Golden International Travel

I had an encounter at LAX at the Hotel & Courtesy shuttle stop, just like the other lady below had, which is a fair foreshadowing of their level of service. This post serves as a helpful suggestion to the company if they want to survive as a Tour Business in America. With already 1.5 average stars out of 12 reviews on Unilocal,you’re not going to last at this rate. And Id also hate for family friends to use this company if they dont improve their service.
As Im waiting for my shuttle to come, a Chinese tourguide and his 7 – 8 travelers from China come swarming through the crowd, in the typical rude fashion as they do in China. Passed that, they have 2 luggage carts which they disembark their luggage off of and just leave in the middle of the small Island where individuals wait & wheel their luggage through, and close to cars driving by. Everyone is annoyed and disgusted by this and I can tell, thinking in their mind «damn those China tourists,» because Im thinking the same.
A hispanic lady tells the tour leader that it isnt right to just leave carts there & at least push the carts to the side. He begins to yell at her and says «where do the rules say that!!!» She said «this is America and we have standard courtesy. This isnt Asia where you do whatever you want.» Yes a bit rude but its true. Courtesy of other cultures need to be learned wherever you travel. In America, we dont push and shove, we dont leave carts where it’ll inconvenient others and block traffic, we dont scream and insult people who ask you kindly to push your carts to the side.
The Chinese tour guide yell back insulting her «Where do u come from? You dont look American! Some 2^nd class country?! Shut up!» The driver of shuttle had to pull him aside and warn him that he is not right at all. Thats when I glanced at his shirt that said Golden International Travel.
Beyond the criticism, I want my people to succeed, if that is their goal in this country which I know it is. The immigrants from China have been highly criticized for their lack of class, their rudeness and lack of courtesy to others. That is why there is a huge market for Etiquette classes now in China. With all the money in the world, learning some Basic Etiquette will only help. This is where racism and stereotypes derive from. And then we wonder where it came from. So that is why I am trying to help so there is not that huge divide between the 2 worlds.
To avoid that, be courteous please. Even the very basics. Train your tour guides not to be rude. Train your office people not to be rude. Thank you.

DO NOT TAKE THIS TOUR COMPANY EVER, NEVER. It is a tour company from hell. They torture you from the moment you get on the bus. The tour guide and company makes you cry. They are sadistic, manipulative, con– artist, rude, impudent, obnoxious, tricky, forceful, revengeful, unprofessional, dirty, disgusting, unbelievable worse tour guide ever especially the tour guide Travis and golden international travel company. They are from China. Maybe they should stick to importing exporting business rather than tour business. The tour guide Travis is a monster low life ghetto tour guide from hell. I’m 3 months pregnant after long extensive conversation while booking this trip I told them I have motion sickness and need to sit in the front seats with my husband. The tour guide charged me an extra $ 100 and I paid. Then he turns around and gives my seats to 2 people from China. and he sits us in the back where I was nauseous the entire 15 hours of trip from LA to San Francisco. This tour guide and company are a piece of shit. Then they decide to charge us $ 100 for a third person that doesn’t exist. On their website it says third person goes free but if you express that you might want to bring a third person they charge you $ 100 as penalty. they charged us an extra $ 100 cash even though we didn’t have a 3^rd person Traveling with us. Then Travis the tour guide locks the bathroom on the bus the entire 15 hours and tells everyone to hold their bladder and no 2. He doesn’t like anyone using the bathroom in the bus. Then he announced in very clear English that if anyone uses the bathroom and do no 2 he or she has to go sit by the toilet and smell their shit. He meant it and he did it. We had to beg him for the keys to use the restroom cause I’m pregnant. Someone else who used it and did no 2 he removed him from his seat in the front and made him sit by the bathroom. A lot of us called the company and complained they just hung up the phone. They are just a bunch of Chinese people that barely speak English who pretend they are Americans and taking tourists money and giving them shitty service. I’m still on the tour bus and today was the fist day. Unfortunately I have 2 more days in the bus. I will keep the public informed as to what else they will do

It’s a good deal but i guess the tour guide must treat all his customers fairly whether theyre chinese speaking or not. When we reached th hotel & we ask for the room key, my sis in law and i approached the guide but what he did was he gave the key first to thise who ask him in chinese language while we wait there beside him waiting for him to give us our key. The next morning, my husband and i went out very early at the lobby so that we can have a nice seat, since we have our 2yr old daughtr with us and im 6 months pregnant but still, he gave us seats at the back, even though we came out at the lobby so early. The next day, we came out just at exact time we understand if were seated at the back but this time he didnt allot a seat for our daughter. At the end of the tour, the guide charged our daughter with the service charge. Anyways we just let it be and were not taking the same ever again and we will not recommend this to our friends.

