Classic Japan

Well organized, great hotels, great transportation, great food….excellent guide ()

a great trip, lots to see in a short time

This was a great itinerary staying 3 days in Tokyo, 3 days in Kyoto, 2 days in Hiroshima and 2 days in Osaka. It covered all the most interesting and historic sightseeing and also covered rural areas visiting pottery place and tea plantation

This was a great trip and involved a lot of walking. Our travel director was superb and taught us about the culture throughout the trip which made it extra meaningful. My advice is to not go during the hot and humid months or when Japan is having a national holiday.

Excellent trip! Our tour guide was Noriko. She was patient, caring and extremely knowledgeable about each of our stops. It had been 30 years since I was in Japan and the new memories mingling with the old made our trip even more worthwhile. The accommodations were very nice and comfortable. Thanks again for the trip and the small group hospitality.

A great variety of activities and excursions, although perhaps an excess of shrines! Osaka Castle - would have loved to be able to see inside this rather than observe it from a riverboat. A little more free time would have been appreciated occasionally to be able to do some exploring and shopping at leisure. All hotels were exceptionally good - excellent facilities! Our tour guide was very friendly and helpful with a good command of English. The tour dinner on our last night was particularly good, a lot of fun, and very much appreciated by our Group. Overall, we would highly recommend this tour which gave us a superb insight into the culture of Japan.

If you’ve ever wanted to experience the heart of Japan - its timeless traditions and futuristic cities - without the hassle of planning, this journey delivers it all. It offers a perfect blend of cultural discovery, natural beauty, and seamless travel, all carefully curated for a comfortable and enriching experience. Thoughtfully guided and deeply immersive, it’s ideal for travelers who want to truly connect with Japan in a meaningful and stress-free way. We very much enjoyed our Trafalgar journey to Japan.

the tour was good- and hotels were good too. Yukki the guide was helpful and very sweet. What we were unhappy about the tour was, that even though the heat was scorching right through ( 36-39 degrees everywhere) Trafalgar did not think of adjusting the timings off the walking tours. We were often walking in the hot midday sun and were very concerned about heatstroke so often my husband and i left the tour and returned to the hotel- or just sat in the bus. We missed out on sightseeing of quite a few things as we just couldnt take the heat. Considering Japan is going through a heatwave since July , and that there is global warming everywhere, these aspects should have been carefully considered by Trafalgar. We are senior citizens and we took Trafalgar for that very purpose ( ie we thought they are considerate of seniors). I am a travel agent from Mumbai and i represent Globus Family of Brands in India. We sell a lot of Globus and have done for several years.. However, this time my husband and i chose Trafalgar as we liked the itinerary - and i convinced 2 friends too to come along with us on this journey. They too were unhappy with the heat and walking schedules. Also - the 2 RIVER CRUISES ( Tokyo and Osaka) were really not worth it at all. Nothing to see - and we were miserable esp on the 1st Tokyo cruise as the boat was not airconditioned. Rest of the Trafalgar experiences ( ie pottery, cooking class, visiting Japanese home etc) were indeed wonderful and we enjoyed these a lot. Thanks for an enjoyable trip. Meher & Percy Balsara

Excellent trip, well organised and a very good guide. The hotels chosen were first class. As well as seeing interesting cities and countrywide we had some great experiences such as the cookery lesson, origami making, tea ceremony and drumming. We also experienced the Bullet train and had two fabulous dinners included

It was just amazing. Our tour director () was so knowledgeable and helpful during the whole tour.

Our tour was action packed sight seeing. Bamboo forest and Peace Park are two of my favorite outings. Our tour guide was great. The last night with our tour group included a dinner that was amazing. The staff and the attention to details unbeatable, along with excellent food. Whiskey Nova Steakhouse sits high above Osaka with great views.

Should not be held in hot summer. The walking to sites with no shade to protect us was very difficult. Not the fault of the tour director.

The trip to Mt. Fuji should be eliminated: a road trip that takes 6 hours out of a visit is a bad choice, and the worst part is, we didn't see anything! We spent 20 minutes each in two different tourist stops, but the "mountain" was covered in clouds. There's no point to it. Our tour guide told us, it's that way 80% of the year. On a limited tour, it's costly to lose one day to a pointless excursion. Generally, there was very little that interested me: we saw one "palace"--but from outside, so we walked quite a distance to see nothing more than the tops of some buildings covered by shrubbery! This was our first outing in Tokyo; a very disappointing start. Other than the temples, which appear to be as ubiquitous as Starbucks, "Classic Japan" seems to be sterile modernity. Other than Kyoto, where there were some art museums near our hotel, the cities didn't seem to have much culture. The two "optional" excursions were very disappointing: I didn't do the tea ceremony--that sounded terribly uninteresting. I did the garden tour, which was not at all interesting, and much too hot for a relaxing stroll. The museum in Hiroshima was a highlight. Accommodations were terrific. The heat was brutal every day, in all 4 cities which, according to our guide, is normal for that time of year. That's not within Trafalgar's control, but it compounded my disappointment. My experience with Trafalgar tours have always been positive. This Japan tour was by no means terrible. It was, however, my least satisfying, and not one I'd recommend.

