Sep 9, 2024
Highly recommended Shanghai experience with Catherine Lu tours!! - Our Shanghai tour included 4 days within which we went to Disney one day!! They got us everything, the entrance tickets the train tickets, our henri and ruby guides were excellent and very coordial. August is a very hot time in Shanghai. But very hot! It was still worth it, the places that took us very nice.. an amazing experience. We would definitely require your services again or recommend them to family or friends!!! It was a great help to have them as guides for us who traveled from Mexico and had many doubts about the country. They helped us with everything!!
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Jun 28, 2024
Best time in Shanghai ever!!! - Catherine was a rockstar with our amazing itinerary. So grateful for the wonderful time we had in all of our beautiful destinations with our brilliant tour guides. Henry was our hero in Shanghai, he gave us the history behind the city and its traditions, he even shared hilarious local jokes that made the whole orientation so much fun. He took such good care of us, he was so patient and indulged us with what we wanted to try, taking our family to the best local restaurants. He went above and beyond to make sure we had the best time ever in the breathtaking gardens, temples and water cities. Will definitely look forward's to spending more time with him in the future, he is an excellent tour guide and friend.
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Apr 11, 2024
Perfect Day Trip! - We booked this tour through Catherine and it was an amazing day. She is a great tour operator and we ended up booking a few other tours through her in different cities- all were wonderful. This is my 5th time to China- and my 1st time using Catherine and her team- I will definitely book with them again. Out of all my trips to China (I’ve brought groups here before) - her team of guides have been my very favorite guides- fun personalities, great English, and very knowledgeable. We booked a few different all day private tours through Catherine (Beijing, Suzhou & Shanghai) and they were all excellent. You can trust her for great service and communication. On our private day tour in Shanghai- we had Summer as our tour guide. She was excellent- great English and she knew all the secret spots to go for amazing photos and to see fun historical sites. Our group loves history (studied some Chinese history and culture in college). It can be hard to find guides that can go deep on different historical topics. Catherine and all of her guides exceeded my expectations in every area. I was impressed. I will be going back this Fall with some friends and I plan to book this exact tour again through Catherine and request Summer.
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Oct 11, 2019
One day private tour Shanghai - Ruby was the best! She really showed us a flavor for the city, it's history and surroundings...Great English, fun and entertaining, we would definitely ask for her again!
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Dec 1, 2018
Two day tour of Shanghai with Catherine Lu Tours - In October 2018 we were on a Viking cruise along the coast of China, starting at Beijing and ending at Hong Kong. We hired Catherine Lu tours for a two day tour of Shanghai since we had already arranged for a two day tour of Beijing with her company (reviewed in TripAdvisor for Beijing).
We had two different tour guides for the first and second day, Kathy and Cecelia. The car and driver were the same.
The first day we visited a Shanghai city park and a water village at Zhouzhang with Kathy. The city park (Fuxing Park) was fun since many retirees congregate there and dance, practice tai chi, etc. My wife danced with one of the retirees who may have been a retired dance instructor (he was that good). We then saw the French concession area, including a walk past the Communist Party of China birthplace in 1921. Next we visited the Little White House and spent maybe an hour wandering around its rooms and looking at some beautiful carvings made of various materials, including ivory, jade and wood. Then we drove to the water village and strolled around its narrow streets full of shops selling a variety of things, including food, artwork, handicrafts, etc. After a nice lunch overlooking a canal, we explored more of the village and shopped a bit. We had a very nice first day, and Kathy was an excellent guide, providing clear and interesting descriptions of the places we were visiting, helping select dishes for lunch, and answering our questions.
The second day in Shanghai our guide was Cecelia. In the morning we visited the Longhua Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in Shanghai, followed by a visit to Shanghai Tower, with beautiful views of the city and the waterfront (riverfront) area. In the afternoon we visited Yuyuan Garden and strolled around for an hour or two before returning to our ship for a 3 PM departure from Shanghai. Cecelia was very knowledgeable and explained the sites we were visiting very clearly. For a quick lunch Cecelia selected a very small restaurant/food stand that had excellent dumplings and also provided an experience of working people in Shanghai having lunch.
All in all, I highly recommend Catherine Lu Tours, both in Shanghai and Beijing. The guides were uniformly excellent (all spoke English extremely well), the drivers were also very good, the itineraries are as varied as you wish and flexible, and the convenience and comfort of visiting sites in a private car/van is well worth the reasonable cost of the tours.
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Nov 25, 2018
Shanghai Tour with Ruby - Our trip plans suddnely changed (nothing to do with Catherine Lu tours), so we ended up with a day and a half for sightseeing in Shanghai. We booked this all day tour, but were able to expand it to another half day plus airport transfers without any trouble. Ruby and the team at Catherine Lu tours were friendly, flexible, and spoke excellent english. Our guide, Ruby, knew all kinds of great information about Shanghai. We were picked up promptly after each stop, and Ruby knew just the right amount of time for us to be at each place. She is also a bit of a foodie, which made the meals she took us to extra special. She also was happy to take some photos of our group and promptly email them after the tour.
I highly recommend Catherine Lu tours, especially if you get Ruby in Shanghai (or Steven in Beijing). We had never done a guided tour like this before, but it was definitely well worth it.
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Nov 18, 2018
Awesome tour of Shanghai/Zhujiajiao Water Town - We spent a wonderful day on Oct. 30th with David as our tour guide. He and the courteous driver arrived at our cruise port at promptly at 7 am and we were off on an amazing day! First, we went to the beautiful Zhujiajiao Water Town and walked through the town, market and temple. It was at our pace and we managed to avoid the large crowds. David was an interesting guide adding both historical and current information throughout the day. We then traveled back to Shanghai and toured the French Concession area (including the Little White House) and ate a delicious lunch. David was very mindful of the time to ensure that we would arrive back at our port in time for the departure. At the end of the day, we felt like David was a friend who had shown us around his hometown!
We had been to Shanghai about ten years ago but that was on a bus tour---this experience is so much better! We went with this company because they had received great reviews from other travelers. We weren't disappointed with the level of service or ease of booking the transaction. We also used Catherine Lu Tours in Beijing and that was great too. If we are lucky to return to China, we hope to use them again (and maybe try other locations they serve as well).
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Nov 14, 2018
Super Shanghai! - We spent two full days with Ruby touring Shanghai and wish it could have been longer! She is a great guide for many reasons! She has a great upbeat, enthusiastic personality and is full of information, history and great stories! Ruby was sure to customize each day to suit the interest of our group of 6 and recommended fabulous stops for shopping eating and going out. She treated us like VIP's and we HIGHLY recommend Ruby for a wonderful visit to this super city Shanghai!
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Oct 29, 2018
Shanghai Tour With Ruby. - We had a 3 day private tour with Ruby.She was professional,enthusiastic,knowledgable and helpful. Ruby was more than a tour guide-she was good company,good fun and took us to some great local places for lunch.Thanks Ruby And Catherine Lu Tours for a great experience in China! Joy and Paul.
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