Overview
What this journey is
Hangzhou is the longest day on this shelf and the one most often asked for anyway. The lake is done by boat rather than on foot, which is the only way to see it properly in a day. Lingyin has been a monastery for more than sixteen hundred years and sits opposite Feilai Feng and its carvings; the afternoon finishes in the tea terraces at Longjing or Meijiawu. The drive back to Shanghai is about three hours, so the day runs eleven to twelve hours and the guide is quoted on that basis.
Day by day
- 1
Day 1 — Shanghai to Hangzhou and back
Pick-up at your hotel · West Lake cruise · Lingyin Temple and Feilai Feng · a Longjing or Meijiawu tea village · about three hours back to Shanghai · drop-off at your hotel.
What’s included
- Private vehicle and driver for the whole programme
- Licensed English-speaking guide
- Entrance tickets to every sight named in the day plan
- Guide and driver meal allowance, plus their rooms on any night away from Shanghai
- Hotel pick-up and drop-off — no fixed meeting point to find
Not included
- Hotels — quoted against your room-type brief
- Lunches and dinners — quoted against your meal standard
- Gratuities for the guide and driver
- Travel and medical insurance
- Bottled water and anything not itemised
- International flights and associated taxes
- China visa — required for most passports
Operational notes
The things worth raising before you quote it, not after.
- Hangzhou runs vehicle restrictions. Anything over 18 seats transfers to a shuttle bus for Lingyin and Feilai Feng, and anything over 33 seats does the same for West Lake at weekends and on public holidays. Brief the client before departure — it is local policy, not our routing.
- Twelve hours is a lot for one day. The two-day version with Wuzhen is the honest upgrade.
- Small vehicles are unaffected by the restrictions.
- Rates do not apply over the China International Import Expo or Chinese New Year. Other major trade fairs are usually fine at more than a month's notice.
- Booked inside a fair week, vehicles and guides get scarce and pricing moves with the market.
- Large groups may need a luggage vehicle, which is quoted on top.
- An evening meal or an evening activity adds a guide and vehicle surcharge.
1DQuoted on brief
Request netMore journeys
Others on the multi-day shelf
Everything on this shelf is private and quoted on brief, so any of it can be reshaped or bolted onto a routing you are already running.
1D · Day trip
Shanghai Line A — Pudong & the Bund 1D
The new-Shanghai day: the glass floor on the Oriental Pearl, the city history museum underneath it, a daytime river cruise, then the Bund from the other bank.
Shanghai · Pudong · the Bund
1D · Day trip
Shanghai Line B — Yu Garden & the old town 1D
The old-city day: Yu Garden and the lanes around it, the former French Concession at Xintiandi, closing at the Jade Buddha Temple.
Shanghai · Yu Garden · Xintiandi
1D · Day trip
Shanghai Line C — Pudong and the old town in one day 1D
Lines A and B compressed into one day for a client who only has one — tower and museum, Yu Garden and the old town, closing on the Bund.
Shanghai · Pudong · Yu Garden · the Bund
Putting this on your shelf?
Tell us your market, pax profile and target price point — we return net rates, a hotel ladder, and white-label documents.