I love Rick Steves Europe tours. I like the style of travel, quality of guides, and the balance of group vs independent time. And they fit my budget.
I’d like to take my daughter to Japan. Any recommendations of a tour company? Who is the Rick Steves of Asia?
I have traveled with three companies that do tours of Asia. Tauck, Adventures by Disney & G Adventures/cobranded with National Geographic. (G Adventures also has other trips which aren't cobranded.)
Tauck is wildly expensive. Adventures by Disney is expensive. G Adventures is cheaper than Tauck. I found the travel ethic through G Adventures/National Geographic to be a high quality tour on two adventures so far. (Costa Rica & Morocco) ABD is hit/miss. I did not enjoy Tauck, although others swear by them. As with any travel experience, ymmv.
I would feel comfortable recommending those websites as a place to start looking. And if anyone does know who the Rick Steves of Asia is, I want to know, too!!!
Would you consider a custom made trip for you and your daughter in Japan?
Please put me on the list that is looking for the Rick Steves of Asian travel!
I also love Rick Steve's Europe, especially the guide books, videos and audio tours. Any suggestions for an Asian equivalent?
There are lots of good resources for independent travel in many parts of Asia (it's a big place, some parts are not covered well and are more challenging). Independent travel is quite easy in many of the places tourists want to go. Don't be intimidated, you can do it!
I have not done a tour with either of these, I have only done scuba trips to Asia, but I have seen that other posters on this forum recommend them. I am not sure if your daughters age, so these may be a bit if an older group.
Odyssey's Unlimited
Far Horizon’s ( focuses on archeology)
Reid Coen, one of Rick’s tour guides also has his own company, Imprint Tours. They do Rick Steves style tours to non-European locations, including Asia. I went to Africa with them earlier this year and loved the tour (my first). The only problem is that it is a very small company, so they don’t run a lot of tours. I know they go to China, Thailand, Vietnam and India, but not necessarily every year. I don’t believe he goes to Japan or hasn’t yet.
Thank you Carroll for the information about Imprint Tours. I checked out their website and am pretty excited about what I saw. I have to say that having Rick Steves endorsement front and center certainly added to my interest. The Viet Nam tour looks like it includes all that we have been looking for in the way of itinerary and for an added bonus they seem to follow the Rick Steves format. We haven't been able to find a lot in the way of reviews but those that we have seen have ben positive. We have been considering independent travel for this one since we haven't seen just what we were looking for, but we are giving this group very serious consideration.
We like Vantage World Travel and here are some reviews of our tours/river cruises with them.
They are excellent and cheaper than Tauck, Viking, AMA and Avalon.
Russia, Kiev and Baltics
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1478384
China
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1718320
Portugal, the Douro River and a bit of Spain
http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=535267
Also, just fly into Tokyo and books some tours with Viator. Don't miss Kyoto.
