I met Wendy Wu and her husband in China many years ago!

Reputation wise - excellent in Australia as you say, and they seemed determined to recreate this here in UK, and certainly seemed to be developing excellent reports & feedback. I think they will be one of the better China tour op's in the UK, and personally would travel with them.

Miya, please don't tie up posts like this, it's unfair to other users who may have topics locked.

Any one been on a Wendy Wu tour of China - The Grand Tour - we are thinking of going in march next year
We would like info on the company, the trip, hotels & river cruise boats
Many thanks

Hi Helenf

We are doing the China Highlights tour in November so will give a full report on our return

Cheers

Gary & Jacqui

Hi Gary & Jacqui, have a good trip we look forward to reading all about it.

We have heard good reports about her tours. You could also try China holidays in London. We used them for our trip in 2006 - they did us a tailor made holiday and it was fab.

Hi Puddleduck, thank you. I'll contact China Holidays,

Helen

Has anybody got any recent information or recommendations (or otherwise) regarding Wendy Wu Tours?

I have been looking at the 27 day China Highlights Tour with the 4 day extension added to Hong Kong and it seems to me to be good value!
http://www.wendywutours.co.uk/china-tours/china-highlights-130.htm

as does the Grand Tour of China again with the added Hong Kong extension
http://www.wendywutours.co.uk/china-tours/grand-tour-of-china-12.htm

Thanks

Graham

I haven't travelled with Wendy Wu but over my years travelling in the far east I've heard good things about the company.

Have read the itineraries of both tours you mentioned and the second one appeals to me the most, purely I guess because it includes the Yangtze. I would definitely add on days in Hong Kong, a city well worth visiting. Be prepared for long tiring days on the tour, apart from time spent on the rivers there won't be much time for relaxing.

Prices seemed at first quite high to me but it's 12 years since I was last in the China when I did a Yangtze cruise and 22 years since I first vsited the country so I expect prices have increased a lot in the meantime. After looking at tours of similar length and itinerary with other companies I would imagine the Wendy Wu prices offer pretty good value.

Thanks yet again Judith

I retire next year and China has been one of the tours we (I) really liked the idea of but thanks to some nice advertising by HSBC I have been able to show Mrs Kiltie some of the sights that we could see there and she is now rather keen on going.

We have in fact ruled out the first trip exactly because it doesn't do the Yangtze cruise and are now looking at the Grand Tour of China trip instead.

It is a full itinerary that covers a lot http://www.wendywutours.co.uk/dossiers/Grand%20Tour%20of%20China%20%20%20June%202011.pdf

I have had a quick look at other companies online and they initially appear to be much dearer thus I was wondering just how good Wendy Wu were, I don't see the actual accommodation mentioned so I might just email and ask them.

Thanks again
Graham

I have had a quick look at other companies online and they initially appear to be much dearer thus I was wondering just how good Wendy Wu were, I don't see the actual accommodation mentioned so I might just email and ask them.

I have been impressed with them so far, I emailed and asked what accommodation they used and received a very prompt reply with a full list of the accommodation.

Are there any particular months that are the best time to visit or any that should be avoided? I know it can get cold in Winter and we had thought of the mid to end of September in to October!

I would imagine that mid September through October would be perfect. My first trip was in April and it was cold in Beijing gradually warming up as we went further south. Second visit was in July when it was really too hot and sticky so I think that Sept/ Oct would be just right. Later on in the year I would think it would be quite cool in the north.

Are there any particular months that are the best time to visit or any that should be avoided? I know it can get cold in Winter and we had thought of the mid to end of September in to October!

I think that you are between a rock and a hard place on that one because the typhoon season runs May to October in Hong Kong and the South China Sea. Most years the storms are usually over by mid-September but there's no guarantee that they won't drag on into October. Many years ago I spent a month travelling down from Beijing to Hong Kong, arriving there at the end of September and doing a 5 day stayover before flying home from there. We were lucky because we arrived in the aftermath of one typhoon and the locals were worried that another one was predicted to make landfall a couple of days after we were due to be leaving. We saw some spectacular lightening storms out to sea whilst there and it was very muggy nearly the whole time.

Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai were pleasantly warm and sunny, Hunan province quite hot and sunny and Guanzhou warm and sticky with one evening of heavy rain but Hong kong was hot and sticky with sunny morning and often overcast afternoons as the humidity built up. In the end the way I survived was to do anything that was city based in the morning and then getting a ferry to one of the outlying islands to spend the day on the beach and make the most of wahtever sea breezes where around. I've no idea whether the weather was typical of that time of year or not.

I think that the problem is that no matter what time of year you go to China, the distances involved are so huge that as you travel south (as you broadly do on most tours) you end up travelling through several 'weather zones' and the optimum time of year to be in each of them doesn't necessarily coincide. I think that you just need to accept it and be canny with the packing

SM

Friends who lived in Hong Kong for many years recommended me to visit in October, they said it would be after the typhoon season and the humidity would be gone and the air would be fresh and clear. Though as SMa stated there is no guarantee that the storms won't last into mid October.

Thanks Judith & SM, well that appears to be the rough date sorted as well now