The greatest feature of Charming Holidays is that they offer guided tour with few people. Their tour guide is not only a "body-guide", but also a driver, a translator and a photographer. They arranged two people, a tour guides and a driver, to service three of us in Bangkok, which is quite costly. In terms of itinerary, the programs was full of activities except for the first day and the last day. To be fare to both the business and consumers, I published a video at https://youtu.be/bdRW8UTL-oE read more

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I've been on a few Charming Holiday tours at this point, and will say those experiences were closer to a 3. Yet, I still try going with them occasionally because at least they stick close to the destinations on the itinerary, and the cost of the tour is still hard to beat relative to quality (base cost for 7 days to Zhangjiajie this year was $800 per person, hotel+most meals included). However, this year, it seems they've started to really improve the quality of the tours to China - so much so that I felt compelled to write a review to balance out the rating a bit more... but I can't speak to any other destinations, and perhaps I was lucky with my tour guide / experience. Great tour guides do make a huge difference, and mine was awesome overall. I went with Charming to Zhangjiajie this past month, and among all other tour companies I could've chosen, I picked Charming from reading their packed itinerary and decent 4-star hotel accommodations (these are considered "5-star" by China's standards). Also important to note that starting this year, Charming no longer has shopping tours in China! No more wasting time at shops. Tour guide: She was nice, professional and experienced (note she only spoke Chinese, which is fine considering the tour comments noted this is only a Chinese-speaking tour). She even waited with us on the last day to personally send off each one of us from the hotel when the tour ended, to ensure our transportation to the airport didn't run into issues. Most tour guides at this point would've gone home from my experience, so this was a surprise for us. Also unlike past experiences with Charming tour guides, the tour guide never asked for tips either, but seeing as how great she was, we voluntarily tipped her at the end. Hotel: Met 4-star standards (mostly stayed in large chains like Pullman and Ramada). There was one night where we stayed in a very old inn in Fenghuang Old Town (like the towels badly needed bleaching) but the tour guide did warn us that because we had to lower our standards as the village was still developing. The good thing was that the location was great for walking around at night to explore. Acceptable given the area. Itinerary: Jam packed in a good way! Expect to leave at 8am everyday to beat the crowds. Maybe it's also because we went to Zhangjiajie, where there's no shortage of things to see, but the tour guide made sure we made the most of our time there, so she did also recommend optional things to do. At no point did she ever force anyone to go to these places, which did require additional entrance or show fees. We went to 2 of the 3 suggested things to do, and gave us free time back if we didn't go to one of the places. Shopping: It's a non-shopping tour, so no stops for shops! Optional, but the tour guide did also recommend things like snacks and tea leaves to purchase during our bus ride. I imagine they get some extra commission this way since tours no longer have shopping stops, but you never feel obligated to buy anything, and I was free to pass on things. The tour guide did take anyone who was interested in purchasing silver jewelry or mugs (which is popular in Zhangjiajie apparently) to a store she's partially invested in / opened with relatives (and she disclosed so), and offered discounts. But also optional, and we only went after the tour was done / we dropped off everyone else at the hotel at night, so no pressure for anyone who didn't want to go. Food: This was probably the only point where I thought we could've went to better places. Maybe I'm asking for a lot given the price of the tour already includes hotel, but I think there's room for improvement. I'll give it to the tour guide for at least checking in after every meal to make sure we were full, and if anything needed to be changed. Whenever we asked for more vegetables, she also immediately asked the kitchen to cook more for us. They did make an effort to include chicken / beef / duck in most meals, and typically fish and soup can be expected as well. Hunan is tougher for those who don't eat spicy, and they were accommodating with lowering or removing spiciness. In general about China: The country is making improvements to tourism quality across the board. There's still a lot that needs to be done, but major cities are now easy to navigate when traveling alone, with metro connections being more common. Joining a tour will still make your life much easier when it comes to the countryside/national parks though. Also public toilets are still 90% squatting ones, but the rest areas are a lot cleaner / a little more modern than what I've seen in the past 10 years. I'm seriously considering finding another China tour to go with them on next year, and recommend giving Charming Holidays a shot for their improvements. read more

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Booked an 11 day tour through Japan and Taiwan through Charming Holiday. As luck would have it, Typhoon Hagibis had other plans in mind and struck Japan the day before our flight. The aftermath of this event? Both Narita and Haneda airport shut down canceling all flights for the next 2-3 days as a precaution. Thanks mother nature... The morning of our "flight", we called up Charming Holiday HQ in New York and we were informed that it wasn't their problem. In fact, we were told that if we had read the fine print that we would know they are not responsible for cancellations due to natural disasters. Excuse me? This trip was pre-paid for and we were basically being told that we were going to be SOL on our $10k trip for 4. We weren't going to have this and called our local agent when their office opened on Saturday morning. Our agent played middle woman for a while, but Charming Holiday basically lied to her twice claiming that flights were still successfully going into Narita (definite lie) and that the tour that had started the day before was still happening (sure, if people wanted to drown). Charming then offered to fly us out to Japan on the 16th (arriving on the 17th) and told us to join up with the supposed group in Kyoto. WTF. This would have made no sense as our flight from Japan to Taiwan was on the 18th. They then "pulled some strings" and found us a flight to Japan, but it was a 32 hour multi-layover "this is a terrible idea" kind of flight...so we also declined. Eventually, we got tired of being dragged around and talked our local agency into "making it right" by re-routing us to Taiwan ASAP and covering hotels with the lost Japan money until we could join up with the Taiwan tour later in the week. They agreed and we actually had a pretty great time exploring. Wish I could say that our experience with Charming ended here....but it didn't. Here's what we experienced on the "guided tour" after meeting up with them. 1. We paid an extra $300/person to get an English guide in Taiwan. What we found was that our guide could barely speak English! More than that, he wasn't even familiar with basic Taiwan facts (population, etc) or surroundings (things to do, special foods in different areas of Taiwan, etc). He was also impatient, angry, and constantly walked off without checking if the whole group was present. 2. We paid for a sightseeing tour and still ended up at 3 "shopping" locations. SERIOUS WASTE OF TIME. These places are meant to swindle you to give Charming commission. This obviously wasn't our guide's fault but adding these stops meant losing time at literally more interesting locations. Plus, if you can't even import meat/meat products back to the US, I'd hate to explain to TSA about the voodoo deer fetus tea they were selling for NTD 10000. 3. Food. We had meals consisting of pork rice, beef noodles, and oysters which are all Taiwan specialties. But when you looked closely, it was more like a giant bowl of rice with a tiny scoop of minced pork. Beef noodles? More like NOODLES with 3 pieces of beef and the oyster dishes were legitimately nasty. They used baby oysters which don't have a good texture. When our guide took us to a "night market" which should have been a highlight, he/Charming chose quite possibly the worse one with stalls spaced super far apart across 3 tiny blocks. Later, when driving to our hotel, we happened to pass a large night market to which our guide claimed was new. A quick google search showed over 6500 Google reviews. 6500, even if 70% are review-less 5 star reviews is still ~2000 legit reviews. People know about this "new" place, clearly. 4. The "complimentary" Charming airport shuttle to the airport was convenient for literally no one leaving our last hotel at 9 am. Most flights to the US are either early morning or late evening....you either couldn't take it or would have to spend an entire day in the airport. But hey, Charming knew that....cause they also offered a backup plan....$50 PER PERSON for a taxi. FYI, it's $50 for a single taxi (fits 4 people) to Taoyuan airport from south Taipei city. Coming home, we were glad we had those few days to ourselves in Taiwan. It definitely made all the difference. Can't recommend Charming Holidays at all for other trips. The only positive was that we got to see other parts of Taiwan that we wouldn't have if exploring alone. read more

