Booking a holiday to Japan

[montymint]

Looking to get away to Japan potentially next year.

I’m wondering which companies are recommended for booking a few weeks away there?

I’m a little clueless with holiday bookings as I normally only ever require flights only when I go away to Portugal.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Looking to get away to Japan potentially next year.

I’m wondering which companies are recommended for booking a few weeks away there?

I’m a little clueless with holiday bookings as I normally only ever require flights only when I go away to Portugal.

Book a flight with airline*.
Book hotel to the cities you want to visit.
Go?

No different than going to France or anywhere else, bar North Korea or places like that.

*Japan has several international airports so if you want to go to Osaka, it would be silly to land in Narita.

I never book it through 3rd parties, too much potential headache. The airline of choice are in the order of…(my preference)

ANA, JAL (although often it’s operated get BA), and then BA. These have direct flights.

Indirect you can go with lots of others, either connection in Helsinki, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore etc.

I only ever flown direct, it can be as long as 15hrs these days, up from 12hrs since the war. The most important thing is get data (eSIM) and use google maps and google translate. Buy some yen now as it’s the best rate in the last 25yrs.

 

[montymint]

I never book it through 3rd parties, too much potential headache. The airline of choice are in the order of…(my preference)

ANA, JAL (although often it’s operated get BA), and then BA. These have direct flights.

Indirect you can go with lots of others, either connection in Helsinki, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore etc.

I only ever flown direct, it can be as long as 15hrs these days, up from 12hrs since the war. The most important thing is get data (eSIM) and use google maps and google translate. Buy some yen now as it’s the best rate in the last 25yrs.

Thanks for this - it was the 3rd party bit that was a worry - like should I book a package or anything like that.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Thanks for this - it was the 3rd party bit that was a worry - like should I book a package or anything like that.

I would avoid package tours, as most of the stuff for a first time visitors are in the cities and accessible via public transport and public transport in Japan is AMAZING. With Kyoto to a lesser degree due to the sheer amount of tourists but it is also accessible on foot anyway. Kyoto is also very pretty to walk around in. Not to mention if they take you to all these sites, you get there later in the morning when it is absolutely packed, the best thing about going to all these places is before everyone else if you are doing it alone.

Unless you mean package as in just hotel + flights, if that's the case then you can look at BA or Expedia, The Expedia one was because it was a bargain, £1300 for flight and hotel combined for 10 days. I've done them both with these kind of combo package. But last couple of times I just book my own.

Start with nailing down where you want to go, then from that you can work out where you want to fly into and out of. And then from there you can look for flights.

 

[jcb33]

Package tours will be very expensive and very limiting.

I'd suggest you figure out when you want to go and what you want to see and then book a flight. You can use Skyscanner to find good deals. Then book a hotel/hostel/airbnb. They have some very nice airbnbs in Japan and the hosts tend to be wonderful.

Getting around and travel will be confusing for the first day or two but everything (at least in big cities) is also in English and Google Maps works fine for everything but busses.

There are also lots of good websites with "Must Do" things and current events aimed at foreign visitors.

I'd aim to go before May or after September if you don't like heat because the summer is incredibly hot and humid. Flights will generally be cheaper if you avoid things like Sakura season also.

 

[Reuben klang]

Yeah, agree with the above. Don’t do a packaged tour. Do your own thing. Research and see what you want to do and tailor your visit to what you want to do.

I’m buzzing to go back. I’m going for 6 weeks on my next trip.