Yangtze River Cruises

Viking provide a very hassle free itinerary to experience the highlights of China. Accommodation and the cruise down the Yangtze were of a very high standard. The 6 day cruise was very enjoyable and you experience travelling through the locks of the Three Gorges Dam, something that I don't think other groups all do. Extra time, especially in Xian, would be good and some rail travel rather than all air connections within China would improve the itinerary. There were no hidden extras, but the inevitable ...read more shopping stops! It was our first time travelling with Viking... The group was 95% American and most were return Viking travellers. I would have liked some more free time and options to do a little independent exploring of the cities we visited.

Extremely happy with the services provided by Yvonne and the Global Journeys team. The trip to China was great, the small group [12] got along with everyone, the accommodation was premium and very comfortable and clean, the food was very delicious with lots of variety and plenty of food. The Yangtze River Cruise was great, having our meals at the Executive Lounge was a great idea with a choice of European or Chinese food. It was nice to have tea, coffee, juices, soft drinks and cookies all day ...read more at the Executive Lounge on level 6. The cabin was very nice and clean. All the excursions were very interesting, lots of walking though but it was worth it. Travelmarvel provided bottled water with every excursion. Fred the tour director was very nice and helpful, the local tour guides were very good too. Some of the restaurant staff at the hotels did not speak English very well but using Google translate helped. Overall we really enjoyed this trip and we highly recommend Travelmarvel to our family and friends. Optional tours we highly recommend include the Summer Palace in Beijing and the river cruise in Shanghai. For souvenir shopping we would recommend to do it in Beijing and Xian as in Shanghai it is very limited.

Thank you Yvonne and Travelmarvel for organising this fantastic trip for me. I thoroughly enjoyed this tour. The included activities were great and were at a good pace. We travelled a great distance and saw a lot. All the hotels were excellent and centrally located. There were only 12 people in my group and everyone got along really well. I was a solo traveller but never felt alone thanks to the lovely people in my group. Weather wise it was a good time to travel in September as it wasn't hot at ...read more all. The only negative for me was the farewell dinner in Shanghai. I think the tour director should take a bit more care for people with special dietary requirements. However I do like to say that the food was really good in other places.

A fantastic holiday where we saw the modern China along with their earlier heritage of different dynasties. In Beijing we visited The Forbidden City, walked along part of the Great Wall and had a rickshaw ride through the alleyways of the old part of the city. The boat cruise on the Yangtze River in the section controlled by the Three Gorges Dam gave us a view of some spectacular mountain scenery along with how they relocated more than a million people to higher ground. The panda's at Chongqing zoo ...read more are a fascinating animal to observe. The Terracotta Warriors near Xian were an amazing sight to witness and learn of their history and recent by chance discovery by a farmer digging a well. The canals and old buildings of Wuzhen where Marco Polo roamed were quite fascinating. Overall a great experience.