Reviews

Great holiday, packed a lot in, so inevitably early starts in the morning.
Our guide, Rumiko, was excellent.
The food was very good, and beautifully presented. I found the meals very rushed, particularly dinner. Everything was laid out when you sat down, and as there are no””courses” often all finished in about 45 minutes. I suppose this is the Japanese way but I usually consider dinner a highlight of the evening when on holiday and would prefer a more leisurely meal.

Very interesting holiday busy itinerary.
Saw lots excellent guide.

First class from start to finish.
Attention to detail superb from pickup to the return home.
Our tour guide was exceptional, from history lessons ,to her attention to detail, nothing escaped her! She really was great, had a great sense of humour, even though at times it must have felt like she was herding cats!!,,
Would not hesitate to use Wendy Wu tours in future.

Very helpful and checked around to find best flights. Changed name to correct one immediately when informed it was incorrect.

The itinerary is very good. Just what we wanted. The pace is quick at the start but more free time at the end. Perhaps doing the tour in reverse would help with jet lag. Good guide and coach throughout. BUT low score due to some very poor hotel choices and poor food selection. Given the premium price you might expect premium food and hotels. But not so. This is not about local vs western food. It is about the quality and value for money. Japan is cheaper than the UK so at a loss to understand penny pinching We have complained and await a response. I would give Wendy Wu a miss as the other well travelled companions told us of great experiences with other companies

Wendy Wu Japan Undercover - October 2024


This was my 5th holiday booked with Wendy Wu over the past 14 years and found some aspects of the Japanese holiday disappointing.

The size of the Japan Undercover tour group was 27 travellers in total which was far too large for a very busy tourist place like Japan. Plus with some within the group finding it difficult to visit some of the planned places of interest listed in the Wendy Wu Japan itinerary, because a large proportion of the group were limited in physical ability or stamina in so many ways.

This had several repercussions when visiting sites of interest listed in the itinerary like the spectacular Kiyomizu Temple, which was cancelled at the last minute and the group was given the option of going shopping with the Tour Guide or going on their own to find places of interest for the next few hours until rejoining the group again. As a keen amateur photographer of over 55 years I was absolutely furious as this was meant to be one of my highlights to capture behind the lens. I did not pay all this money to be offered a shopping trip as some means to compensate! I was not alone in feeling this disappointment . I do not think on this occasion that the Tour Guide made the right decision.

The slow moving group of 27, generally had less time in visiting sites of interest listed in the itinerary and on one occasion with limited time when visiting the snow monkeys, a large proportion of the group walked to the entrance gates at an average walking pace and paid for their own admission fee’s instead of waiting for the Tour Guide bringing the slower members of the group to the entrance gates. This give me and others valuable time to take photos.

Visiting Mount Fuji was also very disappointing with only 30 minutes visiting time allocated from getting out of the coach and returning back to our seats. It was a cloudy day ( not in anyone’s control) and waiting for a break in the clouds to see the peak was near impossible with the time allocated, with only a very few of the group managing to see the summit. Again a major disappointment for me. I shared the same view with others on the Tour that Kiki had not planned our departure time adequately . We were told that morning that the evening meal at the hotel was booked early, “at 6 o’clock” which left little time to return to the hotel from Mount Fuji .The hotel evening meal was rushed with plates taken away before some had even finished their food. We had to leave the table before the next Wendy Wu Tour group was arriving at 7 o’clock. Why on earth was a meal at the hotel at such an early sitting even considered versus the opportunity to see Mount Fuji. The food and service weren’t even worth rushing back for. This was not acceptable and I was not alone with feeling so let down by Kiki’s poor planning.

Sometimes the itinerary felt like a tick box exercise without having adequate time given to enjoy the sites of interest. It was apparent that too much time was allocated for midday food (lunches) and shopping within tourist traps. As stated before why come all this way to Japan at such an expense to be offered such a poor rate itinerary on some days.

On a positive note it was wonderful having a Wendy Wu representative meeting me at Osaka airport with a friendly face and being very helpful by looking after me and my travel cases for an hour until the hotel coach came to collect me.
Also the professional friendly coach drivers with their clean and comfortable coaches was really welcomed .
Our Tour Guide Kiki was also very friendly, helpful and hard working with such a large group in a very busy environment. In my opinion it was unfair of Wendy Wu Tours to expect such a large group of diverse ability to be managed fairly and equally by Kiki. It was evident that although Kiki did her best to manage the dynamic of our group, she did on occasions struggle with the challenges presented to her, by this inequity of the group composition.

