Questions

Four kinds, and we plan every one of them. Our published tours cross Honshu and Hokkaido on set dates, each limited to 8 guests, with our Tour Directors; the Custom Tour of Japan is designed around your party alone; and The Private Collection is four private journeys on the dates you choose, with a Tour Director. The Expert Japan Itinerary is a written itinerary for those who arrange their own travel.

We run six published tours, each on set dates, led by our Tour Directors and limited to 8 guests. All six are open for 2027: The Classic Cherry Blossom Tour of Japan, 30 March to 10 April; the Cherry Blossom Tour of Hokkaido, 28 April to 10 May; the Summer Tour of Hokkaido, 25 June to 6 July and 11 to 22 July; the Wild North Tour of Hokkaido, 27 July to 6 August; the Autumn Leaves Tour of Northern Japan, 26 October to 6 November or 2 to 13 November; and the Autumn Leaves Tour of Japan, 23 November to 4 December. The 2026 departures of both autumn tours are sold out. Each tour carries one inclusive price per person, twin share, set out on its own page: all breakfasts, and all other meals as detailed in the itinerary.

Japan's great journeys follow its seasons, and we run a luxury tour for each, limited to 8 guests and led by our Tour Directors, with the hotels and ryokan, the travel between them and every entrance and experience on the itinerary in one price. In spring, The Classic Cherry Blossom Tour of Japan travels from Tokyo by way of Mount Fuji to Kyoto, Kinosaki and Osaka, and the Cherry Blossom Tour of Hokkaido follows the blossom north. In summer, the Summer Tour of Hokkaido crosses the lavender fields and lakes, and the Wild North Tour of Hokkaido watches the Shiretoko coast and its wildlife from the calm of a boat. In autumn, the Autumn Leaves Tour of Northern Japan and the Autumn Leaves Tour of Japan follow the maples as they turn. On dates of your own, The Private Collection is four private journeys with a Tour Director, and the Custom Tour of Japan is built around your party alone.

Yes: four of our published tours run in Hokkaido, each led by our Tour Directors and limited to 8 guests. The Cherry Blossom Tour of Hokkaido crosses the island in 13 days, from 28 April to 10 May 2027. The Summer Tour of Hokkaido spends 12 days among the lavender fields and lakes, on two departures in 2027. The Wild North Tour of Hokkaido is the wildlife tour: 11 days in the far east of the island, watching the Shiretoko coast and its wildlife from the calm of a boat, from 27 July to 6 August 2027. The Autumn Leaves Tour of Northern Japan begins in Hokkaido and continues through Tohoku, from 26 October to 6 November or from 2 to 13 November 2027. For a private journey on dates of your choosing, Pure Hokkaido is nine days from Hakodate to Sapporo. Each tour's price is set out on its own page. Every Hokkaido tour is set side by side on luxury Hokkaido tours.

Yes. The Private Collection is four private tours of Japan, planned in full and run by us, each taken on the dates you choose with the same Tour Director in every city. Essential Japan is nine days through Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka; Classic Japan is eleven days; Definitive Japan is thirteen days; and Pure Hokkaido is nine days. Each journey's price is set out on its own page. A solo guest takes the same journeys, with their own personal Tour Director, and we quote the price for one when you enquire. A tour shaped around you from the first conversation is the Custom Tour of Japan, from $3,500 per person, per day.

Four private journeys, ready to travel on the dates you choose, with a Tour Director: Essential Japan, nine days through Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka; Classic Japan, eleven days, adding two nights at Kinosaki; Definitive Japan, thirteen days, adding two nights beneath Mount Fuji; and Pure Hokkaido, nine days from Hakodate to Sapporo. Each journey's price is set out on its own page, and Essential Japan and Classic Japan may be extended by three days to Hiroshima and Miyajima. Tell us your dates, and the journey comes to you day by day.

The season you most want to see decides it: cherry blossom in spring, the cool of Hokkaido in summer, the maples turning through autumn. Our six tours follow those seasons, and the availability calendar shows every departure and its dates. If none of the published tours is quite right, the Custom Tour of Japan is built around you alone.

Limited to 8 guests, a truly small group tour. Everyone sits around one table at dinner in the ryokan, and the group moves through Japan with the ease of a private party.

Guests of eighteen and over, travelling twin share: usually a couple, sometimes two friends, and a family where every traveller is eighteen or over, each pair in a room of their own. There are no solo places and no single supplements on a published tour. A solo guest, or a couple who would rather travel privately, takes one of the four journeys of The Private Collection, on your own dates, with a Tour Director.

