01
Kyoto's temples, timed
Fushimi Inari at sunrise, Arashiyama before eight, Kiyomizu-dera in the evening light. The timing is the trip.
East Asia
Japan
The most rewarding country to travel, if someone plans it right.
- Best time
- Late March – April for sakura, October – November for autumn
- Ideal length
- 10 – 14 nights
- Pace
- Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and one rural night
- Visa
- eVisa for Indian passports, we run the process
Why Japan
Japan runs on systems: rail passes, IC cards, reservation windows, seasonal timings. Get those right and the country opens up completely. Get them wrong and you spend the trip queuing and paying twice. This is the destination where good planning makes the largest single difference to how two weeks actually feel.
“Kyoto has around 1,600 temples. You need four. Choosing which four is the entire job.
What you'll actually do
The Japan we'd plan for you
Not a list of sights, the specific things that make the difference between having been somewhere and having experienced it.
02
A night in a ryokan
Tatami, onsen, kaiseki dinner. One or two nights in Hakone or Kinosaki changes what people remember about Japan.
03
The Shinkansen
Tokyo to Kyoto in two hours fifteen, with Fuji out of the right-hand window if you're sitting where we tell you to sit.
04
Food, at every price point
A 900-yen bowl of ramen and a Michelin-starred counter both belong on the same trip. We book the ones that need booking.
A route that works
What a trip here can look like
A starting point, not a package. Every route we build gets reshaped around your dates, your pace and who's travelling.
- Days 1 – 4
Tokyo
Shibuya and Shinjuku, but also Yanaka and Shimokitazawa, the neighbourhoods where the city stops performing.
- Days 5 – 6
Hakone or the Fuji Five Lakes
Onsen, ryokan dinner, and Fuji on a clear morning. The slow middle of the trip, deliberately.
- Days 7 – 10
Kyoto
Four temples, one tea house, Nishiki market, and a day trip to Nara if the deer are on your list.
- Days 11 – 13
Osaka & Hiroshima
Dōtonbori at night, then Miyajima and the Peace Memorial, the day that stays with most travellers longest.
From our trips
Japan, photographed
Every image here is from a trip we've planned or led ourselves.
Japan
Japan
JapanWays to travel
How people travel Japan
The same destination works very differently depending on who's coming. These are the formats that suit it best.
Keep looking
Other places worth your dates
If the timing isn't right for this one, one of these usually is.
Ready when you are
Let's plan Japan
Tell us your rough dates and who's travelling. You'll get a route before you get a price.
Start your journey
Tell us a little about your trip.