I'm writing this review in my parent's point of view: This trip was doomed before we even left LA. Before we purchased our tickets, we inquired about the itinerary and the hotels we would be staying at. The tour leader "Super Pat" told us we needed to put a down payment of $500 as a deposit in order for her to release that information to us...verbally. If we paid in full, we'd get paper copies of the itinerary. So we paid the $500 deposit, and then paid the rest of the $3,477 ticket. However when you check their website online, the prices are only supposed to be $3,069. So why were we overcharged $408 each? On the tour, we spoke to other groups from the same company and they also verified that they paid $3,069. Something didn't seem right. It seems like Pat and her husband Shane overcharged each and every member of the group an additional $408. On this tour, some meals were provided and included in your payment while other meals were optional. For the optional meals, you could either eat what the tour guide offered you or you could eat on your own. The tour guide charged 28 for one of these optional meals, but when I looked at the menu at the restaurant the meal should have been 12. Granted, there's tax and gratuity but I doubt it would come up to 28. That's not even all of it. Pat and her husband seemed to nickel and dime us on everything. In Italy, a private Gondola boat (6 person capacity) was normally about 100 Euros for the whole boat, but the guides charged EACH person 35. They wouldn't even let us rent our own boat. It was either ride with the group or not ride at all. I'm sure they didn't pay the Gondola workers the extra Euros they collected. In England, the admission fee for one of the museums should have been 15 pounds but the guides charged each person more. They also took us to a show for an additional 55 Euros, but we notice that the prices posted were a LOT less. In France, the Ferry rides should have been 8.50 but we were all charged 25. In Versailles, the palace admission should have been 12 for general admission, less for tour groups but they charged us 45. These additional charges were not included in the price of the tickets we paid up front ($3,477 each). It doesn't sound like much but there were over 20 people in our group. Multiply all the extra money we were charged by 20+ and... you do the math. They pocketed a lot of extra money. Plus, the quality of the food wasn't always that great. Breakfast was the worst. And the quality of some of the hotels we stayed in were bad. They took the tourists to "buy" diamonds in Belgium and I'm pretty sure they were able to get commission off of this. There were members of our tour group who bought tons... $20K plus. It wasn't until later at the end of our trip that they told everyone about the monetary limit of bringing stuff BACK into the United States, which was $800. There were a few people who got stuck at customs. Thanks Pat. Do yourself a favor and book elsewhere. Maybe if you used this company for a tour of China you'd have a better experience. But, booking Charming Holiday Tours for the "Europe Tour" package was and always will be a big mistake. read more

I was always skeptical about those discounted tours... After joining Charming Holiday's Japan tour, they certainly make it another ball game! For US$449/person, I got 3 nights of deluxe accommodations in both Tokyo and Kyoto, also 1 night traditional hot-spring bath resort. Meals delivered as promised in the itinerary, I especially like the Kaiseki dinner close to Fuji Mountain, it is something you can't find anything close in US. The night in Shinsaibashi which we could free roam the area and found all kind of food in Dontobori was also enjoyable, I am sure I gained a couple pounds after that night. Our tour guide is very helpful too, he was always around to give us support when need. The tour is enjoyable, not too rush, we saw a lot. ate a lot, and bought a lot. I'll definitely join Charming Holiday's tour for my next vacation. read more

I've booked with Charming a few times. It's a pretty good deal for all the lazy people that don't like planning anything themselves or is afraid to explore on their own. You get a sense of security everywhere you go. Overall, you save hundreds of dollars on transportation fees. When I didn't use a traveling agency like Charming, I ended spending tons on transportation. And it's kind of a hassle trying to figure out what to do. I gotta admit that I'm a passive person. The tour guide stuff works for me. The accommodations were pretty good. If you have ever went on tour with any Chinese tour guides, you should know what to expect. Unless you wanna do everything yourself, I definitely recommend booking with Charming Holiday. They got friendly and knowledgeable staff that is ready to help you out. read more

Charming Holiday - trip to europe - Travel Services Near Me - El Monte, California

I think this company also operates under Charming Travel Destinations. I was really looking forward to this trip for a glimpse to japan. While David A was very helpful in answering my questions before the trip, which I appreciated, the trip itself felt like a let down in several ways. There were 45 people on my tour and they only allocated one tour guide for all of us, I felt he was very overwhelmed at times with such a large group. At one of the sights we spent 2 hours at a pearl factory for shopping and only 40 mins at Kyoto sightseeing. I'm sorry but I didnt pay over 1k a person to stand waiting for people to shop for pearls. The next day we were supposed to go to Mt Fuji and our bus broke down our tour guide had no idea what was going on because he was waiting for a call back from the agency. Instead of leaving at 8am our bus didnt get fixed until after 1pm and by time we got to Mt Fuji it was 5pm, dark and rainy we couldn't see anything. Rather then reimburse any of us for the day they gave us a voucher for a buffet at the hotel. Many of the sites felt very rushed we couldn't really enjoy it and had to keep rushing just to take pictures. I felt very overwhelmed and stressed, as did many other travelers in the group. I would not recommend this tour company for traveling to Japan. I travel usually 4 times or more a year for leisure, and havent experienced anything like this before. read more

I booked a Beijing Xi'an Suzhou Hangzhou Shanghai tour with Charming. The tour started off great. Our guide spoke English, first day was packed with great activities, even ended with an acrobatic show. It all went downhill after the first day. Day 2 we went to the Great Wall, we were allotted approximately 1.5-2 hours to explore. While this may sound like an ample amount of time, it was greatly crowded and ended spending most of our time maneuvering through the crowd. I wanted this to be a great experience as my parents are China natives and dreamt of visiting the Great Wall. I understand that the Great Wall is a popular site and of course it would be crowded but I would not be that upset had we not been forced to visit a Jade factory right after and was stuck in the jewelry room for 3 hours!!! Why did they schedule so many hours at a jade shop? I'm sure everyone would've rather spend more time at the Great Wall. Also, we were taken to two more jade shops throughout the rest of the tour. The act that they played out resembles all of the scam articles I read online. The "teacher" would pretend to be related to the "general manager" of the store, give us steep discounts while the other employees pretend to act shocked. They took us to a private room meant only for the super wealthy and VIP clientele. We were told to stay in the room and not leave, even had to be escorted if you needed to use the restroom. I knew this was shady from the beginning. Only tour groups were at the store, no other standalone customers. After day 2, all of the other cities included a jade shop (also 3 hours with the same scam act), silk shop (1.5-2 hours) and tea shop. The host at the tea shop was extremely rude. After paying for the tea she left the room and never came back with what I had purchased. We had to grab a random worker's attention and explain what happen. She was rude and not helpful at all. We ended up wasting another half hour telling them we had PAID already and were not given what we paid for. On one of the nights they had to cut our dinner out of the itinerary as we were catching a flight from Xi'an to Suzhou. We were refunded back 5 USD per person. That explains why the food was so terrible on the tour. The Jade shop in Shanghai was probably the worst of all. After telling them we've been to two other jade shops already the presenter told us we can't leave since we were scheduled a certain number of hours there. By the way, this one gave us the same exact story as the other two. So she basically told us to sit in the room until the time was up. What a complete waste of my last day in Shanghai. These tours are such scams. They're cheap but you're also sacrificing half the time stuck in a jewelry store. We were also given an opportunity for an optional cruise to view the Shanghai skyline. The guide charged us 200rmb only for us to find out that the retail was 120rmb. When confronted she said we had to pay her for the extra time she was spending with us. This was nearly almost double the cost of the ticket had we gone on our own. The restaurants that we were taken to were not good at all. Don't expect any good meals on this trip. The locations of these hotels were also not ideal so if you ever wanted to explore on your own or find decent food, don't even bother. I was also so disgusted by the Shanghai hotel they booked for us that I ended up taking pictures of it. WiFi only worked if you had a China mobile number, dark rooms, dirty walls and carpet. read more

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I did the ZhangJiaJie Tour with Charming. Just wanted to give everybody a public service announcement of what you are getting into. 1. Tour guide changed our itinerary claiming that everybody wanted to do more shopping (LIE) and made everybody sign a statement saying we wanted the change. 2. Forced to stay at tea factory for 2 hours after sale pitch was done at the first hour 3. Silk Factory was 2.5 hours. No pictures but you are trapped there anyways so feel free to take as many as you want. 4. Jade Factory was 3 hour sale pitch. They turn off the AC but just turn it on yourself when they aren't looking. 5. Free massage and medicinal sale pitch was 2 hours. Don't buy their stuff even if they guilt you to 6. Optional Tour - Glass Bridge (100 USD) for 2 hour mid day tour. Not worth it cause you can spend days at the national park but you only spend 2 hours. 7. Optional Tour - Aboriginal Dance Show (40 USD). Night time show. He selected the cheapest seat and pocketed the rest of the money. Pullman hotel is right next to the theatre, walk over and just book it yourself 8. Optional Tour - Feitan Water Fall (40 USD). 3 hour tour of the water falls. Only one that is worth it. If you don't go you basically just sit on the bus and wait for everybody to come back 9. ZhangJiaJie - Tour that you actually paid for (5 hours). He skips the cable cart even though you technically paid for it If you look at the other reviews and reply from Charming, Charming isn't going to do anything about all these scams. Just be aware what is going on and mess around with the tour guide and the people there. Why give the scammers an easy time? Cheers read more

