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[Cinderella's Slipper 2015]

I was reading the ABD itinerary in more detail last night and almost half of the dinners are on your own. This puzzled me a bit because it seems like a lot of on your own time. I like a bit of OYO time, but also enjoy spending the evening meal sharing travel stores and recounting the day with our fellow travelers.

However we can only do this trip over Christmas and ABD has the trip that fits our schedule and visits all 3 countries, so we have it booked. It will be interesting to see how this much OYO time pans out for us. Hopefully we will be able to share most of the 'alone' dinners with others in our group (this is what we have done in the past).

I wanted to add that I LOVE the elephant puzzle. Do you recall where you bought it? It will be a must have item for me to get for my nephews (and maybe one for myself!).

I don't remember the exact store but it was on the main shopping street in Luang Prabang. We were wandering up and down the street and looking in the shops. They had a number of them sitting out on display.

 

[YodasMom]

Try looking at G Adventures. They are open to single travelers and they run a number of Nat Geo's Journeys trips. They are also quite a bit cheaper but still offer the quality, otherwise Nat Geo wouldn't partner with them. We're actually considering one of their train trips through Europe.

Also, with Nat Geo, as a single traveler, if you're willing to share with another single of the same sex, they wave the single supplement. And as for being a single traveler with Nat Geo and what category you should take, it's completely up to you. We had 2 on our trip. 1 was a younger lady in her mid-twenties and one was an older gentleman in his mid fifties. They did a lot of touring together, except in Ha Noi, when she came with us to go shopping.

YodasMom, if you are active, you might also look at the hiking trips offered by National Geographic Adventures. On England Coast to Coast, there were several single travelers in our group, and there were two on Hiking the Emerald Isle. England Coast to Coast had a slightly older demographic (at least on our departure). CaliforniaGirl09 and I were the youngest by a significant margin in our late 40s. But we thoroughly enjoyed the group and are super excited that one couple (in their early 60s) will be joining us on our Patagonia Hiking Adventure later this year. In Ireland, there were a couple of women celebrating their 50th birthdays and also a younger professional who was probably in her late 30s or early 40s.

Thanks for the info! I will check these out this weekend!!!

 

[YodasMom]

We did Costa Rica with G Adventures/National Geographic earlier this year. I am still raving about that tour. It was incredible, and it is one of the top three tours for quality and adventure that I have ever done.

I'm really lucky with Costa Rica travel! My brother and sister-in-law moved there for an adventure in 1999 and still live there, so essentially my primary cost is airfare. Gorgeous country and beautiful people!

 

[DCPhotoGal]

I don't want to discourage you from taking the ABD trip because everyone needs to make up their own minds about which tour operator to travel with but I know for us, because we seriously looked at the ABD trip, one of the deciding factors against ABD was the amount of on your own time that came with the trip and the fact that we would be paying for that, not just with the cost of the trip but the fact that we would be expected to pay our guides for that time. Plus any activities we wanted to do outside of the resort in Hoi An, we'd have to pay for separately. This didn't really appeal to us and while Nat Geo was more expensive at the outset, when we broke it down on a daily basis as to what we felt we were getting out of the trip, we found Nat Geo was actually the lower cost per day. Plus, it depends on where you want to go. The major selling point for my mom was the 2 days out on Ha Long Bay on a wooden junk (boat). For me it was the extensive temple touring in Cambodia even though I fell in love with Vietnam.

Thanks, that's all really helpful to consider! I agree about the on your own time, I'm not a big fan of too much of it. One of our biggest draws to ABD is that my kids like spending time with the other kids. Coordinating with other families for OYO dinners can get a little complicated.

 

[AquamarineSteph]

I'm really lucky with Costa Rica travel! My brother and sister-in-law moved there for an adventure in 1999 and still live there, so essentially my primary cost is airfare. Gorgeous country and beautiful people!

OMG, I don't understand why more people don't go to Costa Rica. It is INCREDIBLE!

 

[Calfan]

Well, almost a year later, I finally finished making a photo book of our Wonders of China trip with Thomson Family Adventures. (I actually ran out of pages just as I got to the end of the Thomson portion of the trip, so I'll have to do a mini volume 2 for the two days we added on in Shanghai for Shanghai Disneyland.) For those interested in or thinking about Thomson, I thought I would share the photo book to give a sense of what a Thomson trip is like (at least the China itinerary): Very active and packed with activities, with a smaller traveling group. Down time was kept to a minimum on this itinerary, which is what I prefer from my group travel. All meals except for one OYO dinner in Shanghai were included. Note that the Thomson portion of the trip in the photo book begins with the Great Wall in Beijing. We had one full pre-day in Beijing which we used to visit the Summer Palace and a couple of other sites on a private tour with The China Guide. That preceded our welcome dinner with Thomson, but somehow I didn't take any pictures at the dinner.

I'm hoping this link works. It might require a Shutterfly login to access. You might also need to copy and paste the URL into your browser.

https://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=b6628d5912e9d892&sid=0AZOGzRi3ctnLlI

 

[EllinK]

Excited to see your photos. Link didn't work for me...

