I’ve been to London a couple of times already, nevertheless I see myself as the typical tourist; I’m still shocked with supermarket prices, I still find driving in a red double-decker bus totally cool, I have no idea how to re-load my Oyster card and I still find the underground system complete frightening…

Still, London is one of the greatest mega cities with an amazingly diverse culture scene. Including the outer suburbs, it’s one of the largest capitals in the world, therefore visiting for a weekend can give you a real headache, when thinking of all the things you’d like to do. Well, you just gotta lower your sights; relax and slow down a little. You need to realise that you won’t be able to see it all.

I’d like to give you a couple of tips (from tourist to tourist) for a great London experience:

Drop the tube and just walk: As I said, I think the underground in London is frightening. Sure, it’s also one of the most extensive and frequent underground systems in the world, but you’ll experience so much more just by strolling around. Of course it always depend where you are and were you want to go, but as a tourist, you’ll (mostly) stick around the main attractions anyway.

Stay off the main roads: As it is in every city, the main roads are always packed with people and traffic. This can be nerve racking, so stroll around the side streets and I guarantee that you’ll come across some great little shops, cafés, buildings, parks and so on. One of the best things about London are all the different neighbourhoods and how quickly you can move between areas of very different types.

Don’t stress: As said before, you won’t be able to see every bit of London. Rather than rushing from one sight tot he next, take your time to enjoy London’s neighbourhoods, because there’s nothing worse than being stressed on vacation.

Be a tourist: Don’t be embarrassed if you want to go to “touristy” things … that’s totally cool. During my first visit to London, I actually felt more touristy than ever before (partly because I’ve also never seen to many tourist on one spot in any other city before) and I didn’t like it at all. But during my second and third visit, I realised that it’s fine and even Londoners like doing touristy things from time to time.

Check out Where to Stay in London: The Ultimate Sightseeing Guide to complete your London experience.

For a lazy couch-potato it might be the right thing to browse through some “let’s flyaway” websites, on which the right destination will be found soon for sure; of course all inclusive, paid via the internet, with the invoice printed in the same moment. Now you only have to wait until the departure day arrives, pack up a few things and that’s it. There’s nothing more to do. Once you’re at the airport, you can start scanning your fellow travel buddies at the departure gate and start choosing some possible holiday flings as well.

That can’t be all, can it?!

But luckily there are other ways to start a vacation as a travel photographer: Scanning the atlas is a good start, because after all, there are many places yet to be discovered. For example the Austral Islands. We came across these tiny islands somewhere South of French Polynesia. But actually getting there took more than a few evenings of checking relevant websites (all in French, so we could prove our high school French skills at the same time). No sooner said than done, we started our 48 hour journey to French Polynesia…. And only one day after arriving in Papeete, we continued to the Austral islands. Since we were up for an adventure, instead of waiting for the next passenger ferry, we hopped onto the cargo ship, which provides these islands with all the goods the people need every couple of weeks. It was a smooth trip but turns out, we were quite lucky. Just a couple of days earlier, the ship had to conquer giant monster waves that crushed its hull. Must have been one hell of a trip…

Something like this would definitely never ever happen on a package tour. These “normal” tours are on the safe side most of the times … unless of course you’re captain thinks he’s a big shot and wants to impress some cute blonde waitress for example – then you’re relaxing honeymoon vacation can turn into a real nightmare. Still, in most cases, the greatest excitement comes along when you find a cockroach in the shower, and then the booking company can fasten their seatbelts, because heavy complaining will come up… Come to think of it, are package tours any fun at all?

We’ve had our share of horrible package tours.

A really strange (and that’s actually a nice word here) experience that we encounter was during a booked trip to the Great Wall of China from Beijing. We stayed in one of these hotel chains and due to limited time, we thought it might be better to book a tour, instead of getting there ourselves (plus it was also our first visit to China). Big mistake, as we already found out an hour later when the bus turned into a huge shopping centre full of Jade shops. It was an unwanted stop for half an hour, yet still most people actually bought something?! The guy in charge wanted us to go inside as well, but Jade simply doesn’t do it for us…

So after about 30 minutes, the bus continued to the Great Wall and just as we arrived, we were told to be back in one hour because lunch was provided somewhere else. No idea why but we didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. So after walking around a little bit, we returned to the bus as the last ones of course, which didn’t help in bonding with our fellow travellers. Anyway, the drive only took about 10 minutes until we turned into a gigantic (it really was gigantic) complex. We got out and were led into a waiting room, not the slightest idea what was going to happen next…

Well, turns out that before we could have lunch, we got a doctor’s consultation. 3 men in white robes entered the room with an interpreter explaining that we can get a medical check now and further more, get a prescription for Chinese medicine. Wft?! The doctors stated asking people if they had any bone aching, stomach problems, high blood, diabetes, sleeplessness or any other general sicknesses. And, believe it or not, most of the tourist admitted some problems and were happy that these doctors had solutions for everything. Heck, if I would have told these “Gods in White” that I had a brain tumour, I’m sure they would have given me some magical snake slime mixed with horse hair to make things better. So anyway, they started selling all kind of herbs and this was the time when we escaped again, with the excuse (we didn’t want to offend anyone) that we were healthy as a child … but instead of being happy for us, the tour leader gave us a grim look.

