Overall there was just too much travel, which may have been better if we had just gone by 'plane (although this may not have been possible)

The booking agent, Cheryl, was knowledgeable and friendly. She answered all my questions about the trip we wanted to book and found the best flight options for us. She offered to ring back the following morning to give us overnight to think it over. The following morning she rang back and booked the holiday for us. Confirmation arrived by email within a few minutes.
Now looking forward to the trip!

Saw some amazing sites and enjoyed travelling through three very different countries. Our guide in Malaysia was fabulous and really made the trip for us due to his enthusiasm for the culture and food of Malaysia, his never ending energy, and his brilliant organisation - he also added in some extras such as the boat tour on the mirror lake number 2 which was a beautiful hidden world and should be part of the core trip in my view. However the trip was heavily mis-sold as it was not a rail trip at all - whenever we were on the train our bags were being taken by the coach to the next stop (and often getting there much quicker than we did), so for those booking a rail trip for environmental reasons this was disappointing. The Thailand part of the trip was not good at all, with a number of excursions detailed in the itinerary being cut short or not possible due to lack of time, not helped by the Phuket hotel being on the opposite side of the island to the excursions, resulting in the requirement for 3-4 hour round trips each day and multiple very early (5am, 6am, 7am) starts and late finishes on consecutive days resulting in the group rebelling and adjusting the itinerary and a number of people being so exhausted they opted out of a couple of days trips to sleep and recover. Finally, the FAQs stated an average age range of 40-65 but all but 2 travellers were over 70 so may be an important consideration for some younger travellers.

good but required longer timescale; very rushed

Having booked this tour on 2 other occasions only for it to be cancelled, we were very excited that this tour was now running until we saw the reviews from the previous November 2024 tour. We contacted Wendy Wu to query the issues the reviewer had raised regarding the flight changes and the poor roads to the Plain of Jars and frankly the Wendy Wu representative was completely unhelpful and was either unable or unwilling to answer any of our questions /concerns regarding this tour.
We approached the tour with some trepidation; the stay in Luang Prabang was OK but as with the majority of the hotels throughout the tour the breakfast was very basic for the Western palate and the hotel was not centrally placed. Due to the tour group being split between 2 mini buses (due to UNESCO restrictions on size of vehicles) you did not always have access to the guide.
The real issues started on the journey to Phonsavan, yes Wendy Wu had warned us that the roads were not in the same condition as Western roads but not in my wildest dreams did we imagine that the journey would be this bad. For the majority of the 11 hour trip in a mini bus there was no road surface, you were basically driving on sand and rubble with regular potholes that really tested the suspension and safety of the vehicle. We wondered if we were on an episode of the World’s Most Dangerous Roads! The journey was extremely tiring and very uncomfortable. A 4 by 4 would have made the journey more comfortable and safer. It was telling that on this road to a UNESCO site we only saw one other tourist mini bus. Unfortunately having endured this journey, 2 days later we were back on the same road again for a further 7 hours.
The last 5 days of the tour were very rushed with only one night stops. We understand that this was due to an itinerary change as Lao Airlines stopped flying from Pakse to Bangkok in 2024 but why wasn’t this adjusted on the Feb 2025 tour?
In addition there was a major issue with internal flights although fortunately we were not directly affected.On 2 occasions there were no tickets on the internal flights for 9 of fellow travellers, on the first occasion people managed to fly on a standby ticket although 4 of the tour plus the guide had to endure a 14 hour minibus journey to the hotel arriving at around 5 am next day then had to do a day of touristing. Despite the guide checking with his head office and given reassurance that all the tour had tickets on the next internal flight, the same 9 passengers again had no tickets for the flight. Yet again they had to wait for standby tickets and 1 person had to go to Thailand to catch a flight to Bangkok. The end of the holiday finished on a low and the farewell meal was not enjoyed.
Fortunately our guide Pet was extremely knowledgeable and very calm despite all the challenges of this tour.
Whilst we acknowledge that on some occasions itineraries need to be changed at short notice Wendy Wu were fully aware of the issues this tour suffered in November 2024 yet allowed our February tour to go ahead with the same itinerary. Due to Wendy Wu’s inability to address our concerns and provide information when we contacted them prior to the tour and the inefficiency of the local company used in Laos we would be very unlikely to book Wendy Wu again which is a shame as this was our third trip with them.

