Premium Highlights of Japan with Intrepid: Tokyo to Kyoto

Travelling with Intrepid

Your Intrepid tour leader travels with the group from Tokyo to Kyoto, sharing recommendations for meals and free time and helping you understand local customs along the way. The Premium style adds more included meals, a traditional ryokan feature stay and hands-on experiences such as a samurai visit, sushi-making, Yuzen dyeing and a tea ceremony, while still leaving room to explore independently.

Highlights

• Visit a family-owned samurai dojo in Tokyo, where a descendant of a samurai clan introduces the traditions, weapons and clothing associated with Japan’s warrior culture.

• Explore coastal Kamakura by rickshaw and local train, stopping at Kotoku-in Temple to see its enormous bronze Great Buddha.

• Spend a night in a traditional ryokan in Yudanaka, with hot-spring bathing, a regional dinner and a visit to Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park.

• Walk through Kenrokuen Garden and Kanazawa’s preserved samurai and geisha districts, then visit Omicho Market before learning to make sushi.

• Travel to Kyoto by train for Arashiyama, a Yuzen dyeing workshop and an evening walk through Gion, the city’s historic geisha district.

• Pass beneath the red torii gates of Fushimi Inari Shrine before taking part in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony.

Tokyo and Kamakura

Tokyo begins in Asakusa, one of the best areas for seeing the capital’s older side. Walk through the streets around Senso-ji, the city’s oldest Buddhist temple, then see Tokyo from the water on a river cruise before joining the group for dinner.

The samurai experience takes place at a family-owned dojo, where the history becomes more personal through stories, traditional weapons and clothing. The following day brings a change of scene in Kamakura, a historic coastal city filled with temples and wooded hills. Travel between the sights by rickshaw and the Enoden railway, a small local train that winds through residential streets towards the sea.

Yudanaka and Kanazawa

Leave Tokyo for Yudanaka, a mountain town known for its hot springs and nearby snow monkey park. Your feature stay is in a traditional ryokan, a Japanese inn where the experience centres on hot-spring bathing, seasonal food and time to unwind. Dinner draws on local vegetables, wild plants and river fish from the surrounding region.

Continue by train to Kanazawa, a city known for its beautifully preserved Edo-era neighbourhoods. Walk through Kenrokuen, one of Japan’s most celebrated landscape gardens, then explore the former samurai district of Nagamachi and the wooden teahouses of Higashi Chaya. The following morning starts at Omicho Market, where a local guide introduces the seafood and produce before a hands-on sushi-making experience.

Kyoto

Travel to Kyoto by Shinkansen bullet train and the Thunderbird service, arriving in Arashiyama on the western side of the city. Walk around the river, Togetsu-kyo Bridge and temple gardens before trying Yuzen dyeing, a traditional method used to decorate silk and kimono fabric.

That evening, explore Gion, where traditional wooden townhouses, narrow streets and teahouses preserve part of old Kyoto. The final full day includes Fushimi Inari Shrine, where thousands of red torii gates climb the wooded hillside, followed by a Japanese tea ceremony that introduces the careful preparation and presentation behind this centuries-old custom.

Terms and Conditions

Economy flights from Dublin to Tokyo Haneda via Istanbul, departing 12/02/2027, with checked baggage and a private airport transfer included. The eight-night Premium Highlights of Japan tour with Intrepid travels from Tokyo to Kyoto and includes seven nights in hotels and one night in a traditional ryokan feature stay. Eight breakfasts, one lunch and four dinners are included. Travel during the tour uses trains, Shinkansen bullet train, public bus and metro. Nineteen experiences include the Tokyo welcome dinner, samurai dojo, Senso-ji Temple, river cruise, Kamakura day trip, rickshaw and Enoden railway, Snow Monkey Park, onsen stay, Kenrokuen Garden, Kanazawa’s historic districts, Omicho Market and sushi-making, Arashiyama, Gion, Yuzen dyeing, Fushimi Inari Shrine and a tea ceremony. A private transfer to Kansai International Airport and return economy flights from Osaka to Dublin via Istanbul are also included. Based on two adults.

8 nights from €5,700 per person