NLT-150918-MK60683
[Sep 29, 2015, from America]
The tour was terrific. I'd be happy to give you more specifics but we are still traveling and won't be back home for another almost three weeks. I will respond to your questions when I return home. NLT-150917-YC62036
[Sep 25, 2015]
The tours were good NLT-150914-EK58279
[Sep 22, 2015, from America]
Emma,
Thanks for asking about our tour with you. I will be glad to respond. The man who picked us up at the airport was great! He gave us a nice talk on the way to the hotel. The man who took us to the airport did not seem to speak English. This was not so good. The tours were fine. Some of the times and directions seemed to change for the program after we got there. This is not good. Pickup time for the airport was changed the morning of pick up—not good. The hotel was fine but some of the staff did not speak much English. The location of the hotel is great. It would be nice to tell your customers like us of some of the points of interest that are within walking distance to the hotel. The night markets are nice but people may not know about them. We found the people very nice, friendly and helpful!!!
I hope this helps,
Don Ward NLT-150912-MK62134
[Sep 22, 2015, from America]
Hi Melody, we had a wonderful time and Kim was a great guide! Will be happy to post a review this weekend.
Kind regards
Melanie NLT-150910-YK54220
[Sep 16, 2015, from America]
Everything has beem great NLT-150907-LC61405
[Jan 1, 1970, from America]
BOB IS GREAT
THANK YOU NLT-150906-CJ57958
[Oct 29, 2015, from America]
Dear Cindy,
Thank you for the email.
We had an outstanding time with our trip to Japan. Everything was well organized and the tours were excellent. We were incredibly pleased with our overall experience and your definetly your planning. Japan is a wonderful country with incredibly nice people. We were able to figure out the subway and train system after some mishaps, but it is also a very efficient system.
We will definitely use you again the next time we travel to Asia. We have never had a trip go so smoothly and according to plan, so thank you so much. I really do not have any criticisms, since everything went so well.
Again, my wife and I want to thank you for your hard work and help during this whole process.
All the best,
Timmy NLT-150903-DJ59611
[Sep 23, 2015, from America]
Hi Siva,
We had a really nice time in Japan.
We appreciated all that you did for us to make our trip enjoyable.
We liked our day tours in Tokyo.
I would recommend that your clients be told that the day tours are with JTB Sunrise Tours and that a JTB tour guide would meet them in the lobby.
They should also be told that a shuttle transfer bus will take them to the the tour bus depot where they will then depart on their tour.
The sites that we saw on the Nikko World Heritage tour and the Dynamic Tokyo tour were very good.
The JAL Hotel in Aomori was okay. The hotel room we checked into was extremely small. There was hardly any room to move around. I think your clients should be advised of that. They should also be given the option of upgrading to a larger room with two double beds. Those rooms are more of a western standard size.
Our private guide in Hokkaido, "Taka" was excellent. He was very well prepared with umbrellas and towels when it was rainy. He was very accommodating. We enjoyed the Oyunuma brook foot bath.
We really liked our stay at the Toya Kohantei Onsen. Our lake front room was amazing.
We also like the Makado Onsen Hotel. The food at all of the hotels was very good.
Thanks again,
Lynne Lowe NLT-150902-CJ60245
[Sep 21, 2015, from New Zealand]
Hi Cindy
Thanks for the contact.
From Japan we went to Hong Kong then home to NZ but I have been home a week now.
I was going to write to you any way, as I own a company and encourage feed back so we can do better.
Over all you did a great job sorting out the tour and Cindy you worked hard with all my changes, so I was never going to buy from anyone else.
I will answer the below for you in Red
1. How is our service throughout your tour from any aspects you feel? Such as our travel consultant, tour guide’s, drivers or others’ attitude; hotels, transportations, scenic spots’ arrangement; and any other words you would like to say to me.
Cindy was just perfect, I know I was not the easiest tour to arrange but Cindy kept answer the questions and making the changes.
Drivers and guides were fine and the hotels where as expected.
