10 days Kyushu tour for Singapore Customer
Number of traveller : 4 persons
Schedule : June 17 to 26, 2024
Transportation : Private vehicle with English speaking driver
Where to visit : Harazuru Onsen, Nagasaki, kumamoto, Aso, Beppu, Kitakyushu
Dazaifu, Itoshima, Yanagawa, Fukuoka
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What our Customer have to say
We would like to express our utmost gratitude and appreciation for the thoughtful itinerary and
arrangements for our group by Japan Kyushu Tourist and Takako-san 🙂
This was a family trip for the parents as they have not had a vacation 2015 til the end of the
pandemic. I found Japan Kyushu Tourist on the Internet while looking for options as our tour
of Kyushu with JTB Sg office had to be cancelled due to insufficient participants.
The process of engaging with Japan Kyushu Tourist was very personal and smooth, I was
asked if I had any themes, location or activity wish lists in mind to visit. I had very simple
wants and highlighted my mom’s vegetarian meal needs, a couple of activities like fruit picking,
and a request for 1.5days free and easy in FUK before we departed, also I stated that we are
a chill group who didn’t need a “marathon itinerary” that requires us to wake up super early
everyday and cover miles in a bus to cover everything, just good food and some sightseeing
peppered with own time to do shopping will be good.
Takako-san got the above description down pat, the itinerary’s pace was exactly what worked
for us. We would check out by 9am after a hearty hotel breakfast each morning and reach
a point of interest 1.5-2hrs away in a new city each day, 2-3 places of interest with even up to
2hrs time per place. The English speaking driver, Mr Mark Monden, assigned to our group was
always looking out for our interest too. When we couldn’t see Mt. Aso due to bad weather,
he researched on a nearby children’s petting zoo with cute activities where we could visit.
Admission fee was not included and an additional cost to us but we were very appreciative of
the effort and thought especially when we noted other bigger tour groups’ participants were just
hanging around the museum area because they were just placed there. 🤣 Sure we did not
have a tour guide attached to us unlike if we followed a big tour group like JTB but our driver
Mark-san was so considerate and always told us how much time we spend at each place was
up to us. 🥰 When it was raining at the fish market, Mark-san told us we could even bring our
purchases to eat inside the van if we liked and he always found a place close to wait patiently
in the van for us at each location, just in case we needed him at any time.
Little things like that felt big and I keep feeling grateful that I found Japan Kyushu Tourist.
I booked our own air tickets and had to figure out how to remit the deposit and final payment
as the agency did not take credit card payments, this was to me the toughest part. I was also
a little worried as SGD 12k plus was not a small sum in my opinion to remit via cash overseas
to an agency I never spoke with. in case it helps anyone’s research from SG, I found out DBS
bank and Wise had their banking info within their respective ibanking apps, (not UOB bank
though, and you’ll just need the info in Katakana for Wise app)
Takako-san and Masa-san were also always super prompt to respond. (Of course for fellow
vacation planners, please be professional even though it’s vacation planning and reciprocate
with punctuality on timelines and communication 🤪) .
I actually didn’t expect Japan to be so very crowded with tourists now as I wasn’t following the
news weeks before due to work. But the entire itinerary was so well organized we weren’t
impacted. We checked ourselves in at hotel receptions with our passports citing “Japan
Kyushu Tourist” (tip to keep the Katakana wording of that on hand too, as some places the
hotel staff may not be too proficient in English), the accommodations arranged were super
comfortable. Our best meal was the dinner at hotel on our first night in Harazuru, parents
were gushing throughout the meal! Plus the beautiful onsen!! All the other hotels with onsens,
the breakfast spreads were yum🤤. Whenever in the city area, we were placed in hotels that
are conveniently located near main train stations with malls. The entire trip was a perfect
balance of sightseeing and then personal time for shopping each evening after 5pm!!
It’s also the perfect balance between a self planned vacation and the hectic itinerary of a
tour group, I Loved that we were more in control of our time even with a planned itinerary.
We appreciate the beauty of Kyushu so much now. My sister and I had a chat and we think
should return to Japan in future, it will be back to this region via Fukuoka rather than Tokyo,
where the people are warmer and more receptive of tourists especially since the crowding
started.