Odynovo Tours Co., Ltd

1. The standard of tour guides were very high, we were very pleased with all 3. They were very informative, flexible and made the most of the time given.
2. In Tokyo we visited the fish market (not in our plans, but suggested by our guide) it was amazing. We went early morning and saw the hustle & bustle of the market, while stopping at several to sample items for our breakfast. Maybe a good suggestion, if you didn’t already know about it.
3. As you know we had issues with the 1st pick up driver, but we also had similar issues with another driver who did pick up on our second to last day, when he picked us up from Tokyo station to take to the hotel. Again we were wondering around the station looking for him, while he sat in the car texting directions. Not ideal with 2 kids and 5 suitcases. Also my younger daughter had to sit on my knee in the car because the rear seat belt was faulty. His suggestion was that he would drive slow!! Stewart also questioned his driving skills. But noted all the other drivers were reliable and safe.
4. We liked all the hotels we stayed in, maybe the first one in Tokyo and the Kyoto one could have been a little closer to the centre, to save on taxis.

Thank you for your help and we look forward to book our next trip with you.

Hotel Reviews

Mitsui Garden Hotel Roppongi Tokyo Premier

Tokyo

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The Blossom Kyoto

Kyoto

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo

Tokyo

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

One Day Miyajima Island and Hiroshima Tour

Japan

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Gion District and Nishiki Market

Japan

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Tokyo City Tour with Tokyo Tower

Tokyo

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Full Day Mt. Fuji with Lake Kawaguchi with Oishi Park

Tokyo

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Half Day Kids-Friendly Samurai Ninja Museum and Kimono Tea Ceremony

Kyoto

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Full Day Kyoto City Tour with Fushimi Inari-Taisha

Kyoto

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Arashiyama Bamboo Grove and Monkey Park Tour

Kyoto

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Sandy and team were great. Some teething issues with being able to contact someone on the ground when we arrived due to connection problems and a late hour of night but all worked out and mostly smooth sailing from then on in. Our local guides: Kaiko, Kahori and a special mention to Masaaki san, were amazing. Masaaki was especially great and very understanding on our last full day in Japan when our kids (9 and 11) were tired after clocking over 20,000 steps everyday for two weeks.

We especially loved the local and less touristy recommendations and Masaaki's ability to pivot at short notice due to bad weather. The kids absolutely loved the Toeii Film Studio!!

Hotel Reviews

Park Hotel Kyoto

Kyoto

This was our favourite hotel during the trip. Clean, quiet and well equipped rooms. The breakfast has a decent offering and the staff were friendly and helpful.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Cross Hotel Osaka

Osaka

Superb location for Osaka sightseeing and shopping. Close to the metro and shopping streets. Hotel is clean and well appointed. Breakfast was the best on our trip. Only criticism is if you stay in a room on the street side rooms are noisy at night.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Sotetsu Fresa Inn Hiroshima

Hiroshima

Hotel is clean and comfortable enough. Breakfast is decent. Location is good for transport. Hotel is very busy though (Special mention to the staff running the breakfast room though, Japanese efficiency 👍).

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Rose Garden Shinjuku

Hotel is in a good location, close to central transport. Clean and comfortable. Sometimes a bit loud at night from street noise. Beds are comfortable.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Bamboo Grove and Monkey Park Tour with a Boat Ride

Kyoto

We didn't get to the boat ride or the monkey park due to weather but the alternative was just as good if not better.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Tokyo Day Tour with Tsukiji Outer Market & Senso-ji - East & Central

Tokyo

A really good tour of the city, the personal explanation of the temple and shrine. Authentic Japanese paper making and traditional Nori making. We had a really great day.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Full Day Mt. Fuji with Lake Kawaguchi & Oishi Park

Tokyo

Such a great day, we were lucky that the weather let us see Fuji all morning before the clouds came in. We loved our local Hotou lunch.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Eleanor helped plan a trip to Japan for me (senior citizen) and my adult son. We said we are interested in art and food, and Eleanor suggested some activities that fit our interests. The Zentis hotel in Osaka was lovely and in a very good location. Our guide, Yuki, was knowledgeable and kind. She showed us how to use the public transportation, which was very helpful. We enjoyed the cooking class and the foodie tour and the day at Meiji Castle and Kobe. Our trip was planned to fit with my son's work schedule, but it turned out that we arrived one day after the start of cherry blossom season, very beautiful but also very crowded. Our Kyoto guide, Mr. Tanaka, is a Kyoto native, very knowledgeable and professorial. In addition to showing us some of the famous tourist sites, he suggested great, typically Japanese restaurants for lunch. The one negative thing for me was our hotel in Kyoto. It is a very busy tourist hotel, which could have been in any city in the world.

We loved our trip to Japan! It was very well organized and everything went very smoothly. Angel responded right away and was very quick to make adjustments if we needed.

The tour guide Taku was amazing, very friendly and informative and funny. We had a great time touring Kyoto with him. The only thing was it was very busy hitting 4 destinations in one day. We would have preferred to have more time to explore and only do 3 destinations.

The tour in Hiroshima was also good but we noticed that we could have taken a 30 min ferry directly from our hotel to the island, but instead we were scheduled for 1.5 hrs of public transportation (streetcar/bus). We ended up buying the ferry ticket ourselves but it didnt make sense why that wasnt offered initially.

The accommodations were all lovely. Great food options and comfortable. It would have been nice if the last hotel let us pay a day rate to keep the room for the day since our driver was picking us up at 6pm and even with late check out we couldn't stay past 12, so when we were tired of exploring Tokyo we had no where to rest while we waited for the driver.

The only excursion I wouldn't recommend was the tea ceremony. It wasn't great, we would have preferred to do the Geisha show in Kyoto that runs in April. It looked much better but there were no tickets available when we looked while we were there.

Hotel Reviews

Mitsui Garden Hotel Nihonbashi Premier / Tokyo

tokyo

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Vischio Kyoto by GRANVIA

Kyoto

Authenticity & Character

They had a cute little robot walking around the reception that made everyone smile.

Location

Right near the train station making it easy to hop around everywhere, but also central enough to walk places if you want.

Staff

Very friendly and helpful

Cleanliness & Comfort

Grand Prince Hotel Hiroshima

Hiroshima

Beautiful view and easy access to the Ferry which comes right to the dock, but not a great location for seeing anything in Hiroshima or getting to restaurants or shops.

Authenticity & Character

The reception was nice but the rooms were dated.

Location

Scenic but not very accessible to restaurants or shops.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Very stuffy, we always felt like we wanted to open a window but none of the windows open. Was a little better after we got the AC running.

Activity Reviews

Kimono Tea Ceremony at Kyoto Maikoya

Kyoto

The staff were nice and the Kimonos were beautiful. We did enjoy the tea ceremony but the location wasnt great. The "garden" was a teeny little walkway around the building where you could take pictures. It felt very cramped with no room to walk around.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Full Day Kyoto City Tour with Fushimi Inari-Taisha

Kyoto

Our guide was wonderful, he had binders with pictures to help him explain the history and he constantly kept us engaged even while waiting for transportation. It was a very busy day trying to hit 4 destinations. We would have preferred to only do 3 and have a little more time to walk around and explore.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

One Day Miyajima Island and Hiroshima Tour

Japan

Had we known a little more about the area, we would have spent less time at Bomb Dome and more time on the island. The museum at the Dome is very informative but it was very busy and hot/stuffy walking around making it hard to see things. The island was beautiful and once we made it there later in the afternoon, we wished we had gotten to spend more time there.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport