We have been very pleased with the organisation and arrangements. We had asked for a low paced trip, with sufficient flexibility and time for breaks (my husband is a passionate cigar smoker and needs his breaks to sit down and enjoy a cigar), and that is exactly what we got.
Most places we visited are also visited by the standard Chinese tourist (except Shibaoshan, Shuhe, Napa Lake and the first bend of the Yangtse where it was each time wonderfully quiet), the crowds did not bother us that much as the guides and drivers always found a way to avoid them, or drop us and pick us up at less crowded areas.
Our Yunnan driver did a very good job, thanks to his suggestion for instance we left Lijiang very early for Tiger Leaping Gorge to avoid the long queues, it turned out to be an excellent idea. Everything went very smooth. On top of that we avoided the closure of the site (due to rainfall the site closed 1 hour after our visit).
Jackie was always in touch with the guides and me, following up and making sure things went well. Very nice and professional.
The guides and drivers knew what to do, were well informed, and respected our suggestions. They all added value to the program, and made us discover more.
Frank in Xizhou followed the program but had his personal touch, we saw the beautiful catholic church in Dali for instance and could explore tobacco fields upon request of my husband; Michael in Yangshuo tailored our bicycle trip so that I could enjoy the countryside despite my feeling a little ill; Rodney in Lijiang showed us Shuhe, not in the program but definitely much better than the scheduled Baisha Village (you can delete Baisha from your program); upon our request, Peter in Shangri-la changed the program from a walk to bicycles in Pudacuo Park; and from bicycles to electric scooters at Napa Lake. Much more fun and `not in the crowd, different from what the mainstream tourists were doing`, thanks to this we had time for coffee/cigar breaks in Pudacuo and at Napa Lake!
The Lijiang guide might have been the one who struggled the most with his English, since we also understand Chinese it was not a big deal, but for people who need to listen to his English his accent is a little disturbing.
Frank, Michael and Peter took pictures for us and forwarded them! Very nice service! The driver kept watermelons (he had suggested us to buy them in Dali) in the bus, so after our hot and tiring mountain descent in Shibaoshan we were welcomed with watermelons at the van! Great service from the driver!
The boutique hotels were all very very nice, we loved them. Yangshuo, Lijiang, Shaxi, Xizhou. The large Shangri-La hotels are less interesting for us. But I know that Jackie had no choice in Shangri-La city, he had wanted to put us up in another beautiful boutique hotel that was fully booked on our dates.
Improvements?
This might be a suggestion for the guides you work with: they could proactively check the weather forecast. We had a tailored trip, and could adjust our programme according to weather conditions and time availability, in Shangri-La and Dali we were lucky with the weather, in Lijiang not. Hence we have missed the view of Yulong XueShan from the Black Dragoon Pool. If there the guide had suggested to visit Black Dragon Pool on the day of arrival in Lijiang when the weather was clear, or if he had suggested to drive to a spot or climb a hill (I don’t know, a spot where we could have taken pictures) we would have had the chance to see the view.
As written in a message to Jackie, the luncheons weren't always that nice. The best ones were: Dali downtown, Shuhe village (Lijiang) and Shangri-la downtown (Italian owner).
Due to a flight change Jackie was forced to cut one night in Yangshuo and add a full free day in Dali. That could maybe have been arranged differently, it felt a little like `a lost` day. But I guess that for the hotel bookings and rates it was not so easy to come up with better alternatives.
As said above, Baisha can be cut from your program, only 30% of the fresco's are open for public, and the village itself is purely commercial. A walk, some shopping and a coffee in Shuhe would have been sufficient for us.
As for Lijiang, it is a crazy place, busy, packed, luckily our hotel was a quiet edge of town, there the guide could have suggested bars or restaurants, we discovered DDiao Bar through an app, great live music bar.
This was not our first trip to Dali-Lijiang-Shangri-La, but we have definitely seen more this time than 20 years ago, and enjoyed more (the roads were so bad then, that we lost a lot of time in the transfers; also the facilities and infrastructure are clearly better everywhere); next time – since we have seen the main highlights of this region now – we will expect more remote, less crowded spots.
Hopefully my remarks and descriptions have been useful!
Greetings
Lieve
Lieve Family's 11 Days China Family Tour Itinerary
Day 1 Guilin Arrival
Be met at the airport and transfer to hotel check in.
Day 2 Guilin to Yangshuo
Enjoy the Li River Cruise downstream to Yangshuo. Upon arrival in Yangshuo, leisure walk on the West Street and transfer to hotel check in.
Day 3 Guilin to Dali
Half day cycling tour to explore Yangshuo countryside.
Day 4 Dali
Experience the morning Market at Xizhou Village, and then visit the Dali Ancient Town and the Three Pagodas. After lunch, visit the Erhai Ecological Corridor and the Erhai Lake.
Day 5 Dali
Enjoy free time to explore Dali at leisure.
Day 6 Dali to Shaxi
Visit the Shibaoshan Scenic Area, walk down the Shibaoshan Mountain (around 1-2hr), and then transfer to Shaxi.
Day 7 Shaxi to Lijiang
Visit the Shaxi Ancient Town, and then transfer to Lijiang.
Day 8 Lijiang
One day Lijiang tour to explore the Lijiang Old Town, Black Dragon Pool Park, the Baisha Village and Baisha Mural.
Day 9 Lijiang to Shangri-la
Transfer to visit the Tiger Leaping Gorge, then head to Shangri-la.
Day 10 Shangri-la
Visit the Pudacuo National Park and home visit to a Tibetan family.
Day 11 Shangri-la Departure
Visit the Songzanlin Monastery and bike at the Napa Lake. After visiting, transfer to airport in time.