Rude dishonest operation. They push around people they shouldn’t be in travel business. If you are looking for a trip which you can enjoy stay away from these people. You will have the most stressful time in your lives!!! STAY AWAY FROM GOLDEN INTERNATIONAL. You will need a whole new vacation after your travel with them. Bad hotels they select which you cant sleep or rest .
Our trip was miserable from start to finish. Long hours in a bus not enough sleep in bad hotels. You decide if you still want to travel with them good luck, i suggest think twice.

Do Not use this tour company, Golden International Travel — We took a 3 Day bus tour from Los Angeles to Yosemite National Park in mid July. It was the worst vacation experience we have ever had. We were rushed at every stop; meals, site-​seeing, bathroom! We were also not allowed to use the bathroom on the bus. The tour guide, Henry or Harry, he was confused as to what his name was, was very rude and spoke poor English. This guy would clap his hands and snap his fingers to get our attention, as if we were cattle. My children and I were so disappointed, specially because we only got to spend 40 minutes in Yosemite, what’s the point?! At the end of the tour, we were basically forced to tip the tour guide. He didn’t have the decency to say thank you or good-​bye, just disappeared. Please don’t use this tour company.

I actually had a pretty good time with these guys. My guide was great (his name is Philip) and speaks Chinese and English fine. I took the 3 day trip option for a really good price, which would allow us to go to Yosemite, San Francisco, and Santa Barbara (albeit in Santa Barbara for a short period of time… like 30 minutes-​ish). You do have to wake up pretty early (5−6AM) each day to fit all the destinations and activities in, which can be somewhat stressful; they at least let you sleep nicely in the bus for the 2 – 3 hrs it takes to drive to the next destination. Oh, and there are power outlets on this bus (operates at 110v-​still works for my Galaxy S6 charger, check your charger’s operating specifications!) which was great, as I found myself needing to charge after taking a lot of photos and videos throughout the day. Lastly, there is a small emergency bathroom at the back of the bus if you REALLY DO need to go. Tl;dr: I would recommend, and hope you get a good guide like Philip!

Avoid this company at any cost. They don’t respect anyone that isn’t Chinese, and they even disrespect those that are chinese. They give barely any time to enjoy anything, just enough time to take a few pictures, and maybe use the bathroom. The tour itself is very disorganized. They don’t allow enough time for restroom/​lunch breaks. They will leave you too, and usually take head count after they leave, so they won’t realize until after until someone speaks up.

I’m only giving this company 1 star because negative 100 isn’t available. Definitely agree with all the complaints the other reviewers have to say, harry is the worst tour guide, rushing ever stop and not translating everything said into English. My family opted out of doing the suggested tours in san Francisco since we had already been there before and it was basically extortion for the prices he was asking for the tours. Extremely pushy and once we put our foot down he basically had a tantrum because things did not go his way, he then told my father he would make him sign a contract to meet at city hall BEFORE 5 pm or he would leave us there and we would have to find our own way to the hotel, we made our way on our own anyway after harry’s little b*tch fit. Tell me why for a tour guide who has been anal about time shows up at 6 with a smug remark «i’ve been looking all over for you guys» the only good thing was the driver, he was amazingly nice even gave us his number because he didn’t want to leave us behind. Harry is the worst in a nutshell, his «facts» are all wrong and quite frankly rubbed me the wrong way with his childish actions. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY! very disorganized on the pick up, rushed during tour, catered to over seas Chinese, very unprofessional and unpleasant over all, and the 3 star hotels that they claim are «fancy» without first disclosing which the are, are absolute s**t holes. Beware of bed bugs!!! Oh yeah! And if you arent under 5’5″ prepare to suffer in their rinky dink busses!

