Inner mongolia tour tips
 

Hi, so my group (4 people) plan to visit Hohhot for 3D2N, and we want to have 2 private tours to explore the scenic areas there. Preferably, we'd love to have 1 day private tour visiting Kubuqi / Xiangshawan Desert, and 1 day private tour visiting the Huitengxile Grasslands. We prefer to have hotel pickup and drop-off as well since it will be much easier and faster given our limited time there. The thing is, I looked up for private tours offered online, the price are so expensive ($120+ per person). My question is, is there any local tour / agents in Hohhot that we can visit directly and look around in order to find cheaper price and detailed itineraries for the private tours mentioned above? and what is the average price for them per person (in CNY or USD)? Thank you in advance!

If you identify a driver you like, I'm guessing you could negotiate a full day rate for y500-700 (maybe a little more for a minivan).

first of all, thank you for replying. secondly, is there some sort of a tour guide office or agency around Hohhot? Like for example if you going to Phuket the main street is scattered with lots of travel agencies offering tour packages. Is there places like that in Hohhot or should i negotiate with individual driver / renting a car only?

My admittedly limited experience has been this : if you're expecting Western tour standards, be prepared to pay western prices.

I did a private tour from 成都 to 九寨沟 黄龙 with one of those larger Chinese tour companies offering private tours to western tourists, even though we're both chinese with foreign passeports. It turned out great, the company was responsive to last minute changes (we finished earlier than anticipated the last day, they swapped our train tickets no problems at all).

The risk with the local small tour companies, would be the quality of the lodging, transports, accréditations, and language if you don't speak/read the local language. Also, I didn't want an experience with the cliché shopping tours.

The thing is, I've been exploring couple cities in China, even going to the deep area of Shangri-La region in Kunming and have my own customized version of private tour there, and it went great.. I can speak and read basic Chinese (HSK-4ish equivalent), so i don't think language is going to be a problem when it comes to communicating with the local tour companies. And also since I prefer it to be one-day tour, basically I prefer to get picked up in our hotel in the morning, and then dropped off there in the evening, so there will be no issue with the lodging quality. I just want to ask whether there are lots of local tour companies there in Hohhot and what's the average price there haha.
On the other hand, usually when travelling abroad in Asian countries like Vietnam or Thailand, I always use the likes of Klook to book private tour there, but I can't find anything about Hohhot / Inner Mongolia on the website, that's why I want to get some proper research about the price and the itineraries.
Thank you for the reply though, cheers!

Have you tried ctrip? A quick search there yielded this:

https://vacations.ctrip.com/list/who...28009;特

(Hohhot tours, filtered by 1-day length)

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6e2bd4d064.png

Wow you're a lifesaver! I never even think about Ctrip in the first place! I only searched using Trip(.)com site instead and found nothing there. Thank you so much!

I think you can consider moondog 's suggestion if you know where you want to go. I've done local guides throughout China and the quality is really a spin of the roulette wheel.

I've had to spend weekends in Baotou and Hohhot and wanted to do something customized and off the beaten trail. The physical travel agencies and hotels (Shangri-La in both cities) were no big help, their clientele want the tourist bus package going to the same places as everyone else.

What worked for me in Hohhot was talking to a hotel doorman who was a local (born in Hohhot) who knew a taxi driver who would take me anywhere I wanted for a day for 500 RMB. The concierge was from Beijing and, frankly, useless other than the usual top 5 places to see around Hohhot and bus tours. Got to spend a day exploring the 7-monastery complex I found on google earth which, while not exactly open to the public, allowed me to walk around at will. On a different trip to Baotou I did the same to see some remote sections of the Great Wall and another monastery.

The hotel doorman in Hohhot also gave me a suggestion for a restaurant which locals use when they want to have a small celebration like a birthday. It was one of the best restaurant experiences I ever had in China. I liked the dipping spices for the roast mutton so much but they would not give me the recipe so they gave me a bag of it to take! Great place.

Thank you for the suggestion.
What I meant about mentioning Shangri-La earlier wasn't a hotel chain, but a Shangri-La (香格里拉) region in Yunnan (not Kunming) haha.
I see, I'll definitely try to ask some local people for their suggestion then, and hopefully we could get a deal about it. I've looked around at the Ctrip website earlier, and found couple of tour packages that suits my need, only the downside is that they use some sort of tourist bus, and we have to go at the certain meeting place in the city instead of getting picked up at our hotel, but the price certainly are much cheaper than the ones listed at 'western' travel websites like TripAdvisor and others.
Can you give me recommendation about that particular restaurant? Do you still remember the name of it?

You're welcome. :)

I don't remember the name of the restaurant but I sent a message to an ex-employee to see if he can. If I hear back I will let you know.

thank you so much.. appreciate it mate ;)