Review

Rick Donnelly

Golden Route

Itinerary

Being our first trip to Japan everything we saw and experienced was new to us, so we were happy with our itinerary. We had friends who have been to Japan recently with other companies who complained of \"temple fatigue.\" I never felt that, as our guides did an outstanding job explaining about what was unique about each of them. If anything, I would have been fine with one less day in Tokyo and one more in Hakone, but that\'s really minor.

Lodging

I liked everywhere we stayed but the hotel in Osaka was two rail transfers from the Shin-Osaka station. It was close to the sights we saw on our last evening there, but I would have preferred to stay somewhere closer to Shin-Osaka to make inbound and outbound connections easier.

Food

The buffet at the hotel in Hakone was outstanding, both at dinner and breakfast the next morning. But honestly, I cannot think of any meal that I would not score highly. (But I\'m nowhere near as picky as some people are about food.)

Guides

I would give them a score of 8 or 9 if I could. If there was anything lacking about the tour our guides -- Toshi in Tokyo and Hakone, Ken in Kyoto and Osaka -- far more than made up for it. The fact that they were different in age and life experiences made them awesome compliments. I really miss both of them.

Pre-Tour Handbook

My only comment here is that a clear and prominent warning that a 20-minute uphill walk from the Hakone rail station to the hotel there is required -- make your overnight choice of baggage smartly. Had I known that we had walk that long I would have leaned on my wife to take different bags.

Tour Organization

I really liked having the evenings free, as our group consisted of only us four (me, my wife, our daughter, and her husband). We wanted to see a lot of things that would never have made the tour -- trip to ICOM radio, a few highly rated bars, the teamLab Borderless tour, and Giants-Baystars game. I cannot thank Martin enough for suffering through getting us tickets for the Giants game on 12-July. It was fantastic.

Tour Transportation

A couple of times the guides put us in taxi when they probably would have preferred to let us find our way on the trains. I really appreciated that. Otherwise the mix of walking and subway was excellent. Taking the Shinkansen between cities was excellent.

Would you go on another tour operating by Samurai Tours: Yes!

Would you recommend Samurai Tours to friends or family: Yes!