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Ritz Tours Inc
Rating Details »
8 reviews for Ritz Tours Inc
Not sure about the racist remarks from the other reviews. I don't speak Cantonese or Mandarin, but I had great service.
I called and spoke to Siufun. She took my information over the phone and sent me an email verifying my itinerary. YIPEE!!! Yes baby, put it in writing. It's not official unless it's in writing. Me love you Siufun.
She was super patient because I must have changed my arrivial city a gazillion times. She would rerun the cities and generate a new email verifying the dates, times, and airlines. It's complicated because we have six people flying in at different times from varying cities, but we all want to fly back together. She was very thorough and patient. Love it love love love it.
Her price with Cathay was at least $300 off the same ticket on http://kayak.com. Bonus!
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First off, I've never used the 'tour' aspect of this company, but I did purchase tickets through them several times. The service was responsive and they got me good deals. I saved a good amount of money on tickets to Hong Kong and Shanghai compared to other agencies and online sites like Expedia, etc. In particular, I got a nice deal from SFO to HKG with a flight from HKG to Shanghai included. From what I can tell, they specialize more in destinations in Asia.
As for previous reviews regarding speaking Chinese, I don't know because I do speak Chinese and it was fine for me. And well, the place is located in an Asian area, all the workers are Asian, and the sign is in Chinese. Based on this, you gotta figure its catered to serving Asians. I don't really see this as being 'racist', more as serving a particular segment of the population.
Chinese people love to travel. They also love to save money. How to take care of both at the same time? Bus tour packages! I know many are hesitant to participate in preplanned vacation groups, but what better way to explore a place you've never been to than having someone else show you around? Visiting a foreign land can be quite a daunting experience, especially if you have no idea how to get around, or even know the local language. There are many adventurous types who prefer fending for themselves, but for everyone else, Ritz Tours is just your ticket.
Most of the clientele is entirely Chinese, and tours are conducted in Cantonese, English, and/or Mandarin. They typically try to group you with families of a similar background (HK with HK, Taiwan with Taiwan, ABC with ABC), so the language barrier is not so much of an issue. This is more possible in the peak season, but during the slower months, they may have to mix everyone together. This shouldn't be much of a problem though because the employees in the office, as well as the tour guides, are often bi or even tri-lingual. The only thing is that it may take longer to translate everything.
All of the popular hotspots around the US, Asia, and Europe are covered. Short trips to such West Coast favorites as Southern California, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Crater Lake are great for those who just want to get away for a couple of days. Longer packages include stops in various East Coast megalopolises (NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, DC, Toronto); the Canadian Rockies, which kicks off in either Seattle or Vancouver, and takes you through Banff, Lake Louise, Edmonton, and Calgary; and Yellowstone, which also includes layovers in remote locations of Idaho, Utah, etc.
Being a Chinese-American company, tours to China are Ritz's main specialty. Many packages are available, including a "general cities tour" (Great Wall, Forbidden City, Shanghai, Suzhou, etc.) and a Yangtze River cruise. Trips to other parts of Asia, such as Bangkok, Vietnam, Tokyo, and Hong Kong are also part of their repertoire. For Europe, the options are a bit less, but the obligatory, London/Paris/Rome tour is always a crowd pleaser.
I'm one of those "The drive is half the fun" type of guys, so having the opportunity to come across various roadside attractions is quite the treat. While, obviously the target destination is what you really want to see, the quirky, local oddities are what stick in your mind forever.
Here is a breakdown of the travel necessities provided by Ritz:
Lodging - More than adequate, and sometimes luxurious. Obviously, with the foreign exchange rate, it may be hard to label a price, but I'd say that the hotels are all in the $150+ range per night. They choose the name brand American chains if they can (Hilton, Marriott, Sheraton, etc.), so you at least know about the level of quality you are getting.
Food - More often than not, local specialties will be served. In China, for example, we dined on whatever the particular area was known for. Dumplings in Shanghai, duck in Beijing, ribs in Wuxi, beggar's chicken in Hangzhou, etc. The restaurants are not necessarily the highest class places, but certainly above average, and the service is just top notch.
