Delve Deep: Japan

I had a fantastic trip with Katherine as my leader. She is so dedicated to her work and job and provided fantastic advice and translation along the way. She was very knowledgeable about Japan's culture and history and helped us to have a fantastic time. Also she is just a fantastically enthusiastic person to be around. She also ensures a very safe journey for anyone with dietary requirements or...

This was my first Topdeck trip and first time to Japan.
I have to start off with our guide Katherine. She gets a perfect 10 out of 10. She was knowledgable, approachable, friendly.
This trip itinerary was great. We always say "I wish it was longer" after every trip, and I do for this one, but I'm glad we got to see and experience authentic Japan, which is why I booked the Deep Delve Trip.
We had...

Hi Guys,

It felt a little rushed and un organised which is a shame as i have travelled with you in the past

You need to do a guaranteed trip where you go to a Sumo tournament either in Osaka or Tokyo (look for those dates), i did a tournament after the tour finished in Osaka and it was great. Although it starts at 9 am you can turn up anytime, i recommend from 2pm onwards.

Spend more time...

The delve deep Japan exceeded my expectations!
Our tour giude Marion was phenomenal, she was fun and she had lots of ideas and helpful hints throughout our time. The hotels were all in good locations, easily accessible to transport and/or food precincts.

The only thing I would suggest is in the details itinerary. Could you update ans specifically state when you need an overnight bag in between...

Such a good range of things to do in Japan. Loved going to the big cities + the smaller islands and towns to experience different sides to the country. Our tour guide Clair was lovely & so so helpful. Probably could’ve spent a few more days in some areas such as Hiroshima or Osaka but every day was packed with activities + free time for you to do your own thing.

This trip was one of the most fun experiences on Top Deck I have had. The amount of time we stayed in each city was fairly sufficient.

The trip was amazing. The Tour Guide was very kind, helpful and organized. Everyone that I met on that trip was absolutely amazing.

I recently experienced the Topdeck Delve Deep Japan tour, and it was nothing short of amazing! From start to finish, this trip was perfectly planned to offer the best blend of cultural immersion, adventure, and relaxation. Our tour leader was incredibly knowledgeable and friendly always went out of her way to help.

The itinerary covered a fantastic range of iconic locations and hidden gems, from...

The Delve Deep: Japan tour was amazing! It covered a wide range of metropolitan and rural area and included lots of memorable cultural experiences!

Definitely worth if you haven’t traveled to the country before! Especially if your solo, you make great friends, learn lots and keeps you inspired.

Excellent trip…. Made it so easy to see anything and everything … excellent/ amazing tour guide Claire… would recommend to everyone

excellent trip our tour guide Claire was excellent made it super fun and enjoyable, great tour it hits most of the popular areas and the more hidden areas that not a lot of tourist visit.

All accommodations were fantastic and really high quality.

Overall a Great tour and a Great Guide which made the trip.

First off our Tour Manager Kat did an incredible job with what she had & she made 100% sure that everyone's dietary issues were catered for a well as recommendations for things to do in our free-time of which there was a lot! There were only 3 optional activities available so we had a lot of free-time to explore each place but getting to know each other though doable was still difficult. The...

The most disappointing part of this trip was the value for money. I’ve been on plenty of group tours in the past and considering the cost of this particular one, I was expecting SO much more.

The accommodation we stayed in (with the exception of 2 or 3 places) was not great; in particular the traditional Ryokan in Takayama as it was very untidy, run down and in serious need of renovations and...

Japan is an amazing place to visit. Just a shame our tour guide wasn't quite as helpful, as others I've had before.

This trip was an excellent way to see Japan for the first time. It took all the thinking out of how to get around, and the itinerary covers all the main places you’d want to see when visiting Japan.

The downsides were that almost every single optional activity wasn’t able to run because it was full/booked out, which I understand as it was peak tourist season. However, I think Topdeck should be...

31/03/2024 - Delve Deep: Japan

I LOVED JAPAN. It was honestly so incredible. The group of people I spent the 12 days with, is what made the tour for me.

Unfortunately, the Topdeck tour itself was a bit of a shambles :( ranging from the overall organisation, poor communication, very loose logistics, and all of the optional activities being cancelled.

The original tour leader had to pull out due...

great place to visit, I had a big group for style of tour but they were great. Organsation wasn't great, changes to itinary, and optionals booked out beacuse of peak season and no alternatives provided.

The trip route was good in the sense that you go to major cities etc.
I would suggest doing a lot of research beforehand about what you want to see in these cities and do a lot of planning as majority of the time is just free time on the tour and you’re not being guided around anywhere.
When you were being guided around it felt very rushed and not a great deal of info given about the places...

I don’t normally leave reviews but if you’re someone who is planning to go to Japan on a tour with Topdeck, reconsider your options. Whilst Japan itself is a great destination and for a first timer it was the perfect choice, the majority of the tour could have been done and booked by myself for a cheaper price. I was going into it thinking for the money I paid there would be a full on immersive...

