Cultural Treasures of Japan

A trip of a lifetime...great tour, wonderful location and excellent accommodations.

Great value, covered almost everything

We have never used Collette before but were very impressed with the service when we phoned several times with questions about the trip. The phone was always answered promptly and courteously. The trip documentation was very comprehensive.

Very well organised trip with lots of memorable experiences. We particularly liked the fact that Collette had organised classes in traditional crafts such as gold leaf painting, stencilling and watching a tea ceremony. Favourite experience was having our photos taken in front of a perfect view of Mount Fuji.

Hotels, activities and pace level were perfect

Hot spa baths Making bento boxes Samurai village

We had a wonderful trip with Collette. Our guide was fantastic -- she bent over backwards to provide everyone with what they needed on the trip. Unfortunately, it was a little hard to understand her in the beginning, but was fine for most of the trip.

My favorite memorable experience was making our lacquer boxes.

Everything was very well organized and the trip experience was great.

The tour was very well planned and very inclusive of what we wanted to see in Japan.

Friendly, professional service. Very efficient and helpful.

This was a great holiday which covered a wide range of experiences. The trip was well organised and the guide was excellent. Had quite a wait at the airport on arrival though and a very early departure time on leaving - 2am when we couldn't check in at the airport until 05:40 so had a couple of hours wait. The holiday was worth it though.

My trip to Japan with Collette was wonderful! I had anxiously awaited for the announcement of the new tour to Japan, Cultural Treasures of Japan and booked my trip as soon as possible. For this trip I was traveling alone and did not hesitate as I always feel safe on the tours and with the hotels. Our tour guide was exceptional, in fact she was the best guide I have ever had on any tour! She provided some excellent sights, insights into cultural and historical information, delicious eateries, and much more. It is hard to condense 13 wonderful days in a few sentences!

The tour was wonderful and I would rate it a 5; however, when traveling alone it is the additional fee that is added to the cost that is not appreciated. I could take another tour if it didn’t cost so much to travel alone. The only problem about accommodations refers to the one night stay at Hakone which a number of us expressed the desire to stay an extra night at the same hotel. (I would not want to loose another other days though.). A couple of travelers complained about the hotel in Takayama, I’m sure it was the best available in the area. I did like the cultural activities we did—the gold-leaf bento box and painted handkerchief. ******* is an excellent tour guide!! She is so knowledgeable, caring, and compassionate.

This is our second time using Collette ( Southern Africa as well) . Bothe times we had excellent tour managers and our trips were very well managed making our holiday wonderful.

Every part of our tour was excellent but if I had to narrow down a couple of favourites it would have been Mt Fuji and the Goodbye dinner with the Entertainment of the Mika ( Geisha ) girl.

I would give this 4 and a half stars out of 5, due to a switch of hotel in Kanazawa. Our "switch" hotel was terrible and way below Collette's standards! Other than that, the tour was simply fantastic with a brilliant guide in Kazumi, and the coaches were very clean with very competent drivers.

A really great tour and how fortunate to see Mt. Fuji in all its glory! The "Geisha" show at our farewell dinner capped of a very memorable experience.

The guide was great. The itinerary was comprehensive. The meals were superior. The hotels with one exception were fantastic. ( This Hotel was used because there was a marathon and other hotels were sold out)

Seeing Mt Fiji was fabulous.

The value was high for our tour in 2017 - note that the tours went up 40% going into 2018. The selection of the cities made us feel that we understood Japan better and our two tour guides were so well informed and articulate and caring!

Hiroshima was a must - tinged with heartbreak and yet hope for peace!

When I had return transportation issues from Japan, Even our tour guide could not reach Collette. The tour guide for the first half of the trip also very nice had to read every piece of information she didn’t know much about what she was telling us second half the tour guide was wonderful very interested and interesting. Even though this wasn’t a non-smoking tour, the bus driver smoke which meant the bus smelled of smoke all the time. I did not say in the brochure and I looked when I came home that the tour had so much walking we walked between three and 5 miles a day and most of it Was up hill and there was lots of stair climbing

Making the bento boxes and the bullet train to Hiroshima.

Our trip started off on a very disappointing note when we realized that my wife had seperate seats on key parts on the trip. The return leg of the trip from San Francisco to Houston my wife didn't even have an assigned seat. I had to work with united airlines on the spot to fix these big errors...for the premium price we paid I could have scheduled much better myself. The call in service was polite but not much help. I asked to chat with a colllette rep and never got a callback (besides the call in person). The trip was nice but the tour guide was incomprehensible for most of the trip and came in very late the critical first night. The tour guide was nice but she forgot our listening devices the first 2 days and most of the group couldn't hear much of what she said. The meals were unique and good but one particular meal in Kanazawa was so small that most of the group had to go out to eat afterwards. The hotel in Hida (plaza hotel)was very dirty (mold in the restrooms and room was dirty and public bath had algae growth). We have booked with Collette for many years on large trips and this is not the service or value we are used to. I am not sure if we will book again.

See the feedback in the first section.

We loved Japan, the people and the food. Our tour leader was knowledgeable, gracious & accommodating in spite of the impossible position in which Collette had placed her (details below). The tour itinerary could be tweaked, particularly by: employing local guides at many site visits to provide specialized background & context; by arriving earlier in Hakone so we could have enjoyed the beautiful gardens and hotel spas services (we arrived very late & left early next morning); eliminate non-important stops on trip to Takayama as we arrived so late we could not get to hotel to change/shower (after about almost 11 hours on the bus) prior to what was suppose to be a special dinner; spend an extra day in Hiroshima (recommend spending night on Miyajima Island). In particular, would strongly suggest a change to the last night of the tour. Enjoyed meeting the geisha, but the very bad food & atmosphere of the last night ended the tour on a negative experience. This was our 3rd tour with Collette & was definitely an unexpected experience. Unbeknownst to us, & 4 other couples who booked individually, Collette booked 12 people as a separate majority group within the main tour. This majority group had been promised their special needs (vegetarian) would be met. They bullied the tour leader and the balance of people on the tour. This attitude & expectation of being catered to over & above needs of other tour members had a huge impact on the entire group. We had to sacrifice the company of our tour leader at meals so she could cater to this 'majority group' by finding Indian restaurants for every meal (remember, this was sold as Cultural Tour of Japan with focus on Japanese cuisine). When we booked, we were not advised we would be treated as 'people needed to fill seats' (this is a quote from one of the majority group.) As mentioned, this was our 3rd tour with Collette. We feel that Collette was not transparent with us by not mentioning that one majority booking of friends - with special dietary requests would dictate& sacrifice the itinerary & food experience for the balance of tour members. This experience has had a hugely negative impact to our perception of Collette going forward. Unfortunately we are now hesitant about considering Collette for future bookings. Regards, Mary Murphy & Paul Seymour

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