Magnificent China
I would highly recommend this trip to an amazing country. We benefitted from an excellent national guide and good local guides and saw all the main sights.
Oct 17, 2024
Vietnam & Cambodia Discovery
Amazing Holiday with excellent guides throughout
Oct 15, 2024
Classic Mekong
Excellent, very efficient and very quick in processing my trip
Oct 15, 2024
Kruger to Cape Explored
This is a great way to see the wildlife and scenery of South Africa. You get to see lions, cheetahs and leopards in Kruger national park in the North and seals and penguins in the south. With whales off the Cape if you are lucky. The are also lots of colourful birds.
The guides go the extra mile to ensure that you have a greater time and are kept safe.
Oct 15, 2024
Treasures of Turkey
The first 2 days in Istanbul were packed full as there was no much to see. In fact, the whole holiday was very much on the go with many activities as well as sightseeing. I particularly enjoyed the lunch with a local family who made us very welcome and provided an excellent meal. The boat trip on the Bosphorus, was enjoyable and interesting. Cappadocia was fascinating with unusual rock formations and houses built into the rock. I enjoyed the visits to various UNESCO Heritage sites and it was good to see places that I had only read about in books. Our guide was helpful and knowledgeable and had a good sense of humour. Overall, I would not leave anything out of the tour as it was all an enriching experience.
This was my first holiday with Wendy Wu and there are some aspects on which I was not impressed. On arrival at the hotel from the airport, there was no information about the Welcome meeting and the person who met me at the airport did not know either.. The hotel receptionist obtained part of the information from Karavan Travel. Subsequently, the meeting was held later briefly as the Tour Guide had been at the airport meeting other members of the group whose flight had been delayed.
I am not happy with Wendy Wu's policy of placing individuals onto different flights. I was the sole individual on my flight from Heathrow for this holiday and yet 2 other couples also came from Heathrow and had 2 different flights from one another. The same applied of course on return flights to the UK. This scattergun approach stretches the resources of the travel company carrying out the tour on behalf of Wendy Wu as they need to meet each arrival and arrange transport to the airport for the return flights. When we arrived at the airport for our return flight, we were not accompanied into the terminal to show us where to check-in etc. All other holiday companies provide this.
Oct 15, 2024
Discover Japan
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.
Oct 15, 2024
Jewels of Japan
Booked online - super easy as all well explained
Oct 14, 2024
Grand Tour of China
We had been to Hong Kong & Beijing before, but the Grand Tour was a whole new level of understanding of China. The trip organisation by Wendy Wu was faultless & our national guide, David He, was exceptional, showing patience & understanding where needed plus a great knowledge of China. He worked hard to satisfy Gluten / Veggy food needs – not always easy with this style of meal service. Local guides in each town were also really good. Hotels varied from good to great, with priority usually being location. The Yangshuo hotel, for example, was a bit older but we stepped straight out onto West St, and breakfast was simple but had an exceptional view. There is a lot of travel involved with 3 each internal flights & trains, but Chinese trains & airports put the UK to shame! Overall the food was at least good sometimes great. Breakfast did not always include a wide ‘Western’ selection but then we were foreigners in China - How many foreign breakfast options do UK hotels have? Bus management was brilliant – a snap of the electronic fingers & it was there. We had not done a ‘follow the flag’ holiday or used Wendy Wu before. We will definitely do both again. Thanks again David.
If you are considering a long trip in China for the first time – lessons we learned:
> Grand tour lunch & dinner is 26 days of Chinese food, with set dishes, off a lazy susan except for a few packed lunches & the Yangtze cruise. Some of the dishes may not be to your taste – be flexible.
> You will need to handle your luggage – journeys involve suitcases + escalators + airports & stations
> Out walking at night in China - this is the safest I have ever felt either at home or travelling.
> Don’t think too hard about the tip pot, it just works, saving time & hassle.
> Alipay attached to your UK credit card is super quick & easy to use if you have an active phone.
> Install Wechat to contact family in case you cannot get Whatsapp to work – basically the same (Family will also have to install).
> VPN’s did not reliably work. But they do have 30 day money back warranty. I tried Express / Nord
> If your phone accepts e-sim, get one. Ours gave us access to Western websites with no VPN and always worked.
> You may be sharing China with lots of domestic tourists – check when their major holidays are.
> The Yangtze cruise was great & we are happy we did not upgrade either room or meal options. Upgraders were equally happy with their choice - do not worry about it.
Totally recommended.
Paul & Tracy
Oct 13, 2024
Portugal Uncovered
Anna Thornton's review was jointly composed.
Oct 12, 2024
Portugal Uncovered
Each daily itinerary very well though out and delivered. The excellence of this was due to our wonderful guide Sofia, who gave great in-depth, knowledgeable information throughout, with charm, panache and joyous good humour.
Two significant drawbacks worth mentioning were:
- Lack of coach air conditioning with no opening windows; significant on hot days.
- No contingency plan on our only walking, nature day, when there was continuous, heavy rain.
Oct 12, 2024
10 Nov 2024
