Wonders of Japan: Whirlwind Cultural Encounter Tour

Our trip was wonderful and we had an excellent planner. He always responded within 24 hours and had an answer for whatever I was asking. Here is some additional feedback:

The documents provided (itinerary, cultural information, tour guide) were all very easy to read and informative. The instructions for using the trains and other modes of transportation turned out to be crucial for us.

We had a great guide in Tokyo. She spoke English well, provided interesting information at the sites we visited, and catered the day to our needs. She was also very good with children.

We ended up not going to Hakone, which was part of the itinerary, and our agent was able to help us get refunds for those tickets, which I understand was an unconventional request. It was nice to know the tickets and money didn't go to waste.

The Miyajima hotel and stay was so beautiful, and our experience there was very unique. I'm so glad our agent planned that as part of our trip.

The hotel in Tokyo was almost perfect; the staff were fantastic, the rooms were comfortable, and the included breakfast was delicious. The only drawbacks were that the pool was closed for renovations, which was disappointing, and their fitness center was very small and would often get extremely crowded in the mornings.

We had a good guide in Kyoto, but probably could've done a better job to account for the heat. We were outside for long stretches; I'm sure he just wanted to get us to more sites, but by the end of the day we were miserable from the sun and humidity. We had children and seniors in our family, and sometimes we were standing in the heat as he explained something which wasn't ideal. His English was okay, but some of our party felt he had difficulty answering some of our questions.

On our trip back from Kyoto to Tokyo, it's not clear why the agency booked us on the Shinkansen from Kyoto to Tokyo, then on a Narita Express from Tokyo to Shinjuku, when we could've taken the train to Shinagawa and saved some time.

Our agent clearly explained that the agency could not make restaurant reservations for our party, but that would've been very helpful since we were a group of 12 and it was often difficult to make that work. We ended up doing it ourselves or through the hotels.

The machiya houses were super-cool, but eight people in one of them was a lot. Also, I understand they're Japanese style, but there wasn't much furniture in there, so we ended up having to sit on beds or on the floor.

The IC cards didn't seem to be separated by child and adult (hopefully I'm not wrong there). This created an issue when we scanned our cards along with the child Shinkansen tickets. We got stopped and had to get the train attendant to help.

The sumo lunch was super-fun. The food (tonkatsu) was delicious, the service was great, and the wrestlers were very engaging, and a few of our party even got to wrestle a bit!

The photo shoot was enjoyable for the kids and the staff there were very patient, attentive, and helpful. Our pictures look great and they were ready within minutes!

I didn't like the application Zicasso uses for communicating with our travel agent. It was a little easier when it was just emails back and forth, but it was not ideal to have to log into a separate application (this one) to communicate. It's hard to do on a mobile phone and takes an extra few steps. It'd be better to communicate through existing platforms like email, WhatsApp, Signal, Facebook, Google Workspace, or Microsoft Teams.

Since this was our first time traveling to Japan, we wanted a well-rounded experience of the history, culture, food, and everyday living. Zicasso's travel specialists nailed every requirement we asked for and we had a fabulous vacation. Every detail of the itinerary and travel arrangements was spelled out meticulously, so it was easy to follow. We plan to go back and uncover more of Japan's hidden gems. We would highly recommend this company.

Japan is great, so any trip shortcomings are diffused by the fact that it’s such a great country to visit! I think we had a few communication snafus for our ski portion, as it seems this is not a common request. The hotel was remote compared to other Niseko options and the ski guide situation was confusing.

We had a perfect day in Kamakura, where we had the entire day planned to perfection, so we would prefer similarly planned days. It seems the agency relied on tour guides on the day of our Tokyo portions, but would have preferred sightseeing options in advance in case tickets are needed.

Also, there was a bit of confusion as to the contact point while in Japan—the messaging app was not monitored by an English speaker, so we are not sure why this was an option for us. I was asked to communicate using line, which is fine, but maybe letting me know ahead of time would have alleviated some confusion. And my point of contact was U.S.-based, with a 14-hour time difference.

Working with Zicasso’s travel specialist was a pleasure the whole way through. He catered our Japan trip to our budget and interests, and delivered the trip of a lifetime. My wife and I had an absolute blast on the trip—we stayed in amazing hotels in fun areas, had awesome activities planned, and leveraged the super-helpful recommendations to get the most out of the experience.

Another great thing about working with the travel company was having all of our train tickets prepared for us when we landed. We were given a very organized packet of information on the cities we were staying in, with all of our train tickets organized chronologically and a pre-filled subway card that we added to our phones for easy access. This made travel so much easier and helped us on our adventure.

Overall, I would highly recommend working with Zicasso and this tour operator to anyone planning a big international trip.

We just returned from a fantastic trip to Japan, our third family adventure with Zicasso. Our travel company provided excellent support throughout the planning process and outstanding resources for use during our trip. The accommodations in three cities were amazing and the mix of one-day guides, plus flexibility to wander and discover on our own, was ideal. Our entire experience was seamless. Thank you!