I enjoyed the day's excursion but there were a lot of things that need improvement. They are as follows 1. Tour was late picking us up. They had said that they would be at the port by 8:30. They were at least 20 minutes late. 2. We were told that we would have the larger van but we got the 6 person van. We were lucky that everyone keep the luggage to a minimum. 3. Van was dirty. Windows should have been washed. 4. Tour guide did not wear her tags 5. Lunch was the worst tour excursion meal I have ever eaten. Only one dish had meat and it was mainly fat (pork hock) and very small. Other plates were cheap food and poor quality. Only one small pot of tea was offered. No beer or soft drinks as per usual meals for excursions. Guide reluctantly provided one small bottle of water when asked. 6. No water was provided for the excursion itself...
The tour was great. We are two started at 9 am and arrived back to our hotel at 5.30 pm. I just noticed there is a silk museum in Suzhou, perhaps instead of going to silk factory we would prefer a silk museum if the itinerary would not be so rigid. Would recommend to take this private tour to visit Suzhou...
The tour to Suzhou - the private tour guide came to fetch us at about 9 am in a private vehicle and there were just the 2 of us in the tour. We arrived in Suzhou at 10.30am (the driver was going very fast!). We covered Han Shan temple in 30 minutes. When I asked the guide whether this is called Chilly Hill Temple he said yes, the name in Chinese is Han Shan Shi. We then went to Tiger Hill and completed the tour at about 12 noon. As we had seen Silk Factories before we asked the guide to take us to the Emboidery Museum instead. He accomodated the request and we were pleased with that. At 1pm we went for lunch. After lunch at about 2pm we went to the Humble Administrator\'s Garden. We completed the Garden at 3:20pm. We then went to the Suzhou Museum was just 50 meters away. Finally we set off for Shanghai at 3.45pm arriving at our hotel at 5:30pm...
The tour is very misleading as you think you are visiting a little village in the middle of nowhere,where in fact you are visiting a very busy city !! - saying that,however,we really enjoyed the day and would recommend the tour to everyone.One thing extra we would have prefered is a little more time to browse through the shops for souviners.Our tour guide was named Appul and she was lovely !! - i think we were one of her 1st tours she had ever been on and she said at the end she had been very nervous but we wouldn't have known !! she was very knowledgable and spoke very good English.Well done !!..
The Suzhou Tour was a good tour but not a great tour. Our driver and tour guide were very good and knowlegable about the history of the area. We found the info very interesting. The drive is 1-2 hours in heavy traffic and not into the country like we expected. The garden tour was very crowded and not enjoyable at all. We cut that part short with our guide. We did like the silk factory, extremely interesting and good prices on silk products. Well worth our money spent on this tour...
I booked this tour thinking it would be great to get out of the huge city of Shanghai into the countryside for a day. In fact, Suzhou is not a country town, it is also a city, and reached after 1-2 hours of highway driving through suburbs and outskirts of Shanghai. The gardens that we visited are very pleasant and tranquil. The silk factory tour is only a demonstration site (the real factory is out of the city) of spinning silk fabric from the silkworm cacoons, but still interesting. Expect you to buy products from the \'factory\' shop. Prices & quality is good. The \'western\' buffet lunch at the silk factory restuarant is good. After lunch the Tiger Hill ancient site is very interesting. Remember to buy any souvenirs or take photos as you pass the colourful entrance market stalls, as the tour is one way, exiting through the back gate. I do recommend this tour if you want to escape Shanghai for a day, but don\'t expect countryside village scenes. My wife & I were the only ones on the tour, with a driver & English speaking guide...
