Our National ****** China, Andy Shao was fantastic from 1st day I arrived along with others joining the tour. Our Hotel rooms were great, took me awhile to figure out lifts with card to room along with others first night. Others on my tour a great bunch and helpful.
Andy would relay us all at Dinner time for breakfast times and and what time to be on bus. The local guide were great too and helpful. The Coach drivers and bus all good. Andy always counted us re moving on to a new place,and to keep our whispers on when explaining history & how to say local names and places, very informative. Took awhile to adjust to some dishes personally, not others, but great food choices all along for breakfast lunch and dinners. Also Andy always counted us when back on bus which was great as travelling on my own was abit daunting, but all worked out with helpful fellow passengers.
We certainly packed heaps in a days touring and was amazing with the electric cars and bikes everywhere and not crashing into each other. Safe to walk around with all those looking on cameras and police around. Glad to be on a tour though.
Please make sure Andy gets my review, would recommend him and the local guides, but him especially to anyone else who would like to do this tour.
One more review for Japan with Nao.
I and maybe others felt we were rushing to all destinations etc.but nt enough time to see everything in one place, then to much time at other places. Disappointed with some lunch places and food. Also he wasn't as efficient with keeping close with whispers and being visible with flag. I got lost at one place and kept looking out for him,finally found him and 10mins late back on bus.
A nice man, abit over Buddhist temples tho.
Scenery lovely and enjoyable otherwise 😀 also all the way thru trip no rain, only after we left provinces, very lucky.

Very well organised, the guides were great. The accommodation in China was a far higher standard than expected, and the foot massage in Yangshuo was fantastic! Our only criticisms would be in Japan the split of time between shrines/temples and gardens could have been different to allow more time in the beautiful gardens and a little less in the temples which all became a bit samey towards the end. The other issue for us was the excessive amount of time devoted to shopping in both countries. We felt this could be severely cut back to allow more time to enjoy the natural wonders of each country. The one other bug bear was the cost of all the additional trips in China which were far more than we had been led to believe and meant having to get more cash out on two occasions. That said they were largely worth doing.

Fantastic tour. The pace of tour is fine if you are fit but not ideal for unfit people or those with mobility problems. These groups struggled on our tour. China was an amazing country with friendly people, scenery was beautiful.
Japan was great too again beautiful country with lovely people

Great itinerary that was very well delivered!

He care given by the representatives in each Ithaca were wonderful and Penny who travelled with us for our journey through China was exceptional.

Sam in Japan was most thorough and caring.

However, we did have a few niggles!

In China we were were not told in advance about the optional extra trips, which were not really optional as there was no alternative really. Having taken enough cash for our spending we had to find a bank or ATM to get more cash. We were not alone with this problem. Everything in Japan was included.

We cannot understand why the China rep in Guilin didn’t know about the World Cycle race that caused delays for our coach getting back to Guilin. She decided to try and walk us to another venue until the coach could leave our hotel, on a hot day with no footpath and lots of traffic. Most of our group were in their 70’s and 80’s…and it was very hard. After refreshments, transport was found and took us back down the hill we had walked up, back to the coach, which could now drive into the town!