Review

Cheryl M Cole

Best of Shikoku and Kyushu Self Guided

September 29, 2025 - January 1, 1970

We felt so lucky to be there, and enjoyed the freedom of self guided with the organization of the transportation, luggage transfers and hotels. We did feel a little lost once we arrived in each town. The Osaka exit from the train station was being worked on so we got a little lost there, it was before we could secure a pocket wifi. There was one ferry where we cut it short because of the timing of our scheduled bus and cab ride. A few little things like that but my daughter was able to figure it all out. It would have been nice to have our half day with a guide but I didn’t realize flying in later would be a problem. Little stuff. Still, a great trip.

Itinerary

Lovely detailed itinerary. We did find it difficult to find and experience the suggested activities, luckily my daughter is a great navigator. If it had been me alone, I wouldn’t have been able to navigate the different towns very well without instructions. I think if you added some instructions for finding the sights in each town it would be helpful for the self guided people.

Lodging

Some of the Dormy inns were not great. One of them, in Kagoshima, our room smelled so strong of urine we went to the front desk to let them know, they were very helpful and gave us another room but it kind of creeped us out. The Onyado Nono hotels were very nice. The Ryokan in Kochi was incredible. There was only one hotel with a private onsen, I think it might have been the Ryokan but can’t remember. It’s understandable that tattoos are not allowed but on our first tour we had no problem because all of our hotels on that tour had private onsen.

Food

The food was delicious. We were able to find vegetarian food but I remember on our first tour which was guided, they gave me a helpful little card that explained I was vegetarian and I could just show it in an Izakaya and they would make me something amazing. This time we were relying on my minimal Japanese and really bad translation apps. We weren’t able to find good food every night like on my first trip. Luckily, 7-11 exists.

Guides

We didn’t meet any guides except for the amazing man who met us at the airport. Very helpful and kind!

Pre-Tour Handbook

Very good.

Tour Organization

Great

Tour Transportation

The train tickets and schedules were wonderfully detailed and we didn’t miss a single train.

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

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