Wendy Wu Tours Tracking Order Status

We did the Japan Uncovered tour with the intention of seeing Japan, cherry blossom and experiencing the japanese culture. In this respect, we were not disappointed. The hotels were excellent, the food was delicious but strange, the places we visited ranged from interesting to awesome. Transport was a little lacking: for over 8 grand per person, I expected better than what seemed a run-of-the-mill coach with no toilet facilities or USB charging points. But perhaps coaches like that don't exist in japan. The guides were a mixed bunch; we had three over the two weeks. The first one's language and communications skills were diabolical: I think the word fluent has a different definition in japan. It required intense concentration to take in what she was saying and most people in our group gave up after a few minutes which meant that a lot of information was missed. Having said that, she got us where we needed to be at the right time and never lost anyone. The following two guides were much better. The Wendy Wu brochure seems deliberately vague about fitness levels required. Our holiday required people to be of fitness level 1 but this isn't accurately defined anywhere. Some days we were walking up to 7 miles and climbing over 200 very uneven stairs and several people were simply unable to manage this and were very unhappy about being misled. As ever, we had some people in our group who like to moan about everything: "I don't like fish." "The food is cold" "Why do we get rice with everything?" People need to be realistic about what experiencing japanese culture actually means. Overall, it was a good and enjoyable holiday and we got to see everything we expected but it was very, very expensive and next time we will probably try another company

When booking this very expensive holiday for our Golden Wedding celebration I thought it would be the trip of a lifetime. So wrong. The group was too big and with different fitness levels, a few of our group really struggled to keep up with the fast pace of the tour guide who had to choice but to leave several people to struggle. We did the Japan Uncovered tour and though we enjoyed some of the sites, the Japanese food was awful and very poor throughout. We had a bad storm when we were due to sail on Lake Ashi and the cable car and our actual compensation (they didn’t have an alternative trip organised in case of any problems) was 2 free drinks each at our evening meal. Our tour guide was lovely but completely overwhelmed with trying to fit everything in and keep some of the moaners happy. It just didn’t work and I now wish we had chosen a different destination for the main part of our celebration or stayed at home and spent the money more wisely. The hotels were nice but our lasting memory will be of the amazing toilets which is really sad. A huge disappointment. Read the reviews before booking your trip of a lifetime

Travelled with Wendy Wu on a Discover Japan trip. Unfortunately this turned out to be a disappointing trip for a number reasons: Large group of 28 meant that restaurants used had to accommodate this number. The result was poor food with little variety. Bullitt train experience turned out to be a very short suburban trip with no option to reach the speeds advertised. Poor guide with few social skills and inadequate English. We came home knowing very little about Japan’s culture, history and customs. Questions were not encouraged and there was no help to enable us to make the most of free time. This was especially true in Kyoto where we saw very little of the local architecture etc. People with food intolerances whilst caters for adequately were forced to sit away from their travelling companions. On the plus side, our fellow travellers were all lovely entertaining people and we saw many interesting sights. The blossom was beautiful. This was an expensive trip and the holiday was certainly not the luxury experience we had been expecting. We would not use Wendy Wu again.

We have just returned from an excellent trip, Japan Uncovered. Blessed by outstanding weather, and in cherry blossom season this trip covered all the major sites that we most wanted to see in Japan. Our guide, Mina, was fabulous. Patient, knowledgeable and with a great sense of humour. Her English was excellent. Our group of 27 included English, Irish and Australian participants. A few of us had food requests and allergies which Mina took time to understand and to ensure that the restaurants were aware of. Before embarking on a trip such as this though, I would urge people to do their homework. This is a trip designed to cover as many peoples interests as possible. Therefore, there will be occasions when you like certain activities more than others. This is not a personalised trip. This also applies to the food. Sometimes you will eat at fairly high end restaurants and sometimes the equivalent of a cafe. The food is predominantly Japanese because that is what people eat in Japan! I am not a huge fan of Japanese food but I tried everything and I was never hungry. The days are long and there is often quite a bit of walking. So when it is stated that a good level of fitness is required, that is what they mean. On the first day we walked over 20,000 steps as well as travelling by coach and boat; and recovering from jet lag. English is not widely spoken but with a smile and a sense of humour most things can be communicated. We were happy with all of the hotels that we stayed in but Japanese hotel rooms tend to be small and rather warm. There often isn’t a bar to relax in, in the evenings but the vending machines are excellent. We will definitely be keeping our eyes peeled for other Wendy Wu tours but I think that this one will be hard to beat both in terms of cost and the amount of Japan that we were able to see. Just a couple of thousand photos to go through now.

When spending over £6000 each you can only hope that your tour company is as good as their reputation. Wendy Wu certainly was! We were fortunate to have a group of 28 wonderful companions and the most fabulous Tour Guide in ‘Jimmy’ who ensured everything went as smoothly as possible. Every aspect of the trip was covered to the last detail so no need to worry about anything. The hotels ranged from basic to amazing but all were clean and comfortable. Our favourite being the Fujisan Mishima Tokyu Hotel which provided one of my personal highlights of the tour - the rooftop onsen watching the sunrise over Mount Fuji. The Experience Japan Tour takes in an awful lot with little free time but we loved it. The Snow Monkey Park was incredible. If I were to be very picky my only criticism is the time in Tokyo as I would have liked to have seen more of the actual city. Retrospectively we would have opted out of the visit to the National Museum and the Skytree and done our own thing, or alternatively extended our stay. We were exceptionally lucky with the weather although cherry season was late this year so the blossoms were not in full bloom. The food throughout the tour was very good albeit the breakfasts varied somewhat. So to sum up … this is a fabulous tour and Wendy Wu is highly recommended. You may even be lucky enough to have ‘Jimmy’ as your guide.