This was gonna be in the negatives. But things got slightly better after we left Beijing....so now I'll settle with 1 star. Promised: 1) 10-day tour around China (Beijing, Nanjing, Wuxi, Suzhou, Shanghai, Hanzhou) 2) 4 or 5 star hotel every night 3) specialty foods at each city (ex: Beijing = Peking duck) Delivered: 1) horrible tour guide (Allen) in Beijing with minimal English and humor and barely-there customer service (ex. He told us to meet back at the bus at 1:00pm from the Great Wall, we arrived at 12:56pm and he gave us the death look & attitude about being late. Excuse me?? Really?!) 2) nothing went according to the itinerary once we stepped foot into the Beijing airport. Hotels, meals/restaurants, and schedules all changed. 3) Meals...the WORST part of them all. They served pseudo-kung pao chicken, pan fried vegetables, tomatoes & eggs, beef & celery at every meal. They didn't take us to the famous restaurant known for Peking duck in Beijing, like they promised. Instead, they took us to a crappy place and served duck skin + fat in buns. The rest were bones. Food in other cities were a little better, but places were diiiirty. For example, in Shanghai (where there are TONS of restaurants), they took us to the dumpiest one on the 6th floor. Ummm...ok. 4) Allen demanded that we pay our tips while we were on the bus, the night before we were set to leave Beijing. No envelopes. No smile. Nothing. He took out his mic and said "Ok, now it's time to pay your tips. $24 per person for 3 days." Then he proceeds to go around and take our money. If he deserved it, I would've been happy to give it, and then some more. But I was so bitter I couldn't even stand looking at him. Other tour guides in the rest of the cities were somewhat nicer, but again, lacked the smiles & customer-service attitude. 5) Lots of "shopping" places where reps push you to buy things you don't want and can't afford. They give you the worst look if you don't buy. Pay a little more for Signet Tour. Best food and accommodations, plus minimal to no pushy sales places. You're already paying so much to travel overseas, might as well pay a little more to get the best. Trust me, it's worth it. read more

My family and I just came back from an 8 day marathon Beijing tour courtesy of Charming Holiday. We were thrilled to be in China when we arrived even though the tour guide had informed us that we had to kill 2 hours to wait for the people that were also arriving that day for the tour before we could get on the shuttle. We stayed at the Taishan hotel during the entire trip. I'm not sure how I'd rank this hotel, it looked great from a distance but upon inspection I would find mysterious hairs in my bed and in nooks and crannies around the bathroom...not terrible but not what you'd expect from a claimed "4" or "5" star hotel. Still not a bad trip...unfortunately what was the worst was our tour guide named "Peter". He was very un-accommodating from the beginning. My family and I speak mandarin and after my mom asked if he could do half mandarin and half cantonese he rolled his eyes and said yes, but continued to speak in mostly cantonese. Everyday was from 7am to 8pm...sometimes til 10pm with no stops back at the hotel. The historic sites such as the Great Wall, Summer Palace, Forbidden City were always cut short and rudely rushed. In contrast, we were always given 2+hours in forced guilt shopping in silk, tea, herbal medicine, and jade. The food was the same 5 pedestrian dishes from a questionable restaurant with 1 specialty dish (like Peking duck) for a table of 10 to share. In the end, while the price is a bargain, you will regret traveling around the world for all-around awful customer service and amenities provided by Charming Holiday. Do not go. read more

I went on a 10-day tour to China (Beijing - Xi'an - Hangzhou - Suzhou - Shanghai) w/ my family. Beware of the optional tours since they are actually mandatory. We had 3 optional tours according to our itinerary but when we got there, the tour guide told us that we still need to pay for them even if we don't plan on attending any. In Beijing, we had to go to 3 herbal medicine places in 1 day and since the tour guide spent so much time at these 3 places, we had to skip Temple of Heaven. The Beijing tour guide (Jackson Lee) was the worst, he seemed to only be interested in comissions & tips. He didn't even care that someone in our group got really sick. He forced us to pay $10/day/person as service charge for him only. He said that we can also give additional tips to the bus driver since the service charge is only for him. This is the first time I've heard about this. My friends & the travel agent told me that the service charge was supposed to be divided between the tour guide & bus driver. The food was edible (the same dishes) every lunch & dinner (nothing special). Although someone in the tour got food poisoning from lunch on the last day in Shanghai. The best place that we visited was Xi'an. I think it's mostly because of the AWESOME tour guide (her English name is Linda). She was very attentive, clear, and helpful. She did not stop at the shopping area for long (usually only abt 30 minutes max.) and she always gives us advice on how to haggle with the vendors. Also, she was the only tour guide that helped the tour group to check-in at the airport. The remaining tour guides just left us at the front door of the airport. We were all sad when we had to leave Xi'an. She made our trip to Xi'an to be a very memorable one. =D The Shanghai tour guide was very inexperienced. She was more concerned with her phone than the tour itself. Sometimes, she forgot to check on us. We were lucky that people in our group were responsible and care abt each other. Someone in the group almost fell over the fence when we tried to get to the Shanghai river cruise. Of course, the tour guide was nowhere to be found. I don't think I will be using this tour company anymore in the future due to so many negative experiences we all had. read more

Recently joined a 2-day tour to Beijing with Charming Holiday. For the price we paid, we got a nice 4 star hotel at the outskirts of Beijing (35 minutes away from Forbidden city). Surely if we are to book the hotel by ourselves, it will cost the same as the whole tour, right? Well, read on... Most Asian tours will force you to spend some time on local shopping outlets (gem, medicine, jewelry, etc). Those stores will then share the revenue with the tour operators. In China, this is done on an industrial scale, where these outlets have special purposely built 'lecture' rooms to accommodate multiple tour groups at a time. Problem with Charming holiday is, their schedule/itinerary did not mention such stops to these local shopping outlets. At the end of the first day trip, we were driven to a 'famous' Chinese medicine shop, where their 'professors' gave us diagnostics on our health and recommends medicines that cost more than 2000 rmb. Once we declined, the 'professor' rudely got up and walked away. Second day trip was not much better, we're supposed to visit the Great Wall and the entire morning was spent at a Jade 'factory' instead. The worst part is they put on an elaborate scam, where a guy claimed to be the son of the factory tried to convince us not to buy their expensive jades, but then later proceed to sell us his personal collection of jades for 200 usd and claimed the sales proceeds will go to a charity. Later on, we had foot massages, where again, they were trying to sell us all kinds of medicines, equipments for our health benefits. At the end of the massage, we're 'forced' to pay 30rmb tips, which Charming had also failed to mention beforehand as they informed us everything was paid for in the trip, and no extra tips are needed. I feel like Charming is not an honest agency. Of course, if they are to put those special extra-curricular activities on their itineraries, nobody would have booked their tours. So buyer beware, just know that if you join their China tours, be ready to waste some time on those side trips, and remember under no circumstances that you spend even 1 cent on those side trips. read more

My family did a 13-day Western Europe tour with them in 2010 and generally enjoyed it. Group tours covering so many countries in so little time tend to be very rushed. Knowing this, I still enjoyed the trip. If you don't want to plan out the details on a trip and want to save a lot of money (like my parents), do their Charming Holidays Europe tours. Shopping trips on this tour were pretty minimal and the hotels were generally nice if you're not used to five-star hotels. Our wonderful tour guide David L. described the sights in Mandarin and in Cantonese. He was a warm, friendly, patient, and knowledgeable person. The other tourists in our group were a generally friendly, responsible, and cooperative bunch of folks. read more

