Japan Winter Wonder

This was my third Contiki, and until now I absolutely loved them. This particular tour has some teething problems with far too much free time, serious lack of inclusions and mediocre and expensive extras. Skip the Hiroshima cruise. Not worth the money - terrible food and doesn’t include drinks. Book yourself into a Teppenyaki instead. Also, don’t book the ski extension with Contiki - it doesn’t include lift passes, hire or lessons. Best booking the transport and better centrally located accommodation yourself. This is definitely not a party trip. You’ll go out every second night to a small bar but it doesn’t really attract a group of party animals. I’m sure there were some people that thought this trip was fantastic. Maybe it was a me problem. But if I were to give advice: Save yourself the huge sum of money and book it yourself.

Most expensive trip for the Asia options, thought I'm assuming it's just because Japan is expensive.

I would do another tour with Contiki

Activities offered and te company of a small group was perfect

Well worth the money. The activities were so cultural and enjoyabe and the hotels were always nice

The trip itself was amazing, the winter wonder I would do again in a heartbeat. But we needed more information about the 4 day ski add on. We were told everything was paid for then we were told ski hire isnt included but the ski pass is etc. and when we asked for an estimate on cost of hire we were told to do our own research which wasd difficult not knowing the area. Maybe this was more the travel agents fault than contiki's but it would not be too hard to provide this information somewhere. I ended up bringing about $400 for 4 days at hakuba and spent about $270 on 2 days of ski hire and ski passes. If i had known about that cost i could have budgeted way better. The other annoying thing about the '4 days' was arriving there at about 3 pm, getting 2 full days and then needing to leave at 8 am on the '4th day'. It worked out in the end as it cost a lot more than i thought it would but that was a bit annoying to find out. Apart from this I would redo this whole trip in a heartbeat, the entire experience was incredible!

Japan is a wonderful place to visit and the Contiki made it very easy to see all the “good bits”. It is an expensive trip but when you work out what it would cost to go at it alone with the bullet train, accomodation, transport etc. it is well worth it. The only 2 things about this trip I’d ask people to consider is that 1. There is a lot of free time so really plan out what you want to do and see, and 2. I don’t think the ski package on the end is worth the extra $$$ (I didn’t do it but went up on my own after the Contiki). The snow part isn’t guided and the only thing you get for your extra money is transfers there and accomodation - that of which isn’t that great! But a great trip if you want to see Japan!

Best trip. Plenty of time in each main spot, day trips were brilliant. Local guides knew their stuff really well, and the trip manager Fi really knew her stuff and organised everything really well. Free time add ons were well chosen and fit in well with included extras.

Pretty good value, great experience!

The trip itself was good value for money, can't complain about how much was included but when we asked to book the hotel room for a few extra days on the end, Contiki quoted us a price that was literally double what I could book it myself for...

It was quite expensive to only have breakfast included however I think the costs were covering the hotel experience which makes sense. It would be nice to have a few lunches and dinners included too as it was almost $4000 for this package!

Amazing guide, fun activities and fantastic group. We were given a lot of flexibility, which I enjoyed. However, this trip was pricy. The hotels were unnecessarily luxurious? and likely drove up the price.

Great overall tour, would recommend

I misunderstood some of the inclusions and thought there would be at least an included ski pass and entry to universal studios in Osaka according to what I read online.

Really good, two possible suggestions, don't have a total free day after the first night, and also have the same number of skiing places as winter wonderland places