An excellent holiday , the group was the correct size 14, and we all got on well after a couple of days. The guides were excellent and put in the extra effort that was appreciated by everyone. The venues were good , though the first day in. Bangkok was hard work after a long flight and getting used to temperate and humidity. Thailand was amazing I saw places that were exceptional. Laos was much more 3rd would and the hotels were a bit remote. Apart from the one on the river section. A super holiday which I would like to do again but to a different part of the planet !

As David pointed out in the review of his identical trip in November 2024,
the itinerary was not given enough thought in view of the road conditions.
The Park Nine hotel in Bangkok was superb. Unfortunately the trip went downhill from then on.
Hotel Anthong in Luang Prebang was geared to Koreans - very noisy and not a lot of food at breakfast for Europeans. It was also some distance from the town centre despite there being several other hotels of a similar quality much nearer.
The minibus journey described as a 'scenic road trip' to Phonsavan was anything but scenic and just a joke. There is no way 15 travellers should have been subjected to 2 x 11 hour journeys to and from the Plain of Jars. That was 2 whole days of the trip totally wasted.
The Amari Hotel in Vang Vieng was very good, especially as, if we skipped the cave, visit some of us had a chance to sit by the pool for a much needed rest.
The S2-Modern hotel in Vientiane was not ideal either. Some distance from the city centre and very little choice at breakfast for Europeans.
Somehow, and I still don't understand if it was Wendy Wu or Laos Air who made an almighty ****-up and failed to check that the whole party was booked onto the flight to Pakse. 4 of the party had to travel 13.5 hours in a minibus to the Pon Arena Hotel.
This hotel is probably fine if you get a Mekong view room but the rooms in the annex are dire and certainly not up to the required standard.
The Pakse hotel in Pakse was one of the best but as we were only there for a few hours we couldn't take full advantage of it. At least there was something we could eat for breakfast and some decent coffee.
However, once again due to someone's failing to check the flight, one of the party plus the guide had to make alternative arrangements to get back to Vientiane.
When we got back to the Park Nine hotel in Bangkok, hoping for a relaxing time before our onward flights, again we had a battle as there was no room set aside for us, as promised in the itinerary. Luckily, one of the party argued on our behalf and managed to secure rooms for all of us plus breakfast and lunch/dinner and also arranged for transfers to the airport. Why was this not supplied without argument?
The country and it's people are lovely and it's history interesting but this holiday needs serious thought. I don't think anyone on the trip would travel with Wendy Wu again, certainly I can't recommend you to anyone.
This is a shame because you had the chance to sort this after the previous comments but chose not to.

As expected, excellent as usual. Ronseal

Speedy, efficient and pleasant

The holiday was in the main really good and had some major highlights including:
Visiting the elephant sanctuary
The eco day out to the former mines
Singapore Gardens by the bay etc
James Bond island
Hell fire pass and train ride
Plus all the hotels were good and Cougan, our Malaysian guide was really good even though he continually tried to make us over eat!
Only complaint was the Mossy Forest visit that was in our opinion highly dangerous and could have easily ruined someone’s holiday.
Not so good was the flight to Phuket that was not met by our Thailand guide, Bennie. This was clearly a Wendy Woo mess up and I believe she was a late appointment to the role. One of our group had paid for roaming so rang your office and somehow things were sorted. It was a bit chaotic because the hotel arranged for us to visit Temple that for tired folk was a bit much!
In Singapore and Malaysia, the entire group were together in one vehicle but in Thailand, we were separated and in 2 minibuses. This was a weakness and meant our guide was disadvantaged and the group were not getting one set of messages.
One day of the Thailand tour included an unreasonably early start to catch a long train journey. We all as a group agreed to travel in the minibuses instead after breakfast It was hard going and probably the least memorable day of the tour. It was interesting to be so close to the Myanmar border as this was the road route. Why did we have to sign a form to cancel our train tickets? We would suggest a rethink of this part of the tour.
Finally, we paid a lot extra for premium economy on Cathy Pacific and it probably wasn’t really worth it. Also, we would have preferred direct flights to Singapore and back from Bangkok. Going via Hong Kong was really tedious and use of the Cathy Pacific lounge would have significantly improved the boredom especially as the flight back was delayed!
We had a great time but it could have been better hence we hope these comments will be helpful - after all we were the guinea pigs for this tour and with a bit of refinement, repeats will be excellent.

