Chengdu & Sichuan · Food, tea, mountains, pandas
The China
that takes its time.
Chengdu runs on tea and conversation. This journey uses the city as a soft base for pandas at feeding time, a 2,200-year-old irrigation system that still works, the Leshan Giant Buddha, and the most interesting regional cuisine in China — from the kitchens where it’s actually eaten.
Day 2, 8am feeding at the Panda Base — after ten, the paths are a wall of people. Photo: George Lu, CC BY 2.0.
TL;DR — as of August 2026
- What this isA private customized tour of Chengdu & Sichuan for parties of 2–6 — the 8-day route below is the starting shape we re-plan around your dates, pace and interests, not a fixed group departure.
- How many days8 days / 7 nights suits most travellers. It compresses into a shorter Chengdu-based stay, or extends by 2–4 days into the Western Sichuan highlands.
- What it costsFrom €2,900 per person (four travelling) or €3,200 (two travelling), land only — character hotels, private guide matched to your language, private car & driver, entrances and class fees as described included. Most meals are chosen with you on the day; budget €45–70 per person per day.
- Why this routePandas at the 8am feeding before the crowds, a working tea house before any sight, a hands-on Sichuan kitchen day, Dujiangyan and Mount Qingcheng, and Leshan from the water and the cliff path — a panoramic loop of the province, at Chengdu speed.
Day by day
A sample route, not a script
Slow by design. If you want more mountain, we extend west; if you want more kitchen, we stay in town.
- Day 1
Arrive Chengdu
Private welcome and transfer. First stop is not a sight but a tea house: bamboo chairs, thermos flasks, and the afternoon to arrive properly. Hotpot tonight, mild-to-wild as you dare. Your guide is matched to your language — English or German as standard, French or Spanish on request and confirmed before booking.
- Day 2
The pandas, then the park
At the Panda Base for the 8am feeding, before the paths fill. Afternoon in People’s Park — matchmaking corner, ear cleaners, mahjong — Chengdu at its most itself. If the pandas are the point of the trip, The Panda Country builds six unhurried days around the bases and the bamboo hills.
- Day 3
A Sichuan kitchen day
Morning wet market walk with a chef — chillies, peppercorns, pickles — then a hands-on cooking class and the lunch you just made. Evening free for street food or a proper table.
- Day 4
Dujiangyan & Mount Qingcheng
The irrigation system that has watered this plain since 256 BC, then an easy afternoon among the Taoist temples and moss-green paths of Qingcheng’s front mountain.
- Day 5
Leshan Giant Buddha
Day trip to the 71-metre Tang-dynasty buddha carved into the river cliff — seen properly from the water and the path beside it. Return via Suji town for its famous slow-cooked beef.
- Day 6
Old Chengdu, on foot
Kuanzhai alleys early, a calligraphy or tea-ceremony session with a master we rate, and the Sichuan opera’s face-changing performance after dinner.
- Day 7
Free day, by design
Yours to wander. Suggestions we happily arrange: the Jinsha archaeological site and its gold sun bird, a countryside tea farm, or simply a long lunch.
- Day 8
Depart
Private transfer, unhurried timing, help until you’re airborne.
Photo: 王计 (Wang Ji), CC BY 2.5.
Your ride
Quiet, new-energy, and planned like everything else
Photo: JustAnotherCarDesigner, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo: User 3204, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Indicative pricing
What a journey like this costs
| Party | Guide price, per person | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| 2 travellers | €3,200 | Character hotels, one room |
| 4 travellers | €2,900 | Character hotels, two rooms |
| 6 travellers | on request | Rooming to suit your party |
Your payments, our terms: a €250 deposit per person locks your dates — full refund 45 days out, one free date change, balance only 60 days before travel. Insolvency insurance is not yet in place — see exactly how it works →
See this route priced for your dates — itemised quote within one working day →
Worried about the what-ifs? Illness, lost passports, missed trains — our written playbooks are public.