Beautiful places visited however a lot of things didn't make the trip memorable:
- Tour guide changed at the last minute and it was 30 minutes into our meeting time and we had no contact from Topdeck regarding where our Tour Guide was. Also the Tour Guide wasn't experienced with handling a large group for a long period
- given one hour notice to pay cash to the tour guide for optional extras but...

• The tour guide pulled out last minute, so we where all sitting waiting for 45 minutes without any info
• Replacement tour guides first ever job with Topdeck, having never done a multiple day tour before
• All the optionals got cancelled
• Random itinerary changes we didn’t get told about
• Karaoke with only 1 free drink made the end of the night the worst part of the trip due to trying to...

I had a lot of fun on this trip. The country, culture and sites were all amazing. The group of people in which I went on this tour were great and I believe I have made some great friends.
We did have some small problems but not nothing to get upset about. I would recommend this trip for people wanting to have a taste of what its like in certain areas of Japan.
However I did feel rushed and when...

This tour was so poorly organised it felt like a waste of money, I could have done the same thing myself but more efficiently & probably cheaper. Our tour guide was thrown into our tour with 1 hours notice & did his best but was lacking knowledge of the areas, lacked organisation & rushed a lot of the stops. Only having our suitcase every 2nd stop was ridiculous!! I don't see why the suitcases...

Japan itself was great however I struggle to see the value in this tour. Poorly organised, we were constantly rushed amongst periods of wasting time eg. not starting early enough in the morning and then having no time to stop for lunch. Almost every lunch was a 7/11 rush job. Walking tours as per the tour description were not walking tours- we were taken to the area by the guide and then given...

Overall a very positive experience, I had a lot of fun with all of the different experiences and got along well with the tour group. Our tour guide definitely played a major roll in the overall enjoyment of the trip, being very friendly and knowledgeable. One big issue with the trip was with the takayama experience. Whilst I believe the traditional type stay is necessary, the place was very run...

Overall the experience was great. All hotels bar one was good. I felt like I got to visit many of the bucket list locations

Could have chosen better hotels and timed the traveling between cities more efficiently.

It was a great experience to see and feel Japan at it's core. We absolutely delved deep in to Japanese culture both modern and ancient.

This was a great introduction to Japan. The trip was the perfect length of time to visit each location and see the best each location had to offer.
Tokyo - wonderful! What can I say? I recommend you add on a day or two (or more!) if you want more time to explore Tokyo in more depth. I added 3 days on. Recommend: Shinjuku, Golden Gai, Shibuya, Asakusa and Harajuku.
Takayama - a much quieter...

Had a good time. Katherine our tour guide was great and really helpful. Just be aware though that Japan is not very vegetarian or vegan friendly so that was a bit of challenge. Katherine however had some good recommendations and did everything she could to ensure my dietary requirements were accommodated as much as possible

Great experience, a little experience.

I had a fantastic trip leader (Marion) she did a great job with taking us from place to place on the trains. All our hotels were amazing and clean and in a good location.

Regarding where this tour takes you, it ticks all the boxes. While there could have been some rearranging with how long is spent in different places, I loved every city we travelled to. Like I said before, all of our inclusions were cancelled due to it being peak season (no excuse as I have been to many places with Topdeck during peak season and this was no issue) so we had to research and come up...

I didn't purchase anything from the tour [other than the tour itself] as the options were cancelled for us

The Japanese tour it was so much fun. It was a really good mix of culture, food and free time. I like how they gave you time to go off and do your own thing in the city for a few hours so that you could plan a trip more to your liking, and not just what their planned in the tour. Is what you were allowed to do. My tour guide Marion was funny and amazing. She really helped us with getting around...

all good, just didn't know that all the optinal activities were canceled

I would definitely recommend this trip. Marion, our trip leader was great with giving us ideas on what to do on our free days and booking group dinners.

Topdeck’s communication can most definitely improve. It was disappointing to discover on the first day that all of the optional activities were fully booked and that really they should have been booked by traveler's in advance. TD should have...

Firstly let me say that I love Topdeck and I absolutely recommend this trip. Katherine the trip leader was one of the best I’ve had - she went out of her way to make it an excellent trip for all of us.

There were some things that were pretty disappointing and some clear communication would have really helped. I was disappointed to discover on the first day (no heads up prior from TD) that most of...

It is extremely overpriced and badly planned. If it weren't for our guide adjusting the itinerary where possible, the tour would have been horrible. There was no warning before the trip started that there would be not just one overnight with a backpack, but the stay in Osaka would be two nights with only a backpack. We could have taken our suitcases but were advised not to. I would have prepared...

This trip will change your life for the best!

The Japan highlights tour was amazing we got to experience alot of what Japan had to offer with awesome company!

Japan was somewhere I had to visit but was unsure as to how much and what and where. Topdeck offered a taste through the highlights tour of the possibilities to see and do. The size of the group was good, 22 people meant safety in numbers in attending activities.overall I really enjoyed the trip.

Lots of great sights, and plenty of free time for seeing what appeals to you.