Ritz Tours

We booked the Première Majestic China & Yangtze River 15 day Tour (Oct 5 – 19, 2014) and were told if we had 10 people we’d have our own guide. So we got ten people who wanted to go. When we arrived in Beijing we were met by our guide who informed us 8 more people would be joining us. What were we to do? While it worked out OK, we were unable to request private activities due to the now larger group. They got us on this one.
All of the accommodations were wonderful, the flights were on time with new aircraft and airports. The Li river tour was interesting but we could have missed that one. The Yangtze was impressive if you could see the banks. The smog is terrible all over China, not just Beijing. You must get to 20,000 feet in a plane before you come out of it. We couldn’t see the Three Gorges dam due to the smog.
The absolute highlight of our tour was our guide Ocean (not his given name) He was very knowledgeable, witty and made the tour. He took care of everything, tours, flights, luggage. You name it he took care of it. We’re all glad we made the trip when we did but you realize that China has made tremendous progress since Mao died but at a tremendous price. You can’t breathe the air or drink the water. So sad.

Just finished our Europe Delight tour and I had the best time. I want to keep this review short and succinct:
PROS:
–Very knowledgeable tour guides! Our tour guide was Steven and he’s the wittiest and most cosmopolitan! Our other French guides were equally great! Some of the Italian ones though are a little bit hard to understand
–Great hotels! Clean and all 4-​star! My favorite was the one in France because of the rainshower (or whatever you call it).
–We got to see a lot of places in the short amount of time (which can be hectic for some but I already knew what I signed up for so I was game!)
–We almost didn’t get to go in the St. Peter’s Basilica (as the Pope made a last min decision to say a mass for the youth) but the Steven, local tour guide Maria and bus driver Vincenzo made it all possible by switching up our itinerary and maneuvering our way around the Vatican.
–Some dinners are already provided in trip so that was awesome
–The last dinner we had on the tour was in Italy and both tour groups (RItz and Peony) had wine, dinner and free entertainment courtesy of a soprano and tenor! We had a lot of fun!
CONS:
–Can be hectic — sometimes you don’t get to the hotel until 9pm and wake up call is 6am
–Time at tourist spots can be limited
–There is a lot of walking so make sure to wear sturdy and comfortable shoes!
Tips:
–Make sure to bring a universal adapter! We had to borrow one from the hotel lobby –and sometimes they’re out! London, Paris, and Italy are all different!
Wifi is NOT free in the continent (in the hotel lobby it is)
–Make sure to pay the optional trips and tour guide and driver tips first before you run out of shopping money!
–Change money beforehand. We had ours exchanged in Chase. Looking for a money changer can be problematic
–Sometimes you have to pay for restrooms (1 euro or 50 cents)
–Watch out for pickpockets!

Not much to add that others have not already stated. Guides were good in China. It would be very difficult to do intercity travel in China without some Mandarin or a lot of free time. However, suggestions:
If you are well travelled and are comfortable riding subways, go two days early and see cultural stuff. Museums are not on their tour. Dine on your own but be careful. Don’t start your trip with fountains of barf and the runs.
Don’t exceed 20 bucks of purchasing at the hostage shopping places. The brass horse I liked for 3k is available online for 300 bucks. Caveat Emptor.
Once your stomach is settled in, ask for the non round eye menu and pay for local flavor at the approved meal stops. Note that your guides will get local food at the same place you get sweet and sour chicken (every meal!). Ten bucks for fiery Szechuan soup is worth it!
Know the price of tea. Their tourist packaged stuff works out to 100 bucks a pound. Don’t exceed 20 bucks unless you know what you are doing.
Do go as high as you can afford for hotels as the air and water is brutal, and you really need clean and comfy at the end of the day. 5 stars in China is like 4 stars elsewhere, but they are trying to do well.
Skip a day and go on your own if the destination is not of interest.
Don’t order drinks on the Victoria Anna river cruise. The hard stuff is fake or diluted, the wine might even be a recork. Happy Hour does not include Tsingdao, just Chongqing beer. Nasty stuff, worse than Lucky Lager from the 1970’s!
Bring devices/​chargers that are ¹¹⁰⁄₂₂₀ internally convertible and an adaptor that has multiprongs. You can run into 3 plug variations. Bring a 10 foot extension cord if you use a CPAP as outlet locations are erratic.
You might wish to bring a spare camera battery if you use a lot digital cameras. Also, be sure you at least 10GB cards as you will burn a lot of photos.
Consider renting a mobile wifi hotspot and check the data limits offered! Wifi is rare and 15 – 20 a day at hotels. Note that internet is censored, so don’t rely on it the way you do here. No news services, no Facebook, no blogs, etc. if you are foolish enough to use politically sensitive words in your email, your service will grind to a halt quickly. Not a joke.
China is tough to travel in. Ritz did well moving us around. But this is tour, and not meant for independant teavellers so accept that up front. If you want a hybrid, pick a shorter tour and add days before and after for self touring.

