Japan Tours for Experienced Travelers

A great itinerary with excellent accommodation and included meals. The leader, Raya, was an extraordinary guide with a great bubbly personality and just so knowable about all aspects, especially the history of destinations and sites.

it was a very fun vacation. I enjoyed the small trips that we did with the drums. I enjoyed the pottery. That was great to see. I did the tea which was amazing. It was a great trip and the people that were on the trip with us were fantastic. You should go.

My husband and I joined a group of 14 for the Simply Japan tour in November and enjoyed a really fabulous memorable trip. We were very lucky with mostly sunny dry weather for the entire trip allowing us to enjoy the autumn colours. Our group got on well. We were guided by an outstanding multilingual guide, Raya, who was passionate and knowledgeable about Japan, particularly Japanese history and customs. The itinerary was a great introduction to the country, a full on whistlestop tour, so expect lots of daily walking through stations, markets and shrines and temples. Nice contrast between modern and traditional Japan. All accommodation was of a good standard. Recommend to top or tail the trip with a longer city stay to see more of Tokyo/Kyoto or Osaka (we had 3 extra nights in Tokyo at the beginning) as the real highlights of the tour are the bits in between - the magnificent Matsumoto Castle, stunning Zenkoji Temple in Nagano and the beautiful Miyaijma Island were my favourites, and the Shinkansen trains of course. The Hiroshima memorial museum was unpleasantly crammed full of people and school kids, too busy to appreciate the significance, although the peace park surrounding it was worth visiting and right next to our hotel. The Explore guide Raya helped to make the trip for us - so motivating and caring, and keen to navigate to help everyone enjoy this varied tour even on the free days.

Although busy, the itinerary gave us an excellent overview of all that Japan has to offer - history, shrines/temples, gardens and the contrast between traditional and modern Japan. At the same time there were opportunities to follow up our own interests and explore by ourselves. Our guide, Henrik, was brilliant - nothing was too much trouble, he cared for our welfare and was very knowledgeable about history, customs etc. He always offered options for our free time and/or made suggestions and guided us to find our own way when that was our preference. Explore made a point of using public transport wherever possible so we experienced a range of different types - Henrik was always on hand to lead or guide us so that we navigated the system and ticketing with ease.

We really enjoyed our trip to Japan! The itinerary allowed us to see most of the main things that we were looking forward to. We would have liked it if going to Tokyo Tower had been part of the itinerary. There was a good variety of optional experiences to choose from as well

This was an amazing tour, providing an excellent introduction to Japan. The itinerary included key destinations such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Osaka, as well as less well-known ones. The almost exclusive use of public transport - including the Shinkansen (bullet train) - helped to give a genuine travel experience and the hotels were all extremely comfortable, well-located and with great choices available for breakfast. The ryokan experience in Nagoya provided another experience. The only negative aspect was the ryokan at Takayama, which was unwelcoming, uncomfortable and cold. The tour leader was a great communicator, very well organised and enthusiastic. He had good knowledge of Japan, it’s history and culture; made great suggestions for the periods of free time; and managed well the often diverse demands of members of the group.