My friends and I want to make a return trip to Japan but the idea of being restricted to tour group is very unappealing since we were able to do whatever we wanted last time. Has anyone had a tour experience now that they’re available? How was it?
Having to register for a group tour and get extra covid insurance (+ agree to wear a mask at all times but this is w.e.) just isn’t worth it for most people compared to hopefully waiting a few more months.
The tours seem pretty locked down and not something worth considering as an alternative.
We have a non-tour trip booked Nov 1st this year. We did it so everything could be refunded if things weren’t open by then. We have to decide by end of August, so my take so far is that’s pretty unlikely now. What do people in Japan think, any chance? If you were to move it, is even next Jan/Feb any better?
There was a grand total of 242 people who visited japan as tourists last month. It may be tricky to track one of them down 😀
Don’t bother, the restrictiveness is intentional. This is a face-saving way of pretending to open up, while not actually doing so.
I’ve purchased a tour for mid-August and we’ve already gotten into the pre-trip prep, so I can at least comment on that.
1. Very, very expensive. Our tour is for Hokkaido and Tohoku, 15D 14N, flying north from Tokyo and then winding our way back down. It’s $5k/person before flights. 2. Flights are also very, very expensive. We are based in San Francisco, but direct flights to Tokyo are $2k roundtrip. There are more flights coming out to SoCal (larger Japanese population down south), so we’ve decided to road trip down to LA to hop on a flight there. But gas isn’t cheap either right now, lol. 3. You need a visa to enter Japan, even if you’re a U.S. citizen who would normally be granted a tourist visa on entry. The tour company will help you apply for the visa since you’ll need to register your full itinerary, names, and lots of information with your local Japanese consulate. Our local consulate is not accepting walk-in visa appointments, so we had to mail in our applications and passports.
Our tour itinerary does note that we will have some time to wander around and do unplanned things, but TBD on how that will work since we’re supposed to be kept on a tight leash. Will post a trip review afterwards.
I have a 15-day trip planned with my wife for the second half of September with (refundable) hotels booked in five different cities. It’s obviously starting to look a lot less likely that Japan will be open by then, so in an attempt to salvage the trip I contacted a tour company to see if they would offer us an escort on the trip I already had planned. They agreed and quoted around $5,000. Doesn’t seem worth it as it’s more than the total cost of both of our airfare and all hotel stays.
Being watched by a guide 100% of the time I’m traveling would absolutely ruin everything I enjoy about [oftentimes solo] international travel. I’m with everyone else—don’t force it.
I can speak a bit to this. Full disclosure- I work for a company that sends tourists to Japan in both group and independent itineraries. I’ve not made it back yet myself, but I have clients on the ground right now, and have been working through the visa and insurance stuff with them.
You have to wear a mask pretty much all the time. You can take it off to eat, while in your hotel room and sometimes during scheduled activities where everybody feels comfortable unmasking. But be ready to have a mask on most of the time.
There is less sightseeing flexibility than there used to be. But it’s not as bad as we had feared at first. The group does not have to eat together for example. You can walk around the hotel neighborhood in the evening. That is fine. Doing a day trip out of the city on your own? Not fine anymore, a guide must be with you for that.
The visa is a total faff for us- its a ton of work. Luckily, for the clients it’s been pretty straightforward once they get the ERFS from us. Some consulates are harder to work with than others, but so far nobody has been denied a visa or denied entry.
Our own tours are small groups, so they aren’t the usual big bus tours that people expect when you mention Tour Group. We’ve been able to operate them as normal, with no itinerary changes from pre covid. So no extra busses, they can use the same hotels, subways, and trains that they always did.
The upside to it all? You get to go to Japan when it’s empty of tourists. Thats pretty neat!
If you are looking to go in August or September, a group can work. If you are pondering later, you may be able to go independently.
Feel free to ask any follow up questions.
It’s ridiculous. Never thought Japan would be like this.
unless you’re the type that enjoys tours then avoid it and wait it out, it’ll be worth it 10000X
If money isn’t an issue you can book your own private tour and you can have incredible freedom. Basically , you can do whatever you want as long as you have an escort/guide with you and keep masks on.