Airline - This is the one flaw if there is one. For the price you pay, you certainly cannot fault them, but the cheapy airlines are simply horrible. If given the option, I would be more than happy to fork over a few more dollars for a decent, more reliable carrier. For example, I won't name the airline we rode to China, but I sure as heck do not wish such a torturous experience on my worst enemy. *cough* China Air *cough*
Bus - Clean, spacious, and fairly new. There isn't much I need to say.
Tour guide - Articulate, organized, and often multi-lingual. They are experts on all the attractions, and are also fun to talk to. By their very nature, tour guides are a bit bubbly and eccentric to begin with, so they are more than happy to answer any questions you may have, or just to chop it up.
Clientele - There are some young couples but it's mostly families. All the kids seem to be very well mannered. If you are a younger guy (un)lucky enough to have a gf, I think taking her on one of these trips would be a magical time, although unfortunately, I can't say I speak from experience.
Flexibility - This is the best thing about Ritz. Say you have a friend who lives in a particular city along the way. If you want to kick it with her, or even stay the night at her place, go right ahead. In another case, say the tour is over, but you want to stay in the city a bit longer. You can change your flight, and Ritz will also help you find lodging. They can even book a flight to an entirely new place. When we took the China tour, which ended in Shanghai, while everyone else went straight home, we tacked on a few extra nights, with the option of taking an additional flight to Hong Kong.
Sorry, no more space!
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I had a chance to join the US Eastcoast-Cananda tour in June with Ritz Tours Inc. I really like it. We had a wonderful tourguide, Rick Yang, who took good care of us and he always makes sure that every one got on the bus before we took off. We went to visit so many places and Rick always explain the history if each place but sometime people don't always listen. I don't know Chinese at all but he is good at speaking both English and Chinese. The hotel stayings were pretty much above what I expected (from the price that I pay). When you buy air line ticket please make sure you are taking off from Boston Airport. You difinitely need to take lot of cash for admissions because you will want to visit every places that they recommend. We also like the bus driver, David. He is a very experienced one and a safe driver. I highly recommend it.
With very little notice or time in advance, I searched high and low, called multiple places to get quotes for airfare going to Taipei, with times ranging from peak holiday season to a week after that.
Orbitz gave me the finger. Cheap tickets was a cheapass with prices.
United's skies weren't friendly. Other Chinese travel agencies in SF and San Mateo were too busy enjoying their lunch and couldn't pull jack for me in terms of prices.
But Ritz came through, BEST price out of all. Never before but this time they really did for me. Ditto for a Taiwan/Hong Kong package of airfare and 2 days hotel (oddly enough at the HK Berlin Metropol, same place where we stayed which 1 year later was where they first discovered the SARS virus!)
So give Ritz a try, and this isn't about salted crackers.
By the way Ritz is Chinese run.
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RACIST TRAVEL AGENCY. ONLY CATERS TO CHINESE SPEAKING TRAVELERS.
Even though website claims to cater to English speakers. False advertisement.
*siGh.
My friend told me about Ritz Tours because she used it a couple of times. She thinks that I pay too much for vacation, and when I saw their websites, I agreed! I got so excited I wanted to book a tour to Thailand.
When I called to make a reservation on Saturday, a kind-spoken man told me that the date I chose was booked. So I said I will move my vacation time around, and he told me that Thailand was booked for the rest of the year.
So yesterday, I called to make a reservation for a tour in the Japan. I talked to a lady, who told me that I can NOT go to Japan because there are no english guides. I got confused because my friend told me they spoke English, but with a Chinese accent.
I said "I dont mind accent. Really, I just wanna go on vacation." She said "SPEAK VERY BAD ENGLISH!"
I responded "On your website, you said that your guides speak English" and she said "I SAY, VERY BAD ENGLISH!"
What confused me was when I first initally talked to her, she sounded like she spoke really good English, with a slight accent. All of a sudden she got angry and started speaking as is she only spoke bad english.
Out of curiosity, I asked if there are still Thailand tours. She said they were all available still, but ONLY FOR CHINESE.
Moral of the story:
IF YOU ARE NOT CHINESE or DONT SPEAK CHINESE DONT BOTHER!
I was really upset because their website said that they speak English. I dont mind accents. I dont! In fact, I know a little bit of Chinese too. But I was sterotyped and I was unable to book any tours with RACIST TRAVEL AGENCY.
