InsideJapan ToursReviews 

Inside Japan put together a wonderful varied itinerary for us and our grown children and partners. Everything went smoothly and the support team in Japan always responded very quickly to any queries we had. Great trip. Thanks Jess!

Inside Japan Tours arranged another excellent trip for us this spring. The trip was exactly what we wanted. Very professional and helpful service from initial contact with the company to the time we left Japan. They were quick to respond to emails and requests I sent during the trip as well. We'll definitely be booking our next trip to Japan with them again. Thank you, Inside Japan Tours!

It was my first time in Japan with my three (adult) children. I am Dutch but found out that Inside Japan Travel had a great reputation. The preparation was carefully done on the basis of our desires. Once there every little detail was taken care of including a physical guide with QR codes for further deepdives. Immaculate organisation, a local based helpdesk and absolute top private guides. I would recommend Inside Japan Travel to anybody who wants to make the most out of their trip to this magic country.

The staff were very helpful throughout the entire period. From booking to the end of my trip I felt comforted and reassured that I was being looked after and I could reach out to them at any point in time if I had any queries or concerns.

A fast moving smooth itinerary, with a kaleidoscopic insight to Japan. The tour, communication, transport and accommodation was perfect. And the guide, Antonio was the best we have ever experienced in all our travels. A score of 11/10.

Everything from start to finish was easy and worth the investment of time and money. We traveled on our own as a family of three, but with our customized itinerary and infopack, it was an amazing trip. Everything worked just as our tour coordinator described, from having our train tickets delivered to our first hotel, to meeting up with a handful of tour guides along the way. If you’re on the fence, you should definitely choose this company!

Excellent organization. No slips, no problems. Local guides were well informed and very helpful.

Worked closely with Jenny Yoakum in the planning of this solo trip to Tohoku.
We had specific ideas and she had personal experience that we blended to make an excellent itinerary

Our travel planner, Amy, was fantastic. She listened to what we cared about, made great recommendations that aligned with our interests, and was there for us throughout the process for every single question and itinerary change. There are always a few things that go sideways on a trip, and the InsideJapan team was always there to help us through them, and even went above and beyond in making good on minor errors. The trip itself was the vacation of a lifetime. We came away from it with a deeper understanding of Japan and a desire to learn more on future trips. We experienced amazing cherry blossoms and sites with tour guides who were dialed into local gems and a willingness to be flexible while also getting us to some of the most famous can't miss sites. Most importantly, our interactions with local artisans were so special. We came back home with hand-made souvenirs attached to memories that will stick with us for years to come.

This tour of Inside Japan was everything I was looking for. It wasn't the regular trip to all the well trodden tourist sites. It was fast paced and fabulous highlighting so many aspects of a very real Japan. Our experienced and wise tour leader Hanan was extraordinary making our journey possible even when a typhoon raged.

Sheila our travel agent was great at suggestions for tours and how we should journey around the country, the trains and baggage assistance, and listening to what we wanted.
The trip was successful, accomodation was very comfortable and would definitely use them again. Everything went smoothly.

Excellent experience from start to finish. We did a bespoke self-guided tour and it was tailored to our needs. Great hotels and Ryokan's. Transport tickets were very well organised and nothing went wrong.
Japan is such an amazing place to visit.
Would definitely recommend using Inside Japan for your first visit.

Excellent tour leader who was organized, fun and very knowledgeable. Great rapport with all in our group as well as with Japanese hosts.

Great to deal with, listened and took on board what we wanted our trip to be. Documents and information provided was organised and easy to understand. Locations and standard of hotels were fantastic.

We gave InsideJapan a ballpark budget for a 16 day trip that included Tokyo (Twice) Hakone, Kyoto, Osako, Hiroshima & Takayama.

We booked the flights ourselves as we wanted direct flights (I also had Avios points I wanted to set off against these and if Inside Japan booked direct flights they would have put a margin on the flights as well as the rest of the trip) and really didn't want to change in Honk Kong or should I say it the Middle East either

Once I booked the flights I asked InsideJapan to work out an itinerary with suggested trips, hotels, train reservations etc.

