Beijing 2-Day Private Highlights with Peking Duck

Two days is enough to cover Beijing's best-known sites without rushing, if the tickets, the transport and the lunch stops are arranged for you. This private tour is built around that: a guide and a driver for your party, entrance tickets included and a pace you can change at any point. The listing describes the 2-day tour as fully customisable.

Day 1 starts at your hotel lobby and goes to Tian'anmen Square, then through the Meridian Gate into the Forbidden City. The listing allows about two hours there for the three grand halls of the central axis, the Inner Court and the Imperial Garden. After a Peking duck lunch you visit the Temple of Heaven, including the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the Echo Wall and the Heavenly Heart Stone, and walk through the hutongs near Houhai before the drop-off at your hotel.

Day 2 is the Great Wall. You choose between the Badaling and Mutianyu sections, drive about an hour and a half with your guide, and ride the included cable car or ski lift up to the wall. At Mutianyu you can take a toboggan down instead. After lunch you visit the Summer Palace, with its Long Corridor and marble boat, and then return to your hotel.

Entrance fees, bottled water and the Great Wall cable car are in the price, together with the two lunches and the guide. Alcohol, tips and accommodation are not. Attractions in Beijing, especially the Forbidden City, require real-name booking, so you must send each traveller's passport number when you reserve, and you bring the same passport on the day. Tripods, drones and oversize luggage are not allowed. If you are on a layover, give your flight numbers when booking so the itinerary can be fitted to them.

The operator is Discover Beijing Tours, and the tour is booked through GetYourGuide with free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start.