Wendywutours Reviews

There were lots of positives on our tour The Japanese tour manager Mina did a good job giving very clear times and directions as well as explaining the culture and translating when required We enjoyed the first part of the tour including the lovely cherry blossom beautiful gardens temples Miyajima Island Himeji Castle and the atomic bomb museums - the latter very interesting and moving It was comfortable to travel mostly by train rather than coach the bullet trains were impressive It was surprising though that guides at visitor attractions and most hotel reception staff could not speak English Our tour however was rudely interrupted when we reached Kanazawa and after testing positive 7 of us including my wife and myself were moved to a government hotel prison to isolate It was a very unpleasant experience On release we rejoined the group at Tokyo Unfortunately we had missed three highlights ie Mount Fuji Tokyo and the snow monkeys We started back with an evening cruise in Tokyo bay and an excellent dinner on board The remaining part of the tour including Sapporo we found less interesting and the countryside was more barren but the Hakodate viewing tower and the star-shaped fort were good On our two-day extension we visited a coastal port Otaru with its many tourist shops It was good that meals on the tour alternated between Western and Japanese food some very good meals but two were at rather poor restaurant cafes The very worst though was the final dinner which was dreadful We were spread out in small groups in a huge room and the meal was to cook ourselves poor quality meat on individual burners supplemented with cabbage etc This was in contrast to lunch at the smart Sky Restaurant in Sapporo where the meal was excellent and with good views of the city We were impressed by the politeness of the Japanese people lots of bowing the lack of any litter or graffiti and heated toilet seats Wendy Wu staff and their local agents were helpful also special mention of Rebecca in Australia and the lovely lady who escorted us to Sapporo airport including checking us in However during our Covid isolation they needed constant prodding to resolve issues Overall it was a disappointing experience compared with our superb Wendy Wu tour around China with several optional top quality evening shows The tour was rather rushed and some parts could have been left out We would have liked a little time to ourselves to explore

For context I am a 62 year old male fit and active and paid single supplement I have travelled to over 80 countries and done over 30 tours with various tour companies I did the tour in September 2023 The Best of Borneo tour was the most disappointing tour I ve been on On the positive side the tour leader Selvum was excellent as were the two other guides who joined at various points The Iban long house experience was excellent as was the orangutan orphanage and the river hotel in Sandakan This took up four of the fourteen days The other experiences we mostly forgettable The timetable is so slack This is really a nine day tour padded out to fourteen days Kuching and Kota Kinabalu have little to recommend them especially given the amount of free time There were no Optional extra trips eg additional nature walks cooking classes etc The food was generally the same just cooked slightly differently For example the pudding option for 11 days two meals was watermelon The hotels were generally good and the local people very friendly Hope this helps toguide you

Good itinerary and friendly guide but several areas of disappointment Poor value at 7k pp for 14 nights Physical Rating 1 is ludicrous for a tour when most days there is 5 miles walking often on inclines and in hot humid conditions Pace of tour is wrong with too few breaks rarely is there a mid morning afternoon stop for tea coffee etc Hotels were mainly in business districts often at or near railway stations Rooms almost all small and at the budget end of the hotels range often with views of other buildings Only a few had a bar and none had lounges or areas to relax in other than at times the reception area Nice to try Japanese food but most of the lunches and dinners were very similar and somewhat bland and often served just about warm Meals were usually waiting on the tables before our arrival Food provided was generally of a budget type with only a handful of more premium meals

First time booking with Wendy Wu and will be the last The tour sounded good as it covered a lot of sites As it turned out too many Due to the distances between sites the majority of the time up to 7 hours a day was spent on the bus with minimal time sometimes only 10 minutes at the sites Perhaps we should have researched this better ourselves but I think Wendy Wu should have been honest in the itinerary and explained this Hotels were poor quality and we felt we had paid 5 prices for 3 hotels Airport pick up was a shambles Maximum number on the tour was stated as 28 yet there were 30 people on the tour which impacted on time spent in places and made the guides job very difficult in crowded places We wasted a lot of time waiting for members of the group to catch up I was going to give this trip a 3 but having provided detailed feedback to Wendy Wu customer services I had a very disappointing response and I don t believe they have taken any criticism on board hence 2

I went to Sri Lanka with Wendy Wu in February A beautiful country with lots to see and very friendly people However the tour had too much time on the coach and virtually no time to explore the towns and villages A wasted day sitting on a train for 4 hours followed by an hour on the coach for a half hour look at a tea factory No time to explore Just another night in a hotel with yet another tepid buffet The food was awful Every single meal for two weeks was a hotel buffet No experience of the local restaurants or freshly cooked Sri Lankan food Apparently our group was too big to go out Utter greed by putting 28 people on this tour Over 4000 for this The response from Wendy Wu to my complaint is terrible Couldn t care less Offered 150 off another tour with them with no reassurance that it would be any better As if we would go anywhere with them again