Lilian did a great job in organizing this tour for us. Through her patience with our requests and changes, it was well organized and planned out.
Just returned from the Beijing-​Xian-​Shanghai-​Hong Kong tour. Nina greeted us at the airport and gave us an intro on what to expect. The real tour starts when she introduces the other guide the next day. Ocean and Nina formed a perfect team. We learned about single and married life in China through them. Nina only stayed with us in Beijing and we learned so much about Beijing, will have to come back to learn the rest. Ocean helped us throught the maze at the Beijing airport, in his spare time while we were waiting, he even helped other tour guides get their acts together at the airport so we would not have to wait so long.
Lucy teamed with Ocean in Xian and she was very knowledgeable about Xian and shared with us her life in Xian, very impressive. We hope to learn more from her next time also. Ocean kept the group together the whole time. The tour group became family, it was fun getting to know each other as well as experience China together.
Ocean stayed with us in Shanghai. He was very knowledgeable about ALL the places we went. He gave us practical information we needed and prepared us well for each of the places visited. He was also accommodating in helpful to make this tour one to remember and one to come back to. He organized us at the airport as we departed our separate ways. +Hope to learn more from him next time.
In Hong Kong, we were greeted by Alan at the airport and he stayed with us for the short half day tour of HK. The rest of the time was on our own. We enjoyed HK so much we stayed an extra 2 days. Two and a half days in HK is not enough, but that is what we planned in the beginning, so ends our tour.
Too bad there was no direct flight from HK to US. We had to endure the flight back to Beijing then transfer to US.

We went on the China tour to Beijing, Xian and Shanghai a couple of years ago and had a great experience and am now in the process of booking another tour to Vietnam and Cambodia using Ritz tours. We enjoyed the personal service of the guides, all of whom spoke excellent English, and I agree that some of the required shopping venues could have been eliminated. However, I did find the silk worms for the silk comforter interesting. I guess that any group tour includes this «filler» activity because on a recent trip to Turkey, there were some silk worms again for the carpets! The quality of the hotels and food served were very good. We are hoping that our upcoming trip will meet our expectations and even exceed them. I’ll be back to comment on the trip and the service.

