Our 20th anniversary gift of China We had a fabulous experience with Odynovo Tours, and I would recommend them to anyone planning a trip to China! From the very beginning, the planning process was smooth and personalized. Jake, the Travel Local contact, created an itinerary to help us celebrate our China wedding anniversary, the 20th. He enabled regular communication on WhatsApp for us to relax and enjoy the build up to our first visit to China. Fortunately our Visa restrictions changed the week before we intended to complete the process. We downloaded all the Apps Jake recommended, WeChat, Alipay, esim and our Landing Card. Clearly the use of, and communication with a local agents is a USP of Odynovo. Once we arrived in Shanghai we experienced the other secret of Odynovo success, the quality of the guides and drivers-Wow! The first guide is so important, they provide the introduction and feeling of security in a new country. Felix was exceptional in this regard. He guided us to relax on our own in the gardens of the Bund for our first afternoon and later had a local hotpot in one of the many restaurants in the nearby mall. We did learn to order chicken off the bone after this experience. Disregard the myth of food in China being dodgy, staying on piste, we had superb food and wine at almost half the price of the UK. Felix knew Shanghai like the back of his hand, we learned so much and he helped us organise our anniversary day celebrations, on our return to Shanghai, at the end of our trip. Linda became our transport guru from Shanghai. Once again, her introduction to high speed train travel and the navigation of train stations was so important. It was simple to order food on the trains by stopping the cabin staff in first class and with the use of Google translate. We were met in Beijing by Candy who, with her driver, wowed us once more. Rather than having the day to ourselves, she suggested we take in an acrobatic show and then visit a restaurant for the best Peking duck in the world. Highly recommended and not expected. Candy seemed to add something special to our visit to all the expected sights in Beijing and we became "Heros" because of our adventure on the Great Wall. Grace, our guide in Xi'an made the experience of the Terracotta warriors particularly special. She ensured our short time in this important city in the history of China was packed with experience. It was particularly special to have a book signed by the remaining farmer who discovered the Terracotta treasure. It was in Pit 1 that we used our China skill of squeezing quickly through crowds. 65,000 a day at peak season times. If you don't squeeze, you see little. Sadly we only spent a day and a half with Grace, before meeting Oscar and Amber who transferred us expertly to and from our Yangtze river cruise. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms show and the Three Gorges visited on the cruise established a unique place in our memory. Back to Shanghai where Stephen, our guide for our remaining tour day was once again creative and superb. We were faced with the prospect of a five hour car journey to take in the scheduled tour. He rescheduled, taking in the Silk Museum, Shanghai's Thousand Trees Garden and the ancient water town of Zhujiajiao. Thank you Odynovo, the guides and drivers and China for making our 20th year of marriage so memorable.

Exceptional custom private tour My sister and I took a 10-day custom private tour with Odynovo, covering Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu and Shanghai. Guides: All guides were top, each with her own advantages: Dina (Beijing): Super efficient, very knowledgeable on how to best navigate the Forbidden City and Mutianyu. She saved us hours of queues. Shannon (Xi'an): Very attentive to my sister's food allergies. Luna (Chengdu): It was amazing to have a guide that shares our passion for pandas. She was a treasure of information about each panda in Dujiangyan Panda Base and Chengdu's Giant Panda Breeding Research Base. Qi (Shanghai): It was a joy to spend time with Qi trying her recommendations for restaurants and bakeries. She is a real foodie and her insider tips were invaluable. Qi was very flexible with the tour schedule to maximize our short time in Shanghai. Drivers: All were very correct, punctual and friendly. Our driver in Shanghai was exceptionally flexible and proactively customer-oriented, unfortunately I don't recall his name. Hotels: All 4 were ok and breakfast was good. Check-in desk at Wyndham Xi'an was a bit under the level of the others. Regent Beijing was a pleasant surprise on service (it was my first time with them) and both Grand Hyatts (Chengdu and Shanghai) fulfilled my quite high expectations. The only unexpected negative point was that I couldn't accumulate points in several hotels (e.g. Regent IHG or Wyndham), due to the rates selected by the agency. Meals: Peking duck lunch in Beijing was excellent. Also the 2 restaurants in Shanghai chosen by Qi for lunch were really good. And we got great recommendations from the guides on what to order. Specially in Chengdu, Luna took special care to drive us to a restaurant outside the panda base, to find alternatives to the (deliciously spicy) Sichuan food, due to my sister allergies Experiences: It is difficult to choose from so many historical wonders (Forbidden City, Great Wall, Terracotta warriors...)! But volunteering day at Dujiangyan's Panda Base was probably our highlight, and Luna made it even more special with her knowledge and passion for pandas. Also the visit to Yu Garden was particularly enjoyable with Qi. I would like to additionally mention that thanks to Qi's and our driver's flexibility, we had the chance to spontaneously visit the Gundam robot in Shanghai and it was amazing. That is custom top level service! Last but not least, the success of this trip was fundamentally the planning and coordination of such a complex itinerary, so a special thank you to Gina Liu. I was very impressed with the level of customization and the consistent high quality of services provided. Everything ran smoothly and we felt always safe, heard and even pampered. We would definitely recommend Odynovo, and use it for any future travel in China or other destinations in Asia.

