Simply Japan

Our leader ( predictive text keeps changing name) was excellent went way beyond her leader duties. She give 110% to her job. Always happy smiling and giving information about the country

The itinerary was great in terms of places. We saw a great variety of places rather than just the obvious Japanese cities. I loved Nagano and really enjoyed staying at the ryokan and monastery. The tour leader was useful with logistics, but often seemed in a rush looking at things. He was nice, but wasn't so much of a guide telling us about the sites. Having previously done a trip with Intrepid, specific guides for castles etc were provided, which gave us much more of a feel for the place we were visiting and the country itself. I was surprised that for the most part, our guide didn't come round the sites eg Matsumoto castle with us. Having 2 free days at the start of the trip, we had no way of contacting the guide, which was quite stressful in a new country. I understand there was a problem with WhatsApp, but an alternative should have been found immediately for safety. I would have preferred the guide to suggest more authentic food experiences rather than mostly at train stations for dinner. There were too many free days, for an escorted holiday. It felt very much we were left to do our own thing, which meant alot of time with people going off in pairs or individually, which isn't so great if you've signed up to a group trip. Other holiday companies gave lots of suggestions for specific activities during free time. It would have been nice to have suggestions of noodle making, origami making, or a sushi class.

I really enjoyed my visit to Japan. The country has so much to offer and the itinerary packed a lot in. We did a lot of travelling by train, which could get quite tiring but we made good time to arrive at train stations and so it wasn’t too stressful. Our tour leader was ok but didn’t impress me as much as I’ve had on previous trips. He didn’t seem to engage with us much and I didn’t feel that his tour was informative. It felt to me that he didn’t really want to be there. The group I was with were lovely though and made the trip enjoyable.

Dean G was an extraordinary guide replete with fascinating items of interest. Exhibiting humor,empathy,knowledge and patience he shepherded the twelve of us ranging in age from 17 to 74 through myriad experiences. One can always nitpick ones itinerary but the overall trip was a smashing success and fir.idable entry to the country and its culture.

Simply Japan was everything I hoped it would be, and more! The variety of experiences and destinations, the transport arrangements, the accommodation were all really good. Our guide Tom Fallon was really excellent - he really did play a key role in making a first class trip. He helped us navigate the cultural differences in Japan and his tours were very informative. I learned a lot about japanese culture and customs. His choice of restaurants was also excellent. Thank you, Tom, for a really memorable trip. I will definitely travel with Explore again.

Tom was an excellent guide - one of the best I've had on any trip. Very knowledgeable and highly organised making the trip truly superb. The itinerary was great - giving the opportunity to sample a wide range of what Japan has to offer. Enjoyed the train travel and it was great not having long travel days within the schedule

Loved this trip. A couple of the hotels were not great, and I feel like you could have easily found nicer accommodations given the price we paid, since hotels are not expensive. The hotel in Tokyo was great. Henrick our guide was fantastic. He was super knowledgeable, friendly, agreeable and never tired of our questions. The second ryokan we stayed at was not great in Yakamaya, Minshuku Iwatakan. Shin Osaka Washington Plaza was not nice. Tabino Hotel in Matsumoto not good. Hotel Mielparque Hiroshima not good - dirty.

An action packed 2 weeks which you only realise how much you saw, experienced and achieved until you are back home looking back at the pictures.

Everything was exactly as described on the website

I this trip provides a good introduction to Japan. We covered a lot of ground and visited many places using trains to move efficiently. Our guide Irene was exceptional in so many way and made the trip so memorable.

Tom did an excellent job - was knowledgeable, interested in sharing his expertise on Japan, on free days he organized tours, took us to some interesting restaurants, always available. I think that he should voted as best tour guide this year! I had a great time. Jack

Our Tour guide Tom was brilliant. Thank goodness he spoke Japanese and knew the ins and out of the travelling and good eating places. We visited so many fabulous places he suggested and he gave us the history

This was also my second trip with Explore and I can't fault them. As a solo female traveller, I like to join a tour, mainly because someone will notice if I don't show up for breakfast! But I also love an itinerary, and not having to think about what I'm doing, staying or eating! I also had a fantastic tour group and it's nice to meet new people and listen to their stories. This tour is very full on, due the time difference, travel and walking involved. I'd been to Japan before so knew what to expect but it was lovely to discover some new places and return to old ones. Our tour guide, Tom, was great! Very enthusiastic about Japan and knew a lot about Buddhism and the way it fits into Japanese life. He took us to amazing places to eat. On the last day we went to Tako Tako King for our farewell dinner, and the takoyaki was delicious. He also did some optional tours on the free days and showed us some cool places. He also takes a great photo! With this tour, you do get some free days. For these parts I would recommend researching what to do before you go, especially for Tokyo, as some popular attractions do need to be booked in advance. I for example went to Disneyland, but Tokyo has unlimited options of things to do. A real highlight for me was Miyajima Island. I thought it was absolutely beautiful. I wish we could have had dinner there and spent the night. I loved all of the hotels we stayed in, the only one that let it down slightly was Hotel Mielparque Hiroshima. It wasn't that bad, but it was dated and smelled like cigarette smoke. But like the others, the breakfast was pretty decent. Overall fantastic tour, would recommend! I'll certainly be back to Japan in the future. And I'm planning to book another Explore tour in the next couple of months.

