Review

This itinerary really was the best of Japan and each location was more spectacular than the next! I was able to see all the top destinations on my list plus some like Koyasan.

I loved the variation between western style hotels and traditional ryokans. Even our western accommodations at the Dormy chain had special touches that I appreciated like a large onsen. Our ryokan on Miyajima Island was above and beyond! We all loved Yoko and family, It was such an amazing and unique experience to stay in such a historic ryokan in the family for 15 generations.

The food at our ryokans and lunch was all excellent but special shout out to Yoko and her husband on Miyajima Island. That food was just incredible. I also appreciated the accommodations for my dietary restrictions and never had any issues with the meals and not being able to accommodate them.

All of our guides were wonderful and very helpful. They went out of their way to make the tour fun and share their local knowledge. The only guide that was less than excellent was the fish market tour in Tokyo that seemed scattered and not very interesting because the guide didn\'t seem to know much about the area. I found out later that she usually does the temple and culture tours, this was her first time leading the market and Shibuya outing. I would say that was the failing of the tour company in general vs. the guide to use someone who didn\'t know the area to lead one of our optional tours.

The itinerary could be more detailed with some of the timings and optional tour descriptions. The pre-tour communicaiton was somewhat unpredictable. Several of us had unclear or conflicting information in our tour packets about instructions for the first and last day. I didn\'t receive the message that the tour was starting at a different time than what was indicated in the itinerary, luckily I stumbled across the group in the lobby as I was finishing breakfast.

I loved using public transportation, it helped to give more of an authentic experience and able to see more of the locations. The guides were great in helping us navigate the public transporation and making sure we made connections. We always had enough time between transferring