TripADeal Reviews 820

Our guide Dragon and our driver were really good. We all had a really good time in Japan. There was a lot of traveling and we have loved to stay in some places more than one night. I would recommend the tour.

We travel a lot and this was the first time we had gone on a tour. What made it such a great experience for us was the group of people we were travelling with and what a great tour guide we had. His name was Dragon and nothing was too much trouble for him. We learned so much about Japan while travelling around in the bus and the itinerary had the right balance of structured events and free time

We loved our Japan holiday, our tour guide Dragon was very helpful and went above and beyond to help us. The only negative was that the hotel breakfast weren’t accommodating westerners there was only a small range of choices.

We recently enjoyed our Trip a Deal Japan discovery tour, our guide, Dragon was fantastic, very friendly, helpful and nothing was a problem to him. The tour was very enjoyable, saw a lot of Japan, many cherry blossoms, a lot of history as well as the modern cities. The whole trip was well organized and made our trip fun. The group we had was terrific and we had a great bus driver that made us all feel safe. Would recommend Japan, Dragon and trip a deal to anyone, looking forward to returning to Japan. Sharon & Dale

We could not have been happier with our Japan holiday. Dragon our tour guide was an absolute joy and pleasure, nothing was ever an issue for him. Dragon always went above and beyond to provide us with as much knowledge as he could regarding his country.
Dragon has a great sense of humour and we couldn’t have been more happier with our holiday.
Ani our coach driver was amazing and was always helpful when we were getting off the bus and with our luggage.
Dragon made our holiday a wonderful experience and I highly recommend him if you are looking for an amazing tour guide around Japan.
We would go out of our way to find another tour around Japan that had Dragon as our guide. Can’t recommend Dragon highly enough!

Biggest buch of scams and thieves I've run across ,cancelledbooking and then penalties imposed, customers service worse I've experienced,, 5 weeks and can't get a call back
Current case in ACCC and fair trading ....read google reviews for true feedback

They take 100% of money for any cancellation even 18months out

We recently completed the 2 for 1 Egypt deal. The itinerary was great as was the accommodation. However, the support from Tripadeal was poor. I appreciate that there is alot of uncertainty in the world at the moment but our flights were confirmed less that 48 hours prior to our departure date. Our luggage did not arrive in Cairo and so I attempted to contact the airline with no success. None of the phone numbers or email addresses were current. I rang Tripadeal for assistance and was provided with the numbers I had already attempted to use. One number had not been with the airline for over 5 years. Tripadeal advised me that they had nothing more to offer and had no more up to date numbers. One of our group did not receive her luggage for 12 days. I would hate to have some emergency occur and be reliant on Tripadeal for help.

Tour guide Sylvia
Passionate and very good at her job, goes beyond to ensure customer is happy and cared for
Great sense of humour
Very good communicator
Ensured a harmony within group.
Good knowledge of Japan history, local area info, weather updates, played bingo, self depreciating humour

Accommodation

Generally 3 star, Gifu 4.5 star, very clean and comfortable. Some variation in size and room style. Osaka home style very nice and Hiroshima hotel style very nice.
Selected hotels provided access to close by restaurants, supermarkets and convenience stores.

Food

Breakfast western/ Japanese options
Plenty of time prior to departure

Time management
Departure 8:00 and 8:30 am arriving 4:30 to 6 pm
Plenty of time at tourist lunch stops
Every traveller were crystal clear

Communication
On steroids they said laughing
Sylvia always told us and told us again.
Amount of time at any stop, arrival at hotel. In her timings she managed slower moving passengers. Sylvia was there at end to ensure all customers were accounted for.

Personal management of her customers
Sylvia went out of her way to ensure every passenger was ok.
Our personal experience was testament

General
40 people on board everyone of them were fabulous to travel with. I sincerely believe this was due to them and how Sylvia made the group feel in her words happy, how she cared for each one and how that it made for a vey enjoyable first time experience in Japan.