Wow! What happened to this tour agency? When I took a tour with them in 2008 they were great! Our tour guide was James and he was very organized, very knowledgeable, and really accommodated us when we had problems. He even gave us money to use the toilet when we hadn’t exchanged any of our money into Euros/​Pounds yet! (They make you pay to use the loo in Europe!)
We took the 17 day tour of Europe. The countries we visited during this tour were Italy, France, Britain, Netherlands, Liechtenstein, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Belgium! The tour was awesome and its a shame they don’t offer it anymore (at least not what I can see on their website). They might offer it though because I remember the tour was only advertised in their brochures but not on their website. So make sure to call them to double check! The tour was approximately $ 3000 for all those countries and included many meals! It was such a deal! Our main transportation to Europe was by plane, but travel to the adjacent countries were by bus or high speed train (Eurorail).
The tour was mostly an Asian tour and our guide spoke Mandarin and English, so I did not have any trouble understanding what was said.
The only thing I would have changed were the many meals at Chinese restaurants. Unless we did their optional tours, where an ethnic meal of the country we were visiting was offered, all other meals were at Chinese restaurants! This was mostly because many of the people on our tour were Chinese/​Asian elderly people (and I guess they like what they are accustomed to?) Thankfully I did not get sick from eating any of the food which is an indication that the restaurants Ritz Tours took us to were clean and sanitary! (I have a sensitive stomach)
Overall (in 2008), I thought Ritz Tour offered a very organized and well planned tour! I’m so grateful I got to visit all those countries!
Quick update: Just read the filtered reviews for this business and Kelly C indicated that there are two types of tours with Ritz. One tour is for the Chinese speaking Americans (the one I went on apparently…) going to Asia and Europe (
) and the other is towards English speaking Americans going to Asia (
). Check out her review. It was flagged (dunno why?) but very thorough on how the tours are like.

My husband and I just got back from an 11-​day tour of China with Ritz Tours. Overall, it was a good experience, however, there are certainly some red flags you should know in advance before booking.
As everyone else has mentioned, there are obligatory stops at a Jade Factory, a Pearl Factory, a Silk Factory, and a place that creates Terra Cotta soldier replicas. While we felt somewhat pressured into buying something, we didn’t give in and found similar items at the airport and various other shops at similar prices– they weren’t the ‘best price’ as the sales people would suggest.
All of the hotel accommodations were fine, except in Beijing. The New Otani Hotel is outdated– the rooms all smell of smoke and ours had moldy carpet, but they could not change our room because they were ‘completely booked’. The breakfast at the New Otani also lacked, but the other hotels more than made up for it.
The domestic flights were not on Air China, as the tour advertised. Most of the flights were fine, but just be aware that you’ll be flying smaller, lesser known airlines.
The cruise was nice. We were sequestered to the ‘executive level’ dining room on the top floor with the other Americans. It was somewhat odd how they kept us separate, but overall, the cruising experience was positive.
The food was terrible. We learned (the last day of our tour!), that tour guide is given an allowance and can take you anywhere he/​she chooses. Had we known this earlier on, we would have asked to look at the menu as opposed to simply being served random fried items that were sitting in oil. The best food was the breakfast buffet at the hotels.
The Sheraton in Xi’an was brand new when we stayed there– we were one of their first guests, which was good and bad. They hadn’t worked out all the kinks (i.e. the internet didn’t work and the gym/​spa was still under construction), but the rooms were very nice.
The guides were hit or miss. We got stuck with a young kid in Shanghai who didn’t know much about the city– and he was a bit too shy to be giving tours, but most of the other guides were fine.
Overall, China itself is amazing– and the convenience of having someone plan all the transfers and meals is helpful, but be warned that it comes with a price tag.

I actually went on my Ritz tour to China a couple of years back, but based off another review on this page (John), things seem to be pretty similar.
The wife and I did a 2 week tour around China.
Pros:
–tour guide was very friendly and knowledgeable. Spoke English well (although he usually spoke for around 5min in Mandarin, and then 1min in English, so obviously the English was an abbreviated version). Fortunately my wife speaks Mandarin, and could give me the extra details.
–visit a lot of places, pretty full itinerary (this can be a pro or a con)
–everything is basically covered, so no need to take too much yuan (exclusions are the tip to the tour guide at end, and some optional activities which at that time included a martial arts show, in room massage, etc)
–very nice hotels, most of which had free wifi and complimentary bfast (which was also nice)
–guide does a good job of making sure that everyone keeps up with the group (in contrast to another locally run Chinese tour that I just came back from which actually lost a person!)
–dinners come with complimentary beer
–the price: awesome value, considering the nice hotels, all meals included, transport etc
Cons (all of these apply to tours in general, as opposed to specifically Ritz):
–the mandatory stop at various shops. There are a lot of these, and they do take time (at least an hr per stop). The tour company is definately getting a cut of sales, which explains why they can offer the tour at such a good price… I guess they do the job though, since I ended up buying a few things, including a couple of hundred dollars worth of green tea
–the lunches/​dinners are not the best/​totally authentic. You can find better Chinese in Socal. These restaurants are designed only for tour groups. So you don’t really get the authentic Chinese dining experience. The food quality was okay. I ended up staying in Shanghai an extra week after the tour ended so I got to experience the proper food — I would highly recommend this
–you are basically forced to run at the tour company’s pace. This means that you are going to be spending insufficient time at things you may like a lot (for me the Forbidden City for eg), and way too much time at more boring places (gardens, etc).
Tour consists of a diverse group of people (it is kid friend and old person friendly).

