Reviews

This was the worst escorted group chat I have ever experienced in my 26 years of travelling on escorted group holidays. The tour guide only spoke pidgin broken English! To ask a question guest had to use Google Translate and show her the screenshot.

The itinerary was continually changing, with no real reason despite the guide walking at break next speed around all attractions. We missed so much due to lack of time and coherent information. The hotels were okay the food very repetitive and not a good standard. This holiday needs an urgent review by Wendy Wu , would not recommend.

When contacting Wendy Wu during the holiday with concerns I was completely brushed off. They are obviously not interested in guest feedback.

Fantastic tour of a beautiful country. Japan is a beautiful clean country and the people are so friendly. Our guide was excellent.

Although this tour covered most of the things we wanted to see in Japan, we found the pace too uncomfortable. We question some of the hotel choices and found most of the meals poor with no alternatives. We didn't get on very well with the Japanese cousine and the timing and locations of the restaurants chosen. We were unsatisfied with this expensive holiday.

A terrific, curated tour from Wendy Wu. A very long time since travelling abroad and never outside Europe so was very much in the hands of the travel company who delivered in every aspect. A classic tour that took you to the sort of places and experiences you might expect with an obvious leaning towards history and culture set in a modern enthralling country. Accommodation was top notch and an open mind to the food choices is essential. I enjoy Japanese food so I had a head start. It's a busy place, so expect crowds in some of the places visited. This did not affect our enjoyment. Our tour guide was brilliant with an exceptional knowledge of a breadth of subjects and kept us on track. An occasional lengthy coach ride however just look out of the window and take in views.
Clean, safe and welcoming, confident I will visit again or use Wendy Wu for the next adventure.

Wendy Wu 2460 Japan Uncovered tour. September 2024.
Excellent tour, great food and exceptional tour guide.
Faultless in every possible way.
Too many pictures to upload, just a few to sample.

We chose this tour as it visited virtually all the places we wanted to visit. We always go for Escorted Tours with all meals included and everything organised for us. This was our first tour with Wendy Wu and it really was worth paying a little more for the quality of service we received, particularly from our National Guide (Coco) who was professional, friendly and worked incredibly hard. As for Jaoan, we loved the country especially the culture (organised, quiet, polite, clean) and the highlights were: Hiroshima, Kyoto, Tokyo and the Snow Monkeys. Mention also should be made of the gardens, castles, temples, shrines, mountains, wooded hillsides, bullet train, rice fields and Sumo Wrestling. Lastly, we enjoyed the variety of food on offer including around 35% Western - we were able to try the whole range of Japanese cuisine including having to cook our own food on occasions - fortunately we were always provided alternative cutlery as well as chopsticks. Hotels were all of a high standard as were the toilets!

This is a very comprehensive tour and we saw a lot. However there was too little free time and I was disappointed to have to eat so much poor international food. I also felt that the guide didn’t give enough information about the sites and history.

Overall, this was an amazing experience. From the start, the booking process and arrangements were efficient and well executed.

Rather than try to detail all 16 days in Japan, I'll just summarise the key elements:
- the destinations were great. On a tour like this it will be difficult to cater for all needs, but we found that most locations were well worth visiting and that free time was catered for, allowing us to pursue our own interests to a degree. In terms of the top things to see in Japan, I couldn't pick a better list overall, and we came away with a genuine sense that we knew the country a lot better
- the weather. We travelled end-July - early August. We were lucky overall, with only a couple of spots of rain and mostly clear and sunny days. Bear in mind that stunning vistas of Mt Fuji are very unlikely this time of year, but the visit is still worth doing. It was very hot and humid, especially at the start, but as we traveled into the mountains it cooled and was more bearable. Air condition is ubiquitous, so it's only really the outdoor parts where this was a little uncomfortable.
- the food was generally excellent, with a wide variety of Japanese food and no shortage. A couple of choices of European style food (especially in the final Tokyo hotel) weren't as good, but still completely satisfactory
- our tour guide (Hiroko) was utterly incredible. She made the tour very special, with lots of insights into Japanese culture and history, and a calm efficiency that made sure that we kept on schedule but didn't feel too pressured.

We all had a wonderful time, and felt that the tour was extremely good value for money. With all excursions and entrance fees dealt with, and all the logistics completely sorted, we could just get on and enjoy the moment!

Very highly recommended, especially for a first trip to Japan.

I contacted customer service and received a call back within the hour. Issue resolved and holiday booked.

Very courteous and polite. Answered all my questions over several phone calls- was told about special offer immediately

Attended one of Wendy Wu's Community Roadshows where in addition to the presentation we booked a consultation. All our questions were answered and a few days later we booked a holiday to Japan. Being able to contact the same consultant the booking experience was very smooth and we now look forward to an amazing experience in 2025.

We really enjoyed our tour of Japan. It was a very good group and Shioji was one of the best guides we've ever had - warm, confident, knowledgeable, encouraging, amusing and always helpful. Nothing was too much trouble for her. It was full-on but we expected that and, being retired, we could recover once home. There were a large number of temples/shrines but, again, we knew that from the itinerary. However, although we have travelled widely, we weren’t keen on most of the Japanese food!

Friendly and helpful