Terra-Cotta Warriors & Horses Essential Full Day Tour from Xi'an

This was a fabulous day trip in Xian. It is well organized and planned and something not to missed while in Xian. The Terracotta Warriors have been well preserved and are well presented with great, close access available to leave a lasting experience.

To see the warriors of Xian should be a must when visiting China. It is difficult to describe them: they simply are the eight wonder of the wander.

Pretty disappointing! First, it appears that we paid too much, since another couple paid around 50€ less when they booked it directly at our hotel. During the first 2 hours of the tour we were not sure if we were on the right one, because the pick-up at the hotel was very chaotic and no names or room numbers were asked and the guide just pointed at us. When asking for reassurance, the guide did not understand what we meant and kept smiling. That's in addition to never being contacted by the tour operator in the first place to confirm the exact pick-up time. Our first stop was the Banpoo Museum and if you have ever been to an European archeological excavation site there is no need for you to go there. The presentation of our guide seemed poorly prepared and she kept looking at the signs for help. And it didn't help that the signs were in poor English as well. The next stop was the Terracotta Warriors Museum where we were shown how the warriors are made. This was somewhat interesting and the guide from the museum (Anna) spoke excellent English. We then had some time to stroll through the shop next door and later we had an excellent, but not traditional Chinese meal. Afterwards, we went to the Terracotta Warriors which were really impressive, although very crowdy and sometimes you got pushed through. Before going back to the hotel, we stopped at a Mausoleum which was more of a 20 minute walk through a garden and not really necessary. In general, the Terracotta Warriors were impressive, the lunch good but the other sites not that interesting. Unfortunately, the English of our guide was not good and therefore we did not learn any information on the monuments and could not ask our questions. An example that describes her English skills is the following question: "who the terrakotta warriors were founded?" when she actually meant "how were the warriors found?". Hence, her elaborations were sometimes impossible to understand and the receiver did not really work at times.