We are on the way home after a very enjoyable time in Japan.
It’s easier for me to put my thoughts in text rather than the form below (it would be better as an excel worksheet or similar.
Guides.
All the guides were knowledgable, had a great attitude, spoke English well enough and responded to our requests for change when necessary (my wife could not walk the distances planned). They all contacted us the day before their tours to introduce themselves. We enjoyed meeting them all.
We enjoyed all the hotels. The IBIS in Tokyo was the least enjoyable; it was okay but our room was small and breakfast was not great. It also was not in a great location for restaurants. The Ryokan in Takayama was wonderful. All the other hotels were very well located and we would go back to all of them if we had the opportunity. Staff in hotels were uniformly very helpful with suggestions of restaurants, etc. (I would say in your itinerary notes to clients that the hotels have coin laundries).
The tours themselves met or exceeded our expectations. As I said above, Linda’s leg problems meant that we asked for a couple of days to be cut short but that’s specific to us. I guess if I had my time over I would have wanted to spend more time in the gardens in Kanazawa. There wasn’t much to see in Kanazawa apart from the gardens and it would have been nice to sit and absorb the atmosphere; the castle and rest were not very interesting and we had plenty of time before our train to Kyoto.
In general, we were pleased with the content of tours and all guides gave us a lot of information about the things we were seeing.
The guides gave us travel passes to use in the subways and buses and that all worked very well.
The intercity train transfers you arranged all worked very well and it was very helpful when you were able to change our train journey from Kyoto to Hiroshima.
Our overall score is 9/10.
Regards,
Nicholas Sanders
Doris we have had a great tour thanks to your planning and assistance. Novaland has provided a good itinerary and wonderful staff. The trip has exceeded our expectations…
Aloha
Ralph Goto
Special shout out to our guides Yumi at Nikko and Akie at Hiroshima
Hi Grace
Thank you for the update. We will work it out. I would love to provide some feedback with you about our tours.
Mayumi in Hiroshima was amazing and clearly knew her information and way around the place. She was so beautiful towards Olivia.
Seiya was very inexperienced and we found that he didn’t know much about the area or engage in conversation. I wouldn’t recommend him for further tours and we did find it difficult Travelling in a Taxi due to the space.
Yahrio that we had today was lovely and he took us to other places and it was very kind of him to use his car. He was very sweet and caring.
We are having a great time and have been lucky to see some amazing sights.
Thank you for all your help
Tomorrow, we will be returning to Tokyo by train from Osaka. Our eighth day in Japan has been fantastic. At 78 years old, I’m amazed that I’ve walked over 42 miles in just 8 days. While my mind urges me to keep going, my legs are finding it challenging to keep pace.
Yoshiko Yoshita excelled as our tour guide. She skillfully recognized when we needed breaks, showing great understanding of our needs as older travelers. This thoughtful approach was greatly appreciated, and all of our guides provided excellent service.
We want to express that we are completely satisfied with the services you provided.
Best regards,
Stephen and Donna Chen
The guide was very good.