Review

Covered a lot of ground but still allowed free time to explore on our own. We did see quite a few temples and shrines which are fabulous but personally I would have liked to swap out a temple or shrine to visit a traditional garden.

Enjoyed the atmosphere of the more traditional feeling hotels. The rooms were spotless, spacious and excellent ensuites. The in-house natural hot spring baths were a unique experience. The breakfasts were great and the afternoon tea offerings were an unexpected and welcome treat.

The organise meals gave us plenty of opportunity to try a variety of Japanese dishes. The number and variety of food places from market stalls, food halls to restaurant is amazing.

Charlie in Tokyo and Keiko in Kyoto and Osaka were both excellent guides. Charlie took the time to make sure we understood how the trains worked which was invaluable when we were on our own. The group really benefitted from Charlie and Keiko’s friendly approaches and organisation. They wanted to make sure we got the most from our tour and learnt about Japan’s history. Highly recommend them both.

I found there was a lot of documentation to wade through and some not relevant to our particular tour which was a bit confusing. The booking process was very straight forward and the willingness to accommodate our variations pre and post tour were appreciated however delay in response to some of our emails regarding these changes was a bit stressful.

Tour was very well organised. Everything happened on time and it was great having the guides with us speeding up entry into various sites, explaining how things worked. The whole trip went smoothly.

Getting around using the local transport was fabulous, you feel you’re experiencing the real Japan and not just looking out through the cocoon of a tour bus. Having the preloaded travel cards for swiping on and off was great.