Affordable Asia

I was very happy with this tour company. I booked through groupon for 11 days Thailand vacation. Our tour guide Suthep was very nice and knowledgeable. The hotels provided was very nice hotels. Breakfast was amazing. They provide free tour on the forst day about each city we were at and they provide optional paid tours for the other days. Overall i would definitely book with this company again.

This was a fantastic way to see Thailand. Not knowing the language, I was a little nervous going on this trip by myself, but my tour guide (Nop) was bilingual, friendly, helpful and very accommodating. I had a great experience and plan on going back to Thailand, what a beautiful country! Next time I will bring a friend or two, I know we will have a great time. Thank you Affordable Asia for the wonderful adventure that this girl so desperately needed.

Our group of 4, plus the friends we met on the trip, were all very happy with the service, and the quality of the entire tour, from the hotels to the excursions and the guide. All of us had a lot of fun and good experiences. The hotel food was great and the air-​conditioned bus was awesome. The optional excursions were outstanding and we all highly recommend this company. The price was such a great bargain (thank you also Groupon.) I would take another trip with Affordable Asia.
P. S. just a recommendation for the eight hour lay over in Beijing, we discovered a local company there that does lay over tours. We went to the Great Wall during our long layover, the whole process was easy and fantastic! It was for $ 100 U.S. per person. They picked us up from the airport, drove us there, gave a guided tour and brought us back in time to catch our flight with plenty of time to spare. It was the icing on the delicious cake!

We took the 9 days tour of Japan during the cherry blossom season so it did cost a bit more than the other times and was worth it to see the cherry blossoms where it originated. The tour started out just great but then in our itinerary stated that we were able to see the Imperial Palace but on our way there (on a Monday) our tour guide stated that it’s closed on Mondays and Fridays. Why schedule a tour on a day to a place that were not open for us to go inside to see? Surely AA should already know that. We only got to see the front of the gate-​definitely a waste of time. It also stated that we get to see Mt Fuji and one of the place I am so excited to see. We drove up to a scenic area and park and saw the «peak» of Mt Fuji. And I mean a little peak and all the trees in the way… very disappointing. However, our tour guide was great, Yuko. Her English was spot on and was very professional and definitely had a lot of patient even though we had some demanding people on our tour. I don’t think it is her fault on the itinerary of the tour but it is on AA. The hotels were great and we did experience an earthquake in Osaka in our hotel room. The hotel was swaying — scared us but front desk ensure us everything was ok.
AA should listen to their reviews as to the connecting flight in Beijing coming back. We only had an hour for our layover to JFK and if you have not had an international layover in Beijing, it is definitely a nightmare and an hour is NOT enough. You need at least 2 hours or more. We wouldn’t have made our connecting flight if we didn’t push ourselves through the front of the line and we just made it in time then to find that they still have to inspect our carry on bags again after we already went through several check points. Crazy! We also flew China Airlines and I would not recommend flying on China Airlines.

