Hangzhou: gita di un giorno del Paradiso in Terra da Shanghai

I really love meeting small villages and Im a tea lover, so I was very excited to visit a tea field. Unfortunately it wasn’t harvest season, but still was great to be there. Alina guided us through it all, including the temple, the lake and the boat trip, telling us about the history of the places and counting us the local legends and folkores.

The tour itinerary was good however the guide (Tom) was a disappointment. I have gone on tours previously through viator in the China region and with the same tour company (Han Tan Tours) and have had the most fabulous guides before so i was excited to see that this tour was also through Han Tan Tours. However this one was nothing like before - Tom was only interested in ticking the boxes, he gave no history or fun titbits and only focused on facts like numbers (height/depth/how large a city is etc etc) - he gave us no time in any place to just enjoy it on our own. Despite having reached Hangzhou earlier than expected, he took us to the West lake, showed us the pond with fishes and then made us wait for the ferry and the ferry took us across the lake and dropped us where the tour bus was waiting so we didn't actually get to walk around the lake or enjoy the sites on our own at all. Ideally he should have allowed us 30-45 mins to wander around the lake before taking the ferry. This was the case in every place and highly disappointing - we were rushed into the tea garden with the focus on doing the tea ceremony and getting us to the shop, no time to see the gardens. At the Pagoda of Six Harmonies, we insisted on going up the Pagoda on our own else he would have rushed us out (again no walk around the park there). He just seemed to be in this tearing hurry spoiling the whole tour for us. The lunch wasn't that great either - we were seated in a side room with uncomfortable seats and torn table cloths!

Our tour guide Frank made some conversation but al preoccupied on his phone. Hangzhou is beautiful but your very rushed. Appears they want to get home quick. Tea plantation amazing but more sales pitch no time to walk the tea terraces they want you to buy. Lunch less than average.do tour on your own

Tour guide was excellent. . Car was so bad. For long distance tour, the car wasn't suitable. the seats were so uncomfortable, very hard. Air Conditioner wasn't working. The driver opened the window. Can you imagine, For such long distance tour, you have to sit in the car like that ?

Tour guide Frank was great.

I am giving this tour a one star as I feel it was not just a waste of money it was also a waste of valuable time that I could have spent on something else while in Shanghai. The Heaven on Earth is a big overstatement. There was not really much to see. The West Lake is nice, but not nice enough to drive 3 hours in each way, there is literally one decent pagoda to see near the lake. We were picked up at our hotel at 8AM and then drove for three hours to Hangzhou. The city itself is nothing special at all, so the only thing to see there is a lake surrounded by a park. We spent about 30 minutes on the water and then were taken to a very ordinary restaurant to eat basic Chinese food for lunch. After lunch, we were taken to a mandatory sales presentation loosely disguised as a Tea Ceremony. There was no ceremony, just a quick medium to high pressure sales pitch for tea and tea derivatives. About the drive: the driver drove like a maniac, constantly changing lanes, cutting in front of other cars while constantly fiddling with his phone texting and talking without a headset, but mostly texting. The tour guide was very non-engaging, spoke very little. A good tour guide can speak the entire drive maybe giving some info about the area or things we passed on the way. She did none of those things and was not prepared for that as she didn't even have any kind of loudspeaker with her. If you really want to see Hangzhou, take a high-speed train and then take taxi to West Lake and get a lake tour one of many tour boats crossing the lake. You will save valuable time and money. I was fooled by huge number of glowing reviews of the tour. I know have doubts about the authorship of those reviews.

I am giving this tour a one star as I feel it was not just a waste of money it was also a waste of valuable time that I could have spent on something else while in Shanghai. The Heaven on Earth is a big overstatement. There was not really much to see. The West Lake is nice, but not nice enough to drive 3 hours in each way, there is literally one decent pagoda to see near the lake. We were picked up at our hotel at 8AM and then drove for three hours to Hangzhou. The city itself is nothing special at all, so the only thing to see there is a lake surrounded by a park. We spent about 30 minutes on the water and then were taken to a very ordinary restaurant to eat basic Chinese food for lunch. After lunch, we were taken to a mandatory sales presentation loosely disguised as a Tea Ceremony. There was no ceremony, just a quick medium to high pressure sales pitch for tea and tea derivatives. About the drive: the driver drove like a maniac, constantly changing lanes, cutting in front of other cars while constantly fiddling with his phone texting and talking without a headset, but mostly texting. The tour guide was very non-engaging, spoke very little. A good tour guide can speak the entire drive maybe giving some info about the area or things we passed on the way. She did none of those things and was not prepared for that as she didn't even have any kind of loudspeaker with her. If you really want to see Hangzhou, take a high-speed train and then take taxi to West Lake and get a lake tour one of many tour boats crossing the lake. You will save valuable time and money. I was fooled by huge number of glowing reviews of the tour. I know have doubts about the authorship of those reviews.

It turned out to be a private tour for me. July is a slow time for group tours in this area, so the tour guide told me. The driver that picked me up from my hotel and returned me at the end of the day was great. He was very efficient, professional, spoke English fluently and answered my questions as we drove along. The guide, whom I assume was used to having more people, was uninvolved or rather, more involved with his cell phone. I wasn't really enjoying the tour much and so decided the skip the last part. Unfortunately, I ended up sitting at the train station for four hours alone, as all previous trains were booked full.