It's a week after my wife and I returned from this tour so I have had time to consolidate my views. Laos is a beautiful country, and the people are lovely, but on balance this tour leaves a lot to be desired. It didn't help that the flight option from Pakse to Bangkok which should have ended the tour was withdrawn by the airline. This wasn't Wendy Wu's fault, but it meant that they rescheduled the itinerary, and the resulting schedule just didn't work. We were informed of this exactly one week before the tour started. We ended up having too many one night stays in hotels, and even doubling back on ourselves. We also had to cram a lot of sights in which made the days feel rushed, and even then we had hardly any time to wander out on our own. I should point out that the issues with this tour were such that two people left the tour part way through, and another couple were very close to doing the same.

There were three main problems with this tour. Firstly, for the majority of the tour, our group of eighteen were split between three minivans. This wasn't so much of a problem in Luang Prabang, because the journeys were short, but once we left there, we had long hours on the road with no input from our guide, either because he wasn't on our bus, or if he was, there was no easy way for him to speak to us from the front seat. In the itinerary, we had some days labelled as 'scenic drives' but we didn't know what we were supposed to be looking at.

The second issue was the dreadful state of the roads from Luang Prabang to the Plain of Jars, and then from there to Vientiane. Every few hundred meters, the surface of the road had washed away, leaving deeply rutted stretches of potholes which the drivers had to carefully negotiate. What should have been a drive of seven hours ended up being nearly eleven hours and this happened on fully two days of the trip. It also meant that some of the stops we should have had, such as an hour in a village or arriving somewhere to watch locals fish, simply couldn't happen due to the time pressure - or we arrived too late for the expected activity to be going on. It is no lie to say that these days were pure endurance tests. Of course, the state of the roads is not the fault of Wendy Wu, but the scheduling is, and our itinerary was unworkable given the overoptimistic assessment of the journey times.

Thirdly, the quality and location of the hotels were simply not good enough for what should have been a premium tour - and it's not because better hotels didn't exist. With one exception, the Amari Hotel in Vang Vieng (and possibly the one at the Plain of Jars, where there is not a huge choice anyway), the hotels felt low quality and were located away from where you would want to be if you were looking to walk around. Breakfasts were uniformly poor (again apart from the Amari) with very little which would appeal to Western tastes. Our group mostly resorted to fried eggs, omelettes, or just jam on square, slightly sweet, white bread. One should remember that Laos is known for its superlative bakeries and pastries, a legacy of French colonial times, and everywhere there are coffee shops selling cappuccinos and lattes with delightful croissants. Any yet in our hotels, there was only extraordinarily strong drip coffee on offer and no pastries at all (excepting the Amari, which was also the only one offering bacon!). Of particular note (in a bad way) was the S2 Modern in Vientiane, a so-called boutique hotel. Breakfast here was served in the hotel's coffee shop, which could not accommodate everyone if they wanted breakfast at the same time, which didn't offer cereals, and which wanted to charge extra for any coffee other than the slow-drip sludge. I would describe the breakfast here as the worst of the tour. Our room here happened to have floodlights outside facing in to the windows and as the curtains were ill-fitting, the room couldn't be darkened until the floods were turned off sometime around midnight. This hotel was located a good 25 minute walk out of town, along a very busy and unpleasant main road. I am at a loss as to why this hotel was chosen, when Vientiane has an Amari located on the river, right next to the night market, and would have been far more acceptable. We stayed at the hotel for one night before leaving Vientiane for two nights and then returning for the last night. I cannot stress how little we as a group were looking forward to renewing our acquaintance with the S2!

So on balance, this was a tour that was more befitting of an Intrepid 'Basic' style trip, and if it had been, it would have been half the price. I feel it is high time that a Wendy Wu representative did a 'mystery shopping' exercise on this tour so that they can experience its shortcomings for themselves. I would highly recommend anyone to visit Laos, but definitely not with Wendy Wu,

First rate

Holiday was great, flight times not so good. Arrived in Bangkok at 06.00, hotel at 08.15, room not available until 14.00. First of the group to arrive and last to leave. Flight back even worse, left Chiang Mia at 21.05 arrived Heathrow 06.15

Alexis was very helpful and clarified a few things to my wife and I. She explained some options with the PO rod and cons of each

I very much enjoyed all aspects of this trip. The varied landscape of the Bangkok area and the North was great. The mirad of temples never cease to amaze. Our tour guide, York, was superb. He introduced to the country and immersed us in its culture. He went out of his way to make everyone's trip special from being informative, pointing out sights, encouraging us to try local produce and ensuring all were comfortable.