Hi Whitney,
For some reason I can't enter the information directly into the form inthe email. I will provide my 'ratings' below.
Travel Consultant - I presume that is you. My score is '5'. Ifound you exceptionally easy to work with. You were incredibly flexiblewith our many changes both before and during the tours. You were veryunderstanding about the need for us to pay separately and set up individualpaypal charges, which I am sure was time consuming for you.
Tour guides - command of English - generally '4'.
Tour guides - knowledge of subjects - generally '4'. Our Tokyo andKyoto tour guides were excellent and should get a '5'.
Tour guides - ability to explain - generally '4'.
Tour guides - attitude - generally '4'. I found our Mt Fuji tourguide to be only a '3', but I think others on the tour would rate him morehighly.
Tour guides - flexibility- All were '5', excellent.
Driver and cars - '5' for all locations. The vans were in goodcondition and the drivers were excellent.
Hotels - does not apply to our tours
Sights - worthiness of visit - Mt. Fuji and Busan were a '4'; Kyotoand Tokyo a '5'. Aomori was a '3', in large part due to the fact that there wasnot much to see there from a touring perspective. The guide was willingto add a trip to the Art Museum, but several members of the group did not wantto participate in that activity.
Sights - met your interests - Busan was a '4'; Kyoto and Tokyo a '5'.Aomori was a '3' because there wasn't much to see, and so was Mt Fuji,primarily because we were not able to see all of the scheduled sites for Mt.Fuji
Sights - Too tight orloose - Most schedules were tight.Hi Whitney,
Thank you so muchfor all that you did to ensure we had the best tour! Satoru was wonderfuland if we are ever back in Tokyo again I would like to contact you for another tour.
Aspect | Mark(1-5) | Advice or Remark | |
Travel Consultant | 5 | Satoru was a wonderful guide! He patiently waited for our late arrival in port and kept me well informed by text message about where and when he would meet us. He had also been in contact with me the day prior to confirm what we would like to see and that all our needs would be met. He was extremely helpful with 3 of our group who were using a baggage transfer, something that would not normally be a part of the tour! | |
Tour Guides | Command of English | 5 |
|
Knowledge of Subjects | 5 |
| |
Ability of Explain | 5 |
| |
Attitude | 5 |
| |
Flexibility | 5 |
| |
Drivers and Cars | 5 | The van was extremely clean and very comfortable. | |
Hotels | Location | N/A |
|
Comfort | N/A |
| |
Sights or Activities | Worthiness of Visit | 5 | The sights we visited were beautiful and Satoru was very knowledgeable about all that we saw. He explained customs to us and told us pertinent history. |
Meet Your Interests? | 5 |
| |
Too Tight or Too Loose? | 5 |
| |
Meals | 5 | Satoru took us to a restaurant for lunch that had the best sushi! | |
Public Transportation (train, flight, cruise, etc.) | N/A |
| |
Any Other Aspect |
|
| |
Overall Score of the Whole Package | 5+ | If we are back in Tokyo again, and I think we will be, we will contact you again for another tour. | |
Erna
Whitney. All the tours were great. Each tour delivered on the agreed upon itinerary . The drivers were all great. Some of the guides were better than others. In Tokyo & Kamakura he was good . He need to be more sensitive to working with total group. The best guides were in Kyoto and Aomori.
I was very satisfied with overall experience and will recommend Novaland for future travelers.
Thank you
Jerry
Thank you so much Alice! You are the best! Wehad such a great experience with your tour guides! You also picked the bestplaces for us to go!
Everyone was on time very prompt andcourteous! They are also very knowledgeable. Only one guide(Ryoji Shimada) was not as inspired the guy who toured us in Kyotoseemed to be tired as he slept a lot on the bus on the way back to the ship! Healso didn't explain much and didn't seem to have good communication with thedriver. He was just a tad lazy to explain things. Knowing this, Ihad to ask so many questions along the way so he would be prompted to explainor discuss the places that we were going. Sometimes, he would google when Iasked him. lol
The best was Hirois Shimizu, so inspiring, motivated, personable and so passionate about herwork, I want to do her job! Haha she also introduced us to 7-11 fine diningsince we were pressed for time. Yummy! I love their $1.00 Onogiri so good I caneat 2 of them.
Ayumi , our tour guide in our Tokyo all day tour was alsovery good and she brought us to this amazing restaurant that was so good, Ibeginning to love chicken again. OMG that meal was so memorable, you should askyour guides to bring all your guests there. The price was just about$20.00, chef choice menu and so abundantly served! I''m giving our guide an A+++for that alone.
Jade at Busan and Hidefrom Kamakura Yokohama tour were also amazing.
They brought us to great restaurants servingreasonably priced but great local meals!! So enjoyable!
All in all, we love your tours my group matesalso enjoyed it! You can check our pictures at geocast.smugmug.com or I can forward you the link Just a warning, myhusband took so much pics of our trip! And the files are so big!
By the way, I want to fill up the form but howdo I type on it?
Thanks again!
Rosana
25 Sep
Whatsapp message:
The Guide, Eriko has done a very good job. Very merticulous in her work ensuring we all have a good time. All of us were very pleased with her service. Thank u for arranging such a good guide and driver for our tour. Keep it up...
30 Sep
1=poor, 2=fair,3=good, 4=very good5=excellent
Aspect
Mark(1-5)
Advice or Remark
Travel Consultant
Tour Guides
Command of English
4
Knowledge of Subjects
4
Ability of Explain
4
Attitude
5
Flexibility
5
Drivers and Cars
4
Hotels
Location
4
Comfort
4
Sights or Activities
Worthiness of Visit
4
Meet Your Interests?
