Wendywutours Reviews

Just completed a three and a half week tour of South America with Wendy Wu Tours The organisation was incredibly bad There was no dedicated guide for over 80 people We were just passed from one group of local guides to another Some were ok but others were awful There was no one to sort out problems or take responsibility We paid around 5 500 each for the tour but the hotels used were on the lower side of budget some were not even clean and the service in most was pretty bad Not one single hotel gave us a room with a decent view The worst experience was probably when our cruise finished in Buenas Aires and there was no one at the port to meet us People had to contact their travel agents in London to sort out our being picked up Wendy Wu seemed to arrange everything to their own advantage with flights at horrible times so that they were cheap and then we were left sitting at airports for hours for connecting flights We paid almost 5 500 each for this tour and feel it was ruined by Wendy Wu s lack of organisation and penny pinching

What happen to Wendywutours We felt cheated and were so foolish to join this tour

Just did Wonders of China Could not visit Tiananmen Square Forbidden city was very crowded and unsafe 10 mins for the Imperial Garden 1 hr for the Temple of Heaven 2 hrs for the Great Wall 1 hr for the Summer Palace Food was monotonous Chinese meals for all lunches and dinner All except two hotels were of good quality Most breakfasts were of poor standards Lot of valuable time was spent in factories such as jade silk terracotta pearl Sadly it was a waste of money and time doing this tour Hands on heart I cannot recommend Wendy Wu Wonders of China tour

No refund for cancelled trip to Japan Have had legal advice from Which And this is illegal There s a standard letter to be sent quoting regulation 12 of the package travel and linked travel arrangements regulation 2018 which says they must return money within 14 days UPDATE have now received all the money back so changing to a 2 star review

I called to ask for a quote to visit Vietnam in a tailor made tour The lady I spoke to was quite abrupt in her manner and let me know she didn t have time to look at it No offer to call back or make an appointment to chat later It was a simple please go away I m busy All the marketing for the company state call us to discuss a holiday I m not sure why this company are reviewed so highly so maybe they have changed recently The customer service I received was rude and I certainly won t call back I will try Selective Asia or Rickshaw Travel both of whom I ve had good experiences with in the past

Felt rushed limited time to relax Only one hotel had a luxury feel the 4x4 desert experience was actually us sat on benches on the back of pick up trucksFood was repetitive and even the free water was in limited supplies 4 bottles for 19 people Didn t always have options for those with dietary restrictions or the information provided was not passed on when making reservations Vegetarian at cooking class ate a bit of salad and a couple of cooked carrots as there were no alternatives despite being told there would be rushed out by the guide before desert was served despite hotel being next door Felt like a bit of a sales pitch at times but from this shop or we are stopping here and they will give us discount

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