Reviews

The China part of the tour was very good and we saw different aspects of the country. Our China tour guide 'Ivy' was excellent as were all the local guides. However, we did not have enough time to explore the Hutong area and the Summer Palace was rushed.
The restaurants were generally very good apart from the Irish Pub in Guilin, which was very poor food and dirty squat toilets.

Our tour guide in Japan was not very good. She was flustered and disorganised and her English was not great. She didn't go out of her way to help anyone - just the bare minimum for the itinerary. No evening excursions or extras and no knowledgeable local guides like in China. Lunch seemed to get in the way of the itinery and the occasional packed lunch on the coach or buying our own street food should be considered. The evening meals, however, were generally very good.
The itinerary meant that our impression of Japan was just of temples and shines and little else - and lots of travelling!
On our Tokyo extension on our own, we saw The Imperial Palace and East Gardens, Shibuya Crossing, Megura River Cherry Blossom and Ueno Park Cherry Blossom. We feel that these should have been included in the tour.
In conclusion, the itinery for China was very good but Japan left us believing we hadn't experienced the different areas of the country leaving us slightly disappointed and thinking it could have been better.

Very helpful, and quick, in responding to our enquiries.

He care given by the representatives in each Ithaca were wonderful and Penny who travelled with us for our journey through China was exceptional.

Sam in Japan was most thorough and caring.

However, we did have a few niggles!

In China we were were not told in advance about the optional extra trips, which were not really optional as there was no alternative really. Having taken enough cash for our spending we had to find a bank or ATM to get more cash. We were not alone with this problem. Everything in Japan was included.

We cannot understand why the China rep in Guilin didn’t know about the World Cycle race that caused delays for our coach getting back to Guilin. She decided to try and walk us to another venue until the coach could leave our hotel, on a hot day with no footpath and lots of traffic. Most of our group were in their 70’s and 80’s…and it was very hard. After refreshments, transport was found and took us back down the hill we had walked up, back to the coach, which could now drive into the town!

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