Japan Family Vacations & Tours

"He took all of my ideas...and transformed it into a well-executed itinerary that took all of our special needs into consideration."

"Alex and his team at the travel agency were phenomenal."

"Fabulous trip! This travel company put together a very thoughtful 17 day itinerary for my wife and me."

"We had a wonderful experience with the Zicasso travel company. We will definitely use them to assist with future, foreign travel plans."

We had the absolute best vacation we could have asked for. From my first interaction through the Zicasso website and the follow-up from our trip planner, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Our trip planner clearly took note of the information I had provided through the website and her first email already had a tailored experience in mind for our trip to Japan. She took note that my boys would be interested in some of the more high energy options available. She noted that some of my family may be less adventurous in their eating. She made suggestions about locations that I hadn’t considered that she felt we should not miss. We spent a couple of weeks exchanging ideas and tailoring the itinerary to exactly what we wanted. As a bonus, she set up experiences I wouldn’t have known even existed, let alone how to book. We had dinner with a geisha. We took a samurai training class. We had a private sushi making lessons with a sushi chef. Each of these experiences were incredible and made memories that will last our lifetimes. Our trip planner sourced our lodging throughout the trip, finding us hotels in Tokyo, a ryokan in Hakone and a machiya in Kyoto. Again, these ended up being such unique experiences, were wonderful locations, and made a great vacation even better. She sourced English speaking guides for some of the days of our trip who made it not only informative on the days we had them showing us around, but they also helped us navigate the challenging travel options to and from each location, navigating the subways, taxis and buses of Japan to help us get around. Add to that the fact that we had prepaid the trip before we left for Japan meant that we were only paying for meals while in country and didn’t have to think about what everything cost while we were enjoying the trip. I cannot say enough good things about Zicasso, the sourcing of the travel company, but especially our agent. She was AMAZING.

We had a good trip overall and enjoyed all of the hotels our travel agent selected. Some of the guides, however, were not excellent. We were also surprised when the bullet train tickets delivered to our hotel were for the wrong destination. I'm so glad I checked this before we left Tokyo; the local agent was able to replace the tickets promptly, albeit not with first-class tickets. I had the unique experience of working with two Zicasso Japan specialists--this one for 12 days family time on Honshu and another for rural/nature exploring on Hokkaido. I therefore have a basis for comparison, and I can say that this agency was less careful or attentive to many details. Another example is that we did not receive a finalized itinerary with guide details before we left for Japan. That came only after I let the agency know about the train ticket problem. Also, our itinerary did not have any information in the Japanese language. This led to repeated problems with taxi drivers who didn't know where the (newish) hotel in Kyoto was. We needed that information in Japanese to facilitate transfers to and from the train station, etc. Seems like a significant oversight.