Visit to mt Fuji wasted an entire day. Not enough free time. Guide wouldn’t acknowledge that it was 99 degrees

Our tour guide made this trip so memorable! She took care of every detail, and made our Japan vacation a five star event. The itinerary was fabulous, including history, culture, FOOD, the people and customs, transportation/bullet trains, etc. etc. Having just 25 people on the tour gave her the chance to personalize our experience - and to have roominess on the busses. The weather was extremely hot, but carried on like the trooper she was. and myself - who is writing this review would highly recommend the Classic Japan trip to everyone.

The three nights in Kyoto should be reduced to two nights The two nights in Osaka should be increased to three nights.

All the itinerary was good for me

Hotel rooms were “ old”

It was good an opportunity to see many highlights of Japan, with a nice mixture of city and country. The transportation was efficient with a combination of buses and trains. The experience of Japanese cuisine was interesting. Some people, including some of my family would have enjoyed being able to choose from a menu rather than being served and wasting the food. I think some people preferred to have more free time to shop at certain places. Overall, I think the itinerary was excellent and our tour guide did a fantastic job

First we would like to say how outstanding our tour director, Kazuko Watanabe was. She went above and beyond to make sure we were safe and enjoying the tour. She was so informative and answered any questions that we had. The tour was very diverse covering historical, cultural, food, cities and rural. Something for everyone. The hotels were beautiful and comfortable. The last room in the Sheraton in Osaka was a little worn. We enjoyed the whole experience! Thank you!

It was mostly very positive. The tour guide was fabulous. She was personable and paid attention to every detail. The coordination between hotel, bus, and train was spot on. The experiences were very interesting and enjoyable. My one criticism would be too many market visits. Other than that a very positive experience.

the itinerary was efficiently designed to allow us to see the most of Japan as possible. However, it was quite taxing to the seniors like us and I would recommend that Trafalgar consider setting up a two-tier approach, one for seniors over 70 and then the rest. that said, we truly enjoyed our trip and special accolades to our tour director . She was dedicated, efficient and very caring on how her clients were at all times.

The trip was great and our guide, was wonderful. I’d highly recommend it.

our tour guide made it all work. She was wonderful.

I was disappointed that no information came in the mail, only computer where you have to print out. I don’t have a printer.

The itinerary was excellent, and I have no complaints at all.

Great way to see a lot of Japan by bullet train.Good hotels,great tour director and a brilliant group of people,which is why we book with this company.Best experiences,the drumming class,making our own lunch and the tea room.Did not do Mount Fuji trip,stayed in Tokyo doing our own thing.Pleased that we did because we saw a lot of the city,skytree,the crossing and the Tokyo Tower by night.However we were so pleased that the Fuji trip was successful and they were very lucky to be able to take some superb shots,which they shared with us the day after. In all a fantastic trip,a great way to see Japan,if perhaps too little time in each city.Obviously if this trip was 14 days it would have a cost implication on what is already an expensive outlay.But if you want to get a feel for Japan,its customs and how it works,stay in good hotels,and be looked after by a good tour director this is a trip that does all that.

It was fantastic, Guide excellent, Hotels excellent and also all the information on Japan excellent

Great trip! Fabulous guide! Well designed experiences and itinerary!

SOME WASTED VALUABLE TIME.

Recommend Not to miss this trip if within one's budget. Should include aquarium as part of the tour or optional. After Tokyo hotel, Kyoto hotel was congested; a bit of letdown.

The itinerary was good but not flexible. We were scheduled to see Mt Fuji on a day that was predicted to have bad weather. And as predicted the group got on a 6+ hour long bus ride to Mt Fuji only to turn around before the destination and drive back to the hotel. We chose not to go on the excursion and instead explore Ueno Park, The National Museum, and the zoo. It was a wonderful day that wasn’t planned. Our trip mates that did go on the bus were no happy with the outcome. We’ve been on other tours and were very pleased to be able to switch up sights that were scheduled due to inclement weather. This trip was not flexible and as a result the day to Mt Fuji was not good. We definitely had the opportunity to see Mt Fuji the day before but it was never offered. Fortunately, we were able to see Mt Fuji on our train ride back to Tokyo after our trip ended in Osaka but that had nothing to do with Trafalgar. Our guide was not fluent in English and we had a difficult time understanding her. The headphones used for the trip did not work properly and were constantly full of static so I discarded mine after the first day. Our guide wasn’t really accessible or approachable to get suggestions for places to eat or things to do so we were basically on our own. She did give us a card to show to someone in case we got lost. One of our group members tried to call it one day but it didn’t work because it didn’t include an international prefix. Not using WhatsApp is really unfortunate because we had no communication with our guide unless we were with her. One of our trip mates fell and hit his face and got a cut on his forehead. We were all on our own at the time but just by sheer chance our guide saw him in the back of the ambulance. He was alone as his wife was waiting for him somewhere else. Our guide was unable to contact her but luckily one of our trip mates was able to contact his wife to let her know what was happening. Our guide seemed stressed and overwhelmed by her job. Basically she seemed unhappy until the last day or two of our trip. She promised to help us on the last day of our trip until noon and said she would be in the lobby until noon. On this day we wanted to give her the minimum amount of tip suggested by Trafalgar if only because she showed up and got us where we needed to be with our luggage. We ate breakfast then waited to see her for over 45 minutes in the lobby and in front of the breakfast restaurant to give her her tip but she never showed up. Other trip mates were looking for her as well. I realized after all the years I’ve been traveling on group tours that the guide can truly make or break a trip and this is the first time we’ve had a less than adequate guide. The country of Japan is beautiful, the people were so kind and helpful, the food was amazing, the cherry blossoms were absolutely fantastic and we hit it just perfectly to see the entire country in bloom. We met a lot of wonderful people on the tour as well so that made it worth it and for that we are truly happy we took this tour. Also, thanks the and for buying me dinner the night of my birthday. You guys really made my day. (Our guide had no idea it was my birthday but I’m not surprised)