DONT book TAD.
Accommodation is way out of town. We thought we were staying in Tokyo. What we got was 45mins by road from Tokyo. No meals only the breakfast included in the hotel.
If you want to see anything more than what’s on the way from one destination to the next, pay huge amounts extra for an ‘optional’ trip.
Not my first rodeo but absolutely my last with this company.

The thing that really made the trip enjoyable was our guide Dragon he took the time to explain the history of all the places we visited and could not have been more helpful, nothing was to much trouble for him. He deserves a 5 star rating.

We recently travelled on the 9-day China tour with Trip a Deal and had a really positive experience overall.

The biggest strength is the value — flights, accommodation, transport and guided touring are all included, and it would be very difficult to organise independently for the same price.

The guides were a standout — friendly, organised and very knowledgeable. Hotels were clean and comfortable, and transport throughout the trip was modern and reliable.

However, this is a very structured tour. The itinerary is full, with early starts, long days and limited free time. If you prefer flexibility or like to explore at your own pace, this style of travel may feel quite restrictive.

There are also multiple shopping stops built into the itinerary and optional tours offered along the way. These aren’t unusual for this type of package, but it’s important to factor them into your expectations and budget.

A few practical tips:

- Bring toilet paper and hand sanitiser
- Consider bringing snacks for flights
- Be prepared for a fast-paced itinerary
- eSIM worked well for staying connected

Overall, this trip delivers exactly what it promises — a well-organised, cost-effective way to see a lot in a short time.

If you go in understanding the trade-offs, it’s excellent value.

5 star trip included 3-4 star hotels, second class train transfers, long travel days, late night arrivals, early starts, average dinner options, inflexible optional tours. Overall it was exhausting. We had fun with our group laughing about how you couldn't make the trip more exhausting for no apparent reason.

Kentaro was amazing tour guide! He was very helpful all the time but especially when Kathy got sick he went out and got her medicine. When we lost a bag at the airport he arranged it to be posted back to us. What a thoughtful guide he was!!

We had a great time on our tour. Although the description says minimum 6 people, after we arrived in Delhi we discovered there was only the 2 of us on the trip. Not what we were expecting, but it did turn out to be really good. We had our own private car in each location, with the driver and guide and just the 2 of us! Private tour at TAD price, amazing!
All our guides where really good, but I will call out Vishal, our guide in Udaipur who as well as being a fountain of knowledge was high energy with a sense of fun.
The visit to the Taj Mahal at sunrise was certainly the major highlight. However the other highlights were visiting Udaipur which is very nice with the street markets, the lake and palace, and wonderful cooking class with a local lady in her home.
Things to watch out for:
1) We purchased the premium pack that included 5 additional meals, however the itinerary you receive is obviously used for both standard and premium, and does not show the 5 additional meals. The additional meals are from the hotel buffet and are: Dinner Day 4 Agra, Dinner Day 5 Jaipur, Dinner Day 7 Jaipur, Dinner Day 8 Udaipur, Dinner Day 11 Mumbai. You need to have the guide/representative check with each motel on check-in the measles are booked as we would not have received some of these meals unless we had asked. We would also recommend swapping the already included Dinner on Day 10 in Mumbai to lunch (the hotel did offer to do this), as we had plenty to eat on the street food tour and skipped Dinner. The days you catch the train to Udaipur and plane to Mumbai you have to leave the hotel before breakfast is open, but the hotels will provide you with a travel pack if you arrange the day before. And yes, the train ride is 7 hours, but the train is fine and it’s all part of the experience. As per other comments, the buffet may not be much of “foodie” experience and particularly at the first 3 hotels the offerings were very similar, but the food is good quality and Indian, not western, so it was still an experience. Besides, as is often the case with TAD, the hotels are located a long way from the centre with nothing in the walkable area, so it wasn’t clear to us what other options there would be (there is a reason the TAD prices are so good!). The hotels were all good quality. It became clear the “foodie” part of the tour is the restaurant demonstration, 2 cooking classes, and 2 street food tours, not the other meals, which I assume would be similar to all the other TAD India tours. We had no desire to eat the wrong thing and get ill (we had been advised not to eat salad or un-pealed fruit as it might not have been washed in filtered water), so we were ok with this.