However, I would like to balance my feedback and share that Kiki’s spoken English on the odd occasion was a little confusing, but her knowledge of the sites we visited and information provided to us was very good.
At this point I would like to point out that Wendy Wu Tours had promised that for groups larger than 10 people , the group would automatically be provide with both an international guide ( Kiki) and a local guide. We were not provided with a local guide for this Tour and an explanation was not given. This was not acceptable and once again this Tour was not cheap.

For our last night, the river and dining cruise was well received by my group with everyone had a wonderful time.

In summary, overall the contents of the itinerary was good but had we been given more time at the dedicated sites would have made the trip more memorable.

The hotels chosen, with their locations were generally of a high standard.

The lunches provided were not of a good standard, however on most evenings the hotel meals provided were good.

I believe for me this is now the right time to say goodbye to Wendy Wu Tours and to find an alternative travel company that better suits my needs and expectations .

It is sad that this last tour has not lived up to my expectations as the last four tours were great when I visited China, Vietnam & Cambodia, Myanmar and India . These were memorable for all the right reasons.

With sincere feedback I close with these comments… I truly believe that if Wendy Wu plan to maintain their status in this highly competitive worldwide travel industry ,that you need to seriously consider the size and make up of the dynamic , ability and age of the groups . Putting profit before quality is not in my opinion the way forward,

Thank you for taking the time and trouble to read my feedback.

Excellent and interesting holiday.
The itinerary starts at Kyushu island in the south, through the main island of Honshu, up to Hokkaido, the largest island in the north.
Many first class sites are visited: including temples, shrines, castles, gardens and a beauty spot- some of the best examples in Japan.
The hotels are all good, with a couple of them really first class, the one in Tokyo being 5 star rated.
All meals are included, being a mixture of Japanese and western style - I enjoyed them all. You need to like rice, fish, and seafood as these feature in Japanese cuisine :-) ... but various other meats are frequently met, as well as protein dishes including tofu and mushrooms / fungus.
The transport is by both trains and (very good) coaches, and all travel arrangements went smoothly.
Highly recommended, especially for those who have not visited Japan before.

I really enjoyed the tour. I traveled as a solo person so there are some concerns over how good a deal it was financially. It was an expensive holiday overall Our guide Miyuki was fabulous However I was aware that some in our group were wanting more details/information on some days. But I have nothing to compare the experience with and was happy to enjoy what was presented.
Flights were booked by WW through Heathrow, which I ran with as I wasn’t aware of options. In hindsight Gatwick would have been better as Guernsey flights don’t go to Heathrow. As a result this incurred additional expense travelling across London. And hassle too!
I was happy with the level of exercise required but several in the group were critical of expectations. This held things up at times as some were less able which was unfortunate.
A huge positive was the actual group as we got on and everyone interacted very well. So this was a great relief but a concern prior to the trip. in reality you have to run with this.
I thought the Japanese were very kind and helpful and I felt very safe during the visit. And I’m now not eating my breakfast with chopsticks
The question now is where to go next. And what good deals are available with WW or possibly other organisations. But I did enjoy paying for the whole trip in one go!!

Our guide Kumiko was excellent. Vert knowledgeable, very friendly and great fun. The schedule was a bit hectic but we saw so much of Japan.the lovely countryside and gardens, the castles, temples and shrines as well as the cities. Kumi helped to bring the history alive.
We also went to a miss brewery., a was wasabi farm, a paper making factory and watched a tea ceremony and made and drank our own macha tea! We travelled on the bullet train and also had several boat trips. There are so many marvellous memories. Our group of 28 got on very well aided by the lively Australians.
It was my first experience of Japanese food which I thoroughly enjoyed. Everyone was so friendly and courteous and everywhere was so clean. My granddaughter didn't want to leave and wants to return to Japan in the future.

I do not recommend this holiday for the following reasons.
1. The size of the group is far too big. We were lucky as our group consisted of 23 people but another group next to us were 28 people. This is far too big a group for the going round and accessing the sites within the time table allowed.
2. The hotels are often 2 stars and rarely 3 stars. Your stay at 3 star hotels is mainly for one night where as in 2 stars usually 2/3 nights. The 3 nights stay in Tokyo was in particularly basic and small room at the end of our holiday. This is particularly poor as the tour charges are quite high.
3. Our guide did not speak good enough English and was mainly reading the information about sites from his IPad with strong accent and poor English often just mumbling. He also did not give much information on sites we visited.
Wendy Wu should provide guides who have a reasonable level of spoken English and not just read information from IPad. Also they should be prepared to answer the questions clearly.
There are better tour companies out there to go to Japan but Wendy Wu is definitely not one of them.