International flights from Europe typically add €700–1,100 return per person — our prices are land-only, so you book the fares that suit you.
Included
Seven nights’ character accommodation with breakfast · private local guide matched to your language · private car and driver throughout · all day trips, entrances and class fees as described · daily operations support · payment setup and local SIM/eSIM advice.
Not included
International and domestic flights to Chengdu · most lunches and dinners (the point of this trip — we’ll set the table; budget €45–70 per person per day) · travel insurance (required) · personal spending and optional gratuities.
The same quoting logic, in longer form: what the land price includes, and why — honest numbers, not “contact us for a quote”.
How customization works here
A tour customized to you, not a group tour with your name on it
Everything on this page is a starting argument. Send us your dates and one stubborn sentence about the trip in your head, and the route gets rebuilt around your party — a personal customization service, start to finish, not a seat on someone else’s itinerary.
What we reshape to fit you
Trip length and pace — compress to a Chengdu-focused stay or extend west into the highlands · the food dial, from zero-spice to full ma-la, declared to every kitchen in advance · hotel tier, up or down from character level · scenic-spot-and-catering packaging — entrances, classes and food stops bundled into one quoted land price, so nothing at the ticket gate or the table is a surprise · the emphasis itself: more pandas? See the panda country route. More kitchen? See China through its kitchens. None of our published routes close enough? Custom design starts from a blank page.
What never comes off the table
Private, always: your own party of 2–6, your own guide and driver, your own dates — you will never be merged into a group or a fixed departure · high-end basics as standard: character hotels and the quiet new-energy fleet · no shopping stops, ever · one transparent land price with the quoting logic published in full.
Who we plan for
European travellers by design — North American travellers equally welcome
Travelling from Europe
This company was built around European travellers: planning in English (German, French or Spanish on request), payments set up for European cards, and entry that is currently visa-free for 35 European countries through 31 December 2026 — a rule we reconfirm for your nationality before you book. The published prices on this page are the same for every passport.
Travelling from the US or Canada
Customized tours for American tourists in Sichuan work exactly the same way: planning in English by default, calls scheduled at hours that suit the time difference, the same guides and the same published pricing. One honest difference — the 30-day visa-free window covers European passports, so US and Canadian passports currently need a visa, or the 240-hour transit route where it fits. We confirm the current rules for your nationality before anything is booked: the same check, a different answer.
Honest fit
Who this journey is not for
Anyone after the imperial greatest hits
Eight days in one province means no Forbidden City, no Great Wall, no Terracotta Army. Classic China is that trip; this one is for the second visit, or for travellers who’d rather go deep than wide.
Anyone for whom chilli is a genuine no
Kitchens here will happily cook mild for you — we declare your heat level to every table in advance — but ma-la is the local language of celebration. If being around it holds no pleasure at all, another province will treat you better.
Anyone measuring a day in sights
This route puts a working tea house before any sight and lets afternoons end when the tea does. Wonderful for decompressing; wrong for anyone whose good day is a full box-tick.
Anyone expecting the highlands to come easy
The Western Sichuan extension climbs past 3,000 metres and needs acclimatisation days, a 4×4 and an honest look at your health before we quote it. Glorious country — wrongly sold elsewhere as a casual add-on.
Chengdu & Sichuan — asked before you book
Do you run customized tours in Sichuan for European travellers?
Yes — European travellers are exactly who this company is built for. Planning runs in English (or German, French, Spanish on request) over email and video calls across time zones, your guide speaks the language you travel in, and payment setup and SIM advice are part of the included support. The price comes from the same published table for everyone: this journey starts from €2,900 per person at four travelling, land only.
How many days should a customized Chengdu and Sichuan tour take?
