Reviews

A truly wonderful experience delivered by a tour company, Wendy Wu, that really knows what makes for an excellent holiday. Our local tour guide was top class and added to the enjoyment of the tour.

A memorable holiday that delivered what it promised. Having an excellent guide made all the difference. Great organisation throughout the tour.

Great holiday, packed a lot in, so inevitably early starts in the morning.
Our guide, Rumiko, was excellent.
The food was very good, and beautifully presented. I found the meals very rushed, particularly dinner. Everything was laid out when you sat down, and as there are no””courses” often all finished in about 45 minutes. I suppose this is the Japanese way but I usually consider dinner a highlight of the evening when on holiday and would prefer a more leisurely meal.

Very interesting holiday busy itinerary.
Saw lots excellent guide.

Wendy Wu Discover Japan tour was interesting and it was good that all meals were found so we didn’t have to hunt for good restaurants. Food was very good and more than plentiful. Sometimes eating in the hotels where we stayed and sometimes our guide walked with us to nearby restaurants. The days were quite full on and the coach travel a bit difficult as seats were small and my (tall) husband struggled to get his knees into the seat space. It would have been better to travel a bit more by train. Our guide was knowledgeable about historical Japan and the many shrines and temples we visited. We did ask her for some more up to date information about how the Japanese live now as we felt this would have been more interesting and we got very little on this side of things. Our tour group was mixed with people from the UK, Australia and New Zealand which gave a great atmosphere and everyone got on really well. Hotels were mostly very good, modern style. One was down a side street so we had to trundle our cases uphill which was a challenge for some and we helped each other. We did some crafts like paper making and decorating chopsticks with gold leaf. Watched a tea ceremony, did some sake tasting and some origami. These were good activities making a change from touring round temples. The transfers were odd as on arrival in Tokyo we were taken by taxi to the hotel. On leaving Osaka we were taken by taxi to a bus stop then waited 90 minutes for a bus to the airport. We would have preferred to return to Tokyo for the last night then flown straight back rather than going from Osaka to Tokyo and then flying home - it made a very long day coming home.Overall we enjoyed the tour but found that admin from Wendy Wu was poor. We got different answers to questions we asked, sometimes no reply to emails with requests regarding transfers etc. We had to write many emails to get flight options to upgrade to premium economy. For this reason we would not book another tour with Wendy Wu as touring should come with reassurance to things we need to know before travelling without so much hard work on our side to gain information.

Very well organised but found to be very tiring in part necessary to see as much as possible. The hotels were adequate although bedrooms on the small side at times.

Could not get through to start with and requested a call back
This came a couple of hours later.
Andrew was very helpful and answered our queries very quickly.
We were then time to think through options
Andrew even stayed beyond his finishing time to call us back
The deal offered was very competitive and so we booked the trip.
Good clear advice without any of pressure to book
Very impressed!

The tour and food were lovely but our tour guide was not very well organised and we felt the tour was let down by her.

Sandra and the team were exceptionally helpful.

Good knowledge and experience regarding the areas we were interested in visiting.

Fantastic hotels, food, guide and trips. Only disappointment was Mt. Fuji hiding behind heavy cloud and unable to go to 5th station, but obviously beyond Wendy was control.

Japan is a wonderful country and the tour did cover some amazing sights and places. However the itinery was not well constructed. The was insufficient time built in to properly appreciate the locations. For example we had less than one hour at Osaka castle, which has seven levels, a museum and grounds so we ended up running round it. The food was repetitive and not always of the best quality. In fact one lunch was in a department store and one evening meal was in a restaurant that had a leaking roof and a bucket to catch the rain. Our guide was a lovely person, but her english was not of sufficient standard to meet the needs of the group. The transfers to and from the airports were chaotic. We feel that for the price paid we should have received a better service.

We have travelled with Wendy Wu before to china which was a much better overall experience and was a major factor in us deciding to travel with them again. However won't be repeating this.

There were 26 people on our tour and when we arrived somewhere for a visit the first half of the party had moved off while some were still getting off the coach so we missed a lot of information, on the. places we visited . We didn’t have enough time to spend at the venues it was all very rushed , and the itinerary was changed several times , some for the weather, and some didn’t make sense , we were told we were going one place for lunch and then we were back on the bus to where we’d just come from for lunch ,which was a change from the itinerary. We had very little free time to explore even the local areas We loved Japan what we saw of it but spent hours on a coach. Because of the number of people on the tour by the time the last people were off the bus the first part of the tour had moved off because we were on a schedule it was very rushed, and not very well planed out .

Had a great time and saw lots of amazing sights; this was my first tour group and will definitely weigh pro's & con's before booking another. On this occasion was part of a good group which made the holiday but in future would book a tour with a more flexible itinerary - especially for meals as felt we missed out on local experience as too many hotel meals. Size of group made it hard for tour guide and didn't feel operation was as slick as expected or enhancing to overall experience.

Great if like us, you haven't been to Japan before and would find the country difficult to navigate. It seems expensive on the face of it, but actually with all the flights and meals included it's reasonable in comparison to others. Our guide was the tops and with a group of 27 - mostly antipodean and UK participants, she managed us well. You get to see a lot but don't expect a lot of time off. I recommend you stay longer than the tour dates if you want that. This was our first organised tour, which takes a bit of getting used to. You are giving up some freedom for certainty and a lot less to worry about. Highly recommended.

A tour group of 28 people with ages ranging from 27 to 88 years old was made even more unwieldy by the poor fitness levels of some clients , despite the best efforts of an excellent guide. Hotels and food were very good but I was disappointed to learn that several hotels were not Japanese owned. Whilst the sites visited ticked the key tourist boxes, the punishing schedule too often left insufficient time to appreciate those sites and some less fit members of the group frequently had to sit out to await the return of the others .
In no way is this a criticism of our dynamic, well informed and endlessly patient guide or indeed of our equally forebearing and delightful companions.
This was a significantly overpriced tour sold by a company with an impressive website to hook the gullible …like me.