My daughters and I have taken a four day group tour from Salt Lake City to Yellowstone Park with Golden Int’l Travel through Take Tours. First of all, it’s supposed to be a bilingual tour but in fact it’s not. The tour guide only spoke Mandarin thorough the trip and my two U.S. born kids did not understand. Second, on the first day of the tour, at 8:35 am that morning while we made a quick stop at a store, the tour guide asked all of us to pack lunch, dinner for the day, and breakfast for the next day. No arrangement was made for meals the whole day. According to the itinerary, the tour should have stayed in the Yellowstone Park at Grant Village or similar. However, we were transported and stayed at a hotel 80 miles away from the park’s west entrance. We left the park at 7:25 p.m. and arrived at the hotel at 9:25 p.m. without any stop for meal. The next morning we left for the park at 6:00 a.m. without breakfast unless you prepared on your own and were transported back to the park’s west entrance (80 miles drive). Two more attractions of the park were visited before heading back to Salt Lake City. Fortunately, we have one hour to have lunch before the ride back. Unfortunately, we were told it’s a straight five hour drive and no stop will be made. After two days of torturing (travelling time on tour bus, no meals, lack of rest), my daughters and I decided to left the group tour. Before we left the tour, we were asked to pay for four day service fee (for both driver and the tour guide) even though it’s a 2 & ½ day tour.
I also want to copy and paste from another reviewer as follows: 天益遊旅行社是我遇過最爛的旅行社，非常不專業的導遊，態度惡劣，把團友當成動物或貨物般對待。請告訴所有朋友，若需要華語導遊，請找別家資歷久的旅行社，千萬不要訂這一家。

What a chatioc, rushed and unorganized trip with an incompetent and unprofessional tour guide. This trip was a disappointment! Main complaint is no set time for resting and meals. You got to come with a strong bladder, tough stomach and be able to survive with little sleep.
A vague itinerary was provided when you sign up for this btw which was not followed nor detailed.
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Day 1: last minute change to stop at Yosemite due to «weather conditions».
First of all, it took more than two hours to actually head toward norcal. We were told to meet up at Lincoln hotel at 7:15am. A guy which turned out to be our tour guy came by around 7:30am to start arranging the rides. The bus was filled after an unorganized mess with people going to different destinations and transfers at another hotel in Commerce. Luckily for us, it was simple and we just had to stay on the same bus and switch seats at the next pick up stop. This process could’ve been way more efficient, and it was a painful experience to sit through and see it dragged on.
We finally departed around 9:30am and had a resting stop two hours in as promised. By 1:30pm, we arrived at Fresno and were suggested King Buffet for lunch. We didn’t want to feel rushed with an hour buffet time and walked a short distance to a nearby Panda instead. Afterwards, we sat for what feels like forever on the bus and finally were able to stretch our stiff body at 5pm. This was already three hours in from the last lunch stop. We stopped briefly at Valley View for pictures and headed to the lower Yosemite fall lodge area to finally use the restroom.
Overall time spent walking in Yosemite was a little over an hour, and we were back again on the bus for a long 4 – 5 hours drive to our hotel. What’s for dinner? The tour guide suggested In n Out by the hotel which opens till late. We got to the hotel around 9:30pm exhauated and hungry and walked over to In n Out for food. We also made a stop at a nearby Winco for next day’s breakfast/​snacks on the road after experiencing this horrible night.
It only gets better — our meet up time for the second day was 6am!
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Day 2– San Francisco with the options for a one hour bay cruise and/​or advanced city tour to follow for additional costs. Our family opted out for both and decided to explore on our own with a more relaxing pace.
After a long four hours drive with no stops, we started the day taking the cable car to Lombard St. No concrete plan was explained nor discussed prior to getting ushered off the bus. The tour guide sped off to line up while most of the tour group strayed away looking for restrooms.
This was probably the highlight of the trip– watching people getting packed onto the cable car like sardines! This tour guide of ours asked the operator how many a cable car fits and decided that the 47 of us plus some 20 others would all fit in one. After seeing how packed the car was with the 10 of us still not boarded, the tour guide insisted for us to squeeze on. I let him know we were not boarding due to concern for our own and our family safety. He showed frustration and told us if we didn’t get on, we would have to wait there. The bad decision made by our tour guide led to our group getting split up from the others and the other group having a poor cable car experience. As the cable car filled with 60 something people plus the the tour guide were driving away, the tour guide finally let us know which stop to get off from.
The day was planned so tight that by the time we got to Lombard St., the first group and tour guide were already on their way to the pier to catch their cruise. We leisurely walked down Lombard St. and met up again with the tour guide to get more info on where the bus would be since we are not doing the tour.
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Day 3 could not be any better. All 6 of us were relieved that this tour is over and we get to go home.
Overall, we did not appreciate the chaos and lack of information from the tour guide. This trip is definitely targeted for the mainland China tourists who have never been to the US. The tour was in mandarin and english which the tour guide did not speak very well in neither. Being able to understand both language, I don’t think he provided adequate information.
*DO NOT JOIN THIS TOUR.

