Private Customized Tour: Shanghai in One Day

Shanghai, China

8 hours (approx.)
Pickup offered
Group discounts
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

Overview

Enhance your sightseeing experience of Shanghai by designing your own itinerary on this private, full-day tour. Accompanied by a knowledgeable guide, customize your day according to your interests and see only the Shanghai sights that you wish to see. Choose to visit some of the city’s historical highlights; ask your guide to take you to the most popular shopping locations; or delve into the rich historical heritage of the area by visiting intriguing museums. However you wish to spend your time in Shanghai, the undivided attention of your guide is guaranteed on this private custom tour.

Private customized tour of Shanghai's sights and attractions
Design your own itinerary according to your interests
Visit the Shanghai Museum and discover China's history and art
Walk along the scenic Bund and enjoy a dinner cruise on the water
Discover Shanghai's markets and have your guide help you bargain for the best deals
Get expert recommendations on the best restaurants in Shanghai
Hotel pickup and drop-off included

What's Included

English-speaking tour guide
Private tour

Gratuities

Meeting and Pickup

Pickup points

Select a pickup point

Pickup details

Varies. Please call to confirm pickup time at time of reconfirmation.

Operating hours
.9:00 am

Itinerary

Depart from your Shanghai hotel after greeting your guide and embark upon your customized tour of the city's sights. Discuss the historical highlights and attractions you wish to see with your knowledgeable guide and devise an itinerary according to your interests.

Perhaps immerse yourself in Shanghai’s artistic heritage with a visit to the city museum; stroll along the picturesque The Bund area to admire the glittering waterfront and its metropolitan buildings; or explore the city’s best markets and browse bespoke boutiques and colorful stalls for designer clothing and exotic produce.

Appease your appetite for authenticity by requesting a customized food tour, in which your guide allows you to sample different Chinese cuisines in a variety of excellent restaurants. Ask to learn about the distinct architecture of the city and tour some of Shanghai’s most spellbinding structures while listening to absorbing commentary from your guide.

Please submit your desired activities and attractions when reconfirming your tour.

Please note: This 8-hour tour provides guests with an English speaking guide and hotel pickup and drop-off. Taxis, public transportation, admission fees and food must be purchased at your own expense.

Shanghai Museum (Shanghai Bowuguan)

1 hour 30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Jade Buddha Temple

1 hour • Admission Ticket Not Included

The Bund (Wai Tan)

1 hour • Admission Ticket Free

Yu Garden (Yuyuan)

2 hours • Admission Ticket Not Included

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Please indicate hotel, pickup time and desired tour itinerary at the time of reconfirmation of tour
Not wheelchair accessible

Most travelers can participate
This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate

Supplied by

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

Reviews

3.8

based on 28 reviews

Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor

We perform checks on reviews

Our guise Elina, contacted our hotel...

MaryAnne_B, Mar 2018

Our guise Elina, contacted our hotel the day before our tour to make contact. She arrived slightly before our allocated time. We wanted to see the obvious attractions, The Bund, Yu gardens, Jade Buddha temple and all these were wonderful. Elina was a friendly and informative guide who was willing to take us where we wanted to go. We went over to Pudong and drove around the financial district trying to get the best photo shots. Our driver attempted a number of times to let us out to take photos but unfortunately traffic inspectors kept waving him on. We decided to have lunch at Xintiandi which offered a great selection of eateries and we chose a great Gastro pub for lunch. We did visit a silk factory and actually found it informative...those silk quilts look amazing. The 6 of us in our group had a great day.

Logistics and guide content was good...

Suit C, Jul 2016

Logistics and guide content was good except we have an issue with honesty. We have a 5 year old child in the party who is less than 1.2 m tall. The guide told us that we need to purchase a full price ticket even for him. We have a person in the party who reads Chinese and told her that the posted ticket information says the child is free. Only then we were able to not have to pay for the child.

Michael was a very knowledgeable and...

Miles P, Apr 2016

Michael was a very knowledgeable and pleasant tour guide. Highly recommended.

A great way to see what we wanted...

Ray J, Jan 2016

A great way to see what we wanted and having a guide that knows how to get around the city worked for us. We were able to cover a lot of attractions in a very full day. Being able to customize the tour is the way to go with a lot more flexibility instead of going on a set tour that only hits the tourist attractions they want you to see.

