Reviews

The Jewels of Japan tour was made enjoyable by our guide Arch who did an excellent job. I am a vegetarian so I expected difficulty getting food in Japan. Arch ensured everywhere we went vegetarian food was available for me which I really appreciated. Arch was attentive, well informed and patient with all the tour members. The tour itinerary provided a great overview of Japan. The tour visited all the sites I wanted and some extras beside. The only negative comment I have is the final hotel we stayed in Osaka. The Hotel Monteray was very dirty, shabby and the breakfast was poor. I would not recommend it. Also, perhaps some time could be scheduled for personal exploration, relaxing and shopping during the tour.
Overall. I had a great time and would recommend our tour guide Arch (who was fantastic) and the Jewels of Japan tour.

A lot of places covered in a short period of time. It was a busy and hectic tour- could have done with spending more time at some places and less time at others. The guide was excellent. The meals were included which was a plus point , however for those with dietary restrictions or allergies the food could have been catered for better. The ingredients were not labelled and often we were not informed of what was being served .

From start to finish the service that we received from Wendy Wu was second to none. Excellent customer services before the trip, communication was very clear and when there was a change with our itinerary this was easily rectified by staff at Wendy Wu with very little fuss.

All of the hotels, trips and arrangements during the holiday were again excellent, good locations and our tour guide was very knowledgeable and worked tirelessly during the whole time (big shout out to Hiro!!).

Would 100% recommend anyone to book a trip with Wendy Wu and we would most certainly think again about travelling with Wendy Wu for another trip in the future!

Our guide was excellent, everything went to plan, even when the weather was against us, the plan slightly improved so we still enjoyed the sights.
Could use more time to get ready in between coming back from a sightseeing trip and dinner.

Just brilliant. The tour guide was superb and the visits, food and hotels lovely.

Fantastic holiday would definitely recommend, our tour guide Keiko was excellent and getting 28 people together every day in the same place at the same time is not easy but she managed and done a fantastic job explained everything we were doing for the next day we covered a lot in the time we were there plus we extended our stay 3 days before the tour started and 3 days after it ended which was lovely

Well organised very good tour. Excellent transport arrangements and tour guides. Hotels and food very good. Good choice of sites to visit. Just could have had a little more free/relaxing time

We had a brilliant time filled with so many experiences- it fulfilled my lifetime dream to visit Japan and see the ancient sites whilst experiencing modern Japan too. Our guide, Kaori was great fun and very informative. Whilst it was a whistle stop tour with a lot of travelling included, we had a good balance of time spent at attractions, having experiences and eating out at restaurants, sampling local cuisine. Being vegetarian we were very well looked after wherever we ate. We enjoyed shopping in quality outlets to buy lovely souvenirs. Our colleagues were great company and the group gelled really well. We had some free time at the end of the tour to enjoy Osaka and our transfer was easily managed too. The only shame was that on arrival we had to wait a further 2 hours at the airport before the next transfer bus which meant that we missed our dinner and nothing was provided for us on that first night. Luckily we could pick up some snacks from the convenience store. We were issued a refund but that wasn’t much of a welcome after such a long journey. Given that Wendy Wu arranged the flights they must have known this would happen so this was disappointing but didn’t spoil our overall experience. We had a great time in Japan!

It was amazing. Our courier Akiko was so helpful , nothing was too much trouble.

The actual tour was excellent and better than expected. The inclusive meals were varied and gave me a true taste of Japan.
The tour guide, Akiko, was knowledgeable and helpful throughout.
My only point of concern was the flight times. The first day I arrived at the hotel too late for dinner. This was quickly covered by giving me a refund for the meal. However, the last ‘day’ myself and another woman on the tour had to leave the hotel at 3am with no breakfast. Therefore, my advice would be to check the flights available and specify your wishes.

An excellent tour but very ‘full on’!
A good overview of Japan with very good guides, very knowledgeable and helpful ladies. However the last day was too much as after a long day, arriving at a hotel at 6.45 pm, out at 7pm to catch a train to a restaurant and up at 4am for a 5am airport pickup left us needing another holiday! We saw all the sites we wanted to see, met the people, who were lovely and ate the food! Would recommend!

The pros
Excellent variety of places visited in Japan and the hotels were all of a high quality with the exception of the last one prior to flying home. This was very basic.
Restaurants used for lunch and evening meals were excellent and the range of Japanese food chosen was good. The tea ceremony, origami and noodle making
sessions were all great fun and enjoyed by all.
Our second guide Nana, was absolutely excellent and would be a good role model to follow for the others. We were very sad to lose her when she passed us on to the next guide.
The cons
However, we were disappointed that we had three different tour guides in 10 days and their ability to communicate in English was very different. The first guide neglected to pass on the microphone attached to our headsets which meant after the first 3 days we could no longer use headsets for commentary wherever we went which was a limit to the knowledge we could take in.
We also missed out on the included breakfast prior to our early flight home and when queried, the guide said we didn’t get this refunded even though we had paid for it and was on our itinerary.
Overall though we had a fantastic time but felt Wendy Wu had let us down with the succession and limitations of the guides given to us.
We would definitely recommend the tour but it was definitely not as slick and well organised by the two inexperienced guides . We had expected a different level of organisation after a previous Wendy Wu tour we had taken to Egypt in October 2023.

Holiday was as advertised but our second guide was not very knowledgeable about the historical facts so we had little detail about the places we went to.

1. Excellent admin.
2. Excellent itinerary planning.
3. Good arrival and departure management.
4. Quite outstanding tour guide (Keiko)
5. Very good hotels.
6. Flawless coach arrangements.
7. Great intro to Japanese arts, crafts and culture.

This was a great holiday, to include as much as possible. Great eating experiences and good quality hotels. The only negative that most group members agreed, it was such a experienced filled holiday it was exhausting!