Failure to pick up passengers from airport.
Rude office staff.
Review from a stranger who helped stranded paid guests of a tour by Golden International Travel:
On June 2 evening, leaving a busy arrival-​level terminal at LAX, I passed by an old Chinese couple in distress. Despite my hurry to go home, their deeply distressed faces compelled me to return to them.
Why the distress? Golden Int’l Travel failed to pick up the non-​English speaking old couple at LAX, leaving them in distress and wonder what happened to the 14-​day luxury California tour that their son paid for.
When I managed to find the office tel online and called the GIT office, the lady was rather rude. All she would say non-​apologetically was someone would go pick the couple up. She refused to give a cell or alternate tel no (after hour) nor an estimated time of arrival.
The incident was so appalling that I felt people should know.
A neutral party.

I also booked the tour thru
. After reading other’s review, I would like to add one more point: Don’t pick this agency even if you do speak Chinese. Just stay away from this agency! My family and I had the most unpleasant travel experience because of this terrible agency. On the first day of our trip to San diego, nobody showed up. We spent 2 hours waiting at hotel’s lobby. Although we did get the refund from the agency the next day, our mood was ruined already. The 4 days trip to San Fransisco the next day is nothing but pain. I could understand the 2 or 3 stars hotels and tight schedule based on the price of the tour. At least, all the hotels we stayed in are quite clean and tidy. However, I can not stand the poor customer service of the agency. The tour guide is unreasonably unfriendly and ignorant. He even told us the Melbourne in «Italy» is the new gold mountain… Even though I am a mandarin speaker, I found difficulties communicating with the tour guide and the agency. I heard many people complaining about the guide and he just acted like he doesn’t give a shit.
The Bus we took is another horror story. I was bitten by some sort of fleas or bugs. I had many red and itchy spots on my legs and hands. It took me almost two weeks to get better… The driver is not only reckless but inexperienced. I kept hearing the guide telling the driver he went down the wrong way… Please tell all your friend, stay away from this agency.
天益遊旅行社是我遇過最爛的旅行社，非常不專業的導遊，態度惡劣，我們第一天的一日遊還被放鴿子，隔天的四日遊行程緊湊，不過最可怕的是骯髒的巴士，我在巴士上被蟲咬了好幾處，過了兩週多才漸漸變好，非常可怕。請告訴所有朋友，若需要華語導遊，請找別家資歷久的旅行社，千萬不要訂這一家。

I booked the tour thru
. Don’t pick this agency when you’re not Chinese or not able to speak Chinese. You will totally suffer in bus with 70% Chinese and 30% Indian for the whole trip, most of them talk really loudly and unstoppable. Very confusing to know which is your bus and who is your tour guide; and last but not least, not dedicate to their customers at all

This company has great deals on Tours4fun but they’re not helpful compared to other tour operators as these are mainly tailed for Chinese tourists.
They also have you stay at only 2 and 3 star hotels like the Ramada and Stratosphere.
It’s cost effective if you don’t mind, the Chinese tourists have hotels much worse in China so they don’t mind.
I also think they don’t translate everything to English. Sometimes they’ll speak in Chinese for 20 minutes and then translate one sentence to English. Sometimes they’ll say some English words in Chinese like skywalk and never cover those details in English.
I may not know Cantonese or Mandarin, but I’m not stupid. The tour guides are ok and very helpful. Harry is the best one and I honestly loved being with him the first few days, even though we had a shitty bus where only the central AC worked really slow and it had 980k miles.
Don’t worry, the other days, we stayed on some of the newer buses and it was great, some of the tour operators tend to talk to much and some of the drivers are reckless.
For example. I was sleeping and woke up to my head slamming against the window because he took a 270 degree turn off the highway at 60 an hour when the sign said to go at 20 an hour. I know because the person in front took a video since he got pissed off and showed it to me.
Also a lot of the drivers are horrible like in bus 8809 who is reckless, property gets damaged and people get hurt. I was sleeping and I went flying forward and hit my nose and got a nosebleed. Why you may wonder??? The driver tried to overtake a biker on a blind turn and almost hit another car…

Golden International Travel is the most painful, inefficient, and miserable way to travel. I accidentally got caught in this tourist trap through the good intentions of a friend who recommended it for a Las Vegas vacation, but instead it turned into a Las Vegas Nightmare.
Golden International Travel’s buses are dirty, smelly, uncomfortable, and SLOW.
It took Golden International 8 HOURS to get from the OC to Vegas, and 12 HOURS to get from Vegas to the OC. The normal trip time is 4 hours! They kept stopping every hour after hour at cheap places for stupid tourists to waster their hard earned money.
The bus «announcer» (should be called the «torturer») blabbed for 2 hours straight about absolutely nothing into a PA system that is EXTREMELY LOUD and pumped into everyone’s seat. There is a speaker blaring in every passenger’s face.
So if you’re looking for a nightmarish travel experience, and a waste of your valuable time and you really want to ruin your vacation, check out Golden International.