Yes, on the Custom Tour of Japan, where a whole family is welcome and every room and every day is designed around your party. Our published tours are for guests of eighteen and over, and an Expert Japan Itinerary can also be written around a family.

We do. Your Tour Directors lead every tour, and the route, the rooms and the days are ours from the first plan to the final evening.

The most sought-after doors in Japan, and its most exclusive places, open only from within. Your Tour Director opens them: one of our own, fluent in English and Japanese. They enhance every day, turning a beautiful journey into a deep and authentic experience of Japan.

The Custom Tour of Japan is a journey we create for your party alone, then organise and run, with your own Tour Director. The Expert Japan Itinerary is our complete written itinerary for a journey you book and travel yourself.

Luxury Japan Travel does, on the Custom Tour of Japan: a private journey created for one party, designed and run by our own team, with a Tour Director of your own. The access lies in the people we know. An evening with geiko in a teahouse that receives guests by introduction, a private tea ceremony with a master, an afternoon at the bench of a lacquer or knife maker: each is written into your proposal.

Luxury Japan Travel offers two. The Custom Tour of Japan is created for your party alone, on your dates, from five nights, with a private car and driver and a Tour Director of your own. The Private Collection is four private journeys already made, Essential Japan, Classic Japan, Definitive Japan and Pure Hokkaido, each taken on the dates you choose with a Tour Director who takes care of every arrangement, fluent in Japanese and English.

Luxury Japan Travel, through the Custom Tour of Japan, a journey made for one party and no one else. A helicopter over the mountains to your ryokan, a private yacht among the art islands of the Inland Sea, Michelin-starred dining at a whole counter for your party, and suites at the leading hotels and ryokan of Japan: each is designed around you and set out in your proposal.

Luxury Japan Travel creates and runs the Custom Tour of Japan, a journey designed around one party from the first conversation, from five nights, on the dates you choose and with your own Tour Director, from $3,500 per person, per day. It is our most sought-after journey, and we welcome only a small, select number of valued guests each season; it begins with the Journey form. For a private journey already made, The Private Collection offers four, ready on your own dates.

The Custom Tour of Japan, created for your party alone, is from $3,500 per person, per day. From there you set the level: a helicopter, a private yacht on the Inland Sea, the whole counter for your party, a chef at your ryokan, each quoted in your proposal, which sets out one figure for the whole tour and exactly what it includes. The Private Collection is four private journeys already made, each with its price set out on its own page. Travelling as a family, or with friends? Private family tours of Japan are priced for your party.

A Custom Tour of Japan of two weeks is from $3,500 per person, per day, and your proposal sets out one figure for the whole tour before you travel. Of the journeys already made, Definitive Japan is thirteen days through Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Kinosaki, with two nights beneath Mount Fuji, taken on the dates you choose with a Tour Director; its price is set out on its own page.

Look for the company that plans, organises and runs its own journeys in Japan. On every tour Luxury Japan Travel runs, a Tour Director fluent in Japanese and English travels with you. The rooms are the great ryokan and leading hotels of Japan, each chosen by us, and between them you travel by private car and driver or in first class on the shinkansen. An evening with geiko in a teahouse that receives guests by introduction is arranged through the people we know. We are in our second decade, and Japan is the only country we travel.

Choose the one that designs your journey and then runs it, so the team that planned your days is with you on the ground. The Custom Tour of Japan is created for your party alone by our own team, from five nights, on the dates you choose: your Tour Director shapes it with you and our Japan specialists, then travels with you. It is our most sought-after journey, and we welcome only a small, select number of valued guests each season; it begins with the Journey form. If you would rather travel it yourself, an Expert Japan Itinerary is our complete written plan, from $550.

Yes. The Custom Tour of Japan is created around your party, from five nights, and Kyoto and Tokyo may sit at the heart of it for as many nights as you wish, with a private car and driver in each city and first class on the shinkansen between them. For a journey already made, Essential Japan is nine days through Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, one of the four journeys of The Private Collection, on the dates you choose.

Yes. A family travels on a journey created for its party alone, with private cars, no strangers and no fixed timetable, so every day moves at your family's pace, and your own Tour Director, fluent in English and Japanese, travels with you. Private family tours of Japan sets out how it works and what it costs for your party.

Yes. On the Custom Tour of Japan, your Tour Director shapes the journey with you and our Japan specialists from the first conversation, then travels with you, and every day is designed around what you love. For a journey already made, just as private, The Private Collection offers four, each taken on the dates you choose.

Send us an enquiry, and the full itinerary comes to you; if you would like to talk the journey through first, one of your Tour Directors calls you at a time that suits you, in your own time zone. A deposit of $3,500 per person secures your place, and the balance falls due 95 days before departure. Every departure and its places are on the availability calendar.