Anyway, the food was a bit dreadful as well. We sat at round tables and a huge pot was placed in the middle, which caught our attention. We opened the lid and an entire boiled rooster stuck out … that must have been the Chinese version of chicken soup, It might not have been so bad, but we mostly stuck to rice.

After arriving back in our hotel, we said never ever again … yet we did come across another package tour in Vietnam once (Ha Long Bay), but that’s another horror story I want to spare you of.

What about you? Any experiences with package tours?

If you’re planning a trip here, be sure to read the following article because we will only give you authentic and honest feedback on our impression of Yangshuo. Forget Loney Planet on this. We built on the writer’s impressions and fell flat on our face! What’s up Lonely Planet? Where are the honest words we got in previous guides?

Anyway, our insight won’t be embellished but only true and straightforward. I wish I had read an article just as honest before planning this trip because my destination would have definitely altered.

First impressions count.

We arrived in Yangshuo at 1am with the sleeper bus from Guangzhou. The bus ride itself was pretty comfy. If you’re not overweight or claustrophobic, it’s a great way to get a good night sleep and travel at the same time. So arriving in Yangshuo with heavy rain and no lights near the bus station was not good for a nice first impression. Luckily we knew where we wanted to go: Explorer Hotel. I read the Lonely Planet travel guide before and it said, that Explorer Hotel it was a cute & quite mid-range hotel. So we beckoned the local tuk tuk driver over and were on our way. During the 10-minute ride there, we started realizing, that this town was not a sleepy little Chinese village as we expected … Turning into the street of Explorer Hotel, it was one bar to the next with bright neon lights and loud techno music – with binge drinking highly appreciated. Seriously?! The tuk tuk driver also pissed us off when he tried to rip us off but we couldn’t be bothered and gave him the 10 Yuan more. After all, it’s been one hell of a long day and it didn’t seem to get any better.

No fatties allowed in the sleeper bus from Guangzhou to Yangshuo.

After checking in, the reception lady said that our room was on the third floor … and there was no elevator. Great! Two 20kg bags (one in each hand) and up we were … only to realize, that the room was already taken by someone else. Now I started to get a little grumpy. Ulli was a bit calmer since she had been on a four-week trip through Bangladesh and therefore wouldn’t lose her temper easily. “So sorry Missy, please take room in first floor.” So we did. The room was clean with two large beds, A/C and a nice bathroom – at least this worked out, otherwise I would have needed the consultation of a Chinese Psychologist.

It can’t get any worse, can it?

The sky cleared up the next day. It was cloudy but at least the rain stopped. Still a bit edgy from what we saw last night, we wanted to give Yangshuo a second chance. It’s said that everyone deserves a second chance …  yeah … who in the world ever wrote that crap?! It was even worse than the night before. Imagine Rimini in Italy. Phuket in Thailand. Kuta in Indonesia. Or Downtown Siam Reap in Cambodia. Multiply this by 100 and you get Yangshuo in China.

West street in Yangshuo has a scary resemblance to Kao San Road in Bangkok …

I really started wondering on why I wanted to come here so badly and remembered the most amazing BBC Documentary “Wild China” where Guilin and Yangshuo were described as “the most beautiful spots in China”. Yeah sure, if you have the cash to fly in with a helicopter, shoot scenes from above or land in uninhabited placed. But reality looks very (very !) different: Huge highway roads. Tourist vendors along all the streets. Thousand of bamboo raft boats on the Li River. Bars and fast food places. Gigantic hotel building blocks. And of course, thousands of tourists. No sight of traditional China.

Even the fisherman with their cormorant birds were fake. Sure, they exist but they’re just another tourist attraction. These fishermen don’t make their money by selling the daily catch on the local market anymore. Much rather, they wait along the Li River for tourists to pass, who pay them to display their cormorant birds. By the way, the birds also look a bit pissed since no one lets them catch fish anymore…

A fisherman with his Cormorant waiting for customers.

I hope I was able to give you an insight on our impressions. Clearly you need to see a place yourself to fully understand the words but I think we did a good job filling in the blanks. Yangshuo once was a beautiful town worth a UNESCO World Heritage Site but obviously the development of the last 30 years didn’t make the area any better (in our opinion); the view of the karst mountain landscape is interrupted by signs, electric wires, (lots of) plastic rubbish and all sorts of tourist attractions. One thing is for sure … to get the picture perfect shot; you’d have to be a master at Photoshop.

Appearances can be deceiving.

All in all, the first day here had a few down sides but also a very nice up side: Moon Hill was fantastic. This place needs muscle and stamina to access so the crowds up there are thinning. Other than than, we also visited the Silver Cave, which was a nightmare as well before heading up North to the Dragon’s Backbone rice terraces – definitely the highlight of our trip!