This tour was less than expected.
The flight connections were terrible.
The group was extremely large — 112 people, 3 buses and 3 guides.
During our time in Thailand, we made friends with those on our bus
and enjoyed some of the tours.
When we left Thailand to go to Beijing, we were moved to a new group who we did not know and we felt very much like outsiders.
We had to be out of our room in Thailand at 12 noon. We were picked up at 2 PM after sitting for 2 hours in the lobby. The flight was not until 7:30 PM. We did not arrive in Beijing until 2 AM and luggage for 46 would not fit so some held their check luggage in their lap for the 1 hour + bus ride. We finally arrived at our hotel around 15 or 16 hours later — all for a 5 hour flight.
46 was way too many people for one group.
The tours were crazy — trying to keep 46 people together.
Several people were always late and we were forced to wait 15 to 20 minutes for them –sitting on a bus. They should have been left behind.
We had other friends on a Thailand tour and they were in a group of 14 with one guide. They were on our plane and we assumed we were on the same tour.
Once in Thailand, they split off from us. We saw them with their small group one day at lunch. We saw them again on our flight home.
Their experience was fantastic.
I would not recommend this Tour Company to anyone.
There were too many inequities and our groups were too large.
There were tour options added once we arrived that were better than the ones we had purchased.
We tried to switch and were not allowed to do so.
I am surprised that such a high percent of the reviews that I read were extremely positive.
I will say that the hotels were very good and the day on the River Kwai and the Elephant ride were great.
I felt cheated out of money for the dinner with Thai Dance Show and Night Market.
This should be removed from the tours.
Everyone felt that the food was terrible and the show was a few dancers on a small raised platform doing some dances. It was not impressive.
The Night Market shops were expensive & we found nothing to buy at a reasonable price.
I may never eat in a buffet again. We should have been told that all meals were buffets.
All in all, I am glad we saw Thailand.
It is a beautiful country & the people are very nice.
Beijing is very clean, nice people and VERY crowded.
The tour guides did the best they could with these very large groups.
Next time I will do more research and try to make sure that we are on a tour where we feel like we are not cattle being herded from place to place.

Where to start. Affordable Asia asked us for an additional $ 210/​person after we bought our Groupon and only relented after we contacted Groupon and complained. They charged our party of 4 $ 25/​person for changing ONE name that I accidentally misspelled on the itinerary. They setup a flight with a 1 hr layover in Beijing where it takes 1.5 hrs for going thru the transit process. Our flight from JFK got delayed so I called Affordable Asia for guidance. Their response «get a cab to the hotel whenever you finally get to Thailand». We were able to make our flight only because the 2^nd connection was delayed as well (we weren’t so lucky on the way back). When we got to Bangkok, we had NINETY people in our tour group (you read that right). The hotels were nice but none of us could understand the tour guide because of his thick accent. He gave us no useful information about currency exchange/​safety/​taxi fares etc. I asked about good restaurants to eat at and the guide’s response was «all of them are nice». We setup our own tours and did no optional tours with AA. People with us there told us that AA optional tours were terrible with too many people and cramped spaces so we lucked out.
The last day in Phuket, AA made us check out of the hotel at noon and made us wait until 9:30 PM in a lobby with no A/​C (it was miserable). Then our flight from Phuket to Beijing was delayed 1 hr and we consequently missed the connecting flight from Beijing to JFK. We may have missed the flight anyway even if everything was on time because it takes so long to transit thru in Beijing. We were able to get on standby for another flight the same day. Most people with us had to spend one whole day in Beijing in a crappy 2-​star hotel. My friend missed his connecting flight from JFK to Florida because of this hot mess.
My advice, save yourself the trouble and forego Affordable Asia. There are plenty of great companies out there like Gate 1 and Friendly Planet and they aren’t any more expensive than this. From personal experience, Gate 1 is amazing (3 tours with them).

Rumi and the two bus drivers are awesome and very polite! All made my trip to Japan very memorable. My friend and I went to Japan on Jan 7^th, 2016 and extended our stays to four days. It was definitely worth it and I will definitely go back to Japan again. The highlight of my trip was going to Mount Fuji. The weather was just right. Rumi was very knowledgeable and her service went beyond expected. She gave us a copy of her map so that we could use to go to Disneyland in Tokyo! Without her help, we will be lost going to Disneyland. Highly recommend booking through Affordable Asia again!

Did not know what to expect but if I were to travel to Asia again I would most definitely contact Affordable Asia. The price was right. Hotels, flights and tours were all above average. The tour guides were entertaining, helpful and knowledgeable.
An A plus way to travel! PIck up the phone and call.

