Dear Yang,
I just want to say thank you for arranging a really wonderful day tour. Our tour guide Mr. Jade Kim was absolutely fantastic. We had a great day with him despite the rainy weather. From the beginning to end, he was top notch. Our Busan tour was a definite highlight of our trip and we cannot wait to recommend him and Tours Novaland to our friends.
Thank you again and we hope to do another tour with your company in the future.
Sincerely,
Len Alvarez
Hi Doris,
Thank you for all the updates. Sorry that I didn’t response because I was busy with the kids during the trip. Since my husband got all the contacts and updates through the tour guide via WeChat, so I didn’t bother to check the emails.
Kyoto tour guide is fine as she was very helpful throughout the trip. I did made a mistake to stop at Kyoto instead of Osaka directly from Odawara because my husband and some of our tour members didn’t like to go to the tourist spot. So we have wasted the travelling time from Kyoto to Osaka.
Nevertheless, we have a great time in USJ and too bad that our schedule is tight. If not, I would like to spend more time in Hakone because the place is really beautiful.
Thank you very much. I would definitely plan another trip with you guys again.
Please send my regards to our tour guides and drivers in Japan and tell them that they are awesome!
Regards,
Pei Li
| Travel Consultant | Mark (1poor – 5excellent) | Advice or Remark | ||||
| Mona | 5 | Made excellent itinerary and accommodations for outside the normal tour areas. | ||||
| Tour Guide | Command of English | Knowledge of Subject | Ability to Explain | Attitude | Flexibility | Remarks |
| Saeki Noriko | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | Great job adjusting the schedule for an additional stop in shopping! Also, excellent work in trying to teach/practice the language with me and explaining the history. Transportation went smoothly with her knowledge of the rails. |
| Rauf Jefura | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | Would have liked to have spent a little longer in Edo Wonderland, some of the activities seemed fun, but we were short of time. He tried his best to accommodate my needs and hunt for souvenirs! |
| Tanaka Masaaki | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | Excellent teacher of the language and history. Great food recommendations. |
| Mr. Takehiko O-zumi | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | Car was a little larger than necessary for my needs, but he does accommodate the special needs. I definitely appreciate this! His knowledge of the area and roads was dependable. |
| Kigami Masako | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | Struggled a little with explanations, but she does know it as I had to define my own questions better. With more experience she will be a great guide! She also looked into finding a place that would give a smaller lunch as I do not eat the large portions. I really appreciate not having to waste food. |
| Driver and Cars | Understanding of English | Remarks | ||||
| From Tokyo Airport | 4 | some struggle understanding english, but excellent driving | ||||
| To Osaka Airport | 2 | little understanding of English, but excellent driver | ||||
| Hotels | Location | Comfort | Remarks | |||
| The Strings | Tokyo | 5 | Nice hotel, room was a little warmer than I liked, very conveniently located near the Tokyo Train Station. Staff were very friendly and helpful in locating the supermarket on a map. | |||
| Hotel Granvia | Kyoto | 5 | Good hotel, staff was very helpful in getting my packages mailed home. | |||
| The Prince Hakone | Hakone | 4 | Hotel was spread out with long walks to get to the rooms, took a bit to find my way around. Staff did not speak English very well when questioned, but after some time they were able to understand the point. | |||
| Sheraton Grand | Hiroshima | 4 | Great staff, but the room did not appear to be in great shape with peeling wallpaper. The bathroom cleanliness could have been improved. | |||
| The Westin Osaka | Osaka | 5 | My favorite hotel on the trip. The staff were incredibly accommodating and surprised me with a birthday treat on my stay there. They also stored my luggage for when I made the journey to Hiroshima and back for a day. | |||
| Sights or Activities | Worthiness of Visit | Interests Met | Timeframe Too Tight, Loose | |||
| Tokyo Tower | Great | Yes | just right | |||
| Tea Ceremony | Excellent | Yes | just right | |||
| Sumida River Cruise | Good | Yes | just right | |||
| Senso-ji temple | Great | Yes | just right | |||
| Anime Japan | Good | Yes | just right | |||
| Ghibli Museum | Good | Yes | just right | |||
| Pokemon Ctr | Great | Yes | added on by Saeki Noriko. The pokemon café would have been nice to experience, but we did not know you had to make reservations. Time spent was just right | |||
| Shibuya | Excellent | Yes | just right | |||
| Nikko Toshogu | Excellent | Yes | just right | |||
| Edo Wonderland | Excellent | Mostly | Too tight – more time would have been nice to see some of the activities | |||
| Mt Fuji | Great – poor weather | Yes | just right | |||
| Lake Ashi cruise | Excellent | Yes | time was extended as the ropeway was closed made it worthwhile trip | |||
| Mt. Hakone Ropeway | Excellent | Yes | great location near the prince hakone | |||
| Onsen experience | Excellent | Yes | just right | |||
| Nijo castle | Excellent | Yes | just right | |||
| Kinkaku-ji temple | Excellent | Yes | just right | |||
| Kyoto Imperial Palace | Excellent – one of my favorite places | Yes | just right | |||
| Heian Shrine | Excellent | Yes | just right | |||
| Kiyomizu-dera temple | Excellent | Yes | just right | |||
| Osaka Castle | Excellent | Yes | just right- had to rush from osaka castle, but we made it in time. Others may have difficulty. | |||
| Aqua Liner | Great | Yes | just right | |||
| Dotonbori | Good | Yes | just right | |||
| Himeji Castle | Excellent | Yes | just right | |||
| Maiko Promenade | Unknown | No | Closed for repairs the day we went. | |||
| Itsukushima Shrine | Excellent | Yes | just right | |||
| Hiroshima Peace Park | Excellent | Yes | just right | |||
| Atomic Bomb Dome | Excellent | Yes | just right | |||
| White snakes museum | Excellent | Yes | just right | |||
| Iwakuni Castle | Excellent | Yes | just right | |||
| **All meals were great. I tried to get as much authenticity as possible. Unfortunately I did not take notice of the places we stopped to eat. | ||||||
| Mark | Remarks | |||||
| Public Transportation | 5 | Hardly any waiting, timing by guides and trains was exceptional. It would be nice if the ticket costs could be decreased. | ||||
| Other Aspect | JR PASS | Would have been helpful to obtain not just the pass, but the reserve seat tickets at the same time. Had to stand in line on 2 different days that would have been spent sight-seeing. The wait was not too long for me, but I could see how this can easily impact other travelers on busy days. | ||||
| Other Aspect | Phone | On one other trip I went on, I was provided a cell phone that had all emergency numbers and contacts with the tour company logged in. I thought it was a great idea as there were no additional fees to worry about and every contact was made readily available without having to look them up. | ||||
| Other Aspect | Coin Purse | This was a very useful item to me on this trip. It was also very cute! | ||||
| Overall Score: | 161 | OF | 170 | |||
Konichiwa Emma,
The tour is going very well so far, Osamu (Sam) is wonderful. We missed seeing a couple of things on the itinerary because of being unable to find a parking spot and running out of time. But Sam made up for this by taking us to different places, which was good.
