Hi Whitney, hope you're doing well. We had a wonderful time in Kyoto.
Thank you for your message about Mr Ling. We also wanted to thank you and your guides for a lovely vacation. Even after some unforseen medical (and energy!) deficits on our part ,it was everything we had hoped for. All of your guides were very knowledgeable and helpful. We wanted to commend Yasuyuki for his thoughtfulness in suggesting and taking us to Ainokura. It was even more beautiful and serene than Shirakawa. And our 3 days with Chizuko in Kyoto were very special- she was so informative and a master at guiding us through several forms of public transportation where we would otherwise have been lost! We enjoyed her tours and her company very much. We will certainly recommend you and Novaland Tours to any friends and family who are thinking of coming to Japan in the future.
Warm regards,
Robbie O'Neal and Jim Foster
Hello Whitney,
Sorry it took a while to reply. We are very please with Novaland Tours and will recommend to our friends and relatives. Thank you!
1=poor, 2=fair,3=good, 4=very good5=excellent
Aspect | Mark(1-5) | Advice or Remark | |
Travel Consultant | 5 | Very responsive and informative. | |
Tour Guides | Command of English | 4 | English is ok |
Knowledge of Subjects | 5 |
| |
Ability of Explain | 4 |
| |
Attitude | 5 | helpful and very polite | |
Flexibility | 5 | willing to accommodate changes | |
Drivers and Cars | 5 | car is well maintained. Drove safely and slowed down when car sick on the windy mountain roods | |
Hotels | Location | 5 | very convenient to public transport and amenities |
Comfort | 5 | clean and well equipped, enjoyed the free drinks in one of the hotels | |
Sights or Activities | Worthiness of Visit | 4 | overall great except for the huge crowd, long queues and rains |
Meet Your Interests? | 4 | love the Ryokan experience and Sakura | |
Too Tight or Too Loose? | 4 | maybe less places to visit to be able to spend more time in one place/less rush | |
Meals | 4 | Ryokan meals are great, convenience stores food and street food is good | |
Public Transportation (train, flight, cruise, etc.) | 4 | a bit confusion and time consuming but manageable | |
Any Other Aspect |
| A lot of walking involved, could be tiring for people not used to it. Few Japanese speak English, difficult to interact with locals | |
Overall Score of the Whole Package | 4.5 | may return for another visit to other places in Japan | |
[7:49 pm, 22/03/2023] Alice NovalandTours: Hi Rick, have you arrived at the hotel safely? Do you like the rooms of Mercure Ginza?
[8:47 pm, 22/03/2023] Rick: Hi Alice. We arrived close to 6:30. The rooms are nice, and the location is great. The hotel put us in rooms next to each other so we’re happy about that. A little small but we expected that in Ginza. We stopped at 7-11 to pick up dinner after a long travel day.
[7:40 am, 23/03/2023] Rick: Hi Alice. We like the hotel even more now that it’s day time. The location is incredible and the breakfast is very nice.
[1:14 pm, 23/03/2023] Alice NovalandTours: Hi Rick, how is your tour going today?
[1:15 pm, 23/03/2023] Rick: Hi Alice. It’s going well even with the rain. Mark is a very accommodating guide and nice person.
[4:56 pm, 24/03/2023] Alice NovalandTours: How is your hakone Tour today? It is said that Hakone area is less crowded than Mt Fuji area. Are you encounter big crowds today? BTW, is the pocket WiFi works well?
[4:58 pm, 24/03/2023] Rick: The Hakone tour was very nice. Crowds weren’t too bad. The pocket WiFi works great.
[3:38 pm, 28/03/2023] Alice NovalandTours: Hi Rick, have you checked in at the Kyoto hotel? Do you like it? Is it smooth for you to meet the driver at the Kyoto station?
[3:39 pm, 28/03/2023] Rick: Hi Alice. We have checked in, and we really like the hotel. Very smooth. The driver was waiting for us on the platform. We are shopping nearby the hotel already.
[6:36 pm, 29/03/2023] Rick: Hi Alice. Thank you for the wonderful Kaiseki meal today! Everyone enjoyed the experience and the delicious food. We really liked the restaurant and staff. We had a full and fun day today in Kyoto.
