we went with hotel arranged tour... no idea if there is entrance fee, but I don't think so for the village, they want you to buy tea! :)

best bet is to contact your hotel concierge, they can hook you up with something nice and safe. :)

We charter a Taxi and use it to tour around hence I am not sure how far the two location is perhaps you could check with your 1st Taxi driver there are helpful. And Taxi cost is affordable in the area just worry about the jam during peak hour.

I think it's better to walk a bit of way and catch a bus. The buses are quite clean and the people are civilized. The walk is pleasant as you can see how villagers live along the way.

the Spring tea harvest season is April, before the rain comes in May, so if you like to visit the plantation with farmers collecting the tea then late March or early April will be good... or you can visit the plantation before then just to see a sea of green... or you can visit in May when the harvest season is over but you get to enjoy the fresh brew of tea... it's all good time

We went there with a tour guide. Hence, we had a tour around the tea plant and field. The field manager gave us a briefing about tea background which is helpful. Overall, we all find the trip is very interesting.

There are only 2 buses that go to the Longjing tea plantation: 27 and 87. Generally these 2 buses can be found north and northwest of the Westlake, and coincides with a part of Route Y2 that comes from the train station. Hope this helps You might want to google "杭州87路" and "杭州27路" for the complete route of each bus route to help you figure out which bus stops to take the bus from.

There are many tea fields around West Lake of Hangzhou. Longjing Wencha Village (10 minutes taxi time from West Lake city centre) and Meija Dock Tea Village (40 minutes taxi time from West Lake city centre) are the most common tea field villages visited by tourists. Around the villages, you can see terraced tea fields, village houses and there will be no entrance fees charged wherever you tour around the villages and tea fields. Nonetheless if you want to experience tea tasting in one of the village houses, you are free to do so but the charge per cup of longjing tea will be around RMB20 to 50. If you are not experts in longjing tea tasting, just tour around and take some photos on the environment. Not recommend to purchase tea leaves here unless you know pretty well the prices in relationship to the quality offered. The prices on longjing tea will fluctuate sharply,particularly during spring time which is considered to be the best timing for tea-leaves picking. National Tea Museum next to Longjing Road can be another option for you if you want to know the history of tea cultivation in China particularly the longjing tea here. No entrance fee will be charged and you can also have tea-tasting lesson there too. You can take No. 27 public bus to this museum directly from West Lake city centre. Nonetheless frequency of this public bus line is not constant, just recommend you to take a taxi there and the distance from town to the museum (near to West Lake Coloured Port View Fish Garden site) is less than 10 minutes. Hope that you can have a nice trip in Hangzhou soon.