Reviews

This trip provides a wonderful overview of the many faces of China. It gave me the chance to not only visit the fantastic historical sites such as The Wall, the Forbidden City and the Terracotta Army, it also gave me a great insight into current-day China with its fantastic infrastructure, modern, bustling cities and welcoming people. All of the guides and the tour leader at Wendy Wu were highly knowledgeable and passionate about their country. They shared their deep knowledge of the history, culture and customs and introduced us to the local food wherever we went. Our trip incorporated the main sights, big cities, small historical towns, the countryside, a cruise on the Yangste, a myriad of shows showcasing local culture and dances and spectacular scenery. Oh, and the pandas were adorable!

It was an excellent tour, but I have rated the holiday as 'Good' for the following reasons:
1. Apart from Ruby, our guide in China, Wendu Tour operators in London do not understand the difference between someone who does not eat pork to someone who is vegetarian. I do not eat pork, but I eat other meat like chicken, beef, lamb etc. For the outboard flight to China and the return flight from Hong Kong, British Airways was told by Wendy Tour operators that I am vegetarian; I refused to eat the disgusting vegetarian dishes which were served to me for supper and breakfast, and I was told that was what the Tour Operators had booked, and there were no other meals made available for me. That was a bad start and a bad finish to the holiday. Imagine flying for over 14 hours on both journeys and going without any food at all. This is a major let down. What saved the day was Ruby in China who negotiated for at least a chicken or beef dish to be served on the table.
2. The tour guide in Hong Kong could not change the meal arrangement in the restaurant because his office told him that a change of food would incur additional charges, and this would not be met by Wendy Tour. So again, I went without food for yet another day, despite the fact that the tour operators had been told beforehand that I don't eat pork. There were fish, chicken, beef etc being served to the other tables and yet I couldn't have any. I would have paid for it except my card would not work and I didn't have any cash on me to pay for another meal.
3. My wife and I paid over £10k for this trip and yet we were expected to pay additionally for some of the daily tours termed as 'optional'. They amounted to an extra £1k which we should have been informed of from the outset and not released after in the itinerary after we had made the payment. We believe they should have been included in the overall price, and not be misled into thinking that everything was booked, lock stock and barrel. When we opted out of any of the 'optional' tours, we had to find our own meals locally, when in fairness all meals were supposed to be provided every day. When people elect not to take part in the 'optional' tours, the guide should have made arrangements for us to go and dine locally elsewhere since we had already paid for it in the overall package.
4. We were priced the same as everyone else who booked early, but we were led to believe that those who booked at the end nearer the time of the holiday paid much less than us. This is totally unfair. There should be one price for all or at least make a concessionary price for everyone from the outset.
5. We were charged one price for all the site visits irrespective of age, but half of the group including me were over 70 and consequently were not charged any entrance fee. We believe the charges that were billed to us initially should be refunded back to us accordingly.
6. Lastly, we learnt that BA offered free upgrade to Wendy Tours for its passengers on the flight from UK to China. A few of us in the group received upgrade to Business Class or Economy Plus and it would be interesting to find out what criteria were used to select the passengers who qualified for the upgrade. We were certainly not the ones to be offered any upgrade. At the airport, we had to pay an extra £400 each (total £800) for the 2 of us to be upgraded on our outboard flight; and couldn't get any upgrade on the flight from Hong Kong.

We are looking at taking another tour; this time to India, but we are not too sure if we should tempt fate again with Wendy Tours.

From booking to the flight home my experience was excellent. So welt organised.

Efficiently handled new booking. Rang to book a tour to China for next year, dealt with very efficiently - advisor knew his stuff! Very painless, all done in less than 15mins.

Really excellent. Extremely efficient. Immediate costing of extra requests. All questions answered promptly. Almost immediate confirmation of costs and flights