Reviews

A very full fabulous holiday. Comfortable hotels. Great experiences. Our leader ( Hirto ) was an absolute gem of a lady. Very caring she made you feel safe. A holiday full of memoirs I will never forget.
On our last evening meal we had a good 30minutes walk to the restaurant. By this time we were all exhausted. This put a damper on my holiday. Feel you should have taken us by taxi.

Although I would recommend this holiday there are a number of areas in which it could be improved. Firstly the quality of the hotels was mixed with some being very good but one or two were average at best . Secondly the trips included visiting too many temples and shrines - I'm sure there are many other things to experience in Japan. Finally, although it seemed good to have all meals included with the holiday, the Japanese cuisine had little variety with all meals basically containing basically the same dishes, most of which seemed bland to my palate. Some thought needs to be given as to how to improve the dining experience - possibly including some non-Japanese meals.

A very well organised holiday. It was very full on with early starts most days but we did visit at least 2 interesting places every day. First class coaches were very comfortable and very clean as were the hotels but some rooms were on the small side

I've not been on my trip yet so this is a bit early to give a review but I found the website easy to use and it had all the details I wanted to see: the temperature, the rainfall and full details of the trips and how it works. I've paid the deposit and had an acknowledgement sent to be straight away. It is ATOL protected, so I feel like I'm in safe hands.

I'm really looking forward to my trip in November.

An excellent holiday. All meals were inclusive, the hotel rooms were of a high standard and the tour itself took us to as many places as possible within the timeframe without being too exerting. This trip covers Fuji, Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples, Snow Monkeys, Bamboo forests, boat trips, Bullet trains, Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo plus other sights. Our guide was very helpful and knowledgeable and we found Japan to be clean and picturesque, the people are generally very friendly. I would definitely recommend this trip or Japan in general and would certainly go back again.

Well organised journey with wide ranging itinerary covering natural, traditional, cultural and modern sites. Guides were great and handled mishaps like weather cancellations well. Accommodation was faultless, but there could have been more diversity in food. Japan is not really set up for vegetarians or people who don't like sashimi. Will travel Wendy Wu again... maybe China with George!

We really enjoyed this holiday as an introduction to Japan. We were met at the airport and was escorted throughout our stay. We were even seen off at 4am by our rep. Would definitely go back. The only downside if you can call it that, was sometimes it felt a bit rushed.

Jewels of Japan is an action packed trip to Japan, taking in most of the iconic sites.
Our guide Madoka was amazing, with a good sense of humour and was very informative about the places we visited.
The hotels were all very good quality as were the coaches used to transport us around.
I liked the fact that the tour introduced us to all the different foods eaten in Japan and the various ways the dishes are served and presented.
I thoroughly enjoyed the experience

This was an extremely expensive holiday for what we got. We paid over £16,000 for 2 people for 15 days. Accommodation in Japan is not expensive and although the hotels were 3-4 stars and very nice, they did not have a bar or social lounge to relax in for us and chat to the others on our trip that we had met. None of the hotels were located in the centre of the towns that you could walk to a bar or explore either. Therefore we were off to our rooms at 8pm because the hotel restaurant would close at 8 or 9pm. In particular, the Hotel in Tokyo was badly located, very disappointing when we had 3 nights here and a free day! We chose Wendy Wu as we travelled with them in 2010 to China and had a fantastic trip and they were the only tour company that covered ALL meals. Not knowing the language we didn't want to try finding restaurants to eat and try to work out what the local food was. Having been to all the main towns many places are written in an English version or you can use a translater app. Having 3 meals a day was too much. The food was very similar, raw fish, 1 tempura prawn 2 veg tempura, rice, not many noodle dishes Ramen style. miso soup, some beef in a hot pot you cooked yourself. We wanted to experience Japanese meals, but 30 meals was just too much! If they cut out the lunch meal it would have been perfect as most of us left a lot of it, this would then allow more time at the temples, shrines, shops etc. Most of us just fancied a coffee and cake for lunch or even a burger!
Our guide was trully lovely, Chiyami, she was fun, knowledgeable and looked after our every need. If you have a food allergy you will struggle, not many restaurants cater. So a tour with less meals would be your option. We all thought the cherry blossom was a disappointment after all the hype in advertising. We were there in the height of blossom but the tours do not take you to the famous sights and most of it is white blossom. The UK have far more blossom!
Japan is a wonderful, safe country and the people have to be the nicest nation in the world. So care free, relaxed and all so friendly and helpful, despite the issues above we enjoyed the sights and the people we met.

The guide that was with us was excellent. Some of the temples, shrines and castles were similar just in a different location which became a little repetitious at times. Perhaps a visit to a Saki brewery and Sumo bout or training would improve the experience. Some of the hotels were excellent some could have been better. Food was sometimes excellent other times poor as some days the meals at lunchtime and evening were the same no variety

The holiday was action packed and the tours were well planned. Restaurants we visited were varied and excellent quality. All hotels were top quality with Hotel Clad near Mount Fuji being exceptional. I particularly enjoyed the onsen there.

Everything was well organised and our local guide Mitsy was superb. She was very friendly and knowledgeable. Our hotels were very good as well as the meals included in our package. For us the 10 days was sufficient to see all we wanted given the days started early and were active every day. We were part of a group of people who came from different countries as well as uk but it took little time for us to bond. We all got on great. There were many differing experiences which includes visits to various palaces, castles, oregano lessons, tea ceremony, noddle making etc. A great holiday

The holiday was great, however it was not enhanced by having to have three tour guides. Peter the first guide was excellent and since we were only seven in our group he fitted in well. However this could not be said for the other two. Mori's English was not great and much information was lost. "Tea" the lady guide, was not good at all she seemed to know very little and we were not confident that she knew what she was doing at times. Why we had to have tree different I do not know but it was not good.
The other issue we had was the visit to the snow monkeys. We had to walk 1.5 Klm to get there and the 1.5 Klm back, 3 Klm all together. This would have been ok had not the footpath been ankle deep in mud. We were told we would be provided with boots, but these did not materialise.
This must be addressed as it led to extremely muddy footwear and trousers. Wendy Wu must have known about this but did nothing.
Overall as I said above, the tour was great, but it could have been better.
Kind Regards
Mike