Aspect

Mark(1-5)

Advice or Remark

Travel Consultant

 4

Tour Guides

Command of English

 4

 Tokyo guide very good, Osaka guide poor and acting as a teacher with kids,

Knowledge of Subjects

 4

 Tokyo, Hiroshima, Kyoto/Nara = 5; Osaka = 3, Mt.Fuji=2

Ability of Explain

 3

 Tokyo guide very good and sharing lots of information. Osaka guide poor explanations, acting as a teacher with kids and commanding us around, also strange attitude towards some people in her group. Kyoto/Nara and Hiroshima very good guides, with explanations and good attitudes. Mt.Fuji/Hakone very nice and happy guide but all she talked about was just the lunch (many times repeating).

Attitude

 4

 Everyone had a good attitude except of the unpleasant guide in Osaka (teacher style and treating us like kids)

Flexibility

 2

 I give it a 2 because many times there was no time to look around properly in the sites, too short time was given to us, no time to go to the toilette and in Hiroshima we’ve dropped and lost something on one side of the big memorial park, asked the bus to just go around to pick it up, but the guide refused. It would have just costed another 5 minutes for the bus.

On the other hand we always had to wait in the morning for the tour to start, even though we were asked to be at the meeting point 10 min. earlier, the tour would start 5-10 min. later, therefore we were the ones waiting 15-20 min. So we don’t think Japanese are so punctual as it was told us.

Drivers and Cars

 5

 No issues.

Hotels

Location

 5

 Excellent location for most of the hotels just being outside of the shin train station. Especially useful in terms of late arrival, getting to the subway and buying food. Can recommend this for a busy trip, saved us a lot of time.

Comfort

 4

 2x we received smoking room, once in Kyoto and once in Himeji. Were told by staff there is nothing available. This should not happen if customer books non-smoking room. No one likes to sleep in smelly rooms.

Hotel in Himeji is very overrated, looks old and run down, should not be qualified as 4 star in comparison to other hotels.

Park Royal and Sheraton in Tokyo were the best hotel rooms (size, amenities, bathroom, coffee machine), Granvia Hiroshima was next in line, followed by Granvia Osaka (although breakfast finishes too early at 9 am) and Kintetsu Kyoto. The Ryokan in Hakone was nice as well, although hard to compare as we’ve never stayed in a similar one.

Sights or Activities

Worthiness of Visit

 4

Meet Your Interests?

 4

Too Tight of Too Loose?

 3

 Was too tight, especially in Kyoto. In Hiroshima no proper time in the museum. Tokyo was the best in terms of enough time to walk and look around. Osaka tour was poor, concentrated on business centre and castle only. Boat tour had no clear explanation in English as the loud speaker in the boot was too silent.

Meals

 3

 Japanese food in Fuji was cold on the table, even the fried food, Kyoto was a school canteen type with a long line of tourists and no table to sit down. Very nice food in Osaka but lunch at 11.30 is way too early! Best food was in Tokyo in terms of service, quality and location.

Public Transportation (train, flight, cruise, etc.)

 4

Any Other Aspect