While planning our trip to China, my mother found a tour of Jiuzhaigou for $199 per person. She explained the tour would include shopping stops where profits are split between the travel agency and the business owner. I reviewed the itinerary and ultimately decided it looked reasonable: 12 sights and 5 shops. I expected the tour to focus on sightseeing with a few shopping stops mixed in. Instead, Charming Holidays delivered a shopping-centric trip that neglected legitimate attractions. Not only was our time misused but the in-store experience also hinted Charming Holidays might not have the customers' best interests in mind. Someone unfamiliar with the "zero fare tour" would look at the itinerary and see nothing amiss. In reality, each stop can be categorized as either legitimate attraction or shopping stop. A legitimate attraction is suggested by third party sources and a shopping stop is where a salesperson pitches a product. Charming Holidays prioritized shopping stops over legitimate attractions. At legitimate attractions, the tour guide stated what time the group should be ready to depart. At shopping stops, the tour guide stated no limitations and the group only left when everyone was absolutely ready. On Day 4, the group stayed at the Latex Factory for three hours. By the time we arrived at Mt. Emei, it was nearly dark. We spent 15 minutes at each of the two temples and saw very little. Rockslides required the itinerary to be changed but all the cancelled stops were legitimate attractions while the shopping stops were merely shuffled around. The original itinerary listed 12 legitimate attractions and 5 shopping stops. The actual tour visited 9 legitimate attractions and 6 shopping stops. I had low expectations but did not anticipate this. They may claim to have the customers' best interests in mind but their actions say otherwise. At legitimate attractions, the tour guide provided background information. At shopping stops, only the salesperson spoke. A salesperson may appear to be introducing the culture but in reality it is the start of the pitch and every claim should be questioned. Yet without access to third party sources or reliable web access, there is little opportunity to test their assertions. On Day 6, we visited the Jade Store where the salesperson claimed to be the daughter of the owner and offered to give the group a special discount. On Day 7, we visited the Medicine Store where the salesperson tried to convince the group to consult a "doctor/physician." Since multiple reviews reported shopping stops across the country employing the exact same techniques, there is strong reason to believe they are elaborate scams. The shopping stops were located in the middle of nowhere. Once the group entered, we were always given a short tour before being ushered into one of the presentation rooms to listen to the pitch. Though there was no coercion, there was noticeable pressure to buy created by the attitudes of the salespeople. On Day 7, we visited the Silk Store and no one seemed interested. Despite the clear lack of enthusiasm, the tour guide did not tell us to leave and the salespeople did not stop pitching until someone relented. By bringing us to shopping stops, Charming Holidays created a scenario where a purchase would probably be made. In our group of thirty, I estimate around 75% made at least one purchase ranging from a couple hundred to a few thousand dollars. It would be a different story if we had wandered into each of those shopping stops on our own but the reality is we were brought there by the agency and their actions deliberately tried to induce us into making a purchase. Since their business model derives profits from commissions, it is reasonable to assume it is in their best interest to have the tourist stay as long as possible and spend as much as possible. Patronizing these businesses, however, may not be in the tourists' best interest since the knowledge the salespeople employ deceptive tactics cast doubt on the authenticity of anything sold. The potential for harm is not only limited to loss of money but also endangerment of health. Each "doctor/physician" at the Medicine Shop did not present any credentials but proceeded to act as an authority figure. One blogger reported finding herself in a nearly identical situation and purchasing thousands of dollars of medicine that turned out to be counterfeit. I understood there would be shopping but I trusted Charming Holidays to be reasonable. Instead, not only were shopping stops prioritized over legitimate attractions, but also the shopping stops were deceptive establishments. Charming Holidays lures costumers through low prices only to bus tourists to stores where they are pressured into buying overpriced products. Charming Holidays violated the trust I placed in them and delivered a product no reasonable person would consider a tour. It is unclear what Charming Holidays' priorities are and that is unacceptable. read more

I recently completed a tour booked with Charming Holidays, 4 days / 3 nights in Beijing, and a total of 6 days / 5 nights in Nanjing, Wuxi, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Shanghai.  My overall impression is that you get what you pay for. In general, the tour group gets you from city to city, attractions to meals to hotels, fairly quickly and efficiently. For the price, the hotels are usually fantastic (4-star and up) and the meals are good. There's one tour guide per city and they usually do a decent job of explaining some of the city's history and culture.  A few gripes and things to note: 1. Language. When we booked the tour, we were told that the tour guides would be able to speak English, Cantonese and Mandarin as necessary for the tour group. This was not our experience. I went on this tour with my family, and we speak primarily Cantonese and English. While our guide in Beijing (Alan) did a great job of translating between all three languages as necessary, the tour guides for the second leg of our journey (Nanjing to Shanghai) spoke primarily in Mandarin. Even when we requested a few basic translations to either Cantonese or English, we were told that there wouldn't be enough time on the tour to translate (reason: "too much history") for our benefit. Result: for the last 5 days of the tour we understood little to none of what was being said. Personally, I spent much of this time playing Plants vs Zombies. It's apparently our fault that we aren't fluent in Mandarin.  2. Rudeness. While I was busy killing time with PvZ, my wife was fuming. This was understandable, since she came with the expectation of learning about her heritage. Not only this, but several tour guides repeatedly insulted her personally upon her request to have the tour translated, that because she is American, no amount of translation into Cantonese or English would make her understand. This was especially prevalent in Nanjing, Wuxi, and Suzhou. While Asian travelers are known for their rudeness and impulsiveness, it appears that these traits still manifest in their home country.  3. The guilt/obligation-ridden shopping, eating and... living. We understand that these tours are exceptionally affordable due to sponsorship by the Chinese government and also by individual businesses. We also understand that the motivation to sponsor these tours is to introduce and "show off" the country's attractions to Western/foreign tourists. A large part of why these tours exist is because the tour groups are taken to and expected to patronize these businesses. However we did not appreciate being blatantly told that we should buy their goods just because they paid for our meal or hotel. We did purchase some goods, not because we felt guilt or obligation, but because we felt they were worth buying! (Weird, right?) The odd part is that we suspected there were some repercussions for not buying as many goods at a particular business. For instance the meal after may not be as good, the heat on the bus may not be on for your 3 hour ride to another city, etc.  I digress. Other things to note: - be prepared to wake up at 6am or earlier most days. The hotels are generally great as noted above, and hotel breakfast buffets are pretty standard (and delicious) across the hotels we stayed in.  - everything is remarkably on time. The bus driver was always early or on time to pick us up.  - lack of transparency. It was difficult to know what was happening when, where we were going, etc. As a result there were several times I didn't know we were going on a 2.5-hour bus ride during which my bladder almost exploded. Had I known that we wouldn't be seeing a bathroom for a few hours I may not have chosen to drink several additional glasses of water, etc. You will not know anything about anything unless you explicitly ask.  - upon arriving in Beijing, we could not find our tour guide and had to call the company to figure out who to contact and how.  - the restrooms in China (at restaurants, attractions, public restrooms) are 100% disgusting. Hot/warm water, paper towels and even toilet paper are not a given. Bring your own.  - bring respiration masks for Beijing especially if the pollution is bad. A large portion of the population smokes throughout the cities we visited in China.  - the tour chaperone for the Nanjing-Shanghai leg (Vivian) was pleasant but didn't do much. For each city, we had a separate tour guide that did all the talking. She basically shuttled us from city to city.  - my favorite parts of the tour were when we were dropped off in a city center for a few hours to explore, eat and shop on our own. Even though it was more of a challenge for us due to the language barrier, it was nice to not feel pressured into buying anything from a particular business.  Overall, TL;DR: it's a fantastic deal if you can deal with all the shenanigans. If the purpose is to attract Western and foreign tourists to China, I'd say the tour failed on all counts. read more

Glipse of Japan Tour and China Highlights...... 1. Most eating establishments- INFERIOR QUALITY - DIRTY! - 2. Hotels - 3 out of the 10 WERE VERY POORLY MAINTAINED- AND IF 4 STARS THEY ONLY WERE 4 STARS DUE TO SERVICES PROVIDED. THE HOTELS I WOULD NEVER SEND ANYONE TO INCLUDED: A. The Hamanako Hotel in Japan B. The Shangrila Golden Flower in Xian C. The Baolong Hotel in Shanghai The above hotels had dirty rugs- stained/broken/worn furniture -and bathrooms full of mold and mildew 3. The tour pick up in Beijing was so poorly handled - We landed in Beijing at approx. 7 PM on 10-12 - No rep from Charming showed up till 8:30 PM and then we were taken to the other TERMINAL to pick up others. On average most persons arriving in Beijing were at the airport waiting to be transported to hotel for about 3 hours. Peter the guide was not picking up his phone most of the time. We did not arrive at our hotel that night till Midnight or later. 4. AND THEN THE ICING ON THE CAKE - MAKING US SIT THROUGH MULTIPLE SALES PRESENTATIONS -MOST OF THEM AT LEAST 3 HOURS LONG - 10-10- Japan - Jewelry Center 10-11- Japan Tourist commune 10-14- Yu Yu Jewelry 10-16- Terra Cotta Soldier Factory 10-17- Silk Factory ` 10-18 Green Tea 10-19- Shanghai Art Exhibition So out of a total of 12 days - 7 days of wasting in most cases 2 to 3 hours at each location - under a veiled " learning experience" to be SOLD GOODs- with no escape - most times being locked into rooms - THE WORLD DESERVES TO KNOW THAT YOU RUN YOUR TOURS IN A MANNER THAT IS DISRESPECTFUL OF YOUR PARTICIPANTS TIME.! read more

