The host of a tea ceremony measures matcha into the bowl. Every journey on Honshu includes a private tea ceremony in Kyoto.
the private collection, travelling solo
Travel through Japan solo, with your own personal Tour Director
Four private journeys through Japan, each yours as a solo guest on the dates you choose: a room of your own at every stop, and your own personal Tour Director every day.
Yours entirely, with your own personal Tour Director. Every day is planned in full before you arrive.
- journeys
- Four, of nine to thirteen days
- where
- Honshu, from Tokyo to Osaka, or Hokkaido
- guests
- One guest, in a room of your own
- dates
- Yours to choose
A deposit of $3,500 per person confirms your dates; the balance is due 95 days before you travel. Safe, secure, encrypted payment, by card or bank transfer.
Choose a journey and your dates
Set by the journey, nine days
Choose a start date and we check the calendar for all nine days.
travelling solo
Choose your journey
Our published tours are twin share, so a solo guest travels with us on one of these four journeys. Each carries one inclusive solo price, set out on its own page: all breakfasts, and all other meals as detailed in the itinerary.
nine days · honshu
Essential Japan
Nine days, three cities, from a Tokyo sushi counter to kaiseki in Kyoto.
Tokyo 3, Kyoto 3, Osaka 2 nights
nine days · hokkaido
Pure Hokkaido
Nine days, six nights at onsen ryokan.
Hakodate 2, Noboribetsu 2, Otaru 2, Sapporo 2 nights
eleven days · honshu
Classic Japan
Eleven days, and two nights at a ryokan in Kinosaki Onsen.
Tokyo 3, Kyoto 3, Kinosaki 2, Osaka 2 nights
thirteen days · honshu
Definitive Japan
Thirteen days, the most complete journey we make.
Tokyo 3, Mount Fuji 2, Kyoto 3, Kinosaki 2, Osaka 2 nights
Travelling solo with us means that you are never on your own with the language, the timetable or the menu. A private chauffeur meets your flight, and that evening your Tour Director, fluent in English and Japanese, joins you for the welcome dinner, and from then on opens the doors and takes care of every arrangement: at the temples and the markets, at the table as often as you wish, and in every conversation on the ground.
The ryokan of the Honshu journeys, at Kinosaki Onsen and beneath Mount Fuji, receive a solo guest, and the room is yours at every stop.
how to book
How a solo journey is booked
- your journey
- Choose one of the four journeys and the dates you would like, and enquire.
- your dates
- We confirm your dates, or offer the nearest dates that work, within 48 hours. No deposit is taken until your dates are confirmed.
- your deposit
- A deposit of $3,500 per person confirms your dates; the balance is due 95 days before you travel.
on every journey
What every journey includes
Each journey carries one inclusive price per person, set out on its own page: all breakfasts, and all other meals as detailed in the itinerary; each journey page sets out its own dinners, lunches and stays in full.
- A private luxury car and chauffeur for each couple to and from the airport.
- First class on the Shinkansen between the cities of Honshu, and a private car and driver wherever the rail cannot go, and in Hokkaido.
- Your luggage sent ahead between hotels, so you travel light.
- Breakfast every day and most of the dinners, a welcome dinner on the first night of each Honshu journey, and your Tour Director's recommendations on the evenings left open.
- A private tea ceremony and a sake tasting on Honshu, a whisky tasting at Yoichi on Hokkaido, a craft studio and the market walks on every journey.
- Every entrance on the plan, and the same Tour Director in every city.
the extension
Hiroshima and Miyajima
Three days more, to Hiroshima and the island of Miyajima, offered on Essential Japan and Classic Japan. Ask us when you enquire.
From Osaka the shinkansen reaches Hiroshima in first class in about ninety minutes. Three nights at a hotel at Hiroshima Station allow an afternoon at the Peace Memorial Park and Museum, a day on Miyajima for Itsukushima Shrine and its great torii standing in the water, and a morning in Shukkei-en, the garden of the Asano lords. On the last morning a private luxury car and chauffeur takes you to your flight from Hiroshima, or the shinkansen returns you to Osaka or Tokyo for it, in first class.
begin
Begin with an enquiry
Tell us the journey and the dates you have in mind. A deposit of $3,500 per person confirms your dates; the balance is due 95 days before you travel.
Every need and desire was answered promptly, respectfully and professionally.
R. B.
How the journeys are taken, and the four compared: The Private Collection. To have a journey shaped around you instead: The Custom Tour of Japan.