Booking Experience for Japan Uncovered
I've travelled in two Wendy Wu small group tours. Vietnam in 2016 and most recently India in April 2024. The itineraries were comprehensive, the hotels and meals of a very good standard and the guides - National and local - superb. I travelled in a group of 28 people to India - a great mix of Brits, Irish, Aussies and Kiwis which really made the trip extra special. Everything is arranged - the only extras you need are money for any drinks, for shopping and some of the optional extras offered like shows or additional excursions. You don't have to do the add-ons as the standard tour is already very comprehensive including excursions but eg in the India tour - the night tour of Jaipur by Jeep and the show at Agra about the the origins of the Taj Mahal were both great and worth the small extra. Any small issues were quickly resolved by the excellent National guide - for India our National Guide was the ever smiling Vishal. A fair number of long bus rides in India but I loved that as it gave me plenty of opportunity to observe the real India as we drove through. I dont think I'll ever quite get over the sight of cows casually strolling everywhere even down the middle of busy roads or how Indian girls manage to sit side saddle on a moped in a sari and not fall off! Coaches were all of an excellent standard as were the drivers - especially the cool, calm Mr Singh who navigated us safely through the Indian road system and some tight parking spots to get us right to the hotel door. Booking was easy, getting visa simple and the itinerary produced by Wendy Wu was very comprehensive. All I had to do was enjoy the trip and the spectacle of India, take literally 100's of photos and not have to worry about getting from A-Z . Thoroughly recommend Wendy Wu as I've two absolutely fantastic and memorable group tours to Vietnam and India now - and Ive just booked a Japan group tour for March 2025. Cannot wait to Wu again!
Apr 12, 2024
Review for Taj, Temples & Tigers ( Golden Triangle )
Well organised tour with a proactive and knowledgeable guide, clean and comfy bus with safe driving and assistance. All hotels clean, well located and have bathrooms we're used to! Food very good and we enjoyed all the sightseeing. No tigers however but that is never guaranteed. The Taj Mahal is the highlight of the trip but it was all enjoyable. We recommend for a first trip/taster of India.
Oct 29, 2023
Review for Grand Tour of India
We returned on 7th November from a 28 day Wendy Wu Grand Tour of India. Wow what an amazing time and to visit so many places it seemed impossible. We knew from the itinerary that it would be a busy/intense holiday with internal flights and some long days, but despite the huge list on the day to day listings we got to see everything and more. Every box was ticked and although tired some days, extremely happy and satisfied.
We were a party of 19 and all except my wife and I were from either N Z or Australia and as they were of a similar age, (retired but not OLD) we had a fun time and our bus often rocked with laughter. None of the exceptional tour would have run so smoothly if it hadn’t been for our tour manager MK Jain who was brilliant, and we often wondered if he ever slept. He organized all luggage, checking in to hotels and airports and any hotel complaints. Any little problems he ironed out (delayed flights/traffic problems all beyond his control) and so the holiday was seamless as far as we were concerned from our day of arrival, until he left us 3 weeks later at Mumbai airport. At the other end we had our final tour manager AJ but not a parch on MK whom we sadly missed.
There are many forms of transport to be taken over the holiday scary rickshaws and even more frightening tuk tuk journeys all add to the excitement. It is the fact that you are crammed into the vehicles and mixing with fast, noisy and very close traffic. We had some very early mornings to see the sunrise, evening dashes to see the best sunsets, such great photo opportunities. We saw so many towns and cities, palaces and forts, and so it is hard to come down to which were the highlights of the whole holiday. But high on the list has to be the visit to Varanasi (seeing the sunrise over the Ganges), The Jain temples of Khajuraho (amazing), the Taj Mahal at sunrise and the Thar Desert (on a camel) at sunset. Not forgetting the caves at Ajanta and Ellora, and the wonderful city of Jaipur. I could add many more places to this.
Accommodation was varied (we stayed in 16 different places) and ranged from very good to excellent when on 2 separate nights we stayed in Heritage sites and were in a palace, and then a 500 year old fort, totally amazing! The food was always good, mostly buffet style and although almost always curries of one type or another for lunch and evening, as the regions changed so did the heat and style of the food so it never became boring.
We had (mostly) excellent local guides as well at our destinations and these helped to put into perspective the time scales of artefacts and sights we were visiting and hopefully we absorbed some if not all of the information. The exception was at Ranthambore where our guide morning and afternoon seemed to be uninterested in us as a group or even giving any information about any other animals we may/or may not see. We weren’t expecting to get even a glimpse of a tiger, and all we saw were recent paw prints. But we seemed to spend a lot of time sitting and listening with no commentary from the guide (who spent most of his time looking at his smartphone) which became a bit boring.
Our tour manager MK also encouraged us when possible to go out and meet the local people and mingle and we tried to do this often – it is the only way to get to know what a wonderful vast colourful country India is. We clearly only saw a small fraction but I believe it did give us over the 4 weeks a true flavour of this wonderful country.
A slight downside was the latter part of the holiday, in Kerala. Our accommodation in Kochin (Casino Hotel) was poor compared to previous weeks very run down with a restaurant poorer than a transport café. Our night on the kettuvallam was so disappointing. Our group was split into 5 crafts, 4 of these larger, with modern and better facilities. Ours was an old craft, lacking modern facilities (and even water for some of the trip!) Four of us had an uncomfortable night with the only boat not having mosquito screens. The captain and cook spoke virtually no English, we had no idea where we had to go when we stopped, the food was poor and cold, including a dish of chicken which we dared not eat. It is a shame that we were not all treated equally and those that experienced the better standard boats had an enjoyable time.
The last hotel in Kovalam was indeed in a lovely setting right on the Indian Ocean, and the bedrooms were excellent, with large rooms and a balcony and air con. But the public spaces and dining areas were open, hot, noisy and had no air con, a very unpleasant and uncomfortable dining experience. We were taken to another hotel on the last evening for a meal and that was a disaster. We were on a higher floor with no air con, high humidity and a widescreen TV on throughout the meal. Water provided at the table was warm, as were the soft drinks ordered and subsequently sent back. Even our tour manager apologised and said it was unacceptable. I cannot understand how any Wendy Wu representative had sanctioned this as a suitable venue.
The holiday was very good value for money with all the transport, accommodation, expert guides and entrance fees included. You get to see a lot of India in a fairly short time, and there is not a lot of relaxation time, but that I had expected. Go prepared for that, and some long days and come back with a much better understanding of India. Thank you Wendy Wu we had a ball.
Most of the trip deserved a 5+ star rating and 2 of the hotels (heritage sites) were off the scale for luxury, but the poor experiences and accommodation in the last few days (as detailed above) dragged the rating down. I was also disappointed that the package accommodation ended 14 hours before our pickup time at 1.00am on the Thursday of our return. I cannot understand why Wendy Wu demanded £140 for a room for the last afternoon and evening prior to leaving for the airport when booking direct online cost us just over £80, just a bit of a niggle as virtually everything in our 28 day tour was included. We will certainly travel again with Wendy Wu.
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Jan 07, 2020
Review for INSPIRING INDIA
Service rating : Inspiring India was a fantastic tour with 10 Brits and 17 Aussies who got on brilliantly. Great itinerary which was varied as necessary to get the best out of the weather eg sunset visit to Taj Mahal as mornings were misty. Nothing was too much trouble and we went home exhausted but with great memories.
Product : Great value for great trip.
Mar 14, 2019
Review for GOLDEN TRIANGLE
Service rating : Lots to see and well organised, good quality of hotels.
Product : The Taj Mahal was excellent
Dec 07, 2018