 

[Calfan]

Excited to see your photos. Link didn't work for me...

Sorry the link didn't work for you. If you PM me your email address, I can share with you that way.

 

[sayhello]

Did not work for me, either. PM'd you.

Sayhello

 

[Cousin Orville]

Sent a PM as well.

 

[Calfan]

Well, almost a year later, I finally finished making a photo book of our Wonders of China trip with Thomson Family Adventures. (I actually ran out of pages just as I got to the end of the Thomson portion of the trip, so I'll have to do a mini volume 2 for the two days we added on in Shanghai for Shanghai Disneyland.) For those interested in or thinking about Thomson, I thought I would share the photo book to give a sense of what a Thomson trip is like (at least the China itinerary): Very active and packed with activities, with a smaller traveling group. Down time was kept to a minimum on this itinerary, which is what I prefer from my group travel. All meals except for one OYO dinner in Shanghai were included. Note that the Thomson portion of the trip in the photo book begins with the Great Wall in Beijing. We had one full pre-day in Beijing which we used to visit the Summer Palace and a couple of other sites on a private tour with The China Guide. That preceded our welcome dinner with Thomson, but somehow I didn't take any pictures at the dinner.

I'm hoping this link works. It might require a Shutterfly login to access. You might also need to copy and paste the URL into your browser.

https://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=b6628d5912e9d892&sid=0AZOGzRi3ctnLlI

Can't get the link to work. Sorry! I can share directly with interested folks if you PM me and provide an email address.

 

[Cousin Orville]

Great pictures! It brings back fun memories. The bike ride on the Xi'an wall and tour down into the caves in Guilin looks neat. That's not something we did on the ABD.

 

[LuckyBelle1]

We are currently deciding between ABD and Thomson for a China trip next year and I would love to see your photos. I am not sure how to send a PM... do I need to have a certain number of posts in order to do that?

 

[Calfan]

Great pictures! It brings back fun memories. The bike ride on the Xi'an wall and tour down into the caves in Guilin looks neat. That's not something we did on the ABD.

Thanks! It was fun to relive the trip while putting the book together.

One thing I really liked about the Thomson itinerary was spending two nights in Xi'an rather than flying in and out the same day, which allowed for the bike ride, the dumpling making and the visit to the Han tomb, as well as spending three nights in Yangshuo, which I think is one more than the ABD spends in Guilin. Yangshuo was my favorite part of the trip, and I really appreciated having extra time there for the hike, bike ride, rafting trip, cave visit, cooking school, etc. Of course, the trade off with the ABD is that the Thomson trip does not go to Hong Kong, which I would really like to see at some point, but my preference was to maximize the time on mainland China since it is quite likely to be my only trip there. Hopefully I can pick up Hong Kong around another Asian trip. And, of course, we had to do Shanghai Disneyland on our own, but that worked out fine for us taking the subway from Shanghai and doing a VIP private tour on one of our two park days.

 

[Calfan]

We are currently deciding between ABD and Thomson for a China trip next year and I would love to see your photos. I am not sure how to send a PM... do I need to have a certain number of posts in order to do that?

I believe the minimum number of posts for a PM is 10, so you should be able to do it. I'll send you a PM now that you can respond to. You will likely receive an email notification of the private conversation. Otherwise, there is an Inbox tab at the top right of your DISBoards screen where you can access your messages.

 

[Cousin Orville]

Thanks! It was fun to relive the trip while putting the book together.

One thing I really liked about the Thomson itinerary was spending two nights in Xi'an rather than flying in and out the same day, which allowed for the bike ride, the dumpling making and the visit to the Han tomb, as well as spending three nights in Yangshuo, which I think is one more than the ABD spends in Guilin. Yangshuo was my favorite part of the trip, and I really appreciated having extra time there for the hike, bike ride, rafting trip, cave visit, cooking school, etc. Of course, the trade off with the ABD is that the Thomson trip does not go to Hong Kong, which I would really like to see at some point, but my preference was to maximize the time on mainland China since it is quite likely to be my only trip there. Hopefully I can pick up Hong Kong around another Asian trip. And, of course, we had to do Shanghai Disneyland on our own, but that worked out fine for us taking the subway from Shanghai and doing a VIP private tour on one of our two park days.

That sounds like a good comparison between the 2 trips. More time in Guilin would have been nice. It was beautiful there. More time in Shanghai would have been great too.

 

[sayhello]

Loved your photos! It looks like you had a great trip! Thanks for sharing!!

Sayhello

 

[Calfan]

Loved your photos! It looks like you had a great trip! Thanks for sharing!!

Sayhello

Thanks! I'm looking forward to your trip report once you've completed your trip.

 

[sayhello]

Thanks! I'm looking forward to your trip report once you've completed your trip.

Thanks! All I need to do now is survive the flights! I know it will be a fabulous trip!

Sayhello

 

[CaliKris]

Thanks so much for sharing your China photo book. It looks like it was an amazing trip! Love your photos of Guilin and the pandas in Chengdu. Can't wait for our trip!