I recently visited Beijing, and my itinerary was put together by Kevin at CTS Tours. They are specialists in travel to Asia and especially China.
I did put them under a little bit of pressure as I hadn't finalised my flights until only a few weeks before arriving in country.
This didn't phase Kevin at all.
I was impressed by his quick service. One very useful thing to note is that CTS Tours will organise your China Visa on your behalf. You fill out the form, and they do the embassy part for you. This saves a lot of your time.
They have package tours of course, but they're also flexible. They will tailor a tour to your requirements. Where do you want to stay? What do you want to see?
Their tours include a personal guide and driver (minimum 2 people) and they'll collect you when you get through Customs in your arrival city. We arrived at 0510hrs and Renny (our guide) was there, name-card in hand, and full of energy.
Renny handled our hotel check-in, which was helpful as in Beijing, if English is spoken it's as a second language.
We appreciated the clarity around planning the days excursions. We knew when we needed to be ready by, and what we should be wearing. Our guide was very knowledgeable and on the way to the sights would give us a lot of information about what we were about to see. At the destination, more information flowed.
The driver was amazing. He didn't speak a word of English but had such a great sense of humour. I do recommend that unless you're a motoring talent, let the locals drive you around. In Beijing road markings are more guidelines and there is a chaos (with an underlying sense of order). Unless you KNOW how the chaos works, you'll probably hurt yourself!
We loved not having to think. It made the trip more relaxing and enjoyable. Renny looked after all tickets and access. She was also able to add things on the fly as we decided to change aspects of the itinerary.
She looked after us right up to going through the gates to the departure lounge. Amazing service.
At Target Travel we are careful with choosing great travel partners. CTS Tours is one of those and we recommend them wholeheartedly.
^sd