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.

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.

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.

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.

The tour was excellent from the beginning when it was first organised to the food and trips with our brilliant guide. We saw temples and shrines and learnt the history relating to them. We saw beautiful gardens and visited local restaurants as well as exemplary hotels.
It made me think again about the people and culture of Japan.

Fantastic experience visiting Japan with an excellent group touring together with another really well organised Wendy Wu holiday.

Well organised

The trip covered many of the popular tourist sights in Japan, but also some different places and experiences that I don't think we would have found on our own. Our guide (Meyouke) was fantastic and kept our group in order - especially getting quickly on and off the bullet train. Our group were a mixture of people from UK, New Zealand and Australia and were a fantastic friendly group which made the trip even more enjoyable.

The chosen activities and guide were really good.. At first we struggled a bit with the food, but the later on hotels had more variety.
Our only negative was the connecting flights made the journeys long and arduous. Perhaps Wendy Wu could offer more alternatives and suggestions to make the customer more aware of how tiring the flights were.