Hiroshima Holidays

The holiday was better than expected, with an excellent tour guide, HUSHI.
She handled my comfort stops due to my diabetes, and the fact that I was the only member of the party who had a vegetarian diet with allergy issues.
All accommodation was of a good standard, but the food in Hiroshima hotel fell well short of expectations, and the 'Japanese Pub' experience was so bad it was comical. Too few staff being the problem.
My main problem was the due to Iran issue, my flights from Edinburgh changed from my preferred airline Qatar to Finnair, who despite an excellent crew provided VERY meagre FREE inflight catering on a 13 hour long haul flight. Not acceptable for someone with a diabetes condition, followed by an 11 hour wait in Helsinki for my connection to Edinburgh.

We had a fantastic time - we arrived in Tokyo after spending 3 days in Hong Kong and met up with the group. The meal at the Tokyo Bay Shiomi Prince Hotel that evening was horrible - the chicken legs were undercooked and several people had to send their food back to the kitchen. However, after that meal everything was fantastic. Our guide was Hiro who was excellent. We saw some amazing things and Hiro was so informative and told us about so many things. Mount Fuji and Hiroshima were particularly memorable although everywhere we went to was worth visiting. We all had lanyards with cards with our names on and on the back was a message in Japanese for us to show someone in the event we got lost - which proved invaluable during a couple of incidents when we had free time and a couple of people asked someone to contact Hiro - who went to find them. Having said that, Hiro was always checking we were all there! The coaches taking us from A to B were comfortable, so were the bullet trains. We were all issued with “whispers” with headphones so we could hear what Hiro was telling us. We specifically chose to go on this trip during the cherry blossom season - I was expecting pinker and more blossom and so, if I were to go again, I wouldn’t choose to go at the same time as the blossom as it attracts crowds of people and I don’t think it’s worth visiting when there are extra people there. Making the soba noodles was fun as well as making an origami crane - and we enjoyed the tea ceremony. The food was amazing and a real mixture - forks were always available for people who struggled with chopsticks. Some of the food we cooked ourselves. I’m not sure the Japanese had grasped some of the dietary requirements but my only request was that I didn’t have anything too spicy and the food I was served with was perfect for me. There were a lot of steps but, the brochure did warn that there were a lot of steps so I was expecting this. There was a lot of walking but, again, the brochure did warn about this and the itinerary tells you how long to expect to be on your feet. There were 26 people in our group ages ranging from 40s to 80s - we all got on really well. Now, back at home, I’ve got the task of choosing the best photos from the ones my husband and I took to have a book printed to take and show all our friends!

Amazing trip with lots to see and do. To fit so much in requires quite a lot of bus and train trips but we got to see many sides of Japan from large famous cities to smaller towns and activities. Hiroshima was very moving. Paper making was great fun too. Mount Fuji showed itself on both days we were in the area. You get time to shop in Tokyo and on the way. Go up every tall building you can. We did 2 in Osaka and the very high Skytree in Tokyo. We had a 3 night stopover in Hong Kong which was great as well. As on option if ending in Tokyo maybe stay a few more nights as there was a lot more to see than we could manage in 3 nights. The group we were with had a great time together. Highly recommended.

Our first escorted tour and probably the best holiday we had! From being greeted off our delayed flight in Osaka with a big smile from our Wendy Wu greeter, ensured we were on our way to our hotel. A big smile and greeting from our guide, Taichi Imamura at the hotel although late, made us feel "at home" and he ensured that we had our bentobox dinner.
Words cannot describe how Taichi made sure that everyone knew what was happening at each place we stopped at, where the best rest rooms were, places to pick up snacks. Even taking photos for everyone with their cameras and phones to ensure all memories were saved of the magnificent sights we saw. All the coach drivers were fantastic throughout the tour, hotels were very good and generally spacious and the places we were taken to for lunch and dinner had excellent facilities and good quality food. I can safely say that all the people on the tour, which comprised Australians, New Zealanders, Tasmanians and English, from the very first evening to the last all got on and mixed amongst each other and some great fun times were had by all.
We even found time to locate a few "Irish hubs"(pub) on the evenings and had some great laughs with Brian and Brenda from New Zealand, Tom and Kim and Stella/Julia in them. There were so many places we saw including Mount Fuji, Hiroshima dome and museum (which brought the heartache of suffering to mind), so many beautiful shrines and temples, finishing with seeing Sumo wrestling and the gorgeous Imperial East gardens and Shabuya scramble crossing.The views from the Sky Tree Tower were unbelievable too!
So clean, so cultural, so friendly, so beautiful. That was Japan uncovered for us!
Thank you Wendy Wu Tours

Fantastic tour of Japan. Excellent tour guide and organisation amazing. Hotels good, transport good, coaches, boats and bullet train. Very hectic schedule but well worth it. Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima all excellent cities to visit with all meals included at authentic local restaurants and hotels. Japanese tea ceremony, origami and noodle making all excellent experiences. Mount Fuji amazing to see from hotel as cloud lifted especially for us. Lots of temples and museums as part of tour. Food takes some getting used to as lots of raw produce, especially fish. Lovely group of mostly Australians and all got on really well and have made some new friends who we will hopefully keep in contact wil via oyr holiday whatsapp group.

Just what I wanted it to be.

This is the shortest of the Wendy Wu offerings and I was pleased I took advantage of the Hiroshima extension.

Wendy Wu are very well established in the in the Australian & UK tourist markets. They provide a very organised itinerary, where everything is all in (except drinks). As one of only 2 singletons on the tour I was pleased about that, but in a very busy schedule, understandably there isn't a massive amount of free time. Their pretour reading is very detailed.

One thing it didn't appreciate was the 20 hour journey via a 3 hour stopover in Abu Dhabi from Manchester. I might have sought a direct flight from London.

As another traveller said to me beforehand, there is nothing to dislike about Japan. She was right. From waking up to see Mount Fugi, the Tea Ceremony, the Calligraphy lesson, the beautiful shrines to ,the amazingly poignant experience in Hiroshima.

It is hot and it is humid for a Brit, never below 31 degrees in Sept. Even the Aussies said they wouldn't be out in this heat.

I'd use these people again in the Far East certainly.

Great credit to Wendy Wu for a superb guided tour of Japan. Beginning in Osaka (good), Kyoto (better), Hiroshima (excellent), Kanazawa (excellent), Nagano (excellent) and Tokyo (super), the tour offered a fine variety of interesting vista and experiences.
They managed to pack a huge amount into each days sightseeing without putting undue pressure on any member of the group. Kudos here to a truly outstanding guide Taichi, whose English was faultless, attention to the group unwavering, had a great sense of humour and was a fountain of knowledge.
When travelling to Japan, you need to maintain an open mind about food. The dining experience is vastly different to our Western tastes, but the quality was very good at all times, even if our taste buds didn’t necessarily appreciate all that was put before us. My wife is coeliac, a condition unknown in Japan, yet her dietary needs were catered to better than any other trip we have done.
Is it worth the cost and jet lag?
A resounding YES.

This tour is superb. The pace is very easy, so suitable for slower walkers! The food is very varied, a few western cuisine meals but more Japanese ( local) meals, a lot of variety. I love Japanese food, so was very happy. Visiting Kyushu ( the southern island) is a rare destination on most Japanese tours and indeed we did not see any foreign tourist there. When we crossed to Hiroshima and headed to Kyoto and Tokyo, we saw other foreign tourist groups. The sights are both inspiring and even awesome and I would highly recommend this tour.