Our family came back from a 13 days European High Light Tour this week (July 2015), and this particular tour exceeded our expectation. The Yelp reviews were helpful to us before selecting Charming so we wanted to share our experience to other Yelp users. First, based on previous reviews, we made sure we signed up with a Charming authorized agent, American Vacation Travel in Mountain View, CA. The process was smooth, and there was very good communication from both our agent and from Charming's tour leader (Eric Hui) before we left home. Pricing information for optional activities were provided before the trip, and the pricing was precise and straight forward. No hidden agenda. We were not pressured at all to join optional activities, nor to purchase any merchandizes. We ended up joining more than half of the optional activities, and bought chocolate, cheese, and other souveneir because we wanted to, not due to pressure. Some other folks on our tour bought Rolex watches in Switzerland because the deal was good, not because of pressure. No one bought diamond in Amersterdamt. ;-) The amount of time spent on shopping was minimal compared to other China tours we've done in the past. So, no complain there whatsoever. The trip itself was a bit rushed, and we knew that before signing up. Nine countries in 13 days were a bit too much, but as our first, high light tour, in Europe, it was executed very smoothly and professionally. We will come back to Charming for more in depth European tours in the future. We also had some returned Charming customers in our tour group, which is always a good sign. Charming contracted Trafalgar to provide a nice, very nice, coach, and a very skillful driver (Francesco). We felt we were safe in his hands the whole time. Trafalgar local guides were also used in Paris, London, and one other city in Italy (forgot which one though), and they were all very professional. Now the food. We didn't expect much from package tour meals based on Asian and American tour experiences, but Charming exceeded our expectation on food quality. The included meals (lunch and dinner), and optional meals (Seafood dinner in France, Lunch in Venice, etc.) were of high quality and reasonable prices. Thumbs up on the arrangement. The worst hotel breakfast we had were in Paris, and the Paris Novotel was worst compared to all other cities we visited. Lastly, the best part of the tour was our tour guide (leader) Eric Hui. We felt that Eric was genuinely trying to help his customers to get the best values (in optional tours/meals) rather than maximizing his commissions. He has been leading European tours for 7 or 8 years, and his experience and professionalism made the whole tour an excellent experience for my whole family. All in all, compared to the other tours we've had in the past 20 years, we felt we got more than our money's worth with the Charming 13 days European High Light Tour. read more

Just got back from Asia Trip with my BFF and we had an amazing time. This is our 1st trip to Taiwan, so we're really looking forward to this trip. Thank you Mabel for helping us to plan this trip. It's a pretty good itinerary that for people who wants to relax and gain weights. read more

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I went to Europe in Sept with my sisters and I was pleasantly surprised. I had read some of the reviews on here and I seriously wanted to cancel this trip, but my sister convinced me not to and I'm glad she did. We had a great time. We received some travel goodies from Charming Holidays which I thought was a nice touch. Eric the tour guide told me about their Croatia & Slovenia tours and I think I'm sold for 2018, they got me hooked! read more

It was my first time traveling with Charming Holidays and the tour we took had some people that had traveled with them before. Everyone spoke highly of them. I wanted to write a review as it was my first time in a group tour and coming from always doing it myself, I was pleasantly surprised on how good the trip was. From start to finish everything was good and easy. In the past I've been the one to plan things out and put the trip together for friends and this time my colleague told me about this Europe Highlights 12 day tour and it all sounded great for the price. The guides were first class and I will definitely recommend to everyone. read more

WORST guide and WORST experience. If you consider booking this, the answer is simple "NO". they took their time to ask you to shop but limit time for our sightseeing. The places they took you mostly are FREE and they charged you on the tour price. Will never trust this agency. If i can put ZERO star I will. read more

I took my husband and son to China this past June and our experience was very similar to Nancy H's comments in February. Shame on me for not reading the reviews before making the trip. We got the same tour guide in Beijing (Allen) and there was no improvement on the training of the tour guides despite the negative reviews that were given to the tour company. There were altogether 3 tour guides for the tour but none of them was attentive. On our way from Beijing to the airport to fly to Xi'an, since there were only seven of us heading to Xi'an so none of the three tour guides escorted us on the van to the airport. The driver blew the back tire of his van but he continued driving on the freeway. We made multiple calls to the tour guides complaining that this incident has put our lives in danger. Nothing was done and the driver kept driving but luckily we made it to the airport. Throughout the tour visiting the different cities, there were a lot of expensive shopping spots that we had to stop at. There was one silk factory that we stopped at in Suzhou where the tour guide was pushing for us to buy silk bedding sets. Why would we want to buy hundreds of thousands of US $s worth of bedding sets and dragged them throughout China before coming back to the US? When the whole tour group did not buy any sets, the tour guide was so upset that she did not even say goodbye to the group at the send-off. The hotels that Charming Holiday has put us at this tour were appauling - black-out in our room, air-conditioning did not work and the hotel staff blamed guests for 'taking' laundry bags or towels and asked for money to cover for these 'losses' when they don't even have proofs that these were actually taken. The food that was served throughout the trip was also unacceptable. Some tour members discovered that the restaurants re-served the food to the next table once one was done. I did not personally witness this, but heard from other tour members. When the waitors/waitresses took the left-over dishes back into the kitchen, they carefully took one dish at a time. If they were not re-serving the left over food, whey would they need to carefully took each dish back instead of dumping all onto one before bringing it to the kitchen. Historical sights in Beijing and Xi'an were good and very eye-opening. Definitely good to educate our kids about Chinese History. However, in terms of the tour group, Charming Holiday by far is the worst. read more

This is my first tour and it will be last. Horrible service. Their best is asking you money for this and that. Everything requires a fee, even though we've already paid over $1,600 for 4 people. Our trip includes 6 days, from LA to Las Vegas. It was ok at first, in LA. That tour guide brought us to Universal studio. He was cool. On the day to LV, we were waiting at the lobby of our hotel to be picked up, this tour guide or driver came to me and ask for our names. Obviously, I wasn't the one that he was looking for, but he kept asking me over and over again, if the name on his list was mine. I started to get annoyed, so I said "I know how to spell my own name, ok?" After that annoying confrontation, the right tour guide picked us up. It was fine for awhile, until he started to get annoying; he kept on repeating himself. He was a bit rude too; he didn't let us eat in the bus, saying "Oh, we spent half a million dollars on this bus, don't dirty it!" what? Are people that irresponsible? If they can afford that expensive bus, why can't they hire someone to clean the bus? He didn't let us use the bathroom, either. And then when we were waiting for lunch, he forced everyone to stay in the bus for his stupid joke and tell the kids to cover their ears, because it's not suitable for children, he said (my goodness!). I feel kinda sorry for him, cause no one seems to get his joke. Also, the restaurant he brought us to was not worth the money. We should have gone to a fast food restaurant instead. The agency didn't give us any updates until when the time came. We were supposed to go to Grand Canyon, included in our package. Before we arrived in LV, he told us that there was a construction at the canyon, we would only have 20 minutes to take pictures after a 5 hours ride. But if we want to stay longer, we have the option to pay MORE money to do so. That's what they were trying to do, take more money from us over and over again. The only one good thing about this tour was, I've made some new friends on the last day! The star is for these great people! read more

