Reviews

This was an excellent tour but don't agree with Wendy Wu stating quality hotels located centrally on website when you book only to find the last 5 nights in LAOS are not central. Either too far to walk or unsafe to walk. 3 nights in a hotel that did not provide western breakfast cold fried eggs and using a microwave to try and do toast. Last day we were free from breakfast until 18.30pm when we were being taken to airport and nothing to do and nowhere to go and out of our room by 12 noon. Guide did not give any suggestions. Waste of our time. When we arrived in LAOS was dropped at hotel at 14.00pm and told free time until 18.30pm no options of what we could do. If we wanted to travel independently would not be booking group tour. Too much free time in LAOS and wasted time that could have been spent more constructively. We don't expect to pay the money we did to Wendy Wu to find hotels costing £30 a night when hotels with facilities were centrally located for £70 abd were available. Wendy Wu has got too greedy since we went to China in 2016. Won't be using them again. Guides were saying the tipping money was too much they did not know what to spend it on. Wendy wu has lost the plot.

An excellent holiday , the group was the correct size 14, and we all got on well after a couple of days. The guides were excellent and put in the extra effort that was appreciated by everyone. The venues were good , though the first day in. Bangkok was hard work after a long flight and getting used to temperate and humidity. Thailand was amazing I saw places that were exceptional. Laos was much more 3rd would and the hotels were a bit remote. Apart from the one on the river section. A super holiday which I would like to do again but to a different part of the planet !

We had a small group and loads of activities organised for us, a perfect basis for this superb holiday experience. The pace of the tour was just right, the weather brilliant and the food mostly superb. Our Thai guide Mr Chai had poor English when it came to understanding what we said, but that didn't detract too much. Our Laotian guide Bee was professional and lovely in all respects.
My only real complaint was our first dinner in Thailand when we had just arrived in Bangkok, which was chicken and mash - how this happened, we do not know!
This was my first experience of Wendy Wu Tours and will undoubtedly not be my last. The attention to detail was greatly appreciated.

Perfect trip for experiencing new countries, cultures & ways of life. Hotels in both countries were excellent. Transport between locations was comfortable. Food (lunch & dinner) always came as a set meal but was very tasty & good variety.
The guide in Thailand was very nice & helpful but could have given more in depth history & info about the country & places visited. The 2 day trip on the Mekong slowboat gave relief from the noise of cities & the many tourists & was very enjoyable.
The guide (named Somsack) for Laos was fantastic. He was very keen to tell us anything about his country, the ways of life & had lots of information on sites visited. The places visited were very interesting & really highlighted the qualities of Laos.
A brilliant trip. Would definitely return to both countries.

This will be our 6th trip with this company their service has always been excellent

Excellent tour and brilliant guides. Only downsides, the hotel in Bangkok was too far away from any tourist sites and the atmospheric pollution there was dreadful. Any one with any respiratory issues would have real problems. I think that you should advise potential customers with these issues not to travel at the end at the end of the dry season when the farmers burn stubble in the dried out paddy fields. Otherwise, very enjoyable.

Comprehensive tour with knowledgeable guides. May be beneficial to have a bit more downtime.

Excellent tour Well done Wendy Wu
Great itinerary, food,& guides.
amazing value

Overall a very good holiday, guides were excellent and all arrangements worked well. The only suggested improvement was to the chosen hotels in Luang Prabang and Vientiane. Both were located too far away from the city centre and night life.

The tour was very good and included a variety of experiences. Just a few small changes needed to make it excellent.

Very Helpful, Easy to book, lots of advice & ideas
Thanks Wendy Wu

Very helpful and spent a good deal of time helping me with flight upgrade options. The only reason i didn't give 5 stars was that some of the tour details sent were incorrect as they had not been updated for the 2023 tour.

We really loved Thailand and Laos, the accommodation was great and the trips excellent as were both our guides the only reason for not giving 5 stars is because when we arrived in Bangkok early morning after a sleepless flight we were told our room would not be ready till 2pm. We were exhausted but had to wait in the reception for 4-5 hrs even though the hotel was half empty due to coronavirus. The boat journey down the Mekong seemed to go on forever, in the itinerary it suggests the second day will be just to visit Pak Ou caves and then check into hotel but in reality we were on the boat longer than day one. Everyone on board agreed they had had enough cruising by then. Unfortunately because of the pandemic we were stuck for an extra 3 days but I would just like to say that our guide Ken was exceptional and would not leave us until we were at the airport with tickets in hand, I really do hope that you recognise his dedication and professionalism.

Overall the tour was near excellent with a great itinery, good hotels and restaurants, and with both guides ('Joe' in Thailand and 'Ken' in Laos) providing a very creditable service, especially Joe who looked after us as best he could when a few 'cracks' appeared in the arrangements in Thailand.

The problems in Thailand were as follows:

1. Seven of the group, including my wife and I, had an overnight flight from London and arrived at the hotel in Bangkok at 07:00 to be told our rooms would not be ready until 14:00. The itinery states we would 'transfer...to your hotel and check-in to your room.' This largely wasted our first day in Thailand although, to our guide's credit, he remained with us and helped fill some of the time.

2. On our third day in Bangkok half of our group, including my wife and I, had to check out of the hotel room by 10:00 (the others in the group managed to arrange a room extension) although we were scheduled to travel by overnight train starting at 22:00 and not checking in to the next hotel until after lunch the next day. Fortunately our guide again stepped up to help by getting the first hotel to allow us to shower at the sauna in the afternoon.

For both the above situations, had we been aware of these before booking we would have been happy to pre-book room extensions to allow us to shower and catch some sleep rather than just killing time in some rather sweaty clothes.

3. The information in the suppled Wendy Wu Travel Guide concerning the Overnight Train is wrong or out-of-date in many respects including luggage arrangements, what can be taken on board (e.g. drinks), sleeping berths, etc. As it happened, the arrangements and facilities were better or more convenient than expected and nearly all of us in the group enjoyed the train.


Putting aside the above, my wife and I really enjoyed the tour and expect to book more tours with Wendy Wu in the future.