The Great Wall of China is one of the The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and its one of the only things I knew about China as a kid. Last year I had the opportunity to visit the great wall on a limited budget by taking advantage of an extremely long layover in Bejing with a Great Wall layover tour.
So what is a layover tour ? Layover tours are exactly what they sound like, a tour made specifically for people on long layovers. The idea is simple, pickup tourist from the airport, take them on a tour and get them back to the airport on time for their flight. As a traveler this is a great way to take advantage of a cheaper flight with a long layover in order to see some of a countries most famous areas.
When booking a trip to Bangkok I came across an incredibly cheap ticket that had a 10 hour layover in Bejing for about $300 less than one without a long layover. This allowed me to spend $150 on an 8 hour Great Wall tour that provided food, transportation and my own personal tour guide.
The Tour
There are two popular area’s of the Great Wall, Badaling and Mutianyu. This particular tour takes you to Badaling which is about an hours drive. When I landed in PEK airport I made my way to the meeting spot where there were dozens of other tour guides attempting to sell me on various layover tours. My tour guide was just outside this area holding a sign with my name and introduced himself as Tony. As it turns out even though I chose the options for a “Less good english speaking tour guide” I ended up getting the owner of the small tour guide company. Tony was a nice guy spoke very good english and gave me a bottle of water right away.
The ride to the wall was boring as far as scenery goes but the conversation was pretty good on the way out there. Because I packed for 90 degree hot and humid Bangkok weather I did not have any warm clothes and because I had 40 hours of traveling ahead of me I decided to wear flip flops and tough out the weather. This was probably not the best idea considering there was snow on the wall. Walking the snowy wall in flip flops was not as terrible as I thought aside from my tour guide telling me the wall guards were laughing at me.
Overall the seeing the Great Wall was amazing, and was a great item to check off my bucket list. Tony was a great tour guide and took me out for dumplings and beer after we were done with the wall.
Conclusion
I could not imagine spending $150 on a tour in any other scenario but this is a premium service that insures you get a knowledgable tour guide, travel and back to the airport on time. Overall this is a great way to take advantage of cheap flights with long layovers.
Checkout the layover tour I did at tourtogreatwall.com
