Japan tour’s ‘extras’

My husband, Ken, and I went on the 15-day tour “Japan’s Cultural Treasures” with Overseas Adventure Travel (Cambridge, MA; 800/493-6824, www.oattravel.com), April 25-May 15, 2009.

The base price was $4,695 per person from San Francisco. Pre- and post-trip optional extensions cost $1,790 per person extra. (We took a three-night pretrip to Tokyo, $795, and a four-night post-trip to the Hiroshima area for $995.)

We were impressed with how many places we were taken that the “ordinary tourist” would not have known about or have known how to get to. I cannot recommend this trip (and all the extensions!) highly enough.

However, I think anyone considering the cost of this trip should be sure to anticipate the costs of the “optional day tours” as well. We did every one of them, and each added immensely to the overall enjoyment of the trip, but when totaling them up they increased the trip price by $700 per person.

The nice parts were we did not have to decide whether or not we would join any of these day tours until the evening before, and the costs (in US dollars) were totaled by our trip leader and sent to the Boston office to be put on our credit card for payment after we got home. This meant we did not have any overseas or foreign exchange fees added by the credit card company.

Anyone not choosing to go on one of these optional day trips was given many suggestions by the trip leader of things to do and see on his or her own.

Also to be considered when planning for this trip are expenses for the lunches and dinners “on your own.” There were 11 lunches and 11 dinners not included in the trip package. Being able to explore some small local eating spots was fun, and, occasionally, if the included lunch that day had been substantial, we skipped dinner except for a snack in our room.

Do not forget to factor in the cost of trip insurance as well as tips (“gifts”) to the guide and driver. Our guide, Junko Ito, was exceptional. Even though there is no tipping, as such, in Japan, we were told it was traditional to give a “gift” to the bus driver at the end of each day. We were even provided with special little envelopes to use.

I know travelers are usually expected to tip the drivers as well, but in this case I felt this to be a silly custom, not in keeping with the no-tipping attitude of the country. The drivers were paid for what they did and we had virtually no interaction with them. They drove where they were supposed to and got us back at the end of the day.

This trip was an excellent value for the cost, and I am in no way complaining. I just feel that fellow readers would find it helpful to anticipate exactly what the realistic trip costs would be.

CONNIE DOTY

Orinda, CA