Smaller package tours are also a good go. Insidejapan (I don’t work for them but have had dealings with them in the last) have good small tours , the operating side is good and the itineraries are pretty good too.
It’s not worth it if you already experienced the freedom of a previous trip. I would wait until they lift the tour group restriction unless you feel like paying for it which already costs more compared to planning your own trip.
I’m from Australia and I had a flight booked for September. I called one of our larger travel agencies about whether they were an official supplier of registered tours in Japan – they said they were but that all of their operators had had no news from the Japanese government so no tours were running at all. We went back to our airline and got a refund – no questions asked.
I am literally in the airport right now waiting to leave for an 11-day tour! This will be my first time in Japan so I won’t be able to compare it to pre-COVID travel, but I can write up a post when we get back if that’s something folks would be interested in.
My girlfriend and me are planing to go in november, we already have the flight tickets, japan rail pass and booked some hotel (all with posibilty of cancelation). But right now we are thinking about cancel everything because is not clear for us is will be open or not 🙁
We have a trip booked and paid for for October. Bought this month’s ago. All fully refundable. Given its only 2 and a bit months away.
Do we see the govt allowing independent tourism by then?
If not we are going to cancel and rebook hopefully for May and just go Vietnam this year instead but I’ve been hoping to hear good news about Japan travel but tours are not our thing and with cases going up there and restrictions being implemented within the country it’s not looking good.
We’ve got flights and accommodation booked for early October for 3 weeks. All accommodation is refundable however currently our flights are not (all were booked last year for a sabbatical arranged pre-Covid, foolishly thought it would all be over by now). We hold out hope that it will open up however as it gets closer it seems less and less likely and our best hope is that the flights get cancelled. Tours we have been quoted have been very unaffordable (£5k per week per person) and also very unappealing.
The current reality is that there will be no practical limit.
Travel is open to boost consumption. Although the country needs attitude. Some restrictive policies have been introduced.
But the local government will relax the restrictions for you appropriately
Of course, even a tour group will help you feel freer. The premise is that it allows you to spend more.
19 comments
Having to register for a group tour and get extra covid insurance (+ agree to wear a mask at all times but this is w.e.) just isn’t worth it for most people compared to hopefully waiting a few more months.
The tours seem pretty locked down and not something worth considering as an alternative.
We have a non-tour trip booked Nov 1st this year. We did it so everything could be refunded if things weren’t open by then. We have to decide by end of August, so my take so far is that’s pretty unlikely now. What do people in Japan think, any chance? If you were to move it, is even next Jan/Feb any better?
There was a grand total of 242 people who visited japan as tourists last month. It may be tricky to track one of them down 😀
Don’t bother, the restrictiveness is intentional. This is a face-saving way of pretending to open up, while not actually doing so.
I’ve purchased a tour for mid-August and we’ve already gotten into the pre-trip prep, so I can at least comment on that.
1. Very, very expensive. Our tour is for Hokkaido and Tohoku, 15D 14N, flying north from Tokyo and then winding our way back down. It’s $5k/person before flights.
2. Flights are also very, very expensive. We are based in San Francisco, but direct flights to Tokyo are $2k roundtrip. There are more flights coming out to SoCal (larger Japanese population down south), so we’ve decided to road trip down to LA to hop on a flight there. But gas isn’t cheap either right now, lol.
3. You need a visa to enter Japan, even if you’re a U.S. citizen who would normally be granted a tourist visa on entry. The tour company will help you apply for the visa since you’ll need to register your full itinerary, names, and lots of information with your local Japanese consulate. Our local consulate is not accepting walk-in visa appointments, so we had to mail in our applications and passports.
Our tour itinerary does note that we will have some time to wander around and do unplanned things, but TBD on how that will work since we’re supposed to be kept on a tight leash. Will post a trip review afterwards.