[7:04 pm, 30/03/2023] Alice NovalandTours: Hi Rick, how is today's Kyoto tour? Do you like the Kyoto tour guide and the Osaka hotel?
[7:09 pm, 30/03/2023] Rick: Hi Alice. It went very well. Ric is excellent and very customer service oriented. We really like him. The rooms at the Cross Hotel are very nice. They placed us on the club level floor so we have access to the club level amenities. The hotel location is perfect just like Kyoto and Tokyo hotels.
[7:49 pm, 01/04/2023] Rick: Hi Alice. Osaka and Kobe tours were great! The Kobe beef dinner was very nice.
[7:01 pm, 03/04/2023] Alice NovalandTours: Hi Rick, how is today's tour? Here is the weather forecast for Tokyo tomorrow.
[7:17 pm, 03/04/2023] Rick: Hi Alice. Another great day! Mark is so accommodating to our needs, and he has made great restaurant recommendations. We were able to go to Asakusa, Shibuya and Harajuku today which we missed early in our trip due to my father’s injuries. My father had his stitches removed yesterday, and he has healed nicely. By the way, for the Kansai part of our trip, we really enjoyed our guide Ric Higashi and Mr. Tan who provided transport to and from the Shinkansen stations. I’ve also forgotten to thank you for refunding us for the tickets that weren’t purchased. Everyone in our party has thoroughly enjoyed this trip, and we will make the most of our last day tomorrow.
I inquired about tailor-made tour with 3 tour specialists and Novaland was the first to response. The other two took about a week. They have specialists to take care of you in the airport when you arrive and help with immigration. We did not need to stand in line. Once you passed through immigration, your tour guide and driver will meet you and bring you to your transportation. When we arrive at the hotel, our guide did the check-in for us. All we did was relax and enjoy our vacation. When is time to depart, the airport specialist will take care of you and make sure everything goes smoothly. Novaland makes you feel like a VIP from the minute you arrive until you depart!
More important, I chose Novaland because of Helen timely responsiveness. She is based in China. It does not matter what day of the week or time of the day; she will respond to your questions. Being in a strange foreign country, my biggest concern was the ability to reach out to Novaland if something went wrong. When our guide went MIA in Aswan, I was able to reach Helen and she took care of everything for us. When we missed our connecting flights from Cairo to Jordan, she stays up till 2 am to make sure everything goes well. She is a quintessential tour specialist who places customer service above all things. Our tour guide in Cairo, Mustafa Shah, came to meet us at the airport (past 12 am) when he heard we missed our connecting flight and stayed with us until we were able to get an alternate connecting flight (cannot overemphasize this - AVOID Cairo Airlines at all costs). By the time everything was taken care of, it was around 1 am and Mustafa helped convince Burger King at the airport to serve us dinner!
When I was unhappy with one of the tour guides in Aswan, Novaland replaced him with another guide the next day. If you want a relaxing, stress-free vacation, I strongly recommend Helen.
Charles
We have had an amazing time in Japan & thank you for all you have done
Thank you so much
Graham & Linda
I dealt with the tour specialist, Cindy – She was fantastic and awesome! She understood our needs before she gave us a proposal & I always get her responds in a timely manner in answering all my questions before & during the trip. She put us in hotels that near train stations as req and make sure that our tours were exactly go accordingly to what we wanted.
Our 9 days in Japan were well spent, 3 different experience guides being assigned to us separately for private tour in Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto & Osaka, all guides were very helpful, kind & informative with wonderful services. Especially Tour guide Tanaka Masaaki-san in Kyoto & Osaka, he is really amazing and very informative! The guides bought us to many diff places to take good angle pictures and to try their local cuisine by taking Metro, Local Bus, JR Line and Shinkansen! Everything went off without a hitch. I enjoyed the most is Mt Fuji, Hakone tour, Nara & Osaka Castle with beautiful Cherry blossom.
Highly recommend Novaland tours to anyone that want to hv pleasant and fruitful trip, really with no regret. Will definitely use Novaland Tours again in our future traveling.