Our guide was lovely and helpful. Tour was very full on but we got to see so much in a relatively short space of time.

The tour guide Mariko handled this mixed group of 26 from three different countries extremely well.

Setting up a WhatsApp group from Day 1 with names and photos of all participants worked really well. It enabled the group to ‘gel’ quickly and gave a clear outline of times, activities etc.

The days were action packed, which meant that we were able to see and experience life in Japan as it really is. The downside was that little time was available in the evenings to enjoy the excellent hotels and facilities.

Of outstanding value was Grand Nico in Tokyo where we were all upgraded.

We were pleased to learn when we booked the holiday that all meals would be provided. We wouldn’t want to change this. However, there was a downside. Most restaurants (mid day and evening) provided basically the same food. Hence by the second week our diet was much the same, with a lot of raw fish (not to everyone’s taste)! We only had one buffet meal and that was in the evening. So a greater choice of food would have suited us better.

This full-on tour visited many of the main tourist points in Japan during October 2024. There were early starts and some long journeys across three of the islands visited - Kyushu, Honshu and Hokkaido. The group comprised 28 people, plus the tour guide, and was too big for the guide to keep together, especially when travelling on trains in the peak hours.
As lunchtimes varied according to the visit programme, and could be anytime between 1100 and 1330, it would have been helpful if the group had been advised the previous evening of the next day's planned time of lunch. This would have helped us organise our food intake at breakfast to match an early or late lunch as appropriate.
A lovely boat cruise of Tokyo Bay with evening meal was arranged on our last night in the Capital, which left us late(ish) back to our hotel. On arrival back, we had to pack our cases for despatch by road to avoid the Shinkansen restrictions and then to prepare an overnight bag for a two night stay, all whilst having to be up for a 6 am start the following morning.
There was a farewell dinner arranged for the last night of the tour that was held in a very large cook-it-yourself type restaurant. The air was thick with the smoke of meat being cooked on the griddles at the numerous tables, which left our clothes impregnated with the smell of the experience. These were the clothes in which we would be travelling home from Japan the following day.
The horrors of the A Bomb were seen at the museums in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, which portray graphically the events to the full, and really test one's emotions. Our guide was so moved, even though she must have seen the material many times, that she took to a quiet corner away from the displays to recover her composure.
The tour visited a number of gardens, Temples and Shrines, many crowded with tourists. At Matsumoto Castle, the stairs to reach the upper floors are very narrow and steep, with people ascending having to compete with the large numbers descending. Some of our group could not make the ascent. Due to the long hot summer, we were told that autumn in Japan had been delayed, with little sign of trees changing their colours in the two south islands.
The tour included hands-on experience of making Momiji-Manju (a type of maple leaf shaped cake), sushi, a sake drinking cup, fan painting, and a calligraphy lesson. These were lighter moments much liked by the group. We also enjoyed a tea ceremony and the art of Zen meditation conducted by a Monk. The tour itinerary was followed to the letter apart from one departure, when we were unable to ride the Komagatake cable car at Lake Ashi, closed due to poor visibility.
Overall, the tour was enjoyed very much by my wife and I, but it would have been more practical to have a smaller tour group. This would have made it easier for the guide to negotiate the busy places we visited and to keep the group together. Over the 21 days of the tour, we had three separate tour guides, all of whom were well prepared, and provided information on the venues to be visited and gave us other interesting facts.
The Japanese culture is much to be enjoyed. The people are unbelievably polite (less so in Tokyo, perhaps) and appear to behave within a set of unwritten rules, to which they all comply. In short, they work as a team and have a country that is devoid of litter, graffiti and, interestingly, dirty road vehicles. The trains do run on time, well almost, as we saw a sign for cancellations on one line. But, all across Japan we saw evidence of the effort and dedication being applied by workers, many in white gloves, who seem totally enthused by their individual roles, however basic. Well done Japan and its people, I would love to visit you again.

Well organised guide was fantastic and the group of 24 got along famously
Only downside an 18/20 hour journey to get there and back

Very helpful person on phone. Answered all my questions and sorted out the best business class offer. Very satisfied..