Harbin Ice Festival - 11 days

Customer Reviews

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  Craig

  · November 17th, 2019
  Awesome trip - I highly recommend it. Walking on the Great Wall of China on Christmas - what a fantastic memory and experience!
  

  On The Go Tours commented on this review

  Thankyou very much for taking the time to provide feedback on your recent trip with On The Go Tours. We are pleased you had a wonderful time. Feedback in very important to us to not only congratulate our teams who have done a wonderful job but to also... Show more
  Trip date: December 2017
• RL

  Rima

  · January 13th, 2019
  First, Lisa did not have a sign to meet me at the airport. That anxiety-producing fiasco took 3.5 hours of difficulty that would have been completely avoided if she had my name on a piece of paper. She later had the audacity to say that it was my fault because I should have recognized the flag she SAYS she was holding with the company logo on it. No flag, absurd excuse. Next, since I was there early, I made friends with several couples on the other bus (of two). They and I wanted to travel together but I was not permitted to ride on the bus that had my new friends. The other guide, Fang, said that the other group voted and did not want me. That was an out and out lie according to all 6 of the other people involved. How insulting and inappropriate. Next, although Fang and her local guides were information rich, Lisa was not. She preferred to speak on the phone, speak with the driver, speak with the local guide or simply tell us that we could "take a rest". As it happened, our local guides were equally dismal, so much so, in fact, that I told Ben in Xian that I was not interested in whether his wife liked to cycle or not but I was very interested in the history, culture, architecture, folklore, cuisine and so on of this rich and historical area. I directly told him that neither he nor Lisa were giving us what we wanted and I was personally unhappy. Things got no better. But they were just as bad with the other local guides and Lisa was absolutely no help. Next, the planning was terrible. Harbin was -30 C. That is cold. We were dropped off at the Ice Festival for 4 hours and the meeting place had no place to sit down to wait. In fact, we were told its name in Chinese and it was not until I specifically asked to be taken to the spot, rather than told its name in another language that none of us spoke, did we get to see it and take a picture of it. There were shows and events taking place at the Festival. We were not told about any of them. Not only might we liked to have seen them but we might have found it useful to get out of the cold. No though, no consideration, no interest. When some of us said that we would like to take a taxi back from the Festival to the hotel we were told that it was too much trouble for the bust to pick us up on the way to the Hot Pot although the bus would pass the Hotel, unless the group voted to pick us up. This was our New Year's Eve Festive Dinner. Really? Too much trouble? I questioned that and was told that it was that way and would not change. Next, we found our way to the Hot Pot Dinner down a very long, very slippery and very dangerous set of carpet-covered stairs. We got to to the door of the restaurant and were told that we were in the wrong place. It was now night, dark, very cold and very upsetting. We were required to walk a long distance down a very dark and poorly maintained walkway to a fire escape type stair case which we then climbed to what appeared to be a back entrance to a corrodor of hot pot rooms. We were ushered into the rooms by about 10 people so we could not sit with our friends and there received the most awful service and terrible food I have had in recent memory. I am still waiting for some hot tea. The water came as we were leaving. The food was worse than dismal. None of us could eat it, or wanted to. The dinner took hours because of the terrible service. That was the worst meal that we had, but the food we were served for lunch and dinner, for example, Christmas dinner, was horrible tourist food of the quality and type I would never eat at home.' It was, in short, cheap and poorly prepared. I am appalled. The breakfasts were generally quite nice because the hotels prepared them. Shopping excursions were embarrassing: over priced tourist junk being passed off as great value and wonderful quality. At no point did the guides acknowledge that they were receiving commissions, but we were asked to buy Chinese chops and books and photos and what not in a highly enthusiastic way. It would have been great if the enthusiasm to tell us things were anywhere near as high. The time at Sun Island was similarly poorly planned. So was the time at the Longman Grottos. The bike ride on the wall at Xian was rather pointless but those of us not riding expected that the guide would walk with us and give us information. We were sadly mistaken. This pattern of poor planning and disinterest was, unfortunately, the unbroken rule throughout this whole dismal trip. I will never recommend On the Go Tours to anyone and would, in fact, like half my money back. I did stay in the hotels, ride the grain, fly on the plane and ride on the bus. But the rest of my experience was not worth paying for. I would like at
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  On The Go Tours commented on this review

  Hi Rima, Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns here. Our Customer Care Team is already aware of your concerns and is working to provide feedback to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding, On The Go Tours
  Trip date: December 2018
• D

  DaveMorrall

  · January 8th, 2019
  The food was horrible when part of the package So much wasted time, sitting around waiting, we did our own tours to sites, there should be more in the itinerary, if we can go off and see sites rather than waiting around or get taken to the shopping mall. Harbin 4 hours doing nothing, so we did our own sightseeing, how can you go to Harbin and not get taken to the Sofia Church, a famous icon, see the Siberian Tigers, the ice swimming, none we part of the tour
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  On The Go Tours commented on this review

  Thank you for taking the time to post your feedback!
  Trip date: December 2018