I have a 15-day trip planned with my wife for the second half of September with (refundable) hotels booked in five different cities. It’s obviously starting to look a lot less likely that Japan will be open by then, so in an attempt to salvage the trip I contacted a tour company to see if they would offer us an escort on the trip I already had planned. They agreed and quoted around $5,000. Doesn’t seem worth it as it’s more than the total cost of both of our airfare and all hotel stays.
Being watched by a guide 100% of the time I’m traveling would absolutely ruin everything I enjoy about [oftentimes solo] international travel. I’m with everyone else—don’t force it.
I can speak a bit to this. Full disclosure- I work for a company that sends tourists to Japan in both group and independent itineraries. I’ve not made it back yet myself, but I have clients on the ground right now, and have been working through the visa and insurance stuff with them.
You have to wear a mask pretty much all the time. You can take it off to eat, while in your hotel room and sometimes during scheduled activities where everybody feels comfortable unmasking. But be ready to have a mask on most of the time.
There is less sightseeing flexibility than there used to be. But it’s not as bad as we had feared at first. The group does not have to eat together for example. You can walk around the hotel neighborhood in the evening. That is fine. Doing a day trip out of the city on your own? Not fine anymore, a guide must be with you for that.
The visa is a total faff for us- its a ton of work. Luckily, for the clients it’s been pretty straightforward once they get the ERFS from us. Some consulates are harder to work with than others, but so far nobody has been denied a visa or denied entry.
Our own tours are small groups, so they aren’t the usual big bus tours that people expect when you mention Tour Group. We’ve been able to operate them as normal, with no itinerary changes from pre covid. So no extra busses, they can use the same hotels, subways, and trains that they always did.
The upside to it all? You get to go to Japan when it’s empty of tourists. Thats pretty neat!
If you are looking to go in August or September, a group can work. If you are pondering later, you may be able to go independently.
Feel free to ask any follow up questions.
It’s ridiculous. Never thought Japan would be like this.
unless you’re the type that enjoys tours then avoid it and wait it out, it’ll be worth it 10000X
If money isn’t an issue you can book your own private tour and you can have incredible freedom. Basically , you can do whatever you want as long as you have an escort/guide with you and keep masks on.
Smaller package tours are also a good go. Insidejapan (I don’t work for them but have had dealings with them in the last) have good small tours , the operating side is good and the itineraries are pretty good too.
It’s not worth it if you already experienced the freedom of a previous trip. I would wait until they lift the tour group restriction unless you feel like paying for it which already costs more compared to planning your own trip.
I’m from Australia and I had a flight booked for September. I called one of our larger travel agencies about whether they were an official supplier of registered tours in Japan – they said they were but that all of their operators had had no news from the Japanese government so no tours were running at all. We went back to our airline and got a refund – no questions asked.
I am literally in the airport right now waiting to leave for an 11-day tour! This will be my first time in Japan so I won’t be able to compare it to pre-COVID travel, but I can write up a post when we get back if that’s something folks would be interested in.
My girlfriend and me are planing to go in november, we already have the flight tickets, japan rail pass and booked some hotel (all with posibilty of cancelation). But right now we are thinking about cancel everything because is not clear for us is will be open or not 🙁
We have a trip booked and paid for for October. Bought this month’s ago. All fully refundable. Given its only 2 and a bit months away.
Do we see the govt allowing independent tourism by then?
If not we are going to cancel and rebook hopefully for May and just go Vietnam this year instead but I’ve been hoping to hear good news about Japan travel but tours are not our thing and with cases going up there and restrictions being implemented within the country it’s not looking good.
We’ve got flights and accommodation booked for early October for 3 weeks. All accommodation is refundable however currently our flights are not (all were booked last year for a sabbatical arranged pre-Covid, foolishly thought it would all be over by now). We hold out hope that it will open up however as it gets closer it seems less and less likely and our best hope is that the flights get cancelled. Tours we have been quoted have been very unaffordable (£5k per week per person) and also very unappealing.
The current reality is that there will be no practical limit.
Travel is open to boost consumption. Although the country needs attitude. Some restrictive policies have been introduced.
But the local government will relax the restrictions for you appropriately
Of course, even a tour group will help you feel freer. The premise is that it allows you to spend more.