Reviews

Been with Wendy twice now and have had wonderful experiences. Excellent tour guide and local guides , well thought out itineraries and completely looked after throughout .
Wendy has an excellent brand reputation thoroughly deserved .
Have just booked for Japan !

From initial contact to booking we were both very impressed with the way our questions and concerns were dealt with. All information was clearly passed on to us and we never felt under pressure to sign up before we were ready. Friendly and helpful representative, not kept waiting on the phone.

The Off Beat Japan tour was so enlightening packed with such a variety of experiences engaging all the senses! Our guide Taichi was exemplary… patient thoughtful knowledgeable with a good sense of humour and excellent English! Highly recommend!

The entire experience from booking the trip, the trip & return with Wendy Wu was amazing! They are always available when needed. The guide allocated to our trip was fanrastic & we will miss her. Everything was so great, every experience was incredible. I thoroughly recommend both the Discover Japan trip & Wendy Wu travel

The whole trip just undertaken with Wendy Wu was excellent. I’ve now booked another tour with them for next year, and all is good.

Excellent tour and guide.
Our only issues were with Wendy Wu’s UK Admin Team who let us down twice, just took the shine off a great trip.

Both tours had excellent national guides and wonderful tours experiences. The coaches were reasonably comfortable but we were disappointed that the coach windows in China were not clean. The hotels in China were normally 4 star whereas in Japan most were 3 star. The China tour was more strenuous and fast paced.

Noriko our tour guide was excellent and went above and beyond

Very informative and helpful advice. Will contact me again in due course to book the flights. Felt

The best tour ever! Many cultural activities such as gold leaf with chopsticks, origami, washi paper making and a tea ceremony, make this tour even more interesting. Private coach to each destination makes for convenience and comfort during some 2 or 3 hours drive along the tour route and through the Japanese Alps. Public baths in each hotel is a welcome experience to soak those aching muscles in readiness for the next day of walking. Wearing kimonos, yukatas and slippers makes you feel you are in Japan.

What a great tour of Japan. Very interesting including many of the must see sights with a detailed explanation of the culture, and many samples of the extensive range of food.
Very well organised.

Extremely well thought-out and organised tour. Just the right mix of activity, travel, sightseeing. Excellent hotels, good meals. Our guide was excellent too - helpful, knowledgeable, responsive to requests. Especially appreciate your ability to change flights at short notice because of war in the Middle East.

We had a very enjoyable time. All the group members had many opportunities to gel with each other.

Our guide Noriko was outstanding. She was very kind, had a great sense of humour, was knowledgeable and briefed participants adequately about the intended visits to the various venues each day. She was very professional, well informed, intuitive and treated everyone with respect often accommodating small requests that arose from time to time. She enforced a disciplined approach to the day's schedule, by giving explicit instructions about reporting on time both verbally and by using a flip chart with the correct time written on it using it as a visual guide. By repeating her instructions firmly as well as in a friendly tone she ensured that the message was communicated effectively.

Considering the participants weren't school children but adults and of a mature age, she had to be flexible in her approach if some members were not particularly keen on visiting certain venues and being there full time. She didn't hesitate to offer them their preferred choice of not being present full time and having a coffee break instead, nevertheless insisting that reporting time to be adhered to for the onward journey. It was much appreciated and respected.

Frankly speaking, we all would have loved to have had the opportunity of a guided tour of Osaka, but to our disappointment that didn't happen. So could the organising committee look into it and ensure that for future participants a guided tour of Osaka is included as well and an additional night's stay becomes a part of the tour. We would also have liked to have had a few more opportunities to do a bit of shopping.

All in all, I'd recommend Wendy Wu tour to anyone seeking fun and enjoyment. For this, much credit goes to our guide Noriko. The tour company provided very clear instructions and information to intended customers about all aspects of the tour which was very helpful.

We had a fantastic time - we arrived in Tokyo after spending 3 days in Hong Kong and met up with the group. The meal at the Tokyo Bay Shiomi Prince Hotel that evening was horrible - the chicken legs were undercooked and several people had to send their food back to the kitchen. However, after that meal everything was fantastic. Our guide was Hiro who was excellent. We saw some amazing things and Hiro was so informative and told us about so many things. Mount Fuji and Hiroshima were particularly memorable although everywhere we went to was worth visiting. We all had lanyards with cards with our names on and on the back was a message in Japanese for us to show someone in the event we got lost - which proved invaluable during a couple of incidents when we had free time and a couple of people asked someone to contact Hiro - who went to find them. Having said that, Hiro was always checking we were all there! The coaches taking us from A to B were comfortable, so were the bullet trains. We were all issued with “whispers” with headphones so we could hear what Hiro was telling us. We specifically chose to go on this trip during the cherry blossom season - I was expecting pinker and more blossom and so, if I were to go again, I wouldn’t choose to go at the same time as the blossom as it attracts crowds of people and I don’t think it’s worth visiting when there are extra people there. Making the soba noodles was fun as well as making an origami crane - and we enjoyed the tea ceremony. The food was amazing and a real mixture - forks were always available for people who struggled with chopsticks. Some of the food we cooked ourselves. I’m not sure the Japanese had grasped some of the dietary requirements but my only request was that I didn’t have anything too spicy and the food I was served with was perfect for me. There were a lot of steps but, the brochure did warn that there were a lot of steps so I was expecting this. There was a lot of walking but, again, the brochure did warn about this and the itinerary tells you how long to expect to be on your feet. There were 26 people in our group ages ranging from 40s to 80s - we all got on really well. Now, back at home, I’ve got the task of choosing the best photos from the ones my husband and I took to have a book printed to take and show all our friends!