I really enjoyed the Best of China tour from Smartours. It was a trip of a life time. The guides were very helpful and knowledgeable about the area. They took great care of us and made us feel right at home. The hotels that were selected were amazing as well. The itinerary was jammed packed w/ a lot of activities to do. Ever since I returned back from China, I've been telling everyone that they should absolutely visit. In fact, I hope to return again some day! My only complaints are the following: The optional tours: I strongly recommend that Smartours changes their policies and allow for people to pay for optional tours in advance. I took a certain amount of money out for spending, but most of it was used to pay for the tours and I had to go back and forth to the ATM, which was a hassle. It would be nice to have an optional to pay for the optional tours online, so that way when you go on the trip you can use your money for gifts/other items to spend on. Itinerary: At the beginning of the trip, there were a lot of activities to do. However, as the trip went on it seemed that there wasn't many things planned and if it was 'planned' it was an optional tour. I think that should be included in the overall cost and more activities should be held in Shanghai. Shanghai/Beijing connection flight: This was a HUGE setback. We had a missed connection flight from Shanghai to Beijing, which ultimately forced us to stay in Beijing for another day. My recommendations are the following: If the tour ends in Shanghai then the tour group should fly directly out of Shanghai to JFK/SFA. Shanghai is an international city, there's no reason for us not to have flown directly home. Even if it came down to cost, the additional cost would have been worth the convenience. More importantly, even though the trip was 'over' we still 'paid' for that day and should of had a tour director/guide stay with us until we safely made it to our flight. We were practically abandoned at the airport in Beijing during the end of our trip and didn't know what to do/where to go. Smartours should have provided a guide to be available to help us until we've successfully flown out. Even if it's not Smartours fault that the flight was delayed, your company is still responsible for us as we paid for the service. If you have any follow-up questions about my concerns feel free to email me at stepgr89@gmail.com. Overall, the trip was wonderful. The ending just sucked.