Japan, at the pace you actually want to travel it
Go East plans private, tailor-made Japan trips, built day by day by a Japan specialist around your dates and pace. Most run 12 to 16 days. Every route is written from scratch by our consulting team, with our team in Japan on the ground.
Plan my trip · $39 Read the complete guide
- Best time to go
- Late Mar to May, Oct to Nov
- How many days
- 12 to 16
- Entry
- Visa-free, 90 days
- Getting around
- Rail
Go East plans private, tailor-made Japan trips from Israel: your dates, your pace, your hotels, built day by day by a Japan specialist rather than sold as seats on a coach. Most of the trips we plan run 12 to 16 days, and a comfortable two weeks costs about 600,000 yen per person, land only, two sharing (October 2026 estimate). It starts with a $39 trip plan: the outline of your trip within 24 hours, usually sooner, then every day in detail in your trip app.
Who this is for: couples, families and small groups of friends planning a first or second trip to Japan of 10 to 21 days, who want a private route rather than a fixed group departure.
Updated October 2026 · Doron Reichman, founder, Go East Travel
Why plan Japan with us
We have planned trips across Asia since 2018. Thousands of travellers have gone with us. Our team in Japan works alongside our Japan specialists, so restaurant bookings that need a Japanese phone number, typhoon reroutes and late-night problems are handled by people who know the ground.
A named specialist, not a queue. One person owns your file from the first message to the day you land home.
Start with a $39 day-by-day plan, written for you, not a template. You see the actual hotels by level, the actual train legs and the reasoning behind the order of the days, in a phone app that works offline. Two rounds of changes are included.
A WhatsApp group while you travel. When we also arrange your ground services, your consultant and our team in Japan are in one group with you, from take-off until you are home.
How many days do you need in Japan? Three sample routes
Twelve to sixteen days for a first trip. Under ten means one region only; past eighteen, Tohoku, Hokkaido or the Setouchi islands come into reach. Each route below is a real itinerary we build, published day by day. Start from one and we rebuild it around you.
| Days | Route | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| 11 days | Romantic Japan, 11 days | A slower trip for two: private onsen suites and only three hotel changes |
| 14 days | Classic Japan in 14 days | Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima and Osaka, entirely by rail |
| 21 days | Deep Japan, 21 days | Past the classic line into Tohoku, the craft towns and the Setouchi islands |
Other lengths and themes: Japan with children, 12 days, food and culture, 13 days, boutique Japan, 12 days, 14 days through the alps and the Kumano Kodo, 16 days. For the reasoning behind trip length, read how many days you need in Japan.
How much does a private trip to Japan cost?
Between about 22,000 and 80,000 yen per person per day for most travellers, and hotels decide most of the gap. These are the planning bands from our two-week Japan cost breakdown, land only, per person, two sharing a room, excluding international flights (October 2026, estimates):
| Style | What it looks like | Per person, per day | Two weeks, per person |
|---|---|---|---|
| Careful | Business hotels, mostly independent days, no guiding | 22,000 to 30,000 yen | about 360,000 yen |
| Comfortable | Three to four star hotels, one ryokan night, two guided days, reserved seats throughout | 38,000 to 50,000 yen | about 600,000 yen |
| Boutique | Design hotels, two ryokan nights with kaiseki, guiding where it changes the day | 60,000 to 80,000 yen | about 900,000 yen |
| Luxury | Top-tier hotels and ryokan, private guiding and vehicles throughout | 100,000 yen and up | on request |
Two newer costs to add: Japan’s departure tax is 3,000 yen per person on tickets issued from 1 July 2026, collected inside your airline ticket, and Kyoto’s lodging tax runs from 200 to 10,000 yen per person per night since 1 March 2026. The month you travel moves the total more than the hotel tier; peak blossom and autumn colour can add 30 to 60 percent to accommodation.
Group tour or private trip?
A group tour fixes the dates, the hotels and the pace for everyone on the coach; a private trip fixes them around you. Every trip we plan through this page is private. Here is how the two compare in practice:
- Dates. A group departs on set dates. A private trip starts the day you choose, which matters most in blossom and autumn colour, when a week either way changes what you see.
- Pace. Group days are built for the slowest member and the coach schedule. A private route moves by rail, with luggage forwarded between cities, and leaves open afternoons where you want them.
- Hotels. Groups need hotels with forty rooms, usually outside the old quarters. A private trip can use a small ryokan or a design hotel with eight rooms.
- Guiding. On a group tour the guide is there every day. We book a licensed guide on the two or three days where context changes the day, and leave the rest to you.
- Cost. A group tour can cost less per person for a solo traveller. For two or more, a careful or comfortable private trip often lands in the same range, with the difference spent on the hotels and the days you actually wanted.