We booked this tour as we've used...

Tracey A, Sep 2015

We booked this tour as we've used Viator tours in the past, and have always been very satisfied, however this time around, that wasn't our experience. Our guide Tom spoke very good English, but offered very little commentary about life in Shanghai, other than a proscribed script delivered in a rather wooden fashion. The guide seemed more interested in checking his phone and shunting us from one destination to the next. The visits to the Temple and garden were both lovely, but certainly these parts of the tour felt rushed there was limited time to stop, take in the beautiful surroundings and have photos taken. The visit to the Silk factory was interesting, but the prices were obviously inflated, and there was pressure to buy. Our guide seemed offended when we told him we weren't interested in visiting the Pearl factory. We have been to these places before and were not interested in another visit. We had to ask several times for recommendations for shopping as we were keen on doing some bartering at a local market and it was our expectation from what we had read on the website that our guide might be able to assist us with bargaining, however this was not the case, and instead we were dropped off at the shopping market. Having said that, the place was great and we were spoilt for choice. We had booked a whole day tour, but by lunchtime, we'd had enough, and when after only a couple of hours, the guide asked us to sign a paper acknowledging we'd received the goods we'd ordered, we did so, and we decided we'd be better off doing our own thing... We had to find our own way back to the hotel. I would not recommend this tour.

Our guide was very pleasant and...

Eugene P, Jun 2015

Our guide was very pleasant and flexible, trying to address our interests. We wish we had more un-prompted information about the culture, history, architecture.

Guide had a weak voice, hard to...

Dean B, May 2015

Guide had a weak voice, hard to hear. Did not go or do what we wanted. More of a rote memory answers with some bad information.

Our guide, Frank, was very...

Walter Ted G, May 2015

Our guide, Frank, was very knowledgeable,friendly and helpful. He introduced us to so many new areas and sights in a city we have visited many times. We would highly recommend Frank and an independent tour of the city.

Very friendly guide Leo, spoke...

diane n, Apr 2015

Very friendly guide Leo, spoke English well and was more than happy to make sure we saw everything on our must see list. would recommend this tour to other travellers.

Four of us had a great day with Fran...

Mary Ruth M, Oct 2014

Four of us had a great day with Fran who was so knowledgeable, helpful and flexible about what we wanted to see. We spent a great time at the French Concession; the Shanghai Art Museum; a great restaurant and lunch; and a few other stops of our choice. We could not have had a better guide who is an excellent translator, coach and companion for seeing Shanghai.

I must tell you that this was the...

Rick, Oct 2014

I must tell you that this was the best money that I've ever spent on a private tour. My guide, I called her Fi, was absolutely wonderful!! She was very personable, well read, and was very easy to talk to. I would tour with her again anytime. Thanks for such a wonderful time:) Rick Richardson

this was really great, awesome being...

Georgia S, Jul 2014

this was really great, awesome being able to decide where you want to go yourself, appreciated the helpful advice of guide Jennifer! she knew all the best places to go/see so she gave us ideas if we were stuck. pretty cheap too, considering what we got out of it! the best way to see the city when you don't have much time to spare.

Very disappointing, felt I was being...

Jan P, Apr 2014

Very disappointing, felt I was being dragged around to be feed a sales opportunity.

I was very disappointed in my tour...

Catrice G, Feb 2014

I was very disappointed in my tour of Shanghai!! I felt I should of did the hop on hop off bus and got a better experience than I did. I have done many of private tours and this was my first on that did not come with car service. You have to take a taxi, subway or bus and you must pay for the guide ticket as well. I decided to do the subway. We went to the Bund, Old Town and the Oriental Pearl Tower. Our guide Chris rushed us thought the whole tour and when we asked questions, he could not answer them. When we went to each place, he just took us there said the name of the place and sat on the outside and waited for us to come out. Nothing was explained or told to us at any of the places. We had to read for ourselves when we got back to the hotel and internet. It was by far the worst tour I have ever been on. And our guide left us in Old Town to get back to the hotel on our own after only being with us for four hours. He told us, we went to all the places and now I must go after we told him we wanted to walk around old Shanghai for awhile and see what they had to offer and shop. Needless to say, I did not have a great time with him and felt it was a waste of my money!

