Asia will continue to be the region of choice for discerning travelers next year, and no more so than China and Singapore; the former a land of honorable bargains, the latter a city-state of veritable value. Here are some current deals worth a gander.
Friendly Planet
We first mentioned this family-owned, Pennsylvania-based company back in July when we featured their incredible $599 combo to Beijing for eight days and five nights. Prices were scheduled to rise an additional $300 after Halloween, but, lo and behold!, they haven't. We predicted that such a deal would vanish as travelers snatched up reservations, but our prediction fell short--only slightly though. Just three different weeks are still available; January 15-22, February 12-19 and March 19-26. You must book by December 20to qualify for the $599, which gets you roundtrip airfare, accommodations and morning meals. Departures are out of Los Angeles. New York departures add $100. Single supplement is $99. For more, go to www.friendlyplanet.com and click "Beijing Express" or call 800/555-5765.
The company is also offering an 18-day Yangtze River Cruise, including airfare out of Los Angeles, for $1,999 per person if you book by January 15, 2003. Just click "China and Yangtze Cruise" from the site's mainpage.
Ritz Tours
If you want to travel on other dates, how does Beijing from $888 sound, with air, six nights, breakfasts and tours included? That's the starting price for packages offered by Ritz Tours, a longtime specialist in China, good through March 29, 2003. Included are roundtrip airfare, six nights in the five-star New Otani Hotel in Beijing, roundtrip airport-hotel transfers, full American breakfast daily, one full-day tour of the Great Wall and the Ming Tomb Museum (including lunch), and one full-day city tour of Beijing with stops at the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven (also including lunch).
The deal is for Saturday departures from Los Angeles or San Francisco. Add-on airfares are available for departures from various cities in North America, including New York, Boston, Miami, Philadelphia, Dallas, Chicago and Toronto. Single supplements range from $180-$200.
For more details on this, or other Asian tours organized by Ritz Tours, you can contact your local travel agent or call Ritz directly at 800/900-2446 or 626/289-7777, fax 626/281-0117. They're online at www.ritztours.com, e-mail china@ritztours.com.
Pacific Delight
For about 50% more in outlay, you could try a Pacific Delight tour of Singapore, costing from $1,240 to $1,620 per person, double occupancy. Its "Flavors of New Asia" package runs for eight days (six nights), from now through March, 2003, and includes roundtrip transpacific airfare aboard Singapore Airlines, lodgings at the deluxe Marina Mandarin Hotel or the superior first-class Montus Negara, five breakfasts and a buffet dinner, local guides, sightseeing tours, a Singapore Visitor's Card (which offers discounts on sightseeing, shopping and restaurants), a coupon for a free Singapore Sling at the fabulous Raffles Hotel (where the drink was created in 1915), hotel-to-airport roundtrip transfers, baggage handling, hotel taxes and service charges.
Highlights begin with a visit to the spice gardens at Fort Canning Park, followed by a tour of a typical Pemanakan house, a trip to Little India, a stop at a traditional "wet" market (for fresh produce) and an informal class from a Chinatown herbalist on the medicinal arts and concepts of Yin and Yang. Also included are a night safari (a combination tram ride and walking tour through a jungle setting, with close-up views of animals), dining under the stars at a buffet dinner of Asian and Western dishes and a pass to the new Chinatown Heritage Center, a group of restored houses (combined homes and shops), showing the lifestyles, rituals, art and personalities of pre-independence Singapore.
Optional tours include an Asian cooking lesson from some of the region's most experienced chefs for $53, a harbor cruise aboard a replica of an Imperial Ming Dynasty ship with tea and pastry for $20 and a day in Sentosa, Singapore's resort island, for $37. On Sentos, you can visit Asia's largest tropical oceanarium. You take the cable car to get there, a scenic coach ride back.
There's also an optional four-day Bangkok extension, with prices of $140-$310, depending on hotel category.
For more information, contact your travel agent or Pacific Delight Tours directly at 800/221-7179 or 212/818-1781, fax-on-demand 877/738-2742, Web site www.pacificdelighttours.com.
Orient Flexi-Pax
This highly-respected firm has tied up with Victoria Cruises, itself in business since 1994, to offer a 13-day (11-night) winter package to China that is highlighted by a Yangtze River journey on the cruise line, with prices starting at just $1,999 per person, double occupancy.
The "China & Yangtze River Cruise" package includes roundtrip, transpacific air transport on United Airlines from New York's JFK or LaGuardia, Newark or San Francisco, intra-China air transport, three nights in Beijing, two nights in Shanghai and two nights in Xian, with accommodations in superior first-class and deluxe hotels. Also included are sightseeing in Beijing, Shanghai and Xian with a professional tour manager escorting you, a four-night Yangzte River cruise on a Victoria ship (featuring a shore excursion to the Three Gorges Dam Site), seven breakfasts, ten lunches, five dinners (plus all meals aboard the Victoria ship), transfers between airport, hotels and cruise ship, hotel taxes and service charges.
Departure taxes are an additional $80 per person, and add-on airfares are available from many U.S. gateways.
To book or to get more information, contact your travel agent or call Orient Flexi-Pass Tours at 800/545-5540 or 212/692-9550, fax 212/661-1618 or visit www.orientflexipax.com.