My husband and I just returned from the Thailand Delight tour (11 days, 8 nights) on April 2. I would have given this tour five stars except for the dismal way it ended.
First of all, I want to say that our guide, Audi, was fantastic! He is the best tour guide I have ever seen. He put his all into making our trip memorable and clearly demonstrated that he loves his job!
My complaint is that on the last day in Bangkok, Friday, April 1, we had to check out of our hotel at 12 noon (we later found out that we could have requested a later check-​out time but no one told us that in time). We then had nine hours to kill until 9:00 PM when we were taken to the airport for our flight which left Bangkok at 1:00 AM. Arriving in Beijing at 6:30 AM, we then had to wait until 3:40 PM for our final flight to San Francisco (11 ½ hours flying time)! So, all in all, we had 22 hours waiting to leave. This is unacceptable. I checked the other travel dates for this tour departing from San Francisco and all the times are the same. I am really surprised that no one else has complained about this.
We had a wonderful time during the tour, but the ending sufficiently negated that!

My boyfriend and I went on our first trip to Asia together through Groupon with Affordable Asia, and I can say we enjoyed it thoroughly. It was an amazing experience.
We went on the 11 day Thailand/​Beijing tour and couldn’t ask for a better packed 11 days. Even though we did end up doing a lot on our own too, it was great to have the first half of the day organized for us including transportation.
In Thailand we had our tour guide Nop, who we loved! He was informative, kind, funny and an all around great guy. We couldn’t have asked for a better tour guide. Our group in our bus was also very pleasant which we were not expecting. We met a lot of great people who we plan to keep in touch with. The only little complaint we had was there was a lot of temples on the tour, by the end of the 3^rd day we were getting sick of looking at temples and were hoping for a bit more variety. Yet over all I would say that just going for this amount of time, and there being so many amazing temples in Thailand, it makes sense that this happened. I suggest going out and seeing night markets at night (Asiatique is a fun place to explore), and skipping some of the dinners that you could pay for in advance. Going on our own adventure when we could and kind of getting lost was some of our best memories.
Our tour guide in China was Leo, who was also nothing less than amazing. He was able to answer any question we had for him, and our bus had a lot! He gave me a better history lesson than anything I’ve learned from school. Besides being super informative, he was great at organizing the group and letting us know good places to go on our own. For only being in Beijing for two days, I would say we got to see a good amount of the city. Beware though when we went in March the traffic was horrible! The Great Wall and Forbidden City are things you MUST go see. At night to get around we took the subway to avoid traffic, plus it was cheap and a funny adventure trying to read signs and learn the city on our own. We also learned that a lot of outside Chinese villagers like to stop you and take photos, which made us smile… and wonder where all those pictures are going to end up.
We will definitely be booking with Affordable Asia again for our next Asia trip!

Bought a trip to Thailand (Bangkok, River Kwai, Ayutthaya & Pattaya) via Groupon. Honestly one of the smartest and best ideas. It was only a couple hundred less than their regular prices which makes me xonsiser using them again. The trip length was a good amount of time. We had loads of free time to check out the different cities, so I suggest looking up things not on the itinerary that you might want to see or do. Or guide was Audi, he was awesome! Very patient, knowledgeable and honest guy, truly. He helped make the tour what it was along with help from his colleague Ten who was a constant burst of energy. I went with a friend and we had a blast! I’d say it was a good mix in ages, the group was great managed to even make new friends. I would definitely recommend this company if you’re into group tours.

My friend & I booked a 10 day trip to Thailand: Bangkok & Phuket. At first we were both a little afraid of flying with Air China because of the reviews however, I must say that thankfully our bags arrived to & from safety to all of our destinations. Air China is no Emirates lol the food was so, so however, coming back home it was uneatable to say the least & they only serve Chinese beer/​wine during meals & no snacks :/​back to my review on Affordable Asia which was amazing! Our tour guide KEN went above & beyond to ensure we enjoyed our time as much as possible. Ken made sure everything ran smoothly at all times. We paid extra & joined the recommended tours that the HOTEL’s offered which were all amazing (elephant trekking/​floating market/​bamboo rafting, Phi Phi Island, James Bond Island, Tiger Kingdom, Zip lining & Monkey Temple) the only part we were NOT a fan of was the Gem factory but, this happens in every country you visit with a tour company. Both hotels in Bangkok & Phuket were very nice; daily breakfast included, pools & etc. One of the BEST parts of this trip was that we meet amazing people that have become Friends (however, they decided to split the groups they actually did a really great job at it lol). I must say I am already recommending Affordable Asia to friends & family & I look forward to using this tour company again. Thank you Affordable Asia

