Japan - guided tours 2025

[SmithfamilyRobinson]

Special birthday next year and I wanted to treat DH and I to a trip to Japan, ideally with a tour company versus independent travellers (due to stress & age). I have a few brochures already but the reviews at least for two are awful (Trailfinders who use Trafalgar and Exodus). I looked at Jules Verne and the accommodation is somewhat impersonal versus Exodus when the reviews indicate a group of 17 sharing 2 toilets in the quaint but shabby homestay type places...
Any suggestions? We have used Explore in Thailand so I understand the mix of basic and better to get to that price point. TIA

We used trailfinders to plan ours. So it was just the 2 of us, it's a very easy country to travel round and someone met us at the airport to give us all the train tickets for 2 weeks and there was a really helpful app to take you from place to place. Very stress free.

I imagine their group tours would be the same. We were staying in business hotels mostly, nice locations.

How much are you prepared to spend? We have recently returned from Japan using Audley Travel who prepared a personalised itinerary for us which was a mix of tours with guides who came to our hotel to meet us (cultural, food tours) and independent travel with trains, hiking, free days in cities etc. It was the perfect mix for us and they can tailor your hotels to your budget. Their local agent came to the airport to meet us and hand over our rail passes, subway cards and vouchers. They were a good half-way house between the likes of Kuoni and Jules Verne, and companies like Scott Dunn (whom we have used in the past but whose prices can be exorbitant) - SD aren't really set up for the budget traveller so although you will have an amazing holiday they seem to start by assuming you wish to be spoon-fed all the way.

I've travelled to Japan both independently and on tours, and cannot recommend Inside Japan highly enough. They have small group tours at varying price points, and itineraries that cover the main highlights or the more off the beaten path destinations.

@AlohaRose thanks. Looking at costs, it seems to he about £5k per person plus flights which is the budget.
Will check out Audley Travel. Actually Explore had very good reviews for this trip 10-12 days.
It's difficult to gauge what might feel budget versus comfortable. Sharing toilets I described above doesn't work, but fair enough, doesn't need to be en suite throughout!

Inside Japan

You could definitely do a trip for £5k per person. On a side note, public toilets in Japan are amazing! They are everywhere, really clean, non-smelly and the basic seems to be heated seats, temperature-adjustable water sprays and background music or running water sounds.

Also hotels are going to be clean, super clean, even hostel type hotels. There'll be a shared public bath - that's normal. So you'll either go in and use it on your own or it'll be a bigger baths that you'll lose with lots of other people. But unless you somewhere quite upmarket it's unlikely to be in your room.

We stayed in a couple of hostel type places with a shared bath and also shared toilets.

The more basic places with futons on the floor (or posh places with futons) were fine for a night for me - but 2 nights would have been pushing it.

It was fine when I lived there in my 20s but in my 50s .... I'm used to a bed now and need a bed.

Intrepid travel - haven't used them for Japan, but have for China, Egypt and Australia. I would happily recommend them

Another vote for Inside Japan. We used their sister company as well to organise a trip to Vietnam. Both trips were great and balanced leaving us to our own devices with days with excellent local hosts/guides who were able to take us to the less well-trodden temples and gardens, good hotels/ryokans, Japan Rail pass (again, the services of a guide on day one to help us navigate the admin around getting the pass validated and booking the trains we wanted was a really helpful touch), various cultural trips (food tours, tea ceremony,) that you could pre-book if you wanted.

Inside Japan are great. It's worth noting that there can be a lack of privacy in traditional Japanese hotels (ryokans and minshuku). En suite loos are an upgrade rather than the norm, and baths are usually shared (but bookable for private use). Japan is a really low-stress destination, so don't worry too much. Things rarely go wrong and when they do people will do all they can to help.

I went on an InsideJapan tour last year. Everything was organised. I suggest adding on a day or two to explore museums etc. on your own.

I am thinking of doing a tour with them. Any tips welcome. I know this is a zombie thread but trying to revive it.

We went with inside Japan tours. Really easy to book. We were met at the airport with other people from our tour and taken to the first hotel. From what I can remember the cost included accommodation, transport between cities, one or two meals but not day trips because these were optional. One day we had free to do what we liked.

Any questions?

Did you feel it was worth the money, and how long did you have before the tour started to recover from jet lag?

Yes it was worth the money as I didn't have to navigate public transport and didn't speak any Japanese and most people we met didn't speak English but were very helpful and friendly. The tour guides were there to answer questions. It was good meeting the others on the tour.

On the first day we had a little time to do our own thing before meeting the others for a welcome meal. The following day we started sightseeing. No time for jet lag and to be honest I think we were all fine.

Thank you.

We used Trail finders to organise the travel for us. So we were met off the plane by a man with a bag of tickets and the itinerary and we just took ourselves off.

The Trail finders app told us where to get off trains and which exit was the one we needed, Google maps was really good too. We chose our own sightseeing, places to eat etc.

It helped that I'd lived there - but that was 30 years ago - but I found that train stations etc all had excellent English signage. And in the touristy spots there were English menus and non touristy spots had picture menus or plastic food in the window (that's a Japanese thing, not a for tourists thing). We loved it.

Planning to go again once we've retired and I'll just do the planning myself - I just didn't have time to do it this time.

You have heard from enough people about Inside Japan and I’d agree. I wouldn’t discount independent travel organised by them however. Two things, firstly they organise every detail and secondly everything in Japan works as it should. You won’t be let down by taxis, hotels etc. They will arrange for your luggage to be sent in from hotel to hotel so all you have to carry is a small day bag. We did it two years ago and we aren’t young.

I really recommend Selective Asia

What puts me off about them is we asked them to cost an overnight stay before the tour starts and they quoted £260 for a hotel that costs £90 on booking.com. Also asked them what it would cost for a guide for a couple of hours in Tokyo and the price
wss just ludicrous. So I feel if they’re ripping us off over that, what else are they ripping us off over.

@GorgeousTulips I suppose the question is how much are you willing to pay for them to do your thinking and planning for you? It will be significantly cheaper to book things yourself but some people want someone else to do that for them and can afford to pay a couple of grand extra per person for a reputable company like Inside Japan to do it all for them and ensure they are taken care of.
I don’t think it’s a rip off as such. I do think the value of what they provide is probably fair bit worse now than say 10-20 years ago when there was less information available, Japanese websites were far less accessible to non-Japanese speakers and it was a lot more complicated to arrange things yourself. Japan is now a very easy place to travel independently (I went back in 2008 and then again earlier this year) so only you can decide whether you think what they offer is worth the premium for you.
We did not use a tour company and booked everything ourselves, which is far, far cheaper but involves a fair bit of planning and research.

We arranged it ourselves and it is super easy to do. You can get guides for the day if you want but I don't think you need one. Look at Klook, get your guide or air BnB experience. There are a lot of websites and you tube videos you can watch to plan.
We managed by just speaking English and almost all signs in the main cities are in English.

Do you mean it's generally shared bathrooms in hotels or are you referring to hostels?? We are also planning a trip to Japan but with 2 children.

Did anyone use Inside Japan for travel with children? Do they do any family tours? Kids will be 13 and 9 at time of travel...

In my experience a shared bathroom would be highly unusual in a hotel. Even budget hotel chains have private bathrooms, usually with a bathtub, shower and always a bidet toilet.