Inside Travel Group Traveller Reviews

From Osaka travelled to Shikoku and then on to Mount Koya and Kumono Kodo with InsideJapan Tours who organised a bespoke experience using their excellent local knowledge and understanding of the fascinating country of Japan.

InsideJapan have excellent local knowledge and experience to provide a variety of types of holidays - self-guided holidays are so easy when supported by their teams in England and Japan to ensure your visit gives you a understanding of the Japanese people and their culture.

The company put together a structured tour that allowed us to travel independently around Japan, knowing that the main accommodation and travel elements were sorted. In two weeks we spent time in Tokyo, climbed Fuji, toured Hakone and Kyoto, stayed on the island of Miyajima, used bullet trains, local trains, taxi's, tube and bus and experienced traditional Ryokan hotels, Japanese food and hospitality.

They listened to our wish-list, then put together a tour to make it come true in the most effective way possible. Excellent local knowledge meant they kept a perfect balance between exposure to real Japan, with some "Western" respite for our two young boys. Great job.

Our family of five could not have asked for a better planned Japanese vacation. our communications with the tour company answered all of our questions and made sure that we were totally prepared for our time in Japan. We saw such a variety of Japanese life, from cities to the rural settings and back to ultra-Tokyo. Our tour guide, Richard Farmer, was well-prepared daily for not only the information that we needed to know to appreciate what we were seeing, but also, our many transport experiences which would have confounded foreigners. Our tour guide had the times, stations, switches down to a tee. We never missed any of our connections amazingly. Even the optional activities were shared with us so that we could personalize our visit if we wanted to do something on our own. The flexibility of this plus the amiability of our travelling companions made for such an excellent experience. Our tour guide was also very accessible and demonstrated his love for Japanese culture by giving us personal insights that you wouldn't find in a book. We came home exhausted but exhilarated with our small group tour to Japan.

Richard Farmer has to be one of the best planners and communicators of any travel agency working in Japan. He seemed to not only know book knowledge but also cultural insights. He spoke and read the language and aided the group with all language barriers that we might have had if we had travelled on our own. He wove humor naturally into his presentations and brought our diverse group from two different countries in such a way that we all left as friends.

A whirlwind tour of some of the highlights of Japan. Travelling from Tokyo to Hakone. Hakone to Osaka. Osaka to Kyoto. Kyoto to Takayama. Takayama to Kamikochi. Kamikochi back to Tokyo. Everything about this tour is arranged to give you the widest range of experiences in the time allowed. Tokyo is a bustling city where I experienced an epic fireworks festival, Meji Shrine, amazing vegan food and Japanese life on the Yamanote Line. Hakone was relaxing and the open air art museum was one of the best museums I have ever visited and features amazing landscape views equal in beauty to the art. Osaka is a fun city that has a traditional castle which is a great example of castle architecture. The centre of town has a great energy to it and looks great at night all lit up. Kyoto is beautiful, traditional and is the Japan most people think of. Its has an abundance of temples and shrines my favourite of which is Fushimi Inari. Takayama is a sleepy town with a lovely relaxed vibe. It's traditional streets and open air market are great to explore. If you want a bit of fun in the evening head to Redhill bar. Kamikochi is the location of the so called Japanese Alps. The scenery is dynamic and breathtaking. If you love hiking and relaxing this is the place to go. I cannot recommend this trip enough if you are thinking of visiting Japan.

Inside Japan take all the hastle out of travelling around Japan. From arranging airport transfers and Japan Rail Passes. Inside Japan is an excellent company that specialises in creating a personal unforgettable experience. The Tour Leaders are knowledgable and help with every aspect of the tour. They do not walk around with a flag or an umbrella. This means you get a more intimate and personalised experience.

I wanted to visit Japan for my round birthday as there is a special festival called Tanabata in Japan that falls on the day of my birthday. With my friend we added to the festival experience a small guided tour followed by a self guided experience. Basically we made a round trip of the main places of the Japan's main island (Honshu). InsideJapan Tours helped us with planning, arranging a variety of experiences, accommodation, travel in Japan and guided tours. In 19 days we have seen a lot of beauty, experienced all kinds of tastes, flavors, colors, festivals, super kind people as well as repeatedly being "lost in translation". :-) We had great fun and will never forget this special summer vacation!

As I said above, InsideJapan Tours was very helpful in making this trip a success! We especially liked that they were open and flexible to accommodate and adjust according to our needs and desires. At the same time they gave us some very helpful suggestions for our trip like luggage forwarding or with regards to travel arrangements, seat reservations in trains ....

We wanted a sub tropical holiday in a place were most westerners did not visit, this fitted perfectly, although we do not speak very much Japanese, it was not a problem at all , the Japanese people are so helpful, and the way that the holiday was organised made the trip very easy, we would do the whole trip again without any hesitation it was fantastic, Sophie and her team at Inside Japan did a wonderful job and tailored our holiday with a hitch.

Very adaptable and helpful, guided every step of the way and tickets provided for every part of our trip, (5 flights 3 ferries and much more) they made what would be a complicated trip for us very easy indeed!

We travelled around Japan by our selves on a self guided tailored package set up by Inside japan. We let them know what we wanted to see, how long we had and our budget and they set it up from there with a little more input from us. The whole trip went like clockwork and was brilliantly co-ordinated and documented. We highly recommend them and will contact them next time we go to Japan.

If you are looking to go to Japan and do not know where to start then go straight to Inside Japan Tours. We took our friends recommendation to contact Inside Japan and were glad we did. They were extremely helpful, thorough, reliable as well as flexible and friendly. We had a great time and everything they organised for us was so well done.

InsideJapan Tours put together a selfguided tour for us where we navigated Japan using a couple of booklets specially prepared for our trip. They did a fantastic job on communication before the tour and the booklets were very clear.

We had booked a self-guided tour of cities and mountains in Japan through Inside Japan. All arrangements went extremely smoothly and we encountered a wealth of experiences along the way including making soba noodles and learning origami to staying in a traditional Ryokan guesthouse. We have returned with some amazing memories and a little more insight into this unique culture.

Choosing Japan was a little out of our comfort zone however, we needn't have worried as Inside Japan's detailed itinerary planning and ground arrangements ensured that our holiday was hassle free. Our travel consultant was extremely helpful and efficient in tailor-making our itinerary to suit a family with a 10 and 16 year old. Our expectations of Japan were surpassed and we would love to return some time.

This tour lived up to its name, visiting places only the Japanese visit for the most part, even in Kyoto we visited temples & shrines not normally on the main tourist tracks. Travel was by all means of public transport and private bus which was really enjoyable to do. Included meals were mainly local Japanese cuisine and the extra meals / evenings out to our tour leader Richards favourite establishments were also excellent. Accommodation at all our locations was excellent from the temple lodgings on Mount Koya to the western style hotels in many cities. Activities included were excellent and varied. The included airport transfers worked really well both ways.

Inside Japan Tours provide excellent service from first enquiry through to the after tour feedback. The service before and after from my travel consultant Mark was excellent, always ready to ensure everything went well. Would definitely recommend them to any one wanting to go to Japan and really experience the country at its best and will use them again in the future.