WARNING: DO NOT book a tour w/ Charming Holidays. I repeat, DO NOT book a tour with Charming Holidays. We went on a 6-day tour to Bangkok & Pattaya. Paid extra to upgrade to 5-star hotels. Day 1: arrived at Bangkok Hotel. No one was there waiting for us. We had to run around and finally found 1 tiny little sign and no-one was there. We had to keep asking until a kid showed up. He didn't know what to do with us, made a bunch of phone calls, made us wait on the sidewalk it was about 100 degree there. Finally he found a taxi to take us home to the hotel. The hotel (Swissotel) was decent. Day 2: the tour guide came, he speaks minimal English. We couldn't understand him 2/3 of the time. Made us wait in his car while he waited for the people from the previous tour to take them to the airport. Then he took us along the people from the previous tour to the airport, we waited in the car at the airport for about 1-hour while he helped them with their luggages & check in. By the time he came out, it was already 10:30am. Wasted almost 1/2 a day. Then he rushed us to the tour. Lunch and Dinne: the food was NOT edible (not for human consumption)! The restaurant was dirty. Day 3: drove by China town at around 8:30am. Everything was closed. Visited the flower market, there was nothing there except the flowers they made for offering. Then they drove us to Pattaya. Took us thru a dirt road & arrived at Saisawan Hotel. This is NOT a 5-star hotel, not even a 3-star hotel. very cheap furniture. The took us to the room, it was very hot & humid in there, then the bellboy started the generator in the room and told us that the generator will run for a few hours, then will turn off itself. If we want the A/C to start again, then we'll have to call them to come back to re-start the generator. Oh mine!!! it was 100 degree outside & they expect us to keep calling them to re-start the generator every few hours in order for the A/C to run??? We called our tour guide & he let me talk to his boss, I told her this is NOT a 5-star hotel, not even a 3-star hotel. Motel 6 or Travelodge is much better than this. Guess what she told me? She said this is a LOCAL 5-star hotel. Finally we were able to make them switch us to a different hotel, equivalent to a 3-start hotel. Then dinner time, they took us to a very cheap shabu shabu. They left all of the meat & veggie on the table at room temperature. The meat must went bad ...my husband got really sick after dinner. I didn't ...just because I didn't eat. Day 4: Went to the Coral Island for about 2 hours. That was OK. Then they took us to Chinese lunch. We were HORRIFIED when we saw the food they served us. The waitress just literally threw the food on the table. The food was not edible. it was horrible. So we walked out & came back to the hotel to buy our own lunch there. There were no BBQ Seafood basket Lunch on the island as they promised. Afterward, we went to the Alcarza's show. That was just OK, not that great! Then they took us to a Chinese/Laotian restaurant. The restaurant looked very poor and dirty out of nowhere. We were again horrified by this. We asked them just to drop us off at the Walking Street in Pattaya so we can go & get our own dinner and took a taxi back to our hotel. The rest of the tour was just as horrible. it was our nightmare. read more

Our family went to 7 days tour to Beijing, Tianjin, Chende cities on 7/15-7/21 hosted by Charming Holiday. Our tour Code is BW-BJ150714 and the tour guide's name is Gary (Shong Jia in Chinese name). I try to be specific our tour info so to alert our yelp viewers, hopefully they don't bump into the same tour guide, and also I hope that Charming Holiday will take actions to improve the quality of their services. We arrived Beijing airport at 6:00 pm in the 1st day of tour, someone who wasn't the tour guide picked up and said that we have to wait for other tour members to arrive, so we were transferring from our terminal to another via terminal shuttle... and when we finally checked into our hotel room it was past 10:00pm. The whole tour we went had less sightseeing but a lot more time spent in shopping districts where we were told to spend money. Each morning of the 5 days touring we were told to get on bus by 7:30 to 7:45, which would be okay if we can beat the traffic and the heat (summer time) and spend more cooler time at most historical places like Summer Palace, forbidden city etc.. Instead, we were took to the shopping districts early in the morning and trapped us in the room for a whole morning and persuaded us to buy stuff that we don't want. It seems like they emphasized how important the shopping trip was to them, even during the bus transit, the tour guide spend a tremendous time to talk about the fact why we need to shop there and even when the bus had arrived he still continues his lectures and kept us in the bus for another 10 to 15 minutes more. I regret I didn't read the previous reviews before we went to this tour. or else we won't be trapped into the same scams as previous reviewers described. A guy who claimed he is the son of the owner of the jewelry factory that has many business all around the world just happened to appear at the shop and bumped into us. I have to admitted that his sales strategy was amazing and many of us fell for it and he ended up making close to 10,000USD of total sales just from our group. Our tour guide was happy that day and provided our table extra bottle of soda at lunch time. (other days, they refused our request to exchanged from bottle of beer to a soda, due to we had many kids in our table and we don't drink beer.) But the next day was totally opposite, same routine, early in the morning we were brought to a district of silk factory. Since we had spent a lot of money the date before, we decided not to shop anymore this time. Other tour members seemed not interested to buy anything either, it was a very awkward situation, we all stood along the edge of room. ( it was a quite small room, it was kind of warm and humid) the salesladies kept walking forward to anyone to beg them to buy. it had been hung on for a long time but still not sales made. we suggested we should leave for our daily tour schedule. but we were told that we cannot leave the building unless we spend money. finally, one family of our tour member bought a set of bedding. we felt all cheerful for their gesture and glad that we can get out of there. so we all got up and walk to the exit but blocked by their employees, won't let us get out. they claimed that it had not been time up yet, plus because we are such large tour, one bedding set sale is not enough to meet their requirement. Was it a joke? We were furious and started to complain, so they finally let us get out of there around noon. By the time we arrive to Summer Palace which was supposed to be our mainly scheduled to visit, was 1 to 2 pm. it was hot and humid plus a lot of people in the park during the time. we spent less than two hours there and went back to the bus because it was too hot and we were too tired, and we got to another shopping district at 4:30 pm. the tour guide was very grumpy and rude, Perhaps, it was due to the fact that he didn't made much commission at the silk factory. He kept us at the last shopping district for another 2 and a half hours, and took us back to hotel past 9:00 pm. I believed he delay to take us back the hotel intentionally, even I specifically told him that I had guests waiting for me at the hotel that night. I even asked him in the beginning of tour, which date when we will be back at the hotel earlier at night, and he told me this date and I scheduled it accordingly and reminded him that morning, but he still brought us back late. Overall, the hotel we stayed at was decent and nice, but located far away from the city. (some members complained their room had leaked shower and odor from sewer drain) the food served was substandard, but this is discount package tour, they have to find the way to cut cost which I don't complain much about it. To conclude my points, since we had already spend large amount on airfare, travel visa, took efforts to travel this far, trying to save a bit on the tour that had lousy service was a total waste of our time and not worth it. read more

On the 18th of June, myself and three others, my husband, daughter, and elderly father, went on the 13 day long "Highlights of Europe" trip by Charming Holidays. We would like to thank our tour leader, Raymond Yuen, for all the effort and time that he put into making our trip as wonderful as it was. He was very knowledgeable and clearly very experienced to all of the many countries that we visited. He was also very efficient- shepherding everyone in the group, having frequent head counts, and giving us warnings and tips about certain areas to keep everyone safe- this was especially relieving to see, as being a trip during the summer, our group had many children. Also, when my father, over the age of 80, needed more time to walk from place to place, he was patient and understanding. To ensure that everyone in the group had the best experience, he led my father and I to the next point ten or so minutes before the rest of the group left the previous site. By doing this, my father, even after the entirety of thirteen days, fell behind not even once, and asks me to thank Raymond for his outstanding work. Furthermore, our group had many languages that needed to be spoken. Throughout the tour, whenever he informed us of anything, he would repeat it in three different languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, and English. On behalf of everyone in my family, I would like to thank him and Charming Holiday for making our trip a vacation to remember. read more

Just completed a 6 days tour of Japan with Charming Holidays. Most of the time was spent on the bus and waiting for others that do not know how to tell time. Our tour guide did not care of our experiences nor any knowledge of the places we visited. Her service as tour guide is rated F. She didn't care if we are uncomfortable or enjoying our trip. We had to pay compulsory fee of USD 360 per person. No explanation of what the fee is nor it's for entrance fee. Because there were only 2 entrance fees required and it only USD 10 per person. Save your money and stressful experiences. Booked your vacations with more reputable company. read more

13 Day European Highlight Tour: Sorry for the late review but I'm kind of new to the "yelp review game!" I went on the 13 day European tour this past December with Charming Holiday. On the European tour we visited Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, Netherlands, and England (just to name a few). My tour group included me and about 40 other people. First day, went spent flying over to Rome. When we landed in Rome we went straight to sight seeing at Vatican City. The third day we toured the city of Florence lunch was not included during this particular day so a few of us got together and found our own little spot to snack at. Even though we had to pay for some lunches it was a fun adventure to find food on our own. On the fifth day it seemed like we did more traveling then touring of Milan which I was kind of bummed about because I wanted to see more. That night however we did have a delicious french gourmet dinner (included in fee). The sixth day we toured mt. Titlis in the morning hopped back on the bus and continued on toward Paris! Paris I seemed to have the most fun because we actually spent more than a day there. We toured the louvre which I could now take off my bucket list. :) the second day we were allowed to shop on our own which was nice because I was able to experience "Paris life" on my own. We met back up with the group that night for dinner. The food was ok, I was hoping for something amazing but we had pork chop in some kind of sauce with a few sides which I thought was ok. Then again I'm not a fan of pork chop anyway. We left Paris and headed for the Rhine. Area on the bus. In the Rhine area we got a glimpse of the city by foot and then it was back on the bus heading towards Amsterdam. In Amsterdam we were able to tour the city by a canal cruise. It was nice to finally get off the bus and tour by boat for change. We left Amsterdam and headed for Brussels where we also were allowed to tour the city for a short while. I finally got to try an authentic Belgium waffle!!!!!! After our short city tour we headed back on the bus towards the train station where we waited for about an hour and a half to board our Eurostar train. We arrived in London around dinner time. We were immediately escorted to dinner where we were served dim sum and delicious roasted duck! I was so tired that night and instead of venturing around town I went straight to sleep at the hotel. On the twelfth day I woke up extra early and was ready for our London city tour(big Ben, buckingham palace, changing of color guards were all very cool places we visited that day). After the tour we got to explore London on our own for a bit and so I did just that. I picked up some souvenirs for the family and headed back to pack my bags again for home... Highlights: *Paris and London I enjoyed the two day stay. *overall tour was a bit rushed but that's expected since we only had 13 days. * Our tour guide Eric was awesome!!!!! * food and hotel accommodations were ok not great. ( but decent for the price) * next time I'd recommend taking a charming holiday tour that stays in each city a bit longer ~overall good experience during my eurpoean tour read more

