Do Not Travel with Friendly Planet to Japan
I have been working and traveling and working globally for 45 years. I travel to see the sites, learn about the culture and history and eat local food.
I recently took The Best of Japan tour with Friendly Planet. It was a huge disappointment.
- With the exception of the hotels, morning breakfasts and 2 of the lunches, the pre-ordered tour food was barely edible. We could see other tables with much better food and when we actually looked at menus, we could see we were getting the cheapest "packaged" meals offered. After the Tour Director realized we were not eating the food, he asked us to give it to him - and he ate it!
- Ito, our tour director, while a very nice person, did NOT have the skills, knowledge or experience for the job, much less serve as a local guide to the sites. Every hotel drop off was pure chaos. He would start telling 1-2 people what the plan was for the next day when everyone was not present. He was unable to share salient information about the hotel, such as: when breakfast started, what floor/where it was, what other amenities were available, or what was close by for us to visit. He basically dumped us and left. And he provided NO cultural or historical perspective on anything. He had not even been to some of the places we went to.
- At one point, I asked for his phone number in the event of an emergency and he said "why would you need to call me?" He then said he had given it to one of the other travelers. I never got it. On at least one night, he went to his home that was an hour away from our location by train. What would we have done in the case of an emergency? My expectation is the Director, if not in our hotel, is close by.
- Info about the hotel was must important at the authentic hotel with the hot salt bath. He motioned to a table and said if we needed anything to wear, it was on tables about 30 feet away. We had no idea there was a hot bath spa, what we should wear (outfits and shoes were in our room) or why we would have needed the kimono. People actually wore them to breakfast - we had no idea.
- We paid extra for the palace garden tour and he basically just followed us through the garden. Most days, we had no idea where we were going or why; what was the cultural significance or history. Again, we would arrive and he would say, meet back here in 2 hours. We were left to read the placards or our guide books. We had to ask for the brochures they offered, and then he started getting those before he ditched us.
- So not only the daily chaos and lack of direction, the absence of local guides was my biggest disappointment. The best day we had was the day we went out on our own to a sumo wrestling event, shopping in the Kitchen District and a guided Food & Sake tour with Viator. It was the best food we had in 2 weeks. All were Japanese people who spoke perfect English. Sometimes we actually stopped and listened to other tour guides talking to their groups.
- four of us paid $500 each to do an extra excursion to Hiroshima. We asked if there would be a local guide there. No, it was the Tour Director. We contacted Friendly Planet and demanded a local guide. They complied and we had one for 2 hours.
When we returned, I sent this feedback to Friendly Planet and requested a refund. After 2 weeks, they offered a $200 credit on a future trip. I DO NOT recommend this tour anyone, and I will never travel with them again.
