We recently employed Navo as a guide to self drive across China, from recommendations of other travelers who had used them and assured us that they were the best and most professional company for a crossing. Yes they are also one of the most expensive ($5,000AUD for a 5 day crossing!), but you pay for their 'expertise'. We paid for their service because we knew the rest of our trip (through Russia) was going to be stressful and with their 'expertise' organising and guiding, it would take a huge stress out for us.


We found this not to be the case! Right from when we crossed the Chinese border and met up with our guide, we discovered that our itinerary had been changed without notifying us, sending us in the opposite direction to the other side of the country of which we needed to go and had agreed upon! We called the NAVO organiser who we had been dealing with and booked through, only to be told that "he didn't have to explain himself" and "if we weren't happy with the itinerary then we can change it ourselves". After asking why we weren't notified about the changes, he was just rude and unprofessional by telling us that "he was busy and done talking to us" and hung up the phone!

This should of been a huge warning sign for us, but we thought it was just a misunderstanding and continued on.

Whilst in the process of amending our itinerary, we found that to be able to stick to our tight crossing schedule we would have to drive on the toll roads, which cost 1 yuan per 2 kilometers. This is very expensive when you need to drive over 3000kms! We had confirmed our itinerary with NAVO months in advance (and informed them of our budget restrictions) and not once were we informed of this significant additional expense ($80 - $200AUD a day). This meant that the money that we budgeted for our crossing of China was gone in tolls alone in the first few days.

Things got worse, after driving with our guide for a couple of hours, we soon discovered that she was useless! She had never driven a vehicle before, didn't have a clue about road rules or regulations (instructed us to break the law by driving in bus only lanes, emergency lanes, parking in no parking, etc). Our guide couldn't even read a map or give clear instructions and had endangered our lives multiple times, by telling us to stop in the middle of massive, busy intersections (nearly got T-boned by large trucks a few times because of which), telling us to turn into a road as we were passing it , forcing us to brake hard and swerve to avoid missing it and getting rear ended!!

Any questions we asked about why others are driving in certain ways, eg, Driving with hazard lights on in fog, which lane we should be driving in, why cars are flashing their lights and blasting their horns etc, was always met with the response of "I don't know, maybe...."

We also discovered that our guide had never left her home province before so spent most of her time in the back of the car treating it like a holiday whilst taking photo's, sleeping and playing on her phone etc..


After a few stressful days into our crossing we had finally had enough and after a long decision between my partner and I regarding our safety and welfare, we made the ultimate call ending our nightmare by discontinuing our crossing, turning around and heading back to where we felt safe. Seriously, we had people, who were last seen chatting with our guide, knocking on our window in the middle of the night to take photos with us whilst we were trying to sleep in the car! - bare in mind our window tint was so dark you could hardly see in during the day!


After making our decision we notified the organiser/manager about our changed plans. He was rude, scoffed and laughed at us and acted in a childish manner when we called him to say that we weren't happy with the service. He even went so far as to say that we were lying to him about the reason we had decided to turn around, using out of context snippets of private conversation that our guide had been listening into while pretending to be asleep in the back of our car to justify his reasoning (Current Russian politics). He then proceeded to try to emotionally blackmail us, by telling us how we were letting everyone down by turning around, and that we might not even be able to cross the border at a different point as he might not send the paperwork there so " we might as well just keep on going because it was easier".

**On a side note, We flew to Russia and continued through Ukraine after returning to Thailand, and it was by far one of our favourite destinations!**

After this unsatisfactory conversation we wrote a formal letter of complaint to the owner/director of the company outlining our issues and the exceedingly poor service we received. We are yet to hear back over a month later.

To give you some idea of the actual costs we incurred, it cost us around $7,500 AUD for 5 days, all whilst keeping costs to a minimum by sleeping in the car and eating the cheapest food once a day etc.

In conclusion we urge fellow travelers to reconsider using Navo and seek out other means of crossing China. Using NAVO has almost ruined our entire journey, meant that we have had to abandon our goal of driving from Asia to Europe, almost broken us financially and added more stress to our trip than can be imagined.

**These are just a few of the horrible experiences we endured whilst using Navo - there is alot more but unfortunately it will turn this post into an essay!**

Well ~ doesn't surprise me one bit, had a few dealings with so called China Travel Agencies (motor-vehicle entry + exit / international border crossings) over the decades on behalf of mates and most charge sky-high but very unprofessional and flaky.

Yes ~ includes a few foreign owned and operated outfits based in PRC / Asia as well, ridiculous business practices...
Do spent your hard earned $$$$$ very wisely....'nuff said....

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Somewhere down the road in China since '89 ~ along the route I've learned the hard way that pleasing everyone is impossible, but pissing everybody off is a piece of cake....TBR

Thanks a ton for the warning. I had been in touch with these guys for our planned ride from Bangalore to central Asia/Mongolia via China. But I have decided to skip China altogether - ridiculous cost which I cant afford and now reading your experience tells me that I made the right decision.

"Guide" means having done a three-year tourist guide certificate course at a third-tier university, while all the time never learning basic life skills. I taught some of them English for a couple of years. "Guide" means NEVER asking for directions or help because that means losing face in front of the whole world. Guides never admit to anything negative. "Guides" never wear spectacles because they can't afford them so they can't see what you are pointing at across the valley.

We did a couple of long trips by train taking along a student as a guide and that was more than bad enough and we soon learned that it was a lot less hassles to figure it all out for ourselves. Trouble is they have got you by the short and curlies - same as Burma and possibly Thailand and Laos. Their country, their rules.

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Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map

Very interesting, thanks for the post. I crossed China with a group in 2008 and have to say that even in the absence of the problems you encountered, it was an unpleasant experience--for a group of about 15 riders we had a rigid convoy with guides front and rear and could not stop when/where we wanted, for photos or anything else. I felt like a prisoner.

China is a fascinating country and when/if it becomes easier to travel there I'd go back in a heartbeat; but until then I have absolutely zero interest and can't recommend it to anyone that likes riding a motorcycle...

Having lived there for a couple of years and travelled around extensively by bus and train, taking that experience into the overlanding context, I would be leaving the large fee in my pocket, leaving my vehicle at the border and doing a luxury tourist trap tour that would show me more and cost less.
Obviously not possible if you need to get through china to complete your trip, but given the current hassles in Thailand, Myanmar and maybe Laos and prohibitions in Vietnam, that may not be possible forever anyway.

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Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map