Simply Japan could not have been a better introduction to Japan for my husband and I. Our tour guide Jeff Contreares was fabulous and provided so much incite to Japan as we toured round. The hotels were brilliantly located, just some seemed a little tired, but as it was a base to sleep it really didn't detract from the tour. Some early starts and a lot of walking, but that did not matter, we wanted to capture everything, getting up before the tour day started to take pictures of the local area.

Our guide was Raya, who was excellent. She was friendly, enthusiastic and well organised. She led the group on trips when we had our own time to see various parts of the places we visited. Raya was especially good in giving us insights into Japanese culture and customs.

We thoroughly enjoyed our recent Simply Japan trip. The size of the group at 16 people was perfect, you wouldn't want any bigger. The accommodation was excellent throughout. we particularly liked the stay in the Zenkoji Temple lodgings, as was the food. The "banquet" at the "minshuku" featuring the "Hine beef"was simply outstanding. Sam, our guide was fantastic, full of detailed knowledge of all of the locations, both geographic and historic, and very adept at shepherding our tour group through the Tokyo and Osaka metro systems as well as onto trains and buses when travelling around the country. He was also the master at delivering excellent but affordable meals wherever we went, so much so that we were well under budget at the end of our trip. Overall this was a fantastic trip that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to friends. The only thing I would have changed was to add an extra day in Kyoto as there is so much to do and see there. We had some extra time at the end so travelled back to Kyoto from Osaka to visit some of the things we had missed on the tour.

Interesting, well organised and varied itinerary including some free time. Excellent tour guide Marco.

This was a brilliant tour, covering many key Japanese highlights. Our tour guide, Jeff Contreras, was brilliant with a deep knowledge of Japanese culture and history. He was a completely outstanding guide who ensured the holiday was fun for everyone in the group. We felt supported for the whole trip and had complete faith in our guide's ability to facilitate our travel and visits. The itinerary was exciting and perfectly manageable as we travelled from one amazing location to another. The excellent selection of destinations gave us the opportunity to explore many aspects of Japan, each one with its own unique atmosphere. There was enough free time to do some exploring on our own. The hotels were all outstanding, better than we had anticipated. The stay at the Zenkoji Yakuo In temple was magical, especially rising early to see the monks' rituals. We would definitely recommend this as a fantastic introduction to Japan.

Need to start by saying that the trip was wonderful. There are always a few things that could be a little better but the holiday was great. One thing that couldn’t be improved upon is the utterly amazing tour leader, Raya. She couldn’t have done anything more to make the trip any better. She was so good at communicating her love of Japan and went above and beyond in every way. What a pleasure spending time being shown Japan by her! It looks as if Explore may have already made some changes to future itineraries. It would have been better to have an additional day in Kyoto and if Osaka is the final stop then the hotel should be nicer. Better pre trip assistance on getting to the hotel from the airport would have been a good idea and greater explanation of the length of time when suitcases wouldn’t be available and that there would be storage for things carried on those days so the day sack didn’t need to be as minimal as was implied. However overall a great experience.

The tour travelled at a very quick pace and what we experienced was a diverse, superficial look at a broad section of Japan. The good things were the number of places we visited and the information provided by our guide. The group were lovely, the Japanese people very helpful and everywhere was extremely clean. Visiting Hiroshima was a trip highlight and very moving. Our luggage traveling ahead worked particularly well. The things that worked less well included day one in Tokyo (agenda too full and only one break in a long day), the restaurants we were taken to (a few were good but mostly not), the Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka hotels were poor (horrible breakfast and uncomfortable beds). Overall this was a memorable holiday and I would consider Explore for future trips but would probably book their upgraded holidays for greater comfort.

Thé Simply Japan vacation we had with Explore was the trip of a lifetime! Our guide Raya was very knowledgeable, ever patient, and full of good humour. The itinerary provided a very comprehensive array of activities; we felt we saw lots but were never rushed. I would encourage future tours to include a visit to the Sanjusangendo Temple (with the impressive 1001 statues - wow!); it was not to be missed! Also, I would encourage some sort of way to mark the leader’s progression through streets when there are shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, as some people got separated from the main group several times - yikes! I would definitely encourage others to take the Simply Japan tour. We loved it - and our guide!

This was a very busy and interesting tour which gives a good overview of Japanese life and culture. Unfortunately there was little time to see Japan outside the major tourist hubs so there was a lot of concrete. The place is spotlessly clean, the natives are very friendly and the food was excellent. Our guide Andrew spoke perfect English and looked after us very well.

The Simply Japan trip is a great way to get a taste of Japan in 12 days...it hits a number of key locations including Tokyo, Zenkoji Temple, Hiroshima and Miyajima Island and Kyoto, and includes many neat experiences such as walking through the woods to see the snow monkeys of Jigokudani, spending a night in the Zenkoji Temple, and joining the monks for morning prayers.

An outstanding tour covering as much as is possible in two weeks from modern cities to traditional shrines. Quite hard work using public transport and and lots of walking but that just makes the tour better. We had a great guide and some extraordinary experiences from Snow Monkeys to Bullet trains and bathing in an Onsen in a traditional Inn to tasting some amazing food.