Early Bird Great Wall Private Tour with Chinese Breakfast from Beijing

We really enjoyed this tour. The guide (David) picked us up from our hotel and took us to a breakfast place. We ate a traditional Chinese breakfast (many locals were in the restaurant) and we could order as much food as we wanted (we told David what we'd like to eat and he ordered and paid for it) - which was included in our tour. He drove us to the Great Wall. When we arrived, he gave us our tickets to the Great Wall, Skylift, and Toboggan ride as well as instructions on how use the tickets and where to meet him afterwards. The Skylift up to the wall was very smooth. The Great Wall section that was open was very long, so we didn't have enough time to walk all of it before our bus was going to leave, however we were tired enough that we wouldn't have made it the entire way anyway. I was nervous about the toboggan ride down the wall, but it was very nice, because we could control our speed and the slope was gradual. It was slightly scary to make a curve because I was afraid I'd tip over, but I didn't. It was a very slow ride down, because the people in front of us were moving extremely slowly. When we reached the bottom, we had a little bit of time left to shop and eat at a restaurant. David met us there and let us take our time and leave whenever we were ready. I really enjoyed that David helped me practice my Mandarin and talked a lot about everyday topics with us. I was able to use my We Chat account to contact him when we were ready to leave the Great Wall. I recommend this tour!

Breakfast was great and Kevin, our driver, was very helpful. The Wall was amazing--this is a great part of the wall to visit. Going early in the morning, in October, and this part of the Wall meant it was not too crowded and we could really enjoy the experience. After discussion with our driver we learned that Forbidden City was closed the next day (Mondays) so he dropped us off there on our way home, helped us avoid the crowds there, and gave us directions to get home from there.

We booked the early morning tour with breakfast because it seemed unique. Unfortunately our driver never showed up and we were waiting at our hotel on a Sunday morning. Luckily the office was open when we called around 6:45am and they scrambled to find us another driver. Due to the delay we didn't stop for breakfast in a local village, but the company did arrange for us to meet a guide at the parking lot of the wall and he bought us coffee, snacks, and t-shirts. The tour company was very apologetic about the driver issues and even gave us a discount. The driver who did arrive was courteous and had a clean car. Overall, we had a memorable visit to the Great Wall.The section of the wall we visited was beautiful and we arrived before it got too busy (around 9am). I am appreciative that the company took the driver issue seriously and took immediate steps to make the tour a success. It was an easy day trip from Beijing to visit the wall and is worth the time to see it.