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So I recently came back from a tour in China. For China, Ritz typically has two tour groups, an American one catered to English speakers which costs more, and a Chinese one where most of the dialogue of the tour guide is in Chinese with some English translation. Obviously, for monetary reasons, my parents, sisters and I, went for the Chinese tour group.
So let me try to cover some of the things that are important when on a tour:
1) food
2) organization
3) lodging
4) transportation
5) freedom
food - the food i wouldn't say is excellent, it was above average though. i'm not sure about you guys but on a 10 day tour, chinese food started tasting the same everywhere.
organization - i must say, they had this down. everything was in order hotel room wise and restaurant wise with no issues
lodging - the reason why we chose this particular tour was that in this instance the hotels were 5 star hotels. unfortunately, as you might have guessed, ratings are not the same as the US. five stars in china basically just means that they have a gym. and by that, the term is used very loosely. one hotel just had a room with one treadmill and an elliptical however, there were others that were very nice with pool and club equivalent equipment.
transportation - bus wise, it was solid. AC worked nice since I don't like hot weather. flights within China was all set up as well. sucks that it was coach though since im a 6 footer. but, cant really complain on that too much
freedom - here is why ritz recieves such a low rating and where i believe is one of the most important areas. i'd like to say that i have a decent amount of friends and that when i travel somewhere, i'd like to shop for friends and family. i'm assuming that ritx has been around for awhile since they totally control shopping. if you go on their tour, you'll notice that they will only take you to certain places. 2 jade factories, a pearl factory, a silk factory, etc. they hope that you do your shopping here. this is because ritz receives a cut of whatever you buy. i confirmed this with one of our tour guides. one tour guide that took us to the pearl factory, she was basically working for pearl factory. she was pushing one of the ladies in our group to buy a pearl pendant. when the potential buyer asked my mom for her opinion, my mom said it wasn't worth it. what does the tour guide do? she escorted my mom out of the higher end pearl area. and you can confirm the tour guide was making money on the side since she was wearing a pearl ring and necklace, which i doubt your average tour guide in China could afford. The same was true at the jade factories. At one factory, we spent 3 hours there while two ladies made choices on some jade bracelets. I mean, this is fine, but my gripe is when you go to certain historical landmarks and see street vendors, the tour guide will pull you away. While going back to the bus one time, one lady stopped by a street vendor to buy something while we were all on the bus already. She was in our view from the bus. What does the tour guide do? Instead of letting the lady complete the transaction, he gets out of the bus, and goes tells the lady that we need to go. Sheesh.... Five minutes never killed anybody. Another place you will visit is the Friendship Store where the guides will say that they have good prices and everything is set. NOT TRUE on either count. Yes, there are signs everywhere that says prices are set. However, as I mentioned, my group had Chinese speakers, so they wheeled and dealed and got lower prices. One thing you need to ask yourself is this.... Out of all these factories that they take you to where they boast the cheapest prices anywhere, why then are there ONLY tourists? Not one single native Chinese person buying. So, at the end of the trip, all I pretty much ended up buying was tea, which was of course from a tea factory they took us too.
Lastly, some tips for the traveler. Beware of the following scams that were encountered by our group:
- fakie replacement bill: you're buying something but all you have is a high value bill. you ask them if they can make change and they say yes. you give them the money and they say they actually dont have enough change. they give you back a bill. you go on your merry way and try to buy something with that same bill. unfortunately, the seller tells you the bill is counterfeit. you come back to look for the previous seller but his booth is gone.
- foreign currency - you buy something and get change. you try to buy something else with the change elsewhere. only problem is that its from some other country. know what the denominations look like! not being chinese, it all looked the same to us.
- switcheroo - buying fruits, whats visible is the nice fruits. they throw stuff into a bag and next thing you know, its all rotten stuff
ZOIKS... NO MORE ROOM TO WRITE
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Don't buy your flight ticket from Ritz if you expect to get any services.
If Ritz know you can use a computer or speak English, they will advise you to check the airlines' websites on-line or call the airlines directly by yourself (from selecting seats to making special requests). If you ask Ritz to do so on your behalf, don't even expect a follow-up phone call from them because they will not do anything until you spend a couple hours calling them again and again.
The only thing that Ritz is efficient about is to get your credit card number and push you to issue the tickets ASAP.
I wish I knew about this before wasting my time to deal with them and end up having to contact the airline company myself.