2. How do you feel about the food during the tour? Especially for your daughter since she has food limit.
Food is a good question, everywhere there was food supplied, the operators did an outstanding job except on the Night tour in Kyoto that was a Japanese Dinning experience. This was a Dinner tour and they got it 100% wrong all my daughter could eat were the peas, a true disaster, we had to buy her Sushi when we got back to the hotel so she could have something to eat. It was like she was not expected. I would have thought that a company contracted with a focus on a Japanese Dinner ( Dinner tour) would listen to your instructions about any of your customers special dietary needs, but they did not, so it did make us feel like they did not care at all.
I know you only subcontract in companies to do the jobs so it’s not Noverland directly, but it does reflect on you indirectly. Would I book another Dinner tour with Noverland? not likely as I am not confident the message would be passed on correctly. (all other tours were fine with food)
The best and most Outstanding meal was the Tokyo Day trip, it probably was the Guide that made it all happen but the meal was Top Class on equal with any quality restaurant, well done to the company you contracted.
The Fiji trip was well catered too.
Overall more good than bad, think the Kyoto Dinner tour company needs a wakeup call or change the operator you use.
3. Where can we improve to be better and stronger?
Can only suggest better communication with the companies you sub contract to do the work, particularly around Food.
3. Any other valuable comments, travel experience and happy moments you may have.
You did not get the weather right on the day we went to Mt Fujiyama, very cloudy and did not see the mountain, though we were an 8am start we did not leave Tokyo until 9.15 as the company you use does a Hotel tour picking up everyone then brings them all back to a central hub for distribution. This made a late start to the day, we meet a couple on the Train to Kyoto who had been picked up from there Hotel at 8.30am and got to the mountain about an hour before us and saw it before it clouded in. Just one of those things. So if you can control the weather over Mt Fuji you will have a everyone on you tours.
I know you can’t control the weather and we accept the day was what it was, got some great pictures of pictures of Mt Fuji so we know what it looks like.
Kyote was magnificent and the Bullet Trains are fast
Thanks Cindy NLT-150902-BK36408
[Sep 9, 2015]
I have a lovely day in Busan. My guide is excellent and she opened up my eye to see the sights, smell the smell and taste the taste of southern South Korea uniqueness.
Overall a fabulous trip and impressive view of the city.
Thank you. NLT-150831-MK58093
[Sep 29, 2015, from America]
We are having a great time and all has gone perfect. We like the hotels and the guides. Thanks for any assistance. We are so enjoying your country!
We did not get home until Monday morning so I am behind in answering emails. We loved the tour and your company so I will post a review on tripadvisor. Look for it there. NLT-150831-CJ53048
[Sep 9, 2015, from America]
Cindy
I would be happy to give you some feedback.
Booking a tour such as ours with an overseas firm we have never dealt with before can lead to big troubles, especially when one has to pre-pay everything upfront with no possible recourse if problems arise.
However, this was certainly NOT the case with our Novaland experience. Everything was as perfect as a trip experience can be.
The driver was right there on the pier in Otaru at the chosen time. He even asked some staff from the ship if we had left the ship yet.
His car was impeccably clean and neat every day he drove us. He cleaned it every evening and made it look new every morning [ even though my wife and I were very respectful towards his car and left no mess inside and we wiped our feet every time we got back in to the car ].
The drive, Kakahiro Hosono, was extremely polite and his knowledge of English was in fact just ‘basic’ but that was fine. He communicated very well with us and even offered some information one would usually get only from a tour guide and not from a driver.
The itinerary you put together for us was perfect, including large amounts of time for my photography in some very interesting and very beautiful places on Hokkaido. The flower fields in Furano were particularly spectacular. And the Shiroi Koibito park was amazing. I’m glad we
went there since our ship did take us to the Otaru canal area and the Aoyama Family villa on Aug. 30.
The Sapporo Grand Hotel was very nice; the Daiichi Takimotokan was “less nice” but still adequate.
Two of our three full days with Kakahiro were beautifully sunny; the third day was rainy but we managed okay. The restaurants he offered us for lunch were actually quite good and gave us some traditional Japanese meals.