Went on the 8 day tour of Japan– Tokyo, Mt. Fuji, and Kyoto. Great deal and you get more than you pay for. Nariko was the very best tour guide– she gave us more than just info about where we went. She also gave us insights into current Japanese culture and daily life. This tour is the perfect balance of scheduled and free time. We had a full day in Kyoto and did not do the optional tour. It was incredible! My only regret was not getting more candy. The only downside to this trip was that the food at the Tominiko hotel at Mt. Fuji. The dinner and breakfast were the worst out of the whole trip– so be sure to bring snacks or eat a big lunch in Hakone. I remember seeing some reviews on here mentioning this, and they are all correct. Even though the food there was so horrible, the Onsen made up for it. Don’t be nervous– just do the onsen, it’s amazing.
I also wish there was more info about the schedules upfront regarding free time. We we’re trying to meet a friend one of the days but didn’t know what time would work. There’s plenty of wifi at the hotels, so we were able to work something out. Just list a bunch of extra things you want to do ahead of time– because there is a lot of free time. I was nervous to do such a big trip through this online service and a groupon deal, but everything was fine and exceeded my expectations. I want to go back!

Such an amazing experience, we went to Thailand with a Groupon special and they surprised us with attentions. They had somebody at the airport waiting for us who took us to the hotel, next day our guide kitty which by the way was amazing, welcoming, funny and entertaining showed us the best of Bangkok. We think they can save one day putting the visits to the Grand palace, the Buddha temple and the canals the same day but I am assuming all tours do exactly the same, the tour to the floating market, Kwai river, elephant riding and the bamboo rafting it’s such a good deal! Don’t miss that!
SAMUI is beautiful island, Diana our guide there fantastic, if you can; arrange more days there do it because you will regret I’d you dont. We wish we had more time in Samui, it was to short to enjoy the hotel and the island itself. Oh! If you are going to Angthong national park take hiking shoes you’ll need them. Phuket was more expensive than we thought, taxis are doubled the price than in Bangkok and we spend more in 2 days there than we spent in the other 2 cities. So save up if you want to have fun, affordable outsourced their guide and services there and the guy was terrible. He left us hanging everyday, never return calls and he was irresponsible opposite from what happened with the group that went there with kitty the guide from Bangkok. This is why I gave 4 stars.
Hopefully you’ll get to go with her. Other people from our tour group did other tours with affordable and they said they recommend them for other places and apart from that guide we have no other complaints so we are looking forward to more tours with this amazing company.

8 day trip to Japan was a great value. Our tour guide, Izumi, made the trip entertaining and helped my husband and I get more out of the locations we visited by providing the history and cultural influence. The only thing that would have improved the trip is having more free time at the locations with breath-​taking views.

Went on an Affordable Asia tour of Japan. For less than $ 4K, my wife and I enjoyed a 8 day tour with airfare included! Singapore Airlines was superb with friendly and helpful attendants decent food and very efficient boarding procedures. Our guide, Joji-​San was enthusiastic and very informative through out the entire tour. Her presentations to us even included her original artwork to illustrate her presentations. She also had clever mnemonics to help us remember common Japanese words and phrases.
The tour included Tokyo, Hakone, Mt Fuji and Kyoto. All this in 8 days is quick and this tour is not comprehensive but just a quick introduction to Japan hitting a few highlights. Affordable Asia gave us an enjoyable overview of Japan, we would definitely use them again.

