JTB Sunrise Tours - Kyoto

Have any of you had experience with JTB Sunrise Tours? I'm thinking about taking the ''your on your own tour'' from Tokyo to Kyoto, and then, while in Kyoto, taking the 1-day Kyoto & Nara tour. Advice welcome!

The advantage is, you need not to organize by your own and the Free Plan VJ Series offers a very attractive price for shinkansen ride Tokyo / Kyoto / Tokyo plus accommodation. The disadvantage is: Arrival day you will be in Kyoto in the afternoon and after hotel check in you just have balance of later afternoon and evening for Kyoto. As many sights close between 4 and 5 in the afternoon limited sightseeing this day. Departure is midday, so only early morning sightseeing. But if you make it a 3 day tour combined with Kyoto/Nara JTB sightseeing day you can see a lot without any worries.

I did the Kyoto morning/Nara afternoon tour on my first trip to Japan in 96 and enjoyed it, just one word of advice if you want to see the imperial palace don't do the tour on a weekend or a public holiday as they don't go there on those days, but its an easy way to see some of kyoto and nara's attractions we especially enjoyed Nijo Castle, the golden pavillion, the golden buddha, and the deer park.

Peter is correct about the shortage of time by traveling with JTB. I think they get such good Shinkansen prices based on the timing of the travel. However, JTB offers such a good deal that it's still worth it if you have the time to spend some extra nights there in Kyoto. They allow you to tack on more hotel nights onto the tour, which our family and my friends have done. (The hotel prices are a good deal, too.) My friends did the N100 day tour of Kyoto, which was just added to their trip, so that one day out of their time in Kyoto they didn't have to navigate by themselves as much. I have had very positive experiences with JTB in every way, personally, as well as family and friends visiting. I heartily recommend them.

You can leave ANY time on the day of your tickets. So if you don't care about the reserved seats, just get on an earlier train or leave on a later train. It's perfectly fine. You won't get your reserved seats, but you will spend more time in Kyoto.

patchmonkey, are you sure about that? Have you done it?

I am wondering, because there are other travel plans by JTB, such as the Puratto Kodama Plan, which allow you to use only the reserved seat on a specified train. They do not allow you to use any other seat or any other train than the specified ones. This is different from regular shinkansen tickets with seat reservation, which allow you to travel by non-reserved seat on any other train on the same day.

Hi

We did the NTA Tokyo to Kyoto "on your own" tour (although we didnt' realise it was your own at the time). This tour group organised most the their tours through JTB. On the whole we found it quite good...although a bit strange being told "here is your ticket from Tokyo to Kyoto...when you get there go to this hotel at...". We did not feel like it was rushed although we did stay on in Kyoto for a few nights after so we had plenty of time to look around.

This tour had Hakone on it - and the hotel we stayed at had it's own onsen which was very nice.

Albert

Im gonna be travelling from Tokyo to Kyoto, and was hoping for 7 nights there, beforev eading back to Tokyo...is a return ticket provided? I heard single supplements are expensive for extrs nights?

Did Kyoto/Nara one day. Loved it so much we also did Tokyo AND Hakone/Mt. Fuji. If you want to see the major spots in Japan, we thought this was the best way to do this. By the time you organized yourself, took the trains and figured out where everything was, it would be more difficult and probably more expensive. Tours picked us up at the hotels and either dropped us off at the hotel (Kyoto/Nara); dropped us a block from the hotel (Hakone/Mt. Fuji); or closeby with instructions to take the trains. Tour guides spoke excellent English and were very amusing. If you want to learn about the places you visit (history etc.) the tours are the best way to do this. Buses are very comfortable. Meals are great. Opportunity to meet people from all over the world. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMEND SUNRISE!

We did the 1D Kyoto/Nara tour in Dec 07.

I must say that it's good cos you really get to pack in a lot of sights in a single day which you'd otherwise not be able to do so on your own cos the sights are quite a bus-ride away.

What I didn't like: 1. Japanese lunch was lousy, 2. Very rushed schedule- usually less than 30 mins at each site (be sure to choose a weekday to avoid the crowds but then again you may meet busloads of school kids)

What I liked: 1. Good guide (We had Umi who spoke fluent English!), 2. Managed to cover lots of places