just got back from our 10 day beijing tour with my family and all i have to say is WOW! for roughly around $200 usd each, even tho it doesnt include international plane ticket, i would have to say its more than a good deal. pros: 5 star accommodations for all 10 days! knowlegdable local tour guides great food for all 10 days cons: kinda rushed, but considering how many places we had to see in 10 days, it wasnt bad. mandatory to visit shopping spots but the guide informed us we DID NOT have to shop, we could just walk around. all in all i think it is an amazing deal. i mean for $200 usd i dont think i could find a 5 star hotel in vegas for the weekend. read more

My advice is to stay away from Charming Holiday's China Tours if you seriously want to do sightseeing instead of shopping(being ripped off by so call national specialty shops). Our family of 6 just went on a 10 day China tour (Beijing, Xian, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai) in June. It was the worst guided tour experience we have ever had. We deliberately signed up for this tour because the company told us that their tour guides are bilingual (English and Chinese). However, all the tour guides they provided did not speak much English. My teenage kids did not understand Chinese and they have no clue about the places they went. Our time were spent mainly on visiting these specialty shops like Jade, Silk, Tea, Herbal Medicine Shops. The tour guide in Beijing, Allen, didn't really care about the tour. All he talked about were the products, not much about the places we went. I came around the world to visit China. I wanted to see China, not the shops. Many of our tour people were lured into buying thousands of dollars of herbal medicine prescribed by these so-call "professors of oriental medicine". The other tour guides all mainly concerned about selling the products and commission. The only good tour giude we had was the one in Xian. He was the only one actually talked about the places. We did go to a Terra Cotta Warrior factory I guess per itinerary. But he did not do much hard selling. It was a even more crazy scam at the jade shop in Shanghai. The "owner" even showed up in the middle of a sale presentation and appeared to be there by coincident. After some boasting of his achievements and charity work, he offer to gave us gifts and offered 90% discount on his crazily marked up jade jewellery. Many of the tour people of course fall for that and bought items feeling like they had a good deal. Even I believed that "owner" was being really nice to us at the time. Not until at a later time the same evening, I met another person from the same tour company on a different bus. He told me what happened at the jade shop with their group. They received the same speech and drama. What a scam! Overall, I was very disappointed with this tour. It was my first time visiting China. A bad experience. I would think twice before I go on to any China tour again. Thanks for reading. The reviews below by Angie, Josh, and Dee were all very true comments that my family can attest to them. The hotels were good at some places and bad at others, the tour guides were rude, and not caring, and the food was awful for the most part. My advice: Do not go with Charming Holiday/America Asia for China Tours! (America Asia also sells Charming Holiday tours. Charming Holiday is more like a wholeseller that many other travel agencies sell their tours. Be cautious!) read more

Do not go with Charming Holidays USA tour to Taiwan! We joined the 8 day program tour to Taiwan (CJTW8) in November 2013 and were disappointed. Value is very good BUT... FOOD: Lunch and diner were horrible. It was not enough and the taste was just bad. HOTEL: OK PROGRAM: OK but it's too much bus ride and long ride. Half of the time is sales pitch. PROGRAM CHANGE: BAD. There as a change of program and we were forced to join and paid an extra $80 per person which we did not intend to join. PICKUP: BAD. Our plane got there one hour late. The tour leader did not wait for us. We had to take a taxi to go to our hotel. DROP-OFF: The tour did not drop us off at the airport and we had to make our own arrangements to go to the airport. TIPS: We were told to pay $10 a day per person (in the U.S., it's $7 a day per person and that's for the driver and tour leader) but on the last day, the tour leader told us the $10 did not include the driver and we had to pay more. Overall, we would give NO STAR to this tour operator and would not recommend it to anyone. read more

I was join the china tour and Taiwan tour last month the tour guy was nice , the hotel is great , the agent was told me these shopping tour (Shanghai 7 day) only 49 dollar include hotel and meal , I just pay tip & admission that was a good deal , the hotel is great , everything perfect , read more

Just came back from the Charming Holiday 9 days round the Taiwan Tour. Charming has a good history of responsible tour, but all their efforts in building up this image were totally destroyed by this tour. The price was right, you can't even pay for the hotel room for that. The hotel accommodations were reasonable and the transportation was comfortable, but I guess that ended there. First, during booking we were advised about the extra admission fee and the gratuity fee. and that will be it. We were OK with it. But when we got on the tour, we found that there were additional gratuity fee. And then they wanted to sell you additional activities for extra costs. That caused problem within the tour group. The itinerary arrangement was really undesirable. They moved the itinerary such that you only have 30 minutes at the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, and the distance from the parking lot to the hall was at least 5 minutes walk. We did not have time for the exhibition nor changing of the guard. Then they tried to right the wrong by rushing us to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall for the changing of the guard ceremony. We ran to the hall just to find out the Hall was under renovation. Are they in the tour business? The itinerary scheduled us to be at the Tai Lo Kok National Park after 5, when the sun had already set. What do you expect us to see the national park when there is no light. Then they told us the park has been closed for a few days because of landslide. There were not refund for the admission fee we paid. The worst part of the tour is the tour guide who did not contribute any value to the tour other than collecting money. He kept complaining about the company's arrangement that he has to be the tour leader and the tour guide for the tour. It also appeared that he has no experience about this tour at all. He know nothing about the attractions. He disappeared the moment we arrived at an attraction. And his announcement about the tour schedule and arrangement were far from adequate. He seldom announced when the tour members are expected back to the bus, only those that will affect the end of the day schedule, so there were a lot of waiting and a lot of time wasted. The tour members had to make the habit of asking him when to come back to the bus. All in all, it was nothing more than just 6 days of bus ride ( Yes 6 days, because the first 2 days are just your travel days and pick up from the airport and the last day is just delivery to the airport.) when we were on the bus all day long. and the incompetence of the tour guide, or he called himself the tour lead, has made it a horrible trip. Charming has a lot to do to rebuild its reputation. read more

We had no fun in Miami Land Tour May 2017. We, a group of 4 people, came back from a trip to Miami 5 days tour in Florida. Everything didn't go well. The tour guide (male) missed our pickup time at the Cruise Port letting us waiting for about 1 hour and so. He also was lazy, not helping with luggage up and down from his van. He must be tired of the traffic and we understand he just helped out our designated tour guide who could not come to pick us up. On the land tour, the female guide, without prior announcement, changed the schedule of the tour and as a result, we could not make it to 2 major attractions. We were angry and she said it is the company policy. We ended up not loving our trip and will not travel with them again. During the trip on the van, the chinese passengers did lack good manners and basic social guidance: speaking too loud in chinese, rushing to get the best seats, reserving the seats for their group or family, etc.. Unfortunately, we are the only not chinese tourists in the van. One positive thing though, we do like the hotel. read more

Went on their 14 Days Enchanting Eastern Europe Tour with my parents. I gave my dad this trip as a gift for his birthday. Overall it was a great trip. I've been to Europe before with Cosmos and I was afraid of going on a group tour again because it's always fast paced and my parents are old, but it worked out well. I talked to the guide and he was able to go on our pace. The group had people of all ages and no one seemed to feel rushed, we all thought the pace was good. We saw everything just as it said on the itinerary. We didn't get any surprises. My parents made some friends on the tour as well so I was happy. The tour guide really took care of them well and the people on the group were friendly. We had a good time and would recommend them as we will be sure to travel with them again. I already told my agent to only book through them for us as we really liked their service. Looking forward to another charming trip from charming holiday! read more

