This tour was an incredible experience from start to finish. The itinerary was well-planned, and we got to see so many amazing places. It was a perfect mix of adventure and relaxation. Will cherish these memories forever!
The hotel where we stayed the second night was horrible! It even had cockroaches! Bus air condition broke down and overall this trip needs to be reviewed by management.
Todo muy bien. Debería haber al menos un punto de encuentro más en algún área más céntrica. Nuestra guía en español Brenda, fue muy amable y excelente en todo momento. Estamos muy agradecidos con ella.
Todo muy bien. Debería haber al menos un punto de encuentro más en algún área más céntrica. Nuestra guía en español Brenda, fue muy amable y excelente en todo momento. Estamos muy agradecidos con ella.
100% Wonderful tour spoiled by petulant tour guide
By: Anonymous | Wed Sep 13, 2023 at 12.00 AM
If I could give the tour guide zero stars, I would have. We did, however, have a different guide/driver for Yosemite, and HE was terrific - a complete contrast to the main guide. The first guide, whose name I don't even want to remember, se..emed to hate his job and dislike the tourists on his bus more. He was rude, unpleasant and should not have been in a position of influence (where he could demand the tip and allocate seats and hotel rooms). He spoiled an otherwise fairly great trip. When joining up with the main bus after Yosemite, my family actually felt apprehensive about seeing the main guide again! [2 kids, 2 parents] The guide would use threats to get the passengers back onto the bus on time - "You will have to pay for a taxi to get to our next destination as the bus will not wait for you!" I know what time to return to the bus and will be there unless prevented by an emergency. I don't need lots of threats nor do I appreciate them. Pity he could not restrain his disdain for us passengers. He also seemed to have a deal with a particular Chinese restaurant/complex whereby he would highly recommend it and park the bus close to it, giving the impression there were no other places to eat. It wasn't until the second night at the same location that we found non-Chinese restaurants to eat in with our kids! There were lots of other options, cheaper, with salads and English menus - you just had to walk further away, but when you arrive disoriented at 2030 for dinner, you haven't the energy to search a strange location in the dark. The bus trip entailed lots of freeway travel but once you arrived at your destinations, it appeared worth all the traffic snarls. The bus driver was not the best driver, once reaching speeds of 123km/h (we could see the speedometer from our seat) - scary stuff when you realise that a traffic jam is immediately ahead and strenuous braking was necessary to stop (yes, the traffic was that bad). One of our party got sick from his constant accelerate/decelerate method of driving as it is like push/pull, push/pull on your stomach! Far better to just accelerate in a gradual, smooth drive-style (I have driven a bus). Going down one hill, he had to stop the bus half-way due to stinking smoke in the cabin and it turned out to be he had burned the bus's brake pads! No-one was impressed and some passengers were really fearful. Did not use lower gears to slow the bus, justl rode the brake. The very early starts were not worth it in every case - many passengers said they'd rather sleep an extra hour than visit Stanford University at 0700, particularly as no description of any buildings was provided by the guide. You were just expected to wander through empty university avenues and figure it out for yourself. The tour was not very expensive in comparison to other tour companies and I take that into consideration when writing this review. You pay for what you get. The hotels were pretty good for the prices; one even had a good breakfast buffet, which you sadly couldn't take much advantage of as you had to be finished at around 0610. Heating & coffee machine didn't work sometimes, but otherwise clean. Now, more about the actual tour: San Francisco was fantastic - the harbor cruise with earphone-guided commentary is worth doing twice! Yosemite in full snow at -4 degrees C was magnificent, but our friends who did the 17 mile drive also had positive things to say about that option. I would happily have stayed much, much longer or even overnight in Yosemite, though, as it was so beautiful, stunning and unusual. Solvang was interesting and wish we could have stayed longer (maybe 1 hour more) there also. The Santa Barbara stop was disappointing as all you got to see was a car park by the beach with conveniently-located rest rooms. You could briefly walk along a stretch of beach that was not very attractive, near a drainage area. No coffee stop, unfortunately. Call a toilet stop a toilet stop, not a destination stop. Be very aware that this particular tour is conducted in Mandarin with 2/3 commentary in that Chinese language and 1/3 of the commentary conducted in English. It was not the same as even with my limited vocabulary, I noticed that there were whole chunks of descriptions missing when the guide