Our Japan Travel Specialists

The trip was well planned, our guide was exceptional, the hot weather was horrible, but we adjusted accordingly.

We cannot say enough good things about Zicasso’s travel specialist and the travel company. We had an amazing trip and were able to experience and see everything we had requested.

The itinerary and execution by Zicasso's travel specialist were absolutely perfect.

Overall, very pleased, with some challenges and hiccups along the way. We gave Zicasso’s travel specialist the general parameters of our trip request and received a very detailed itinerary suggestion, which we adjusted as needed. Our travel specialist was also able to offer very helpful recommendations and suggestions. We had many requested places to visit in a short amount of time. Our travel company put together an itinerary that made sense and that worked for us.
Excellent Tour Guides: Our guides in Tokyo and Hakone, in Osaka, on the Osaka night tour, and in Hiroshima were excellent! They were kind, respectful, and knowledgeable, and did a really good job making sure we were all accounted for, asking if we were doing OK and if we needed bathroom stops. It was impressive that they were able to move us along on our tour to see all that was promised, while not making us feel rushed.
Tour Guide, Not Good: Our guide in Kyoto kind of abandoned one group of us when he had the taxi drop us off at a spot near the second temple stop. He followed with the rest of our group in a different taxi, but he didn’t look for our group and headed straight up to the temple without us. After much confusion and walking while trying to find him, my sister and I decided not to make the walk to the temple because of difficulty walking. He said: you have the itinerary and knew which temple we were going to. Really?! The temple was so crowded that no one went in. My sister and her husband decided not to finish the tour and took a taxi back to the hotel. This tour was a lot of walking and not the best fit for our group of seniors. I would have preferred to visit less traveled, less busy temples and spots in Kyoto.
One slight hiccup was when I requested an 11am pickup instead of 1pm from our hotel to Haneda on the day of our departure. I thought it was set for the 11am pickup. It was not. After talking with the local contact from our travel company, we were able to get picked up around 12:30pm. This was one detail that our travel company said was received well in advance of our departure from the States, but never confirmed back with an itinerary change. And it was one I never followed up on. Lesson learned: don’t assume your plans are confirmed, always follow up.
The self-guide app was extremely helpful, and one that we referred to often to guide us on our trip. However, some details not in the self-guide app were in the second app. It was confusing to have to go back and forth to double-check things. One situation was with our Osaka to Kyoto pickup. By mistake we read in the self-guide app that the pickup time would be 11am, but that was the start time of our Kyoto tour! You have to go to the second app to see the pickup time was 9:00am. As a result, we were 30 minutes late getting to the start of our Kyoto Cultural tour!

Incredibly responsive, helpful and professional service.  From the start to finish, the travel agency was a pleasure to work with.  Gave us excellent recommendations, booked us in great hotels and provided amazing guides and itineraries that matched our interests. Helped with every detail, including getting us subway cards, bullet train train passes, and ways to navigate a country we hadn't visited before.  Would recommend 100%

Each of the guides was wonderful. We enjoyed them all and learned an amazing amount. The hotels were great, especially our hotel in Kyoto. We loved the neighborhood.
All of the logistics worked out and we felt very well cared for. Thanks for getting everyone to offer birthday wishes. We adored the food.

Zicasso's travel specialist and the team at our travel company planned an outstanding two weeks in Japan for our family of six. From our first calls, the itinerary was tailored to what we wanted, and everything was covered before we left, including hotels, private guides, trains, and transfers.
What impressed us most was how she handled changes mid-trip. She swapped a Hakone stay for an extra night in Kyoto, added a Mt. Fuji day trip on short notice, and arranged forwarding our six bags to our final hotel, all seamlessly, without a moment of stress on our end.
The guides she booked were excellent. This is how travel should feel.

This trip was a wedding present for my son and his wife. Zicasso’s travel specialist and travel company did an outstanding job planning an adventure we all loved. It was a balance of guided days, planned experiences (sushi making, matcha art, samurai fighting), and independent exploration of Japan. Just what we asked for!
We visited Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, and Osaka as well as day trips to Kamakura, Enoshima Island, Nara, Uji, and Himeji. The hotels we stayed in were all well-located with restaurants and train stations nearby.
The guides we had were knowledgeable and friendly. We especially enjoyed the two days our travel specialist guided us around Kyoto, Nara, and Uji.