We completed a 9-day tour to the southwestern Yunnan province in China recently. Best part of the tour: Size was ~20. Many super nice tour mates. Tour documents are HIGHLY INaccurate. Ms. Shao Hang of Nanjing was an unethical, aggressive, cunning, conceited, but otherwise competent tour guide. USD $120 optional tours are required; absolutely HAD to be PAID in USD, she said. Worst thing was, Ms Shao twisted my arm to attend an outside-the-4-optional tours, an evening show, "Yunnan Impression"; I had mentioned to her I had been feeling very sick. Over-exhaustion, nausea, dizziness, fatigue from messed up long flights. Only had 0.5 to 1 hour of sleep every day for a few days. I already saw the best part of the show on Youtube a while back.Rest of the show was not at all to my taste. Disturbingly loud. Some parts had very high-pitched recorded singing. Many dances had energetic, bare-chested ethnic men.Really not my thing.But not going was NOT an option. She yelled nastily, the company will have to pay RMB100 to drive me back to hotel, so I had to pay RMB 260 (or 240) & pay for the show against my will the day before the performance. The other tour members were willing to go watch it. On performance day, my nausea actually worsened. She said cheerily my ticket had been purchased & not refundable, but at that point she could get me driven back to hotel.After my ~260 payment, Shao was less hostile to me. Unsure how much of my ~260 she pocketed. Before this arm-twisting "Yunnan Impression", Shao harped incessantly of Yang Liping's superb dances for 50 mins very loudly on the bus. Yang Liping herself did NOT even performing in the actual show due to mature age. Several tour participants told me after the show, Shao made the show sound a lot more interesting than it really was. FYI Hangzhou's "Westlake Impression" is better & cheaper! The Yunnan show was completely against what Ms. Shao herself mentioned on Day 1: Our motto, we won't take you to 1 more or 1 less event. Everything is as printed. So NOT true!! Shao also harped that she won't get any of the REQUIRED USD$90 tips. IS THIS TRUE? Pressured us to pay her other tips. We paid RMB 200 /person on top of the required US$90 tips. Never had warning there'd be a required US$210 (90+120) total to be PAID IN USD. Caught some people off-guard. Hard to get more USDs in Yunnan. We were only near Yunnan Rural Bank x the whole time, not major National banks. 6 shopping stops were lengthy & arduous. Shop1 was spirulina. They serve you warm tea in paper cup after you enter a glass enclosed room. Then they close the glass door & place 2 ladies by the door. We have to sit through the entire sales presentation.. in the very cold winter room. Shop2 was a silver store (Our shopping stops are 75+ mins each) Its claim sounds unbelievable: Our silver will not tarnish. Is their silver not silver? How does silver not oxidize? Have they re-invented science? We were told to wait at 1 corner of the interior courtyard of shop smelling of foul sewage. After 50 mins we had enough; some tour members pioneered a movement to meet outside; less foul air Shops 3 to 5, Pu-erh, jade, herbal had super-aggressive sales folks. Got brought to a small enclosed room with small door. A cursory mention of how to brew pu-erh tea. They cooked it in a pot down low behind a counter; can't see anything. Many pu-erh fans take brewing seriously, use a specific "zisha, purple sand teapot", throw away the first brew, ... All skipped over because they don't sell tea wares. They only tell you about the few kinds of pu-erh they sell. I bought 357 grams. Tea ladies surrounded & hounded me to buy more repeatedly. Tour members interfered; we devised our own ways to avoid them. They used the excuse of getting people tea authenticity certificates to keep people inside the small room so they could continue the aggressive selling!! We all noticed that. Jade shop uses similar schemes. Jade ladies pestered me wherever I went. Herbs were not listed as a shopping stop in the brochure but Ms Shao disguised it as a free foot-wash service; "just perfect for us" before we had to climb some steps later that day. We were brought into an enclosed room. They sent in some "Chinese TCM doctors". Some are pompous, know-it-alls. Whatever your health condition is, they push you to buy the expensive Dong Cong Xia Cao, a panacea for all. And of course, they find problems in everyone but they spare kids; no wallets. Shop6=Silk. Our 5-STAR hotel in Lijiang had plumbing issues. Shower water backed up. Gross! Old towels with "5-Star Holes". Cockroach. A 5-Star roach? Just about ANY TRADITIONAL Chinese Restaurant "outside of the tour" is MUCH BETTER than cheapo tour ones, esp in Kunming. I'm used to Traditional Chinese foods across China. Speak several Chinese dialects AND Mandarin. The tour used very cheap restaurants.Served piles of cabbage, lettuce. Tour driver is nice. Unlike the lie-prone gold digger(s) read more

We recently went on a trip with charming holidays to parts of Hunan province and also on a Yangtze River cruise. The first segment of the tour had already gone awry, due to the fact that we were "locked up" in a silk shop to be haggled with overpriced items. That added to an unenthusiastic tour guide and TERRIBLE food, made us look forward to our cruise. But as we got our contacts for the rest of our trip, we realized that there were a mix up. When we booked the tour, we were promised the century sky, a newly refurbished ship. But our contact papers said that we were headed for the "Kai Lin" . Upon hearing about this we were horrified, since we thought that we were destined for a fate similar to the passengers on the eastern star, which sank with almost all hands. But we soon found out that the ship was in fact the Victoria lianna, which was operated by an American owned company. But upon seeing the ship, we were shocked. Compared to other ships, ours was the oldest. Although the public spaces were fine, albeit a bit small, the cabins were dark, dingy, and rusting in places. Although we tried to contact our agent, we were unable to. Due to this fact, we had no choice but to stay onboard the Lianna. The point is, Charming Holidays has proven that it is a dishonest company. Throughout the tour, there has been a general lack of transparency explaining places visited, options, and many more. There were constant changes at the last minute, too many to describe in one review, but this change broke my last straw, for we were promised a 5-star quality ship, but got a 3-star quality ship, yet we paid 5-star quality money. My general piece of advice to you is: if you want honesty and clarity with your travels, then charming holidays is not the right company, and if charming holidays does not change their habits, they would just keep loosing their customers until the day they have to close their doors read more

Charming Holiday - Silk shop in Zhangjiajie where we were "locked up" by the employees who were trying to rip us off - Travel Services Near Me - El Monte, California

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AVOID TOUR GUIDE PETER FROM CHARMING HOLIDAYS BEIJING. I went on a 8 Day tour in Beijing in the fall of 2012. Tour Guide PETER from Beijing (employee of Charming Holidays) is TERRIBLE. He is lazy, speaks for less than 10 minutes/day on the bus. He gave limited information on the history of Beijing and it's attractions while we were on the bus. What he did tell us was the bare basics, something that any person off the street would be able to tell you. On the bus, he would be anxious to be done with his short talk, then he'd fall back into his seat to rest for the remainder of the day. He'd be on his cell phone while on the bus or yapping with the driver INSTEAD OF TALKING TO us tourists on the bus. Oftentimes, when he'd fall back into his seat, he'd say "he's finished struggling through the day". I have pics of him putting his feet up on his seat. How unprofessional he was. He is LAZY. When it rained, he'd stay on the bus and leave it to us to wander around the attracitions while tour guides from other companies were walking about with their groups. If you are late joing up with the group while siteseeing, he will NOT WAIT for you. I can say for certain PETER is useless. I took a Shanghai tour and the guide was the complete opposite. The Shanghai guide spoke non-stop on the bus, telling us about Shanghai history and local customs for all 7 days. She was fantastic. If you come across PETER from Charming Holidays in Beijing, ASK FOR ANOTHER GUIDE. Peter ripped us off too, asking us pay a tip to the foot massagers, or else we won't get the massage, despite the massage being included in the itinerary and despite us all had already paid the admission/attraction fees. On the bus, we were always talking amongst ourselves because PETER WAS TOO LAZY TO DO HIS JOB. PETER RARELY SMILED. He looked as if he did not want to be there and acted as if he hated his job. He did not make our trip a pleasant one. A MAJORITY OF THE TOURISTS IN OUR GROUP DISLIKED PETER and felt he was unprofessional. By the way, he might smile at you if you buy lots of stuff from the factories he takes you to. If not, when he does talk to you, it sounds as if he's yelling at you. read more

I took the $99 China tours, one to Beijing and one to Yunnan. Hotels are excellent and all 5 stars. Food are good too since we asked the tour guide to special order the vegetarian meals for my husband and me. At first, it was just vegetable, then she added beans, squash, potatoes, egg, bitter melon and tomatoes and the meals get better each day. The transportation can be better. The seats of the van are kind of dirty and need some cleaning. The tour guides are knowledgeable and helpful. In general, I would say it is worthy. I only have 1 issue. The activities are too packed, I prefer it gives me some free time to do shopping (freely at shops of my choice then at the designated shops). read more