spoke English - and English always came second, except with the short-trip guide - even though many of the Chinese passengers spoke English as well. Just because the ratio of Chinese passengers to non-Chinnese passengers was 1 to 5 does not mean you should get a lesser tour as we all paid the same amount of money for this tour! Such a shame that my memories of this tour are so colored by the less-than-ideal guide! He really should get a job in a non-service industry as he seemed so bitter and twisted in his current employment. We would recommend this tour but would be extremely hesitant to do it again ourselves for fear of getting THAT guide! Without him, the tour would have been great, even with the clearly overseas-taught bus driver (i.e. Not up to US standards).Read full review
We probably visited the most interesting places the chosen region offers. All the guides on our bus were excellent and Nadine helped us with German. Great job of a prepared team! Some of the hotels could offer a bit better infrastructure fo..r their guests, but in general they were good. Special thanks to Nadine Brenda, Roberto and Hylo.Read full review
We probably visited the most interesting places the chosen region offers. All the guides on our bus were excellent and Nadine helped us with German. Great job of a prepared team! Some of the hotels could offer a bit better infrastructure fo..r their guests, but in general they were good. Special thanks to Nadine Brenda, Roberto and Hylo.Read full review
Hi there! I'm a 18-year old girl from Germany and I booked this tour for the 17th to the 19th of february 2016 and it was great! My pick up place was 99 Ranch Market in Artesia, unfortenately the bus was not on time so a van got there to br..ing me to a bus of seagulls holiday (the tour is not run by tours4fun, you only book it here), which brought me to Downtown Los Angeles. There I changed to "my" bus, which brought me to San Francisco. In the first bus that drove to Los Angeles, I was the only non asian person, which was kind of weird. The actual bus had about 40 passenger and with me there were 5 non Asians. So more than average is Asian people, but of course that's fine - but take it literally. The first hotel we stayed in San Jose was the red lion, I was impressed of the hotel, I expectet a very low level, but it was absolutely great! The second hotel was in another town so I had to pack my stuff. We always started early, so don't expect to sleep until 8am. I'm happy there were toilett breaks at least every 2 h , so that was no problem at all :) There was also always a possibility to buy meals at a supermarket or go to a restaurant. Unfortunetly the road to yosemite was closed, so we did the 17 mile drive instead. But I would have totally preffered yosemite. I've been there before so I have a comparison. But 17 miles drive is beautiful though :) The guide was also asian but spoke "broken" english, but he was really nice and kind. All in all I totally enjoyed my trip and I would definitely recommend it :) But it's hard alone, of course it's always nicer with a partner, but mine was at home studying :D San Francisco is such a awesome city, you definitely have to go there!Read full review
Hi there! I'm a 18 year old girl from Germany and I went to San Francisco from 17th to 19th of february. My pickup point was 99 Ranch Market Artesia, unfortunetlely the bus was not on time so a van picked me up and brought me to a bus, wher..e I was the only non Asian person. This bus brought me to Downtown LA, where I changed to "my" bus. But there where also a lot of Chinese people, 5 of 45 where non Asians, including me. Our guide was asian but spoke broken english. He was very nice and kind :) There was a toilett breack at least every 2h, so that was no problem. There was also always a possibility to buy some food. The first night we stayed at the red lion, a very fancy hotel! I didn't expect the hotel so nice! The day in SF was soooo lovely, it's such a nice city! Unfortunetly we couldn't go to yosmite, because the road was closed because of snow... :( Instead we did the 17 mile drive, which was very beautiful, but compared to yosemite (I've been there 2009 with my family) it's much less amazing... but the trip was nice though :) So all in all I had a nice time, although I don't think I am going to doing it alone again, because sometimes I felt a little bit lonely. But that's not their fault. But take the amount of Asian literally! Have a great time!Read full review
If you are reading these reviews deciding whether or not to go on the tour, I'll save you the time and say DO IT!! This tour is well worth it. You visit so many places in such little time. Our tour guide Kevin was great. Accommodation for t..he 2 nights was surprisingly good. Tour is done predominantly in Chinese because the tourist that take this tour are mainly Chinese but Kevin did translate everything and made us feel welcomedRead full review
George was a great tour guide, the main inconvenience to me is that I don't speak CHINESE!!!' When I booked the reservation I did ask if they will have English translation! Very disappointed it was minimum