Japan Tour Costs High?

[bubbachief]

We are doing a 14 day cruise in November that hits a number of ports in Japan. Looking at private tour costs, they seem really high in comparison to stops in Vietnam and Thailand.

Am I looking in the wrong places or are they just high?

[BruceMuzz]

Just like America and other developed countries, things in Japan are expensive.

Vietnam and Thailand, like other developing countries, are less expensive.

[bobhsv]

We are noticing the same issue for our Japan cruise.  Added to that, our ship doesn't have a lot to offer for English speaking passengers.  We are hoping more ship tours will be added closer to the date (August).  Private tours in other Asian ports have always been reasonably cheap, but we are finding Japan tours seem to be 3 to 4 times more cost than any USA/NZ/Oz/Europe tours we have been on in the past.  So, you are not alone in thinking they are expensive and somewhat hard to come by.

[Kylie]

Please let us know if you find any good tours - we booked on a cruise to Japan next year on Celebrity.

 

[Tara Jane]

Check out goodwill guides.  They are volunteers who are very happy to spend a day showing you around their town.

Only cost to you is their transport, entry fees and meals if they are with you at meal time.

Very important is that you book asap as they are in great demand on cruise ship days and there is a limited number of guides available as many are uni students and also business people still working, but giving up their time a few days a month to this service.

https://www.japan.travel/en/plan/list-of-volunteer-guides/

 

[Northern Aurora]

I suppose it may depend on the definition of "high tour costs," but we used TripleLights last fall for very personalized private tours customized to our choices.  We were very pleased, and thought that the costs for the two of us were reasonable.

[sippican]

We agree that the tour costs seem high when compared with other ports. The other thing that surprised us is that they request total payment up front, and no refund if the port is missed, etc.

However, we do prefer to do small group private tours, rather than ships' tours, so we have booked with Triple Lights based on recommendartions from other CC posters.

[Miaminice]

18 hours ago, sippican said:

 The other thing that surprised us is that they request total payment up front, and no refund if the port is missed, etc.

However, we do prefer to do small group private tours, rather than ships' tours, so we have booked with Triple Lights based on recommendartions from other CC posters.

 

We used Triple Lights and Tours by Locals in Japan before and will use them again for our cruise in April.
If one considers the cos high or not is subjective. We found the cost to be adequate.

That being said, we had to cancel tours with both agencies because of itinerary changes and had no problems. The money was refunded within a day or so. Not sure about same day cancellations with Triple Lights, but cancelling before wasn´t a big deal.

 

 

 

[Orlando Vic]

On 2/17/2019 at 8:20 AM, Tara Jane said:

Check out goodwill guides.  They are volunteers who are very happy to spend a day showing you around their town.

 

Tara Jane is correct. We had a wonderful guide in Hakodate and it cost us nothing. We did buy her lunch though.

[sippican]

4 hours ago, Miaminice said:

 

We used Triple Lights and Tours by Locals in Japan before and will use them again for our cruise in April.
If one considers the cos high or not is subjective. We found the cost to be adequate.

That being said, we had to cancel tours with both agencies because of itinerary changes and had no problems. The money was refunded within a day or so. Not sure about same day cancellations with Triple Lights, but cancelling before wasn´t a big deal.

 

 

 

 

I guess you were fortunate. I contacted them before booking because I was concerned about the full payment and no cancellation policy stated on their website. Here is the reply I received:

 

Dear Dona san,
This is Emi from TripleLights customer support.

Thank you for contacting us,
Normally, the cancelation policy is applied, but we do offer exceptions for cruise customers on a case-by-case basis.

If the tour destination is dangerous and the tour cannot be conducted, we always offer 100% refund.
However, we cannot offer a full refund if the tour location is safe, and the cancelation is just due to the ship's decision.

Since our tours are all private and customized, our guides spend a lot of time preparing it, and many times, guides are already waiting for the customer at the port when they are notified that the ship won't stop.
For those reasons, we need to pay our guide's time, so we can offer either a partial refund or no refund depending on the case.

I hope you can understand.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Kind regards,
Emi and the TripleLights team.

[Miaminice]

38 minutes ago, sippican said:

 

I guess you were fortunate. I contacted them before booking because I was concerned about the full payment and no cancellation policy stated on their website. Here is the reply I received:

 

 

Regarding Triple Lights I guess we were.

 

We booked some other Tours with Tours by Locals and had to cancel one due to an itinerary change (HAL).

Tours by Locals have a straight forward policy:

 

If you cancel or cannot take your tour as a consequence of force majeure, ToursByLocals will refund the amount you have paid for your tour to a limit $1000 USD. ...
Force Majeure includes impersonal events such as war, ....

or if you are on a ship and it is unable to dock for whatever reason, you are covered under this 'Force Majeure' provision.

 

Plus they have a return to ship guarantee:

 

'No One left Behind' Shore Excursion Guarantee
ToursByLocals guarantees that in the unlikely event that you miss your ship, we will arrange overnight accommodation and transport to the next feasible port-of-call.

 

Edited February 21, 2019 by Miaminice

[sippican]

5 minutes ago, Miaminice said:

 

Regarding Triple Lights I guess we were.

 

We booked some other Tours with Tours by Locals and had to cancel one due to an itinerary change (HAL).

Tours by Locals have a straight forward policy:

 

If you cancel or cannot take your tour as a consequence of force majeure, ToursByLocals will refund the amount you have paid for your tour to a limit $1000 USD. ...
Force Majeure includes impersonal events such as war, ....

or if you are on a ship and it is unable to dock for whatever reason, you are covered under this 'Force Majeure' provision.

 

Plus they have a return to ship guarantee:

 

'No One left Behind' Shore Excursion Guarantee
ToursByLocals guarantees that in the unlikely event that you miss your ship, we will arrange overnight accommodation and transport to the next feasible port-of-call.

 

 

Thank you,

That is good to know!