2)The guides were all very good, however they did not seem to have exactly the same itinerary that we had, there were some experiences we would not have received if we hadn’t mentioned it, and they rechecked the information they had, or the information we had to show them. Differences in itinerary included:
- we had selected the Sunrise at the Taj Mahal, however this occurred on Day 4 with our Taj Mahal visit, not Day 5 per itinerary. The guide did offer to take us back to the Taj for a second visit in the afternoon if we wanted, so not an issue, but was different. Our guide also upsold us on a visit to the “Baby Taj” and a sunset viewing point for the Taj on Day 4, which we would recommend, and a photographer at the Taj with supposedly better access, which you could get by without.
- Day 5 says learn the art of making traditional tea/coffee. At no time on the tour did we see tea or coffee being made.
- Day 6 says visit market and learn about authentic ingredients and dishes and buy packets of masala chai or flavoured tea. This did not happen. We were being taken back to our hotel until I asked about the market. We were then taken to a street market which sold mainly clothes and given an hour to explore by ourselves, again the guide did not seem clear on the itinerary even though he had copied what we had on the first day.
3) We had expected we would have more opportunity to do some shopping in markets or stores. While selecting to do all the optional tours would have consumed otherwise available time, we would suggest discussing this with the guide if it is something you are interested in (besides visiting the government approved outlets). While visiting the street market in Udaipur we asked the guide about buying some spices and he took us to a local store, otherwise we would not have seen any local spices, which was not what we expected on a Foodies tour.
In summary, we did really enjoy our trip and have provided the above as things to watch out for given activities are not always as described in the itinerary. We found the people of India to be very friendly and genuine people.

We have just returned from the Ultimate Japan tour 9 th March to 25 th March 2026 . Although the weather was a bit cold we were more than compensated by the warmth humour , knowledge and friendship of our tour Leader Dragon. Some of the highlights exceeded our expectations but it was our tour leader that was an absolute bonus .Everyday Dragon would give talks on the coach about Japanese way of life, schooling and education, family bonding , spirituality and just general knowledge.Above all the entire team on the coach came to believe that Dragon was a friend, Dragon gave advice on places to eat , places to shop and places of interest. Besides the beautiful highlights of Japan, Dragon was also a wonderful leader. We have travelled 4 times with Scenic Tours, twice with Insight, once with Windstar and Holiday Max. Without question Dragon is the best tour leader we have ever encountered. Our memories of Japan were greatly enhanced by our tour leader dragon . Thankyou Vicki and John O

Travel Guide Vic was fantastic. He could not do enough for us. He was knowledgeable, English was ok, he was personable and patient, offering alternatives as required. Food on the trip was of good quality and plentiful. Accommodation as expected for 4 star.
Bus driver was excellent transporting us safely in sometimes difficult weather conditions,
Activities were also excellent and a good mix with some fitness challenges if you wanted it.
All in all an excellent holiday experience

Have just completed our Ultimate Japan 17 day tour. The trip was great & we had a memorable holiday.
Our tour guide, Dragon, was amazing. His English was excellent & he looked after us all very well. He made sure we knew what was happening at all times and with the help of our driver Ani we got to enjoy Japan!

Itinerary covered a lot of cities and sites . Our hotels were all 3 star and above and very good and our driver and our guide Dragon was excellent . He went above and beyond and made himself available to give advise about restaurants or anything else we needed help with .

Fantastic holiday in Japan , well organised by trip a deal , tour guide Leia was so amazing, catering to everyone needs, she made trip very enjoyable..Hotels were good , clean and comfortable,all tours were great , definitely doing Japan again with trip a deal

Ultimate Japan. Dragon san was the best guide anyone travelling to a foreign country would want to have. He was well organised and he went way beyond his duties to help everyone. Dragon had a wonderful sense of humour. He filled our travelling days on the coach with lots of information of everyday way of life in Japan and what he did not know he would come back with answers after he had retrieved current information.
We travelled 3000 km in the coach and Ani san our driver was a true
professional, a safe driver.