Japan Travel Agents & Reviews

I communicated with Zicasso’s travel agent pre-pandemic as we originally planned the Japan trip for summer 2020. After a long time, I reached out to Zicasso again and the local travel agents were booked. The only one available was none other than the agent I had contacted initially. I knew it would be easier as we had a sample travel itinerary from 2020. I just had to notify him that we were now traveling with my dad and stepmom. He easily accepted the challenge and I am happy I chose him again. He was attentive and conscientious about our needs and wants. He was flexible and did not mind my multiple questions throughout the process, even up to the last minute. He promised we would be taken care of each step of the way and, yes, he did deliver. The payment process was very easy. Everything regarding what to expect was laid out in the plan.

Our guide from NRT airport to Tokyo Shibuya waited for us despite the long immigration queue. It took over an hour to clear customs and immigration. I was nervous as the train departure time was approaching. The guide didn’t leave. She patiently waited for us and got us on the train, with resting time to spare. The taxi ride to the hotel and the stay were excellent and efficient.

On the way to the Shibuya station and the Kyoto bullet train, our guide waited for us to cross the Shibuya crossing for the very first time. She showed us where to buy snacks and food for the trip, and let us choose ekiben.

Our travel agent met us at Kyoto station. It was great to meet him. We did not even have to look, he was right outside the train door and even recognized us. He gave us an excellent history of the places we visited.

Our guide for the Arashiyama area gave us enough time to go to each spot. She even climbed with us to the monkey park and generously bought the peanuts for my daughter to feed the monkeys.

Our guide for Osaka and Nara saved us money on train rides. He was efficient and fun. He gave excellent recommendations for food and sake, and where to buy tea and a calligraphy paintbrush handcrafted in Japan. He took us to experience traditional sushi. My dad liked it very much!

The guide who picked us up from Tokyo station showed us the Meiji shrine, Harajuku, Ginza, and where to have ramen close to the hotel. She was flexible, showed us plenty of food options, accommodated what we wanted to do, and moved around the tour schedule. She was also our guide for the Tsukiji market, sushi making, Asakusa, and the Tokyo Skytree. She was always offering to help.

Another guide took us from the hotel to the airport and helped us to check in. I had trouble with my check-in luggage, but since she was there, it was fixed without a hassle. She did not leave us until all were cleared and ready to get to the security line.

All the guides were excellent, patient, flexible, and accommodating. Throughout the tours, they all asked if there was anything else we would like to do, see, eat, or buy. They were all very attentive to our needs, always offering to help my dad and stepmom, especially with the transfers from hotels to stations and back. They are both over 65. The great thing is that they are both active and kept up with us with ease.

The communication between our family and Zicasso’s travel agency was exceptional. We felt confident and comfortable traveling to a country we’d never been to before due to their efficient, detailed, and timely responses. At one point, just before we left, we sent a list of restaurant reservations we made on our own, outside our itinerary. Our agent checked our flights in relation to the time of our reservation and the distance from the hotel to the restaurant, letting us know that based on recent flight delays, we may not make our dinner reservation and would be charged a 100% cancellation fee by the restaurant. We thought this deep analysis into our plans and the “heads up” were a great example of the level of detail that went into our trip planning.

Each excursion was thoughtfully planned and valuable/memorable. We would not have missed a single one, with the exception of one tour at the very end of our trip when our guide was not as strong as the others had been.

We liked that we started with Tokyo and then traveled the country from that starting point because we liked the other cities much more. Because we started in Tokyo, we didn’t really know any differently.

Though it was low season in Japan, I would not travel there again in the summer months. It was just too hot and humid for me. Our other family members did not mind the heat as much as I did.

We would use our travel company’s services again and recommend them to our friends and family without hesitation.

Our trip to Japan was a bucket-list destination for my fiance and me. As advised, we started planning our three-week trip nearly a year in advance to be sure we were able to secure the preferred hotel reservations and tickets to events and special sights before they were sold out, and to allow ample time to refine the itinerary with our agent.

We started by providing our agent with a long list of sights we wanted to see. She then pieced together a thoughtful itinerary, with many suggestions to supplement our list, working with us iteratively over several months. She was always enthusiastic and eager to offer insightful tips to ensure a good experience and she showed patience as we made adjustments to the trip, including adding two extra travelers only a few months before our departure date.

This was our third time using Zicasso and, once again, it did not disappoint. We often share the positive experiences we have had with Zicasso with family and friends and we will continue to do so.

I was connected with Zicasso’s travel agent in fall of 2023. She put together a dream father-son tour for my husband and son to go to Japan this past summer (2024). It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip that they absolutely loved because of our travel agent and her company. There's no way I could have done it by myself.

She had contacts there who helped me to book dinners, she found English-speaking tour guides to help them in each city, and she arranged amazing experiences for them (a ramen tour, a tea ceremony, a knife-making workshop at an ancient Japanese forge, a stay at a top ryokan with its own hot spring, etc).

She also helped with troubleshooting while they were there (my son left his airpods in the first hotel. She contacted the hotel, they were found (!), and then she arranged for them to be delivered to their last hotel).

She was patient with all of our changes and incredibly responsive to all of my emails. Her itinerary was incredible. Each day was broken down so they always knew where they were going and at what time. Our agent provided instructions to get them to every destination (whether it was on foot, by car, bus, or train), had all of the hotel vouchers set up, plus their tickets to venues, and even had signs in Japanese so they could easily hop a cab and give over the sign and get back to their hotel. She was really amazing. I highly recommend this travel company!

We had a great trip to Japan with this Zicasso travel company. We booked pretty late, so there wasn’t great flexibility in creating the itinerary, but the locations and activities chosen were excellent. The guides were professional and organized, and the transfers and other arrangements were pretty flawless.

We could have used more downtime/fewer guided hours on a long, two-week trip. Despite the internet hype, Japan is not hard to navigate, especially once you’re in country and can ask for help from your hotels. We didn’t need as much handholding (a person at the airport, a person to take us to the train station, etc). The experiences were excellent, though perhaps pricier than necessary.

All in all, it was a great trip that required little thinking on our part.

Overall, Zicasso’s travel company did a pretty good job of planning the trip. The staff were very friendly and welcoming. The spacing of the events on the itinerary was well-balanced, with a good mix of activities and free time!

The South Korea portion of our trip was flawless, with excellent guides and events planned for each day. Our local tour guides knew to change the itinerary when they noticed there was a chance to optimize timing for certain events to avoid crowds or that we were doing too many activities that were similar, which was excellent!

One point of feedback: Key transfers were missed (eg, We were expected to find our own way out of Hakone to get to the train station to Tokyo, only to find out the night before that taxis were refusing to come out to our hotel for fares because it was too far, and the hotel didn’t offer any good solutions. We were very lucky that our wonderful tour guide for Hakone offered to drive us at the last minute, otherwise we would’ve missed the train and our subsequent booked teamLab Planets and food tour in Tokyo.)

Zicasso’s travel planner and her team did an excellent job of understanding the kind of vacation we wanted and gave it to us without cluttering it up with lots of obligations. We had the freedom to explore on our own terms, with enough support to make the most of our time in Japan. The information package got star marks for detailing everything we needed to know very clearly and for its suggestions.