I went to Bangkok and Phuket ¹¹⁄₂₅ — ¹²⁄₄. I chose this tour, despite the lack of Trip Advisor reviews, because I saw it on Groupon and know that they typically only work with legit companies. I booked through Affordable Asia rather than Groupon though because I wanted a different itinerary than what was offered. I had to pay a single supplement which wasn’t as horrible as I have seen with other groups.
Nop was a great tour guide. Entertaining, charming, knowledgable, and an overall pleasure. He gave lots of recommendations for things to do outside of the tours which was great, and warned of common scams (such as taxis not turning the meter on and overcharging you). There were 3 solo travelers including myself, a father-​son pair, and the rest were couples. There were about 3 people over 50 and everyone else was late 20s — mid 30s.
While almost everyone signed up for the elephant and bamboo rafting, I opted to do a separate activity. I heard that it was exactly what I feared. You ride on the benches (which distorts the elephant’s spine) and elephants perform tricks and shows. There was a baby isolated and chained up that everyone described to be in distress; pacing back and forth and wailing. If you know anything about elephant tourism in Thailand (and you REALLY should in order to be a responsible traveler and not an uninformed jerk) this is a classic sign of all the horrors that go along with it. I wish Affordable Asia would support a more ethical attraction. Fantasea, which is another excursion offered in Phuket, is also one of these poor attractions, although nobody in the group signed up for it.
I did not like the food included in the package… I thought if I saw one more buffet I would vomit. I would have preferred some local places and some that allowed you to order rather than just pick through stale options. The breakfasts in the hotels were good buffets though with options for everyone.
****Half the group got food poisoning due to being in a different region. I doubt it had anything to do with a specific place but just the fact that our bodies were not used to it. Bring Pepto and other relief just in case. 50% chance you will need it*****
I signed up for the Dinner and Dance show the first night at Calypso, which I do NOT recommend. They brought you food and didn’t tell you what it was, and all of us thought it was horrible and left it untouched. The dance show was ok as far is experiencing a traditional dance, but super boring. We walked around the Asiatique market afterwards which was highly Americanized (hello Nike store) and we just wanted to leave. It was only myself and one couple, so most of the group did not participate.
The Gem Factory in Bangkok was obviously the group trying to sell you on stuff, and very high pressured sales. I recommend waiting in the bus. I also got the vibe that lots of recommendations were for kickbacks to the guides, so just prepare yourself for that.
Phuket was amazing and my favorite part. I did all the options and didn’t regret it. Just set your expectation that this tour will take you to all the same spots, at all the same times, as every other tour group. It will be severely crowded, hot, and loud. It would be nice if they could take you to more exclusive places but at least you get to see the main attractions… while getting kicked in the face during snorkeling…
Hotels were great; clean and secure and very nice. If you upgrade, be sure to print out proof because the hotel didn’t have record of two couples paying and it took each 3 hours to get it worked out.

So I went on a trip through Affordable Asia this summer. It was by far one of the best tours that I have ever been on. I am not usually a big fan of tours… but in a place that is I dont know any part of the language nor anything else for the most part it was handy.
Shockingly it was also cheaper than I was finding anything else prebooked. So for under $ 5k all told my 9 year old daughter and I went to China… We strolled along the great wall, hung out in the forbidden city, were chilling amongst the terra cotta warriors, peticabbed around an ancient medieval walled city on the wall, cruised down one of the most picturesque rivers in the world and the subject of countless paintings, ohhh we also were able to hang out in the Bund in Metropolitan Shanghai. Obviously that is not everything that happened, but it gives you a general idea.
I was super apprehensive when I made my purchase. To say the least. I just wish that I had more to go by. However after I have gone and come back. All I can say is thank God this went off really well. When we first got our travel packet, I was even more worried. But I rolled with the shady side of International Travel to China.
Pro Tip: If you can get your own visa’s and save a ton of $$$. I think I saved about a hundy getting our Visa’s myself. However it is two trips to the Consulate.
When we arrived in China, we were met by an English speaking guy who had an AC car ready to take us to the Doubletree Hilton Beijing. Our guide in Beijing was Gary and he was a great tourguide. He seemed like he was our best guide as well. Fluent English, helpful, and was able to easily deal with our group of over 30 and the 4 children that were in it.
In Xian we had Lee. He had good English but no idea how to handle a group of our size. He tried to be a nice guy, but was totally lost with us. The difference between Lee and the other tour guides was stark. We stayed at the Gran Noble Xian.
In Guilin we had a young energetic guide, Joe, but our group split into two. Only 11 of us had taken this option on our journey. I cant more HIGHLY suggest that you take this excursion/​option as well. The cruise down the Li River is likely the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. We stayed at the famous Lijiang Waterfall Hotel.
In Shanghai we had a female guide who does a lot of traveling as well. She was able to guide us around town with a typical urban demeanor of a major city dweller. I can easily appreciate it as I have lived in a lot of cities myself. We likely did more in a short period here in Shanghai than anywhere else. YOU MUST DO THE ACROBATIC SHOW IF YOU COME HERE! No questions it will blow you away. We stayed at the Renaissance Shanghai Yangtze Hotel.
Overall this was an unbelievable trip and I was happy with the whole trip. The only downside was that the food we were provided was often tourist places. The included food was a Chinese/​Western breakfast at the Hotels. For dinners we hit night markets or random restaurants and had a blast.
Overall the trip was great and I would give these guys a great big giant thumbs up. I even had some friends just get back from one of their Thailand trips that went great as well… So yeah these guys are worth adventuring with if a tour is in order for Asia…

