We just returned from the Thomson Family Adventures Wonders of China trip, and it was fantastic. Since this is an ABD site, I’m not going to post a trip report. But for those looking at alternatives to ABD, I thought it might be helpful to provide some general thoughts on pros/cons of Thomson vs. ABD based on our experience and also to provide some specific thoughts on the China itineraries for anyone considering China.
Group size – This one definitely goes in favor of Thomson, at least in my opinion. We had 10 people on our Wonders of China trip (our family of four plus another family of six), and I loved loved loved the smaller group experience (compared to 34 on our Scotland ABD in 2013, 42 on our Central Europe ABD in 2014 and 49 on our Baltics cruise add-on ABD in 2015). Everything was just so much more efficient, from taking family photos to bathroom breaks, and I really think the time saved due to this efficiency allowed us to do more in the way of sightseeing and activities. Our days were very full in a good way. I never had the sense that time was being wasted due to the logistics of dealing with a larger group. Of course, it helped that we were very compatible with the other family, and our kids really enjoyed spending time with their kids. I might have felt differently about things if we did not get along with the others in our small group. Regardless, knowing how great the small group experience can be, I definitely see myself defaulting to smaller group options in the future, most likely Thomson (capped at around 20) or NatGeo (capped at 25 for their family trips), depending on which itinerary I like best.
Guide ratio – This is another solid win for Thomson. We had two full-time guides for our group of 10 (a main guide and an assistant guide who also acted as a rafiki for the kids). (Thomson provides a rafiki for any family group of eight or more.) In addition, we added a local guide in every city other than Beijing. (Both of our full-time guides live in Beijing, so there was no need to add local knowledge there.) Each local guide met us at the airport with the bus, attended every activity/event/meal with us while we were in that city and took us back to the airport when it was time to move on to the next city. So it was really like having three guides in Xi’an, Chengdu, Yangshuo and Shanghai. Much more so than the step-on guides that ABD uses locally where, at least in my experience to date, that guide is with the group for just one event or city tour. As a side note, my family extended our stay in Shanghai for a couple of extra days so we could go to Shanghai
Disneyland. Our transfer back to the airport was provided by Thomson, and they had our local guide from Shanghai meet us at our hotel with a driver to take us to the airport. She stayed with us through the airline check-in process (pretty critical in China) and left us as we headed to security.
Hotels – This one goes in the ABD column. With the exception of our hotel in Yangshuo, the Thomson hotels were all 5-star hotels, but I think in the cases of Beijing and Shanghai, the Thomson hotels were a notch down from what ABD offers in terms of luxury and location (Shanghai). In Beijing, Thomson stays at the Renaissance Capital Beijing, and ABD stays at the Rosewood. The Renaissance was a very nice hotel with an amazing breakfast buffet, but I suspect the Rosewood is nicer. Both are located in the Central Business District (CBD) in Beijing. In Shanghai, Thomson now uses the Regal Shanghai East Asia Hotel, and I wasn’t terribly impressed given that it is supposedly a 5-star hotel. Our room had a smoke smell when we first checked in, and everything in our room looked a bit worn. In addition, I would have much preferred a location near the Bund, which is where ABD stays, instead of where the Regal is located in the French Concession. Both Thomson and ABD stay at the Ritz Carlton Chengdu, which is one of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed at, so they are even there. The China ABD does not actually stay in Xi’an (it flies in and out the same day), so no comparison there. (Thomson uses the Hilton Xi’an, which is a very nice hotel with a great location inside the old city of Xi’an.). In Yangshuo, Thomson uses what I would say is a 3-star hotel, but they chose it based on its location in the heart of Yangshuo. ABD uses the Ritz Carlton Guilin, which I’m sure is a fabulous hotel, but given all we did in Yangshuo, I would much prefer to be located there, rather than in Guilin. I will note that Wi-Fi was included everywhere we stayed, which has not always been my experience with ABD.
Baggage handling – This one is going to be a matter of preference. I tip in favor of Thomson here, but I suspect many might not agree with me. With Thomson, we were responsible for taking our bags up to our room after check-in and for bringing them back down to the lobby on check-out day. Since all of our hotels had elevators, this wasn’t much of a hardship. It did not involve lugging heavy suitcases up and down stairs, for example. And the guides did offer us the use of porters, but we always declined so we would not have to wait for our luggage to be brought up. While the ideal would be what I experienced on my NatGeo England Coast to Coast trip (bags left in room upon departure from hotel and waiting in next hotel room upon arrival), if I can’t have that, I prefer the way Thomson does it to ABD’s early morning bag pulls and having to wait for luggage to be delivered at the next hotel.
Beverages and snacks – Tie. We had unlimited access to bottled water on the bus, and two bottles of water were provided every day in each hotel room. (My family of four had two rooms.) The guides also always had snacks available, although it was mostly the kids who indulged in these, as our meals were ample, and all meals except for two dinners were included in the trip. Beer, wine and sodas were included in all but a couple of lunches/dinners.
