Reviews

Wonderful timing with cherry blossom time in full bloom and no clouds around Mount Fuji. The mixture of venues and experiences in the tour wasn’t bad either.

We have just returned from an excellent trip, Japan Uncovered. Blessed by outstanding weather, and in cherry blossom season this trip covered all the major sites that we most wanted to see in Japan. Our guide, Mina, was fabulous. Patient, knowledgeable and with a great sense of humour. Her English was excellent. Our group of 27 included English, Irish and Australian participants. A few of us had food requests and allergies which Mina took time to understand and to ensure that the restaurants were aware of.
Before embarking on a trip such as this though, I would urge people to do their homework. This is a trip designed to cover as many peoples interests as possible. Therefore, there will be occasions when you like certain activities more than others. This is not a personalised trip. This also applies to the food. Sometimes you will eat at fairly high end restaurants and sometimes the equivalent of a cafe. The food is predominantly Japanese because that is what people eat in Japan! I am not a huge fan of Japanese food but I tried everything and I was never hungry. The days are long and there is often quite a bit of walking. So when it is stated that a good level of fitness is required, that is what they mean. On the first day we walked over 20,000 steps as well as travelling by coach and boat; and recovering from jet lag. English is not widely spoken but with a smile and a sense of humour most things can be communicated. We were happy with all of the hotels that we stayed in but Japanese hotel rooms tend to be small and rather warm. There often isn’t a bar to relax in, in the evenings but the vending machines are excellent.
We will definitely be keeping our eyes peeled for other Wendy Wu tours but I think that this one will be hard to beat both in terms of cost and the amount of Japan that we were able to see. Just a couple of thousand photos to go through now.

Wow! Fabulous tour with the perfect guide! A great itinerary and we were blessed with great weather and the best of the cherry blossom but it was our guide, Kiki, who made the tour perfect with her knowledge, insights and the care she showed our group. Thank you all!

All the major sites I wanted to visit were covered, the cherry blossom was at its best and breath-taking, our guide, Take, was brilliant and, as ever with Wendy Wu, the organisation and attention to detail were exceptional. With all meals and entries costs included, as well as hotels, guide, international travel, additional experiences, coach and driver, train and boat trips, my only expenditure was on gifts and the occasional ice cream! The programme was busy and interesting, with no time wasted but enough unscheduled time to keep up with diary writing, camera charging and sleep! My 6th Wendy Wu tour with two more already booked. You are the best! Many thanks.

We had a fabulous time, and we were really lucky to catch the cherry blossom at its peak in Kanazawa. Very informative and well organised guide, and generally well paced itinerary.

This is a fantastic tour itinerary for the first timer to Japan. All meals are included and our tour guide Miko was fantastic. Best one ever.
This was our 4th Wendy Wu tour and we just love the attention to detail on these holidays. This Japan holiday was booked in 2019 but due to Covid only went ahead this year. Worth waiting for. The cherry blossom was exceptional.

Japan is an amazing country and so worth a visit. The people are friendly, the place is spotlessly clean, the scenery spectacular, the gardens breathtaking and the castles, the shrines with their history just fascinating.
The tour group was too large at 26 guests. This tour is given a physical rating of 1. The group included several guests with varying levels of mobility who found some of the excursions difficult. Anyone who has an issue with walking medium distances should not consider this particular tour. This means that with one guide it makes it difficult for them to control the party. Although our guides were very good there was some waiting around and some excursions had to be cut short. Nobody complained and we all helped each other and over the tour formed a close knit group of friends.
For our trip we had several guides all of whom were absolutely first class, all very knowledgeable, interesting, excellent English and all with a good sense of humour.
This tour covered a lot of miles visiting quite a few cities. The travel was very well organised. The coaches were spacious and comfortable. A bullet train experience was included.
All hotels were very good albeit with typical Japanese small rooms, no drawers or wardrobes so you live out of your suitcase. Japanese toilets have to be experienced to be believed. I would not recommend the Sunshine City Prince Hotel in Tokyo where it was overcrowded and the breakfast service was a shambles. Wendy Wu use other hotels in Tokyo.
The food was typical Japanese and we used both hotel and outside restaurants. The meals were varied and excellent.
We picked this tour for the variety of places to visit but mostly to see the snow monkeys. This was one of the highlights of our tour. The trip to the park was timed perfectly to be at the pools as the monkeys arrived.
I would definitely recommend Wendy Wu Japan Uncovered as a great way to see the amazing Japan. A busy time but late March, early April to experience the cherry blossom and colourful azaleas.

Reacted well to my queries but made some errors.

Very helpful

I'm in my 70s and a lady travelling alone. At no time was I concerned about anything. From the moment I was met at Tokyo airport to the final departure from Osaka, it was a wonderful holiday,with a lovely mix of people, and everything was well organised.

Service rating :

Too much food overall; long breaks every day for heavy lunches were not needed, especially when the time could have been better spent seeing more sites.

Although the tour was called 'Cherry Blossom' there wasn't any dedicated item on any day's itinerary to actually see any trees, which resulted in many complaints during the tour. The tour guide seemed somewhat surprised that people went there just to see the blossom!

Product :

Flight arrangements compared badly between the group as well as prices paid.

We had barely one day in Tokyo and were expecting to see more of the centre of town; local culture; people etc.stuff for which Tokyo is famous for. Three hours were wasted with a lunch that no one wanted and a trip to the presidential palace which was closed so all we got to see was a bridge from afar. Surely the travel company knew that the place would be closed on the day of our visit?

Once out of Tokyo, the countryside was amazing and the tour brilliant; but nevertheless some improvements are needed.

Service rating :

Well organised trip, excellent guide. Good standard of local and western accommodation and food.

The group was too big (29). Accommodation and meals was a bit too western,

There was a lot of time on coaches. And visits to historical buildings and temples a bit too much at the expense of views of modern Japanese life.

Unfortunately the winter had been poor and cherry blossom and warmer weather was 2 weeks late!

Product :

See Customer Experience report above