Japan and Thailand Tours and Trips

We had a great time, the itinerary was very good (very busy but we saw a lot and got a great overall impression) and the accommodation was great. As well as nice hotels the two traditional accommodations were fun/interesting. Our guide was very knowledgeable and very happy to help with anything and everything. He was also very happy to run optional tours on the free days.

Great itinerary with a very caring and dedicated guide (Santi) who really went above and beyond. This is a fantastic tour to introduce an amazing country. Loved the unconventional (non hotel) accommodation… It’s these things that make explore trips special and give you something that would be difficult to sort out yourself on the first visit to a country. I heard that Simply Japan may be dropping one of these for 2026 which would be a mistake in my opinion. There could also be a bit more thought to scheduling detail - for example in Hiroshima the hotel is really close to the Peace museum and would be easy to schedule a visit at a time that is less busy.

We've traveled with Explore many times, including another tour in Japan, and we really enjoyed this trip. Our guide, Doni, was excellent and kept things on track nicely. The accommodations were great, varying from more simple to nice hotels. This tour covered not only large city options, but some very rural areas, which we really enjoyed. Everything ran quite smoothly and there were no delays with transport or any of the daily events. I think we gained a deeper understanding of Japan, which was part of our purpose in taking this trip. We would highly recommend this Explore tour to other guests.

Great variety of attractions and very good hotels and our guide was amazing did a great job , the transportation was very comfortable and the drivers were friendly, the only suggestion I have is to include a sumo match, a fellow traveler went to a dinner with a comedy sumo show I think that would be great as an optional extra a, the quality of food on the trip was amazing and I would highly recommend this trip

An amazing experience! Our tour leader Geoffrey really made the trip helped by a good group of enthusiastic travellers. Geoffrey made sure all our needs were met. He was attentive and communicated well verbally and by regular What's App messages. Where there was an opportunity for free time he would structure activities if so requested. The whole trip was pretty full on but this gave us the opportunity to see a lot. Highly recommended.

The whole tour was fabulous but made so by the quality of our tour leader Sam. He is so knowledgeable and conveyed the cultural and historic things so comprehensively. He was also kind and engaging. Japan was magnificent and I feel I’ve only brushed the surface.