In the '24/'25 season I had a less than pleasant Trafalgar trip to the UK, but figured that was a "one of" experience. It was not. While I mostly enjoyed Japan itself, the 11-day tour was TERRIBLY rushed, descriptions of the included and optional experiences were inaccurate, and the tour guide, while pleasant and knowledgeable, had a style that was much more like herding cats. The use of "Whisper" devices to communicate with guests while walking created more confusion than information. Bottom line: This tour is FAR TOO SHORT to be relaxing in anyway and the optional AND included activities were disappointing. Ditch the 11-day itinerary and offer, at the shortest, 14-day trips. Remember, the first and last days of a guided tour are pretty much spent arriving and leaving. This is likely my last Trafalgar tour.

Was perfect everything and weather cooperate hotels location was good too I really enjoyed this vacation travel guide knew each landmark to tell all the groups the only thing would be nice if as group introduced each other so get to know and have fun

I filled this out already. It was the least enjoyable trip I’ve ever been on. The guide was hard to understand. She wasn’t friendly. Didn’t get to go see Mt. *Personal details removed by Feefo* even though it was a sunny day. The people in group were wonderful. Bus time could have been used to tell us more about Japan, but guide only talked to bus driver. Needed decent name tags, not a piece of tape that lasted one day. My trips with Collette were PERFECT. Trips with Insight very educational and enjoyable. This trip was a waste of money and time.

Our travel director Saiko was excellent. She was knowledgeable and handled the group well, even in challenging times. The travel itinerary was not accurate for day one from Tralfagar. It did not list the meet and greet included dinner. Day 3 was a 12 hour day, mostly on the bus on a Sunday with peak tourist and locals, so we experienced long wait times due to traffic jams and wait times to park the bus, seeing the cloud covered Mt Fuji and visiting the active volcano was not worth the 12 hour day. The hotels and breakfast buffets were excellent as well as the other included lunch and dinner meals provided by Tralfagar minus buffet lunch on day 3.

I am unable to rate this trip with 5 stars. Our tour included, weather permitting, a trip to Mt. Fuji. That never happened. What did happen was a full day - 10 hours or more - on the coach in traffic on a toll road with bad weather. What could have happened was a decision by our tour director to exit the toll road and either take a different route to Mt. Fuji or at least not sit on a bus. We were only 30 minutes from Mt. Fuji when we suddenly exited the toll road and turned around. Evidently, the bus driver was getting close to some sort of limit on hours driving - decision wasn't made based on 'us'. It was disappointing, we would have loved to see Mt. Fuji even in the clouds and rain, but it was not to be. Japan is a lovely country full of wonderful people, just wish there was a better decision made that day.

Good experience but too short stay in Kyoto. Super excellent service by Tour Director . Courteous, professional, funny, knowledgeable, goes out of her way especially to help a wheel chair bound tourist member of group. Keeps group together & on time touring. Shared a lot of stories & jokes.

Visited a lot of wonderful sites and historical places . However it did miss some very interesting and historical places. You have to provide a lot of your own lunches and dinners, extra cost on a rather expensive trip already. Tour guide was good,being from Japan she explained the areas well. At times very quick tour, a lot of free time. not all the cooking experiences was necessary. (Tea making ceremony or cookie biscuits)

Always on time, clean transportation, excellent hotels, fantastic tour guide.

I loved how they had it all laid out. There are 2 different things that would be great to add. There should be a spa day between Toyko and Koyto and koyto and Hiroshima. Also a couple more visits to smaller towns is what I was looking for. I wanted to see more of the traditional homes then big cities that I see here already. Great trip otherwise!

Absolutely amazing. Met our expectations above and beyond. Our tour guide *Personal details removed by Feefo* was awesome, informative, funny and down to earth. Saw way more than we would have on our own, incredible authentic experiences. Great group of 24 like minded people. New friendships and wonderful memories!

Itinerary was very good. In some cases a little too much free time in markets etc. Given the locations we visited and the mode of transport, it fulfilled all of our expectations. We experienced a number of things we may not of done without our wonderful guide.

Some days were too long and tiring Kyoto pottery experience excellent. Our guide was excellent!!