedback on this subject. Does anyone have an idea of how difficult it is to use either option - pros and cons?

[Bill]

I think it depends on what sort of a person you are, as a hotel driver may be more expensive, but it is a more personal tour and you can spend as long or as little amount of time at sites as you want.
with a tour group, you are obviously at the mercy of the itinery, but it should be cheaper, and with other people on the tour there may be more craic/banter, if that is what you are looking for.
I did the hotel driver thing myself with a friend a few years ago and enjoyed it for al the abover reasons, ie we could pretty much dictate the pace. I had previously done a group tour which was good also.
this may not be much help, but hopefully a little!
have a great time in beijing,