Japan

This might be a good place to start:
https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&date_range=6m&filter=Travel+Forum&query=Japan%2C+tour&utf8=✓

Odysseys Unlimited offers a small group, Rick Steves type tour but with much nicer accomodations.

The price they give includes airfare but you can just pay for the land portion and make your own flight reservations.

I suggest you also take the optional add on to Hiroshima.

We took the Odysseys Unlimited “Japan” tour which was excellent. Accommodations were nice, not luxurious, but we found them very comfortable. There were 22 people on our tour. they
It is one of our favorite trips, we usually travel independently, and I highly recommend it.

We are traveling to Japan on March 20 of this year. We booked through Inside Japan.
We are 2 couples so we opted for a private tour which we could customize. Our itinerary is as follows
Toyko 5 nights
Osaka 4 nights
Kyoto 6 nights
Tokyo - 6 nights

They arranged
Airport pickup/ drop off
Train tickets between cities
Hotels
A full day city guide in each city
Day trip to Mt Fuji
Classes in Flower arrangement and Ink block printing
Kabuki theatre tickets
2 food tours - one in Tokyo, one in Osaka
Tea ceremony
Kimono dress up with photos
Metro card for subway with $25 each card (4)
Portable wifi device
Tickets for one day to Disney Sea

They sent us a detailed booklet with all instructions for trains, subway, guide names, hotel info, phone number to call if we need help, general info on Japan (money, etc) and more. there was also a booklet for each city with suggestions for our free days.

The main booklet has QR codes to open with all the city booklet info in case we didn’t want to bring them along.

We arranged our own flights and they did require us to take out travel insurance.

I don’t know when you plan on traveling but I will do a Trip report when I return April 11).

I’m headed there this month with inspiring vacations. First time using them so I will post how it went after tour. Look also at Gate 1 travel.

Barbara, that looks like a great trip! Looks like you have a lot of interesting experiences booked.

We (the royal 'we', as I do all of the research and planning, subject to my husband's input of course) are just finishing the details for our 28-day trip in the Fall. I am curious, if you don't mind my asking, how Inside Japan handles the costs when it comes to hotels: are the prices all per person? or do they simply pass along the per room charges from the hotel?

I can answer your question on Inside Japan because we have used them as well for our trip this Fall. Their pricing is per person and is a total package price-not broken down by hotels, activities or transport.

Thanks, Tammy!
That is what I suspected, as most tour operators/agents operate the same way.

I am seriously looking at Odyssey for late Oct in Japan. I like their itinerary over several others. Do you know if they use earbuds / headphones during tours? I have some hearing loss and found the Whisper earbuds used on our RS Italy tour really helpful.

We are booked on an Odyssey’s Japan tour in October. All October dates are booked except October 30. I suggest you reserve soon.

I did book w Odyssey for Oct 30. We are very excited and now using the few Japanese words we know, Konnichiwa and Arigato. Hope to expand our vocabulary in the next few months. I will be watching this site for your trip reviews. I learned to so from your comments and reviews before our Italy trip. This is my favorite travel forum. Thank you.

We used Kensington for three cities in Japan in October 2024. Private guides through them plus I added some Context tours and food tours. We booked our own air with JAL. JAL business class, Kensington, and Kyoto’s 1000 Hotel are all recommended.

We are also using Odyssey and our trip begins May 28. I was very happy to see the positive comments here because this is my first trip with them. I've been on four RS tours, and did one Road Scholar (the other RS!) trip last year. I'll post a trip report when I return.