And your work, Cindy, was also top notch. Your communications were punctual, informative, and very helpful. Every aspect was covered, our questions were directly answered, revisions to the itinerary were easily made by both you and by the driver. Your confirmation of payments was timely and complete and your initial proposal was very informative and helpful.
One request I would make is that Novaland NOT charge a surcharge for taking payments by credit card. That is a rather “unfriendly” gesture, especially to first time customers who don’t know whether to trust a first time supplier. Paying by credit card gives the customer some assurance that, if anything goes wrong, the customer would have the support of the credit card company. Paying by bank wire can be dangerous if the supplier is dishonest; once the money is sent it is gone forever and the customer has no way to regain his loss.
So, in summary, all the above things made for a very pleasant experience and I would happily recommend Novaland to others.
Job well done !!! Thank you.
Bob Specker NLT-150830-LJ58692
[Nov 15, 2015, from Luxembourg]
Dear Lillian,
Sorry for not replying earlier - we’ve been very busy since getting back from our holiday in Japan.
Please find our replies below.
1. How is our service throughout your tour from any aspects you feel? Such as our travel consultant, tour guide’s, drivers or others’ attitude; hotels, transportation, scenic spots’ arrangement; and any other words you would like to say to me.
We were very happy with the Novaland Tours service throughout.
As our travel consultant, you, Lillian, were thorough and meticulous in the planning of our trip, which involved multiple revisions in order to take into account all our personal wishes. This excellent service continued right through to the actual holiday itself where the couple of queries which we had while while in Japan were answered extremely promptly and usefully.
We particularly appreciated the level of detail you provided in our itinerary, including all sorts of invaluable tips such as how to travel on buses, lots of maps and information for getting from the various train stations to our hotels in different cities, even on the days when we were travelling independently.
The Sunrise guides were always very friendly and full of interesting information during the all the different visits in which we participated. Each guide was different and we enjoyed getting to know each of them. The bus drivers were always professional and courteous, and the organisation, which was especially complicated in bigger cities such as Kyoto and Tokyo, worked very well.
2. Where can we improve to be better and stronger?
While we cannot find fault with any of your services, we preferred the tours where there were fewer participants. There was one tour, I think it was the Kyoto 1-day tour, where we were indeed many people - two big buses - and we found it a bit difficult to get close enough to the guide to hear all the information about the places we visited.
On the other hand, sometimes we were very few (for Koya San, just the two of us with the guide), and this was wonderful, a real treat !
We unfortunately missed out on visiting Kyoto Imperial Palace as this trip was planned for a Sunday, when the palace was closed, so if that has been known in advance, we might have been able to arrange it differently.
3. Any other valuable comments, travel experience and happy moments you may have.
Some particular highlights for us were Koya San, Himeji Castle, Hiroshima & Miyajima, the tea ceremony in Uji, Byodoin Temple, the Sagano Bamboo Grove, the Castle Gardens and Kenrokuen Gardens in Kanazawa and our free time in Tokyo.
On the less positive side, we would not recommend the Osaka 1-day walking tour - the Ariel Garden and the Aqua Liner were quite a waste of time, although Osaka Castle was interesting to see.
Also, we spent a whole hour walking up and down one street at the Takayama morning market, which was too long (normally only 30 minutes were planned for this).
And finally, the tea ceremony in Tokyo was disappointing (too many people squeezed in and not enough time and space to appreciate the ceremony), especially as we’d had a far nicer experience in Uji.
Just one other thing now that I remember: on September 9, we took the Sagano Bamboo Grove & Arashiyama walking tour. This was supposed to be with lunch on a moving boat. Due to heavy rains, the lunch was cancelled and (I think) the guide said we should get a refund for that part of the tour. Do you know something about this ?
Lillian, all that remains is for us to thank you once more for all your care and attention in arranging our holiday in Japan. I hope our comments are useful for you.
regards,
Annie & Jean-Jacques NLT-150830-LA54484
[Sep 8, 2015, from America]
Thank you!!! for all your help. The trip was fabulous!!!! Great Job!
Regards, NLT-150829-QJ60751
[Jan 23, 2019]
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