Thank yo for providing us with the drivers information for Hiroshima.
Will talk again soon.
Regards, Chris
Hello Mona
Here is my reply,
Travelconsultant 5
Drivers and cars5
Hotels locationSeoul 5 , Jeju 5 , Busan 3
Comfort 4
Sights andactivities 4
Meals 5
Publictransportation 5
Otehr aspects -The pick up from the hotel In Jeju was not well organized .
Overall score 4
I did not takepictures and i got only few ones from our guide in Busan .
THanks
Did you have a pleasant trip in Jeju?
Yes. It was a good trip. Thank you.
Hi Emma,
Thanks for checking in. We have enjoyed the tour in Taiwan and everything was seamless.
Thanks for your help.
Thanks for your support.
Mr. Ota is very nice , professional and kind person.
Dog sledding team also very good people, kind .
We had good day .
Thanks to you and Mr.Ota , making our trip memorable .
Thanks
Kotesh
Dear doris
Hi doris i have wonderful time in japan.. me rauf serve us so best.. thanks a lot to you to arrange out itenerarry so well..
I just returned to my Country last night. So far during the trip everything runs smoothly .The visiting places as stated in the ittenery almost are done.
The driver assigned to us can communicate
With us fluently both in English and Mandarin.
He did his duties perfectly, except he is a smoker
Thanks n regards ,
Djuwita
1=poor, 2=fair,3=good, 4=very good5=excellent
Aspect | Mark(1-5) | Advice or Remark | |
Travel Consultant | 5 |
| |
Tour Guides | Command of English | 5 |
|
Knowledge of Subjects | 5 |
| |
Ability of Explain | 5 |
| |
Attitude | 5 |
| |
Flexibility | 5 |
| |
Drivers and Cars | 5 |
| |
Hotels | Location | 5 |
|
Comfort | 3 |
| |
Sights or Activities | Worthiness of Visit | 5 |
|
Meet Your Interests? | 5 |
| |
Too Tight of Too Loose? | 5 |
| |
Meals | 5 |
| |
Public Transportation (train, flight, cruise, etc.) | 5 |
| |
Any Other Aspect | 5 |
| |
First we wanted to thank you for the great trip we had in China! We had zero problems with the trip and everything went smoothly.
However, we did want to share a specific experience that disturbed our last part of the trip - our guide in Beijing (Tom). We had two full days in Beijing with Tom and everything was going according to plan. On the second day of the trip (13/2/2018) he informed us that we have a relatively short schedule and that we are expected to finish at about 1:30 PM. We asked Tom about touring the Hutong and he mentioned that it would be with an additional cost since it is not part of the original tour plan (which we understood and was OK with us) and we told him that we need to discuss it before we decide.
During the day - we decided that we would prefer spending the afternoon on our own and let Tom know that we would go independently to the Hutong, and asked if the driver could place us there at the end of the tour (1:30 PM). Once he understood that we would not like to hire him to spend the afternoon with us - he became very angry with us, started walking very very fast and ahead of us (we were still on our original tour plan for the day and we had to walk very fast to keep up with him!) and if we dared to ask a question he would interrupt us in the middle and answer very fast and angrily.
This behavior remained until the end of the day and was very very unprofessional of him in our opinion.
We are not required to hire him for the rest of our time in Beijing and the fact that he behaved so rudely to us was very not pleasant (especially for my parents who are over 60 and did not understand why he is being so rude). He did ask the driver to take us to Hutong instead of the hotel as we requested but he gave us a very bad feeling since the moment we said we would tour the area alone.
The following day he picked us to the airport from the hotel and again - he was very silent, spoke with the driver in Chinese throughout the whole way to the airport and still behaved as if he was angry. Even when we gave him a tip at the end -- he did not say anything! Not even thank you.
I am writing this to you because I know (from this trip and our previous trip with you to South Korea) that you are a premium company that only works with the best, and we felt that you would like to know what happened with him. It was very not pleasant for me and my parents, and we felt it was very unprofessional of him.
Having said that - we had a great trip and we thank you for organizing it for us.
Best regards,
--Gal