Compass Holidays Tracking Order Status

We booked a tour on Globerouter website, but, apparently, it was a mediatory company so that at the end, you end up with some other company taking you to the chosen destinations. Unfortunately, our experience with Compass Holidays was not that great. As we have traveled by bus around Europe a lot with different travel agencies, we had already the vision of what it is and what to expect. But what we got with Globeretour and their partner Compass Holidays, was a completely different experience. We booked a 3-day trip to Quebec-Montreal-Ottawa. At first, you book a tour and then you have to pay additional fees for the bus driver and tour guide. SERIOUSLY? Can a tour go without a bus driver? It's ridiculous how some companies try to lower the price. Then, the bus... It was NOT good at all. Chairs are broken and the A/C was broken and a huge flow of air was blowing into my father's face. So the driver had to switch off one type of A/C and turn on from the side. The guide... We paid for the ENGLISH tour, but ended up with the Chinese-English tour. In this order... 65% of the info was in Chinese and 35% in English. The guide we paid additional money for did not do ANY walking tour with you in the museums. The only benefit from her was that she was telling us where the WC is and where and at what time we meet. Food - well, imagine 4 out of 5 restaurants were Chinese buffet.... That's exactly what we wanted on the trip to Quebec-Montreal-Ottawa... Chinese food. Not French, not Canadian. Ridiculous. Hotel - was okay. The only thing - it's very far from downtown, so you can walk there. Which is a minus, as we wanted to explore smth as we didn't see much on the first day. Food provided by hotel was very basic (muffin, apple and juice). Bare in mind that each destination you go to, there will be veeery little time to see anything. Basically, you spend the majority driving and won't see much. They also put some museums that you spend time on and won't see the city much. We were very disappointed with the trip and have very poor overall experience..

I had a great time in China for such a low price I paid. It was well worth it. It was a shopping trip but they did not pressure me into buying anything. Eventhough it was a shopping trip, we still had time to explore China such as going to The Great Wall, The Summer Palace, The Three Kingdoms, etc. The trip was very well organized. They were quick with the China Visa process. They were quick with answering any questions I had either by phone or email. (Jamie provided me with excellent services!) They were very organized with the flight tickets, meeting me at the airport, transferring me to the hotel and completing the itinerary as planned. The English tour guides were very friendly and knowledgeable about the history and culture of China. All the hotels they put me in were 4-or 5-stars, very nice and modern. The people in Beijing and Shanghai were very nice even though they didn't speak English.

This was our second trip to China. Once with a different company and this past September with Compass. Overall the trip was good, with one very big complaint being the tour guide in Beijing. Leon was a very poor tour guide. He did not give informative information at all. Example at The Forbidden Palace he walked us down the sides in a rush, did not explain any of the history. He did not wait for the people in wheelchairs or the slower people and just barrelled along. When asked a question, he would reply "later, not now, later". There never was a later, and he did not give any information about China while travelling long hours on the bus. He got angry with people in the group at times for not joining his optional tours, and treated people badly for it, and he even outright lied to us at one point. He was a terrible tour guide. Glad we went to Beijing first and had the rest of the trip with an incredible tour guide who made our trip very fun, informative and memorable. Compass Holidays should not use Leon if they hope to have repeat customers.

Took my son on the 10 day Compass Holidays tour of Beijing, Shanghai, Wuxi, Suzhou and Hangzhou. First day at the Summer Palace, we were 3 minutes late getting back to the meeting spot (I timed it) but the tour guide, May, left us. We were stranded, alone in this city of 24 million, not knowing where the heck we were. We had no way of contacting her, no money having just arrived less than 12 hours earlier. Only thing saved me was the hotel's card that I had wisely taken with me and we were able to track her down. Very irresponsible, She was only interested in getting to the Chinese pharmacy where, I am told everyone was enticed to spend lots of money. No apology, nothing from her after, I wonder if she realized just how harrowing an experience it was for us? Trip was mostly geared towards shopping, shopping and shopping. All optional tours were way over priced, at least double the cost had I booked it by myself. Most optional tours were also not interesting at all. After wasting 2 hours in the Chinese pharmacy, we were hustled through the Forbidden Palace, in what should have been one of the high points of the trip, in less than an hour. At least we were able to spend enough time at the Great Wall. Optional tour to go to the observation tower in Shanghai was also silly. It was the 3rd highest building, my son and I opted out, instead walked next door and went to the highest building in Shanghai (the tour guide had said it was closed which was nonsense). Everyday spent at least four hours at a shopping venue, 2 jade shops, silk, pearl and tea places as well. Highlight of the tour was the 5 star hotels we stayed at each night and then our only free time which was at night when we would go out to eat on our own. In retrospect, I would say it would be better to spend more money on a tour that would show us more, take us to more interesting places rather than just the shopping experience, which is what this largely was. In each Shanghai and in Beijing, there was only one tour guide for about 40 people. The tour guide, especially in Beijing, would walk forward seldom looking back seemingly uncaring if anyone would get lost. We quickly started to look out for each other but she couldn't care less. Each day the shop we had visited would feed us a free lunch and that was very mediocre. It would have been much better if we were allowed to buy our own food in a restaurant rather than eat the slop that was served us.

I just came back from the 10-days China tour. I would say it is worth to go to China for just $1200 including air tickets with my wife even through it including shopping sites. I spent about $500 for shopping and $200 for the others like food..... The total cost for me and my wife was about $2000. I would say worth. We did't expect too much. Just went to China and Looked around.