4
Too Tight or Too Loose?
4
Meals
4
Public Transportation (train, flight, cruise, etc.)
4
Any Other Aspect
If Wifi is available on the coach, it will enhance the experience.
Overall Score of the Whole Package
54
Thank you for your email and for enquiring after us. Sorry not to reply earlier, we are now on the Cruise ship with very limited wifi.
The tours you organized worked out well. Thank you.
The first day around Tokyo was a long day. We were disappointed in the guide we thought he would give a little information about the places we visited instead, he seemed to see his job as just taking us from one place to the next. His English was not good so he could not really understand us. He didn't walk with us he was always ahead. We would get to a pedestrian crossing, he would cross and leave us the other side as the lights had changed. He didn't even realise and continued walking. He even managed to lose all of us three times! We had no idea where he was and at lunch we had to go into the cafe ourselves and work out how to pay for the tickets for the meal and to order. He came half an hour later saying he didn't know where we were.
We didn't realise we had seen the Shrine until I asked where it was. He hadn't told us we were at it or that it was being refurbished.
He put the three ladies in a taxi as someone advised him the Gardens were within walking distance and then the taxi driver got lost and then we lost the guide so Stan had to go running after him in the heat, to try to find him. On your plan we were supposed to go on the metro.
As for the Gardens when we asked where the English garden was his comment was 'It is here it is just grass.' Then when I asked where the Japanese gardens were, he said "This area." That was all the information we were given. We could have managed that ourselves by reading the signs and following the map.
With the Japanese people being so kind with helping us with directions we could easily have done the day tour on our own without a guide.
With so much walking Michele ended up being pushed in a wheelchair and I had to use my walking sticks.
He said he couldn't rearrange the itinerary for us to finish near the Robot show. So we finished with a 45 minute trip back. He gave us directions about subway trains to take but we worked out our own directions that we thought would be better using the subway map and we even managed to see Shubaya crossings as well. The Robot show was fantastic I would recommend it.
I thought I should tell you this in detail as the guide was certainly not up to your standard and you can decide whether to use him again.
I had asked the hotel whether a parcel had arrived from you but they kept saying they had nothing. When we arrived home from the Robot Restaurant our telephone message button was flashing and we were told we had a parcel.
Thank you very much indeed that was very kind. We will shared them out between us. Lovely mementos.
The second day we made our way to The Marriott hotel and joined the Mt Fuji tour. The day went really well. Today the guide was completely opposite giving us lots of information and so pleasant and efficient. Mount Fuji was almost covered in cloud but that can't be helped. We still saw it. We did the whole tour to schedule and enjoyed it. We then made our way to The Bullet train and eventually our hotel. We were very tired but it was a very good day.
Our third day was good. The guide for this day was brilliant, such a pleasant, knowledgeable young man who seemed to see the aim of the day as to please us and show us all that we wanted. He showed us everything on the itinerary and also found a festival near Gion and showed us Geisha girls making tea and a Sword fighting demonstration. He found us the most spectacular Japanese garden next to a restaurant. He walked us all through Gion, which I know we added at the last moment. It was wonderful.
He took us to a local restaurant and helped us order local fool. This young man was more like yourself, Nick. Nothing was too much trouble for him, he went beyond his duty to us.
Our journey to the ship was smooth, the Taxi arrived in time and was plentry big enough for the six of us and our cases.
Thank you for all you have done Nick. We do appreciate your dedication. We have mentioned your name to many people on the ship and will write a review on Cruise Critic.
I hope by now you will have received the small gift from Stan and I. We just wanted to show our appreciation for all you have done for us. Who knows, we may return to Japan or another country you arrange tours for - we may be in touch again!
Kind regards,
Elizabeth and Stan .
09-19:
Hi Alice thanks for checking on us.
Everything has been great so far.The guide and driver are great.
The vehicule is fine, just for old people it would be nice to be able to recline the seat.
The hotels so far were great.
The one in Liverpool(Britannia Adelphi Hotel ) is not very clean and very old. But it's just one night.
09-28:
Hi Alice. We had a super great vacation. Thank you for making everything so easy for us!
Dear Siva,
After returning home we would like to thank you again for the excellent organization of our 12 day trip in Korea and Japan. All aspects of our tour worked without mistake except the little misunderstanding regarding the 4th Shinkansen ticket which, however, was resolved promptly and without problems. We were very satisfied with the quality of hotel accommodation and with the guides. Mr. Young in Seoul did his best, and we were impressed by his kindness and professionality. Mrs. Kanda in Aichi prefecture also was wonderful and helped us in all details of our trip.
Above all, we are grateful to you for your smart assistance and great job. Be sure that we will recommend Novoland Tours to our friends wishing to visit Asia.
Warm regards
Vatroslav, Bruno, Nikola and Marko VEKARIC
Belgrade-. Serbia
Mr. Shinji Miyano has been wonderful overall !! We are heading back to Narita now. Everyone is happy! Thank you so much. Cynthia
Yes, we did. Thanks to you that we had a very nice trip in Korea. We liked all three of the tour guides very much. Thay are very nice and good. please tell them that we enjoyed the time being with them a lot. specially Youngsik and Jade. Thanks.
The hotel and food in Seoul were a little disappointed to us, but hotels and food in Jeju and Busan were good. Specially in Jeju, Jingi treated us a very best lunch of the whole trip.
Here are our pictures please create a photo flash for us.
Thank you and best wishes for you and your business,
Tri