Just got back from a 14 day tour of China. Was run very well, hotels were all top notch 5 star except the last night in Hong Kong which was an older place and not up to the quality of the others. Good deal for the money, but need to mention the little known «forced shopping» that goes with China tours. Apparently, tour groups get very good deals by incorporating stops along the way at government sanctioned «musuems» and «factories» which are thin facades for souvenir shops. This gets pretty old quickly. When your guide says that you will be stopping at a jade musuem, you can expect a brief tour of a small area where jade is cut and polished and then an hour or so let loose in a giant jade store. So, we have all the main Chinese famous exports and their shops added to the tour itinerary– jade, silk, tea, jewelry, etc. useful if you need to pick up some gifts, but very artificial feeling. The government sanctioned dinners and lunches (the Chinese government doesn’t want tourists running around getting sick at unregulated local restaurants of their own choosing) are dumbed down for large groups of people, so you miss out on the extremes of local cuisine… no spicy stuff, nothing really scary or exotic. My wife and I skipped these on occasion and foraged REAL food for ourselves, but note that the tour guide may not let you do that. Hotels were fantastic, as I mentioned before, but we had the top end package which has all five star accomodations. Another thing to note is that you will need cash for driver and guide «tips», maybe $ 10 per day per driver and guide. On a Europe tour we did this before, so it wasn’t a surprise, just be aware of it.
Days are long– usually from 8am to 8pm or so… would be nice to have more time for yourself, but I suspect this is the group’s way of keeping tabs on people and not letting them get lost or in trouble.
We had some great local guides and two bum ones (they lacked enthusiasm). Definitely would go back to see more of China with the same agency. My wife is Chinese and our group was mostly Chinese, but a mix of Mandarin and Cantonese, so all of the guides spoke both English and Mandarin.

Public Safety!
It’s all about public safety!
12÷8÷09
It was a disastrous trip we ever had — 8÷26÷09. I do not recommend Ritz Tours to anyone.
Among many issues, the short version of the comments are: the tour guide was under influence of alcohol on our first night out for a NY night tour. The tour guide insulted American culture while introducing the Lincoln Memorial and The Bell in Philadelphia. The hotel rooms were dirty for our first two nights…
I felt so helpless when no one answered my phone call to the emergency numbers, which were provided in the tourist’s handouts, for the tour guide became combative after my husband had asked him to re-​adjust his standing position for his waiving left arm/​hands had hit him. Spoke up unapologetically, he said that that is his way when he talks, and told my husband that he should be courteous when he talks to him. — – Yeah! Just unbelievable! and incomprehensible!
At the end of the trip, we gave back the company’s Q&A survey sheets with all these issues. Furthermore when we got back home, we immediately contacted Ritz Tours at Alhambra office and were instructed to mail a detailed letter to the Ritz Tours at 208 S. First Street, Alhambra, CA 91 801, so we did. For the PUBLIC SAFETY issues and concerns, we followed up by several mails, emails but failed to receive immediate attention from anyone — from top management to service agent.
After more than 30 days the Ritz Tours responded us. Sadly, the Ritz Tours simply said, they’ve done according to what they had advertised for the Hotels, and neither apologized nor expressed any sincerity for correcting those issues.
I wonder if they are ever going to improve the quality of service. So, NEVER RITZ TOURS!