Photos – I’d call this a tie too. Both our guides were taking pictures, and while there isn’t a process for accessing the guide pictures like ABD has, both guides were air dropping or emailing pictures to us throughout the trip. I actually preferred this since I got pictures real-time for purposes of Facebook posts, etc. They always took pictures with our own cameras when asked as well, and with only two families on the trip, the picture taking process wasn’t the time sink it can sometimes be with ABD.
So that is my assessment of the general differences between Thomson and ABD. If there is some category I haven’t covered above, please feel free to ask.
With regard to a specific comparison of the Thomson and ABD China itineraries, I think this one is largely going to come down to how much you prioritize spending time in the parks with ABD (Hong Kong and Shanghai Disneyland) and in including Hong Kong in your itinerary. If your priority is the parks and in hitting Hong Kong, then ABD is clearly the right choice. If your emphasis is on more substantive sightseeing and activities in mainland China, then Thomson is the way to go (based purely on itinerary; obviously the factors above need to be weighed in).
The Thomson trip is two days longer than the ABD trip and does not include Hong Kong. (I would definitely like to go to Hong Kong and considered adding on extra days to do that, but once Shanghai Disneyland came into the mix, we decided to add on two extra days for Shanghai Disneyland. I felt like I would have other opportunities to get to Hong Kong (likely in conjunction with a Southeast Asia trip or a Japan trip, both of which are on the radar), but that I was much less likely to go back to mainland China, so my priority was doing as much as possible there.) With the two extra trip days and not hitting Hong Kong, the Thomson trip is able to spend two nights in Xi’an (where the ABD flies in and out the same day) and three nights in Yangshuo. To me, these are the critical difference makers in the itineraries that tip me in favor of Thomson (both in the booking and in the experience). I loved seeing the Terra Cotta warriors in Xi’an, but I also really enjoyed the other things we did there (bike riding on the 600 year old walls of the old city, visiting the excavation site of the tomb of the Han Emperor (which was an unexpected gem) and a dumpling tasting dinner. (Note that with Thomson, we did not have a private viewing of the Terra Cotta warriors; I believe ABD says it has a private viewing, which would definitely be a plus. I was able to see everything I wanted to with the warriors and got great access for photos, but not without a little pushing and shoving to worm my way into a prime viewing spot. Not having to do this would be a plus.) Having more time in Yangshuo was also a difference maker, since this turned out to be my favorite area of China that we visited. With three nights there, we were able to pack in all kinds of fun activities like a hike up Moon Hill, bike riding on the Li River, bamboo rafting on the Li River, touring Silver Cave, attending a cooking class (which turned out to be super fun), getting a cormorant fishing demonstration, having a Tai Chi lesson, and attending a show. I also have to say that four internal flights in China were more than enough, LOL. I was actually glad by the end of the trip that we weren’t adding a fifth internal flight for Hong Kong (but, again, Hong Kong is a place that I would definitely like to go).
I suspect the panda experience might be better with ABD than with Thomson, although this is another trade-off. With Thomson, we saw the pandas in a very natural environment, which meant we weren’t able to get too close to them (although I did end up getting some fantastic pictures). We also did not have anyone at the Panda center accompanying us or giving us specific information about the pandas, which I would have liked. If we had done just the pandas on that day, I might have been a little disappointed with the experience. But part of the reason Thomson uses the panda center it does is because of its location in Bifengxia Gorge. After seeing the pandas, we hiked back down through the gorge, which was awesome. Very lush and green with waterfalls everywhere. That experience kind of made the panda experience that went along with it. In fact, the Bifengxia Gorge hike was my DD’s favorite part of our China trip!
The Thomson China itinerary has very little on your own time, which for me was a big positive, but might not be the case for everyone. On most days, we usually had a couple of hours (or at least an hour and a half) between the end of the day’s activities and dinner, which could be used to hit the pool, shower (essential after being out in the heat all day), etc. but usually not enough time to go out and do any additional sightseeing on your own. I personally dislike having a lot of on your own time in a group travel experience. If I’m paying for a tour, I want to maximize my sightseeing and activity time with the tour and not have to organize additional things on my own. But in China, I think this factor gets exacerbated. The traffic in the cities (particularly Beijing) is astounding and pedestrians do not have the right of way, to the point where I think it can be physically unsafe to venture out on your own. We also found it surprisingly difficult to order a meal even at a Pizza Hut on our first night in Beijing when we came in a day early, due to language barriers. I see that the ABD itinerary has an on your own afternoon in Beijing on the first day there, an on your own dinner and evening in Beijing on the second day there and another on your own afternoon in Beijing on the third day there. From my standpoint that is a lot of on your own time in a city that I don’t think is very conducive to navigating on your own. And we’re not a family that shies away from doing things on our own. On our Central Europe ABD, we spent four extra days in Prague and walked all over the city, used the subway system, etc. Likewise, in Shanghai, we walked to the subway station from our hotel and took the subway to Shanghai Disneyland on our own. So we aren’t generally nervous about navigating a city on our own. Beijing is just a different animal based on the incredible traffic, extremely crowded subways and significant language barriers.
That’s really all I think of in terms of significant differences between the two itineraries for China. Again, if there is some point I haven’t addressed, or if you have specific questions, please let me know.
They also have a *much* more adventurous zipline that goes up into the surrounding mountains.