Choosing a private custom tour...

Nicholas O, Jan 2014

Choosing a private custom tour helped to quickly identify places of interest which could be further explored during the rest of a very short stay. However not impressed with Frank (the tour guide) who had misunderstood the starting time for the tour and who was keen to go to the more expensive shops and restaurants, most probably for commissions.

Frank was very nice, but not all...

John_F, Dec 2013

Frank was very nice, but not all together as knowledgable as we were used to in our experience in China. I was also disappointed to learn that my tour did not include transportation, which I had to pay an additional 700 yuan for. (almost the same amount as the tour). All other tours I booked included transportation.

Our guide was really not in to it...

Judith H M, Nov 2013

Our guide was really not in to it today. We asked to see a two places and he did take us there. After that we asked him for some suggestions of things which would not be too touristy and all he could suggest was to shop, shop, shop. We ended up on Nanjing street...after a bit we gave up and found a massage place and told him to leave. I was disappointed.

Wonderful, custom tour. Excellent guide...

Janet T, Aug 2013

Wonderful, custom tour. Excellent guide with excellent suggestions!

The tour guide is very flexible and...

Lin P, Jun 2013

The tour guide is very flexible and help us a lot. We arrange to visit a lot of hidden place but Rita still able to help us to make the trip prefectly.

saw many more attractions with guide...

Jon A, May 2013

saw many more attractions with guide than could ever have on our own. also great to not be trailing along with a bus load of a tour group. guide was excellent, English good. very personable. knowledge of historic sites excellent. we traveled by taxi all day and guide knew just how to get the next taxi quickly and efficiently. very cost effective way to see shanghai.

Frank always seemed to want to go...

Pierre Bellavance, May 2013

Frank always seemed to want to go away ... he walked faster than us. He didn't bother to get us the senior discount at the Shanghai World Financial Center, which we didn't really want to see. He also wanted to go to the Auto Salon which had no interest for us. Worth it only if you have seen nothing of Shanghai yet, which was not the case with us, as we'd been there for two days and had already seen about all he wanted us to see ...

Frank was great!!! He was very...

neda_e, Mar 2013

Frank was great!!! He was very informative and accommodating!. We were able to see more sights on our own as opposed to a larger tour group - no waiting for others, plus we got to select the places we wanted to eat, etc! Highly recommended!

Had a great time. Rita was very very...

MICHELLE D, Jan 2013

Had a great time. Rita was very very good. We could have not ask for more. Rita gave good advice and was most helpful and knowledgeable. The day met all our needs.

Perfect , my guide Tracy knew...

Aaron R, Jan 2013

Perfect , my guide Tracy knew everything and everywhere.

Tracy our guide was extremely...

Betsy, Nov 2012

Tracy our guide was extremely helpful and knowledge. We spent two days with her, the first of which was rainy and she changed our itinerary so we would see the out door sites on our second day which was clear.

This was a very nice tour with a...

Jacquelyn P, Aug 2012

This was a very nice tour with a great tour guide. He was very informative and helpful throughout the day. For a nice overview of Shanghai that is flexible to what you want to see, this tour is perfect.

It was absolutely fantastic to be...

Kevin Sampels, Jun 2012

It was absolutely fantastic to be able to pick the sites we wanted to see...and our guide was great...super friendly and hard working. Most of the standard tours had 2-3 cool things to see/do, but then blended in a couple that were not appealing to us. Arranging our own tour allowed us to choose only those sites that interested us. One bit of advice. The price of this tour is very reasonable but could have risen very quickly (by ~$230) if we chose to utilize their car to get around, but we chose to use local taxis with our guide. Although the driving was a bit more aggressive, it was still safe...and we had no problem at all flagging down a cab. This approach saved us HUGE bucks...and the driving just added more excitement. This was a great tour!

nice, more stiff in presentation so...

Wayne P, Apr 2012

nice, more stiff in presentation so not as engaging. some wrong facts about raised entrance to each rm Yu garden - stated to keep out water and snow. later told by Beijing guide was wrong info. took us to jade shop where high pressured instead of where actually carving jade as seen later as passig by. not engaging and charismatic but very polite.