Eight days is the comfortable answer for a panoramic first look — Chengdu itself plus Dujiangyan, Mount Qingcheng and Leshan without a single rushed morning, including the free day every good plan needs. A tighter five or six days around Chengdu keeps the pandas, the tea house and one kitchen day. Add two to four days and the Western Sichuan highlands open up: highland valleys, Tibetan villages and serious mountain scenery, quoted separately because the logistics genuinely differ.
What does a private customized tour in Sichuan cost?
The published guide price for this route is from €2,900 per person (four travelling) or €3,200 (two travelling), land only — character hotels, private guide, private car and driver, entrances and class fees as described included. Customizing moves the number honestly, in both directions: fewer days, simpler hotels or a bigger party bring it down; the highlands extension, top-tier hotels or a deeper food programme bring it up. The full quoting logic is in our written cost guide, linked from this page — we publish numbers instead of asking you to enquire for them.
Is this an exclusive private tour, or do we join a group?
Exclusive and private, always. There is no group to join: no fixed departures, no strangers on the coach, no shared schedule. Your party of two to six travels with its own guide and its own car, and every timing decision on this page — the 8am panda feeding, the early Leshan boat, the unhurried tea-house afternoon — only works because nobody else’s preferences come into it. High-end as standard, but the point is privacy, not luxury for its own sake.
Can you build this around food — a Chengdu food tour package?
Happily — food is already this route’s spine: the wet-market walk with a chef, the hands-on cooking class where lunch is what you made, hotpot graded from mild to wild, and tables chosen rather than stumbled into. Tell us food is the priority and we add market sessions, fly restaurants and a second kitchen day. If nine days of eating across four cities sounds more like it, our China through its kitchens journey runs Beijing, Xi’an, Chengdu and Guangzhou from €3,300 per person, four travelling.
What exactly does the price include — and what is not included?
Included: seven nights’ character accommodation with breakfast, a private local guide matched to your language, a private car and driver throughout, all day trips, entrances and class fees as described, daily operations support, and payment setup with local SIM/eSIM advice. Not included: international and domestic flights to Chengdu, most lunches and dinners (the point of this trip — budget €45–70 per person per day), required travel insurance, personal spending and optional gratuities. The full quoting logic behind these lines is public in our written cost guide, linked from this page.
How does a custom tour actually work, from first email to departure?
Send your dates and one stubborn sentence about the trip in your head. We reply within one working day with an honest first take, then the route is rebuilt around your party over email and a planning call, and you receive an itemised quote. A €250 deposit per person locks your dates — full refund 45 days out, one free date change — and the balance is due only 60 days before travel. From there the plan is re-checked booking by booking, and support runs daily while you are on the ground.
How many travellers do you need to run a tour — is there a minimum group size?
Two. A party of two travels with its own guide and its own car: no minimum group size, no fixed departures, no merging with strangers. Two to six travellers is the standard shape of our journeys; parties above six are quoted on request, because vehicle and rooming logistics genuinely change. A larger family or a small club group is a different quote, never a no.
Can we change the route once we have seen it?
Yes — that is the point of a customized tour. Everything on this page is a starting shape: swap days, move the hotel tier up or down, add the Western Sichuan highlands or drop Leshan, and the quote moves with the real costs, never with a fee for the thinking. One honest limit: once tickets are bought — panda-base entries are real-name and booked ahead — changes work with what is re-bookable, and we say plainly what that is rather than promise it.
And if something goes wrong on the road — illness, a lost passport, a missed train — what happens if is written down publicly, before you pay anything.
Make it yours
Tell us your dates, and how hungry you are.
We reply within one working day — including honest advice on season, spice levels and whether the mountains are right for your party.
The memory this route is built to leave you with is small and loud: the last mask flicking away to applause at the opera, one more debate over the hotpot ratio, tea gone cold because the talk didn’t. Chengdu never waves goodbye — it assumes you’ll be back.
Coming this year, thinking about someday, or simply curious — all equally welcome, at any stage. Prefer your own email app instead of a form? hello@privatechinajourneys.com reaches exactly the same person.