While it's not always essential, early and in-depth planning goes a long way to improving any vacation. From a vacationer's perspective, you have more time to save and budget, plus research provides the time to actually acquire an understanding of the destinations that will be visited from reading travel guides about and literature from the very place you're going to see. From a tour operator's perspective, early bookings help them build up their wholesale buying muscle with airlines and hotels.
Ritz Tours have been offering trips to China and other Asian places for nearly 23 years. Right now through February 28, 2003, this outfit is snipping off $100 per person for early bookings for any of its 2003 tours. To qualify, you must book at least 45 days before the departure date (and by February 28) and pay a deposit of $200 per person within a week of making your reservations. You can pay with a personal check, a Visa or Mastercard.
Here are just a few of their itineraries throughout China and other parts of Asia, the prices (per person based on double occupancy) given being before the discount:
A 10-day China Discovery tour goes for $1,399; an 8-day Japan Experience from $1,699; a 14-day Exotic Asia tour from $1,799; a 14-day China Scenic tour from $1,899; a 15-day Golden Yangtze Discovery (upstream) from $1,999; and a 19-day Majestic Yangtze River tour (downstream) from $2,899. Many other itineraries are also available for you to take advantage of the discount. All tours are fully escorted by knowledgeable guides as well as experienced local guides in host cities, and offer five-star lodging while in China.
The Japan Experience is brand new this year and features Tokyo, Mt. Fuji, Kyoto and Osaka. Like all Ritz tours, prices include roundtrip airfare from Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York's JFK, hotel accommodations, sightseeing and meals per the specific itinerary, services of English-speaking guides in each city, and more. Add-on airfares are available from many cities in North America, including Boston, Miami, Philadelphia, Dallas, Chicago and Toronto.
Before the great Three Gorges Dam is finished abuilding, and before the huge lake it will create drowns a lot of Chinese history--including temples, monasteries, even entire villages--now is the time to take a cruise of the Yangtze. Going upstream takes longer, but costs less, providing a pleasant respite from the frantic present and a glimpse into what travel was like in its Golden Age (before the jet aircraft came onto the scene).
If you take one of the company's river tours, you can add on a four-day (three-night) extension to Hong Kong, in which, instead of returning to the America from Shanghai, you fly down to Hong Kong, stay three nights in the four-star Kowloon Hotel, have a daily American breakfast at the hotel, enjoy a half-day tour, and get arrival and departure transfers between the airport and hotel. You return to the U.S. directly from Hong Kong, and you can upgrade to the five-star Hyatt Regency by paying $590. Again, prices are per person, double occupancy.
If, instead of visiting Hong Kong, you prefer an extension to Bangkok, the four-day (three-night) package there costs $650 if you stay at the Sofitel, $750 at the Peninsula. If you are adding on to the China & Asia programs, the cost is $400 at the Sofitel, $500 at the Peninsula. The package includes your air transport between Shanghai and Bangkok (and your return to the U.S. from Bangkok, without having to go back to Shanghai), arrival and departure transfers in a private car, one lunch in a local restaurant, one Thai dinner show, and sightseeing (two half-day tours of Bangkok).
For more information or reservations, contact your local travel agent or Ritz Tours at 800/900-2446 or 626/289-7777, fax 626/281-0117. Their Web site is www.ritztours.com, their e-mail china@ritztours.com.