Normally, I’m a person who enjoys going off on my own and not being restricted to tours. When it comes to Thailand though, I’m super glad I booked through Affordable Asia. Thailand is an overwhelming place, and it was great to have our guide, Ten Porradee, to let us in on the customs, history and language as we went.
What drew me in initially was the hotel and flight deal. I didn’t think I’d want to hang out with the group as much as I did. We probably met up with the group every other day, which was a good balance between exploring, and getting a little logistical break from the craziness of Thailand.
Ten was amazing and I highly recommend this for any type of traveler.
Full review here and Thailand travel tips:

«Affordable Asia! Group 1?! Group 2?! Group 3…» Haha that was how they kept track of us while we were in China. As if we were a herd of sheep. The whole group thought that was really funny. We were a group of about 25 and that system obviously worked because no got lost or left behind.
I’m a little late on this review, but better now than never. Our trip was on January 2015. We bought the Groupon for Flights (International & Domestic), Hotels & Tours for Beijing, Shanghai, Xian & Suzhou.
I did a little research about the company, just enough to make sure it was legitimate. Regardless, I was still skeptical (I think anyone would be if purchasing a big trip off of Groupon) and it was ridiculously cheap at $ 1300 (another reason to be skeptical, lol). So I took a chance and booked it anyway. I went onto their official website, entered my Groupon code, entered some personal info, chose bedroom accommodations and VOILA! It all seemed too easy so I panicked a little and immediately called customer service to confirm, after that I felt much better about the purchase.
Two weeks before the trip we received «the package» in the mail. It included basic info about China, a pin to wear upon arrival, luggage tags, the itinerary and E-​tickets for the flight.
We stayed at 4-​Star Hotels in all cities (4-​Star US Standards/​5-​Star China Standards). Every hotel included an American Breakfast Buffet. There were daily tours. Some were included some were optional at extra charge. We did most tours except for the boat ride in Shanghai and even with a daily tour, We still had plenty of time to go exploring on our own.
I recommend doing all the tours, especially the Great Wall, Terracotta Warriors, the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and explore Xian at night. Garry was our Beijing guide, he was amazing! Ken was our guide for Xian, he was a very nice and helpful. James was our guide for Suzhou and Shanghai, he was also great! As for the «Group Dinners» those are decent, but you can easily find better food at local restaurants for about $ 5-​$ 10. Just a small tip, there will be many vendors trying to get you’re attention so you may want to learn «bú yào, xièxie» meaning, «no thank you».
We had an wonderful experience!!! We loved the way our trip turned out. Due to our good experience, we will definitely be using Affordable Asia again, our next trip with them will be either Thailand or Japan.