We agreed an itinerary after a few iterations and said I did not want any train travel before mid-morning, which they duly obliged and booked the majority of trains around 11:00am which was perfect.

On reviewing the hotels I said after reviewing the hotels that we need to upgrade some of these as I was looking for 5 star hotels of which we managed to change some but not all and this increased the cost but I was prepared to pay for these as we wanted comfortable trip. The one hotel we were so disappointed in was the Vischio Hotel in Kyoto, on arrival they showed us to our room and we were gobsmacked to find that we could not get us and our luggage into the room and was so claustrophobic, on talking to the reception staff I said we cannot stay in that room for 3 days and insisting that they show us a larger room, the initial room was 21 sq metres and the largest room they had was 38 sq metres, which we duly moved into at an extra cost of £350 of which I paid and subsequently was refunded by Inside Japan. I particularly tried to change this hotel before we traveled and was advised there was no availability in Kyoto at that time. I enquired with a number of hotels and there was availability with superior hotels but I got the feeling they couldn't be bothered to change the booking, they really couldn't be arsed. Also I was told that the hotel had an a la carte restaurant and bar which quickly became apparent that they did not have this basic facility, and we had to eat out of the hotel overnight. This hotel is definitely no more than 3 star not the 4 star quoted. This really did take the edge off the trip, very frustrating and disappointing.

Also InsideJapan had arranged a taxi to take us from Hakone to Odawara Station and had allowed 45 minutes for the transfer and the actual journey took 50 minutes and we thought we had missed the train, we ran through the station and I fell over on the escalators and cut my arm, my wife actually held up the bullet train till I could get on the train albeit with a bleeding arm. The train was 8 minutes late leaving because of this. InsideJapan did refund the cost of the taxi but the stress this caused could have easily been avoided. we were relying on there expertise to get basic transfer times correct. Had I booked this myself I would have checked the transfer times before pre-booking a taxi.

On our second day in Tokyo we visited the Digital Labs which was excellent and we were advised to spend the afternoon Chilling out in Shimokitazawa, but on looking at the booklet there was no instruction as to where the location was, I contacted the office in Japan and they told me to go to Shibuya station which I subsequently found out this was incorrect, this area really is for young people and since we are both retired it did not seem appropriate so we really felt we wasted half a day here.

Also if we had the the right hotel in Kyoto we could have stayed longer in that location and visited Osaka for the day as it was only half hour on the train, and would have saved on struggling to different hotels and made the trip more relaxing.

When we left Takayama to go back to Tokyo we decided that we would change the train to leave at 08:00 am so we could get back to Tokyo at lunchtime so we could chill before our flight home. I really couldn't trust the company to change our train tickets for the two trains to get back to Tokyo so I changed these myself at the station with the help of google translate and friendly train staff.

On a positive the trips we had we generally good, the one in Kyoto was excellent but on our Tokyo trip they tied to take us to the palace gardens on a Monday but it was closed and is always closed on a Monday.

The highlights for us were:-
The bullet train
Digital Labs Exhiibition
Mayajima
Nira
Mount Fuji
Hiroshima - Peace memorial
and plenty of Tepyanaki

We are used to travelling world wide and making our own arrangements, but we thought because Japan is culturally so different it would be better to book with a travel company, I only wished I had booked it myself as I believe we would have had a smoother itinerary, better hotels, less travel stress and probably I would have saved money as well.

I shall continue to make my own arrangements in future as you can only blame yourself then.

Great trip but impression of co average.

Inside Japan Tours created an excellent self guided tour for us based on our desired destinations and budget. I would highly recommend them.

Good travel company with inside information- would recommend

Excellent service, organization and communication.

Fantastic service from Emily at Inside Japan. Perfect itinerary and beautifully curated itinerary.

First tour group trip and it was amazing. The itinerary, accommodations, experiences and restaurants were better than described. The best part was our amazing tour guide who went above and beyond. Highly recommend.