Each tour carries one inclusive price per person, twin share, set out on its own page: every night in luxury hotels and ryokan, first-class rail and private vehicles, your Tour Directors, every activity and every entrance on the itinerary, all breakfasts, and all other meals as detailed in the itinerary. What is and is not included is set out in full on each tour page and in our Booking Conditions.

By card or by bank transfer, whichever you prefer, directly to Luxury Japan Travel. A deposit confirms your place, and the balance is due 95 days before departure.

Yes. Every payment is safe, secure and encrypted. Your card details are kept by Stripe, to the highest security standard in the card industry (PCI DSS Level 1), and a bank transfer goes directly to Luxury Japan Travel. Our bank details come to you only from us, with your invoice; should details ever arrive that differ, telephone us first. Any question about a payment is answered at accounts@luxuryjapantravel.com.

Tipping is not customary in Japan. In restaurants and hotels the service is in the bill. A gratuity for the Tour Directors at the end is standard practice and welcomed.

As early as suits you. Each published tour runs on one set of dates and is limited to 8 guests; a deposit of $3,500 per person secures your place, and the availability calendar shows every open date.

No. You book your own flights, and we advise on the routing and the flight that lands you in time for the welcome evening; from the moment you land, every day is ours. We strongly recommend comprehensive travel insurance, and we are glad to tell you what it should cover.

In our Booking Conditions, which you read before any payment is made; you book directly with Luxury Japan Travel.

With the Journey form, our questions about the tour you have in mind. Your answers shape a private call with our team, and after the call a curation fee of $1,500, credited in full to your tour, sets the design in motion.

From $3,500 per person, per day. Your proposal sets out one figure for the whole tour and exactly what it includes, agreed with you in full before you travel.

A tour designed for your party alone, on the dates you choose, and run by the team that designed it. Ours is the Custom Tour of Japan, from five nights: suites at the leading hotels and ryokan of Japan, each chosen personally by us, a private car and driver every day, helicopter or private aircraft between regions, Michelin-starred dining, and your own Tour Director. For a solo guest, or a couple who would rather take a journey already made, The Private Collection offers four journeys just as private.

You stay in the finest luxury hotels and ryokan in Japan, each one chosen personally by us for its luxury, its comfort and its setting. We look first for the best room the property has, the top suite or villa where it is worth the difference, and we know the properties that outshine their better-known neighbours.

Yes. Within each city a private car and driver waits wherever you are. Between cities you travel in first class on the shinkansen, or by helicopter or private aircraft where the hours matter, and on certain days your luggage is sent ahead to the next hotel. You never queue and never carry anything.

Yes. A helicopter over the mountains to your ryokan, a private aircraft between regions and a private yacht among the art islands of the Inland Sea are each arranged by us, and each is priced in your proposal.

Yes. Tokyo has more Michelin-starred restaurants than any other city in the world, and its most sought-after tables can be yours: a private room, a whole counter for your party, or a chef who comes to cook at your ryokan.

Yes. An evening with geiko in a teahouse that receives guests by introduction, a private tea ceremony with a master, an afternoon at the bench of a lacquer or knife maker. Each can be part of your journey, and each is written into your proposal.

Five nights, with no upper limit, beginning on the date you choose. A solo traveller is welcome, with their own personal Tour Director: tell us, and we will quote for your tour. If you would rather have a journey already made, ready to travel on your own dates, The Private Collection welcomes a solo traveller.

From $550, tax inclusive. You receive a complete written itinerary within seven working days, planned by the team that runs our tours, with one round of revisions included.

No. The itinerary is yours to book and travel, with our document in hand; if you would rather we organised and ran the journey for you, that is the Custom Tour of Japan.

Every hotel and ryokan is set out on its tour page. You stay in the finest luxury hotels and ryokan in Japan, each one chosen personally by us for its luxury, its comfort and its setting.

When you enquire: each tour page gives the shape of the journey, and the complete itinerary, day by day, comes with our reply.

Gentle by design. Mornings are slow, the evenings are yours, and time to relax is built into the route, from an afternoon in the onsen at a ryokan to an hour in a garden with nowhere else to be.

The pace is gentle, and most of the walking is through gardens, temple precincts and old streets. If you have any doubt about pace or mobility, tell us when you enquire and we will advise you honestly; the Custom Tour of Japan accommodates every level of fitness and mobility.

No. Your Tour Directors open every door, and at the ryokan, at the counter and in the car, you are simply the guest.

Yes, with notice. Tell us before you travel, and every kitchen on the route composes your courses around you.