Japan in the magazine
How much does two weeks in Japan really cost? · Cherry blossom, region by region · Is the Japan Rail Pass still worth it? · Ryokan etiquette without the anxiety · Tokyo in four days, by neighbourhood · Where to eat in Osaka without queueing · Kyoto in autumn, week by week · Walking the Kumano Kodo: which route, which season
Plan your Japan trip
Tell us your dates, who is travelling and what you want from Japan, and we build your $39 day-by-day plan: first the route and recommended hotels by level within 24 hours, two rounds of changes, then every train and transfer step by step in your trip app. Then, if you want, we quote the ground services and you choose what to take.
Japan itineraries
Every one of these is a starting point, not a fixed departure. We change the length, the pace and the hotels to fit you.
Classic Japan in 14 days: Tokyo to Osaka by rail
The route that made the country famous, built so it does not feel like a coach tour. Entirely by rail, five hotel changes in…
Japan with children: 12 days that work for everyone
Japan is one of the easiest countries in the world to travel with children, and one of the easiest to get wrong. The mistake…
Walking the Kumano Kodo: 16 days
Japan's other pilgrimage. Less known than the Camino, harder to organise independently, and quieter for it. Four walking days on the Nakahechi route, temple…
Romantic Japan: 11 slow days for two
Built on the principle that a honeymoon is not a sightseeing trip. Three hotel changes in eleven days, two ryokan with private open-air baths…
Japan by what it eats and makes: 13 days
A trip organised around kitchens, workshops and markets rather than temples, though the temples happen anyway. Two cooking sessions, a sake brewery with the…
Boutique Japan: 12 unhurried days
For travellers who judge a trip by the rooms and the rhythm. Small architect-designed hotels, one exceptional ryokan, private transfers instead of dragging cases…
Japan in 14 days, through the alps
The same fourteen days as the classic route, spent differently. Instead of running west to Hiroshima, this one turns inland through the mountains: the…
Deep Japan: 21 days
Three weeks is where Japan stops being a highlights route and becomes a country. This one goes north into Tohoku, which almost no foreign…
What is in every Japan trip we build
- A day-by-day document with train times, not just city names
- Hotels chosen by neighbourhood, with the trade-offs explained
- Restaurant reservations that require a Japanese phone number
- Licensed English-speaking guides on the days they add something, and not on the days they do not
- Luggage forwarding between cities, so you travel light on transfer days
- Reserved seats, including the oversized-baggage spaces the Shinkansen now requires
- Our team in Japan on WhatsApp for the whole trip
Planning Japan, in detail
What we would skip in Japan
Japan is a country where almost everything is good, which is exactly what makes the editing hard. A two week itinerary can…
Tokyo in four days, by neighbourhood rather than by sight
The mistake most first-time visitors make in Tokyo is treating it as a city with a list of attractions. It is not.…
Ryokan etiquette, without the anxiety
Almost every client who books a ryokan asks us some version of the same question: what if I get it wrong?
Where to eat in Osaka without queueing for two hours
Osaka has a phrase for itself, kuidaore, which means roughly to eat yourself into ruin. It is the food city of Japan,…
Kyoto in autumn, week by week
Autumn colour in Japan is treated as the quieter sibling of cherry blossom, and in Kyoto it is nothing of the kind.…
Walking the Kumano Kodo: which route, which season
The Kumano Kodo is not one trail. It is a network of pilgrimage routes across the Kii peninsula south of Osaka, walked…
Your trip, in your pocket
Your plan installs on your phone as an app. It opens offline without a signal, and each morning it can show you the day's plan.
- Install in one tap, no app store
- Works offline abroad
- Each morning, today's plan on your lock screen
- Step-by-step train directions and maps for every travel day
Frequently asked questions
Is a Japan Rail Pass still worth it?
How far ahead should we book?
Can you handle dietary restrictions?
Do we need a guide the whole time?
Can we combine Japan with another country?
What happens if a typhoon disrupts our trip?
Japan travelers in their own words
Real Google reviews of Go East Travel, translated from Hebrew. Names are shortened to a first name and initial.
A fantastic plan, and close support throughout a complex trip in Japan. Everything was great and I warmly recommend them, above all Masha, who worked with us personally.
Masha and the team in Japan built us a trip that fitted us exactly. They were always available, attentive and took care of everything. Warmly recommended.
Many thanks to the amazing team. Excellent planning, with places booked in advance. Good recommendations, and we really enjoyed every place we went to. They looked after us throughout the trip and were available for every question. Thanks again, a thousand times: because of you the trip was a success. The hotels, the trains, a sumo show, a tea ceremony, a food tour and much more.
Your Japan trip, planned day by day
Answer a short questionnaire and within 24 hours, usually sooner, you get the outline of your trip: the route day by day and the hotels we suggest for each stop. Tell us what to change (two rounds included), then we build your full day-by-day plan inside a trip app with maps, navigation links, and trains and transfers step by step. Then, if you want, a free quote for ground services, and you choose what to take.
Custom trip plan
$39
+ sales tax where applicable
Trip plan + digital trip app
Your outline within 24 hours