Travelled with Wendy Wu on a Discover Japan trip Unfortunately this turned out to be a disappointing trip for a number reasons Large group of 28 meant that restaurants used had to accommodate this number The result was poor food with little variety Bullitt train experience turned out to be a very short suburban trip with no option to reach the speeds advertised Poor guide with few social skills and inadequate English We came home knowing very little about Japan s culture history and customs Questions were not encouraged and there was no help to enable us to make the most of free time This was especially true in Kyoto where we saw very little of the local architecture etc People with food intolerances whilst caters for adequately were forced to sit away from their travelling companions On the plus side our fellow travellers were all lovely entertaining people and we saw many interesting sights The blossom was beautiful This was an expensive trip and the holiday was certainly not the luxury experience we had been expecting We would not use Wendy Wu again

This was my best holiday to date in 2019 so decided to repeat with a friend I feel so underwhelmed with the experience and felt it was a complete budget tour The hotels were on the outskirts of the cites and very basic to old facilities No free time or authentic shopping and back to back itineries of endless coach rides The age of people clearly wasn t taken into consideration for one of the supposedly Great Wall wonders as the part we were taken to was a 4hr round trip and a section of wall by a lake that barely anyone could climb Most ages were over 50 People were robbed of this once in a lifetime experience and might never do it again I was disgusted with what I saw This is the cheapest quietest place as nobody was there and it would have cost more to take us to a better part Too many factories en route probably getting group discounts were not really why we all went Lunch and dinner was often served for the ETA and was cold Some restaurants you wouldnt of chose to eat in were below standard The hotel in Xian was the worst with cigarette smells in the rooms and in my bathroom ash hairs cigarette burns old rubber shower mats and faeces on the wall This had not been cleaned prior or during our stay 12hr days were clocking up each day and over 17miles was walked over the week its not about the quantity but the quality This tour did not reach any levels of satisfaction and failed us in any free time or shopping all week I wonder how Wendy Wu would feel if her Chinese tourists only saw Downing St when they really wanted Buckingham Palace Somebody needs to up their game not their profits 25th October to 2nd November 2024 Hoffman Hao Group The guides did their very best to accommodate each person and bend over backwards but even they can t change what s given Shame on you Wendy Wu

We did the South Korea Japan 18 days tour March 2025 Most disappointing no down time rushed from place to place very long days to tired to really enjoy it The food very very average no choice in meals very one just given a meal We were given the same lunch in Japan 4 days in a row I found the tour over priced However found to tour guides very helpful to hotels were ok No time to shop or even look at the few markets we visited We were asked to tip on one of our visit I thought this was all included

Update 9th JuneWe have today been credited with a full refund direct to our bank account by wendy Wu I did not have to email them one of their staff telephoned me last week to let me know the refund was being processed I was impressed as it is only 4 weeks since our date we were due to travel 3rd May I don t understand why they were initially telling me it would be possibly over a year To wait We do hope to get to China one day but not in the foreseeable future Thank you Wendy Wu UPDATE 14th AprilStill trying to get refund of 7728 from Wendy Wu and have again had the standard email advising we need to rebook as we have refund travel credit being held on our account We don t wish to rebook but they have stated in the email that any refund would likelytake over a year and to avoid the stress of waiting we should rebook We paid our balance on 2nd March so surely they couldn t have paid that out already No thank you ABTA CEO Mark Tanzer spoke on BBC 10th April stating they would take action against any of their members refusing to repay customers Will now be trying to phone them to explain the situation we are in with Wendy Wu We were due to travel on a wonder of China tour with Wendy Wu on 3rd May and have paid in full Our visas were granted on 26th Feb shortly before we found out that all tours were deferred Some tours that were departing earlier than ours did have full refund but unfortunately wendy wu are giving us the information that we can only have a refund credit note to be used before Dec 2021 and have urged us to rebook our holiday in line with ABTA advice I m sure it says on the ABTA sure that if the refund credit note is not used by July 31 st we would be entitled to a full cash refund As my husband has progressive cartilage deterioration in his knee we would prefer to rebook once he has managed to have a knee operation as his mobility may be reduced more if we had to go next year I emailed wendy wu explaining this but had the same response - no cash refund only credit note What can we do Wendy Wu adds that they take the health and well-being of their customers very seriously but clearly not if we have to take our holiday next year when my husband could have further knee problems I feel the time will not be right next year but cannot afford to lose nearly 8000 as our insurance will not now cover us for China due to fco advice to not travel

We have just returned from Japan Uncovered Tour which I have to say was quite a disappointing experience all in all The food was mostly substandard and always cold One of the meals had been on the table for over an hour before we arrived as my husband and I saw it set up while having a drink as the other tour group members were walking around the gardens It was left for all this time in 36deg heat uncovered I have to say we ended up eating out alot of times and not going to the group dinners as the quality was pretty poor and very repetitive The hotels were very hit and miss with the standard I know hotel rooms are small in Japan but it was more about the grade of the room It very much felt like Wendy Wu had cut costs to the bare minimum It would have been nice to have had food which each region was known for like Oysters in Hiroshima etc All in all very disappointing it just felt like a very cheap holiday