Ritz Tours & Travel

We took a tour of China in October 2014 and were assured we would have our own tour group with our own guide if we got 10 participants. We were able to do that because of the fact that the tour would be small and would only include our group. When we arrived in Beijing, there were 8 additional people added to our group without anyone saying anything to us. I notified Ritz that this had happened and their response was to do nothing. They finally got back to us after the trip was half over and said we could now split into our own group, but we felt it would be insulting to the others to do so. This tour company cannot be trusted to deliver what they promise.

Did a 10 day China tour with my wife and it was a great experience! Ritz tours really blew us away with the 5 star hotels we stayed in in Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai.
Siu Fun was very helpful with our booking and passport and was very thorough with our itinerary. She responded to e-​mails quickly and kept us updated throughout the booking process.
The actual tour we loved. It was such a great educational experience! Keep in mind the tour is extremely efficient and you are able to accomplish A LOT with a minimal amount of time. The only minor complaints from other travelers would be the touristy food and the lack of time to go wander around. However, the entire trip was efficient, tour guides were knowledgeable and accommodating, and most importantly they kept everyone feeling safe. I definitely recommend it to anyone that is interested in learning about China!

We purchased the 12 days Europe Delight Tour, with stops in London, Paris, Luzern Switzerland, and a few cities in Italy.
The included breakfasts were mediocre and food quality was horrible. The hotels were not four stars as stated.
Another thing is «tips» for the drivers, assistant tour guides, and main tour guide is mandatory, not optional as listed on the flyer. It adds up to around $ 150/​Euros per person. (Quite expensive for lousy service and bad attitude)
Bobo Fung at the Millbrae Office of Peony Tours (Ritz Tours) is totally rude and incompetent. She should take a course on professionalism and customer service.
I will be making a complaint to the BBB on this company.
I wish I could give this company a negative 5 stars.

Poor service and communication with high prices.
I inquired land tours to China via email through the company website and received no response. I received a confirmation for receipt of the email but with no responses to my inquire. I phone the company and spoke with Fawn and she accidentally hung up on me. I let it passed since I wasn;t sure if it was my phone or her phone that went dead. She made no apologies. Oh well.
I emailed her the detail of my inquire and it took her 3 days for her China office to respond. Her prices are the highest among all her competitors but I like dealing with someone local. I asked if she could give me a small discount for being a repeated client as I have dealt with her company twice in the past, both with good experience. She bluntly told me that it’s not likely. The prices are as quoted and I can take it or leave it.
I can understand every company sets its own pricing but poor service with high prices are not acceptable to me.

We went to Europe 12 days tour with Ritz. We had a very bad experience for the air tickets they bought for us. They got the cheapest tickets for us which is much lower than what we paid. We all sat in the middle seats of the different rows. One of the ticket was from Boston to London, they made one of my kids fly backward then change flight to go forward. I could get a direct flight for the price we paid includes the tickets from SF to London. They told me if I buy the air tickets myself and then it’s our responsibility if the flight delay. After we got the package, we were told if the flight delays we have to go to hotel ourselves on our own payment even though they bought tickets for us.

This place open on a Sat. so it’s helpful for those who have to work Monday– Fridays. They were really helpful in helping book the cheapest and best route for my trip. I was able to confirm and do everything within their office, so they were really quick in helping me. I haven’t booked a tour with them so i can’t really review that. They can always help you find the best deals on flights. If you are coming on a Sat, come before noon because i think they close early

We went to Europe in April 2012, when we were in Pairs. The hotel was so far away from the City & no taxi & any shop at all in front of the hotel, we never see that at all.
We went to Italy, the hotel was dirty. We never join Ritz Tours & travel again, we will not recommend any one to go with this company.

I have traveled with Ritz Tours two times already and have recently come back from another one in Western Europe, and I must say both tours had superior service and the itenerary is well planned out, although if I were them I would add more free time to the itenerary. That being said, our tour guide, James was excellent. He had a great sense of humor and also showed great English skills, as we were in the English only tour because the chinese tour was fully booked. The meals planned by the company were decent. Not the best, but decent. But for the price, I’m not complaining. The meals were much cheaper than eating in a local restaurant and usually had 2 – 3 courses. I do want to point out that most of the travelers who travel with this company are Chinese/​Asian, so if you are uncomfortable with being with a group of Asians, then I wouldn’t recommend it. The hotels were very luxurious and the agency always tried to book the most well-​known hotels (Hilton, Sheraton, Crowne Plaza, etc.). The motorcoach was always clean and comfortable. This company does take push you to purchase items in various places for commission, but with the amazing tour package price, I wouldn’t complain at all. The flights the agency books are somewhat iffy, but they are looking for the cheapest flights, that is probably also a con. All in all, AMAZING EXPERIENCE. My husband and I are already planning a trip with Ritz to go to Australia next year.

Just got back from a 9 day in-​depth tour of east coast. Siu Fun helped us with the booking and she was great. My main concern on a Chinese tour was how good the English would be, and how much information the tour guide would provide. I’m happy to say that our tour guide, Simon, was very fluent in English and Cantonese and was very knowledgable, flexible, organized and enthusiastic. Best part, there was very little shopping stops, and the schedule was pretty manageable. Keep in mind you still must be flexible. The hotels were beyond my expectation, except Niagara (although location was great which was the reason for staying there). I could’ve gone with less Chinese buffets, but at least most of them were actually pretty good. Had young kids and seniors traveling with us and I think all were pleased with the tour. Got me thinking at china will be our next trip. Overall, it was a great way to see a lot of things with less waiting, no thinking and no driving. Other tours following us didn’t look as good as ours but I may be biased. At least now I’ll know where to go back next

The extent of my experience with this companies has been four different China tours which I booked throughout the years through travel agents (first one was in 1999, the most recent was in 2007). For China I say they do a very good job as far as the sightseeing is concerned. For Chinese tours they provide an overall guide for the whole guide and a local guide for each city visited. They usually speak both Chinese (in Mandarin) and English.
The problem I have with them is that seems like every day on each tour they take you somewhere to spend time shopping at locations of their choosing, which often includes product demonstrations which is not exactly what I booked a vacation for. There has even been instances where we were somewhere where undue pressure seemingly was applied to get us to spend. I understand the tour guides may be trying to make more money through commision from these sales, but still this part is very unsatisfying.