Wonderful trip to an amazing country We had a wonderful trip to Hanoi,we were met at the airport by Trinh our guide and Le our driver. Trinh guided us all around Hanoi and was so well informed .She was able to answer all our questions and had so much knowledge on history, society, government, lifestyle,food transport and anything we could ask of her .She was so pleasant and non intrusive,took lots of pictures for us and overall gave us a great experience.Thanks to Le for the safe driving and transporting our luggage.we knew we were in good hands .

The best of Beijing Just completed the Beijing part of the tour. Tour guide Niki was absolutely amazing. She was kind, helpful and knowledgeable. Niki made the whole process smooth and effortless. No thinking required. Mr Ho was a fantastic at navigating the roads and getting to locations quickly and safely. Would highly recommend this tour to everyone!

Amazing China Loved the trip and the energy and personality of my local guides Ella & Dana. Hong Kong, Zhangjiaje and Chengdu have been amazing. Can’t wait to come back! :)

Amber is the best!!!!! Amber was our guide in Xi'an, and her warmth and obvious competence immediately put my mom and I at ease after a long train trip. She spoke superb English and had a deep knowledge of the area, very capably answering our (multitude of) questions on the long car ride from the train station to our hotel. Her passion about the history of Xi’an and the area’s cultural significance is delightful and infectious. However, she’s also very attentive and responsive to the needs of her clients. For instance, I mentioned loving the incredible variety of leafy greens in China, and she took us to a restaurant that specialized in a bok choy dish that ended up being one of my favorites on the trip. She took us to both local neighborhoods and historically significant sites, capably navigating us in both environments. We cannot recommend Amber highly enought!!

Steven is an awesome guide!!! Steven was our personal guide in Beijing, and he was great! He met us at the airport promptly and with a smile, as he did each morning he picked us up. He made getting around Beijing—my mom and I’s first stop in China—very easy when it could have easily been overwhelming. He has an excellent knowledge of the area, and was as adept at navigating us around the ultra-crowded tourist areas as he was showing us the lesser known (but equally delightful) parts of the city. For instance, one of my (unexpected) favorite activities was going to the part of a local park where locals play games and lightly exercise. Steven has spent time in the United States (where I’m from), and we enjoyed comparing notes on being new in each other’s countries. It’s a small thing, but he also recommended excellent food to the various restaurants he brought us too. Definitely ask for Steven!!!!

Discovering mainland china Odynovo was really everything i needed for an extraordinary expérience in the mainland of China. from the guides, cars, attention and itinerary we could not have been more pleased They were super attentive to out needs and curiosity

Siem Reap Trip with Khemrint and Hoan Our recent trip to Siem Reap with Khemrint(our tour guide) and Hoan (our Driver). They showed us whatever was listed in our schedule. Both Khemrint and Hoan are professional. Khemrint has good knowledge about all ancient places in Siem Reap. He took us to unplanned destinations whenever we had extra time. We experienced some local delicacies with the help of him. We visited Angkor Wat during day time and the weather was very hot. He accompanied us for sunrise visit next day for us to experience Angkor Wat one more time. He always responded immediately to our concerns and also proactively suggested us different places for dinner etc. We liked the hotel and staff in Siem Reap as well. I will recommend Odynovo, Khemrint and Hoan to our friends for their Siem Reap trip. Many thanks to Khemrint for our amazing memorable trip to Siem Reap.

Short stay in Hanoi with Odynovo We very much enjoyed our time in Hanoi with our guide Mr Nguyen Duong Nghia and driver Mr Trung. Nghia was a friendly and informative guide, who provided several personal tours for us , and made us feel very welcome. He communicated well, and provided us with very useful local knowledge, also, very clear communication when making and confirming arrangements. He obviously had had much experience, and the trips were always well organised and well paced so we had time to visit without feeling rushed. He also factored in external factors such as rush hour to avoid having too much time on the road for us. He was also flexible enough to accommodate. spontaneous requests from us such as toilet stops and coffee shops. Our driver was also flexible and on time. We had wonderful time and cannot recommend enough. Thank you so much