Hitotoki | Luxury Travel Designer Reviews 31

We traveled as a group of 6- and Alex curated an amazing two week trip for us. The service was impeccable. People met us at the trains etc and took us everywhere. The hotels were outstanding and excursions were balanced and well done. All of the guides were knowledgeable and caring. It was a magical trip- bravo!

Hi, So we planned to visit Japan from Pakistan for the famous cherry blossom bloom. And choose hitotoki-travel. These guys are professional and very helpful. The reason for the review they have updated and kept in touch with us through the trip and made our trip beautiful.

My husband and I took a trip created by Hitotoki (specifically Yuji) in October of 2023 and it was one of the best trips we've ever taken. Having never hired a boutique travel agency before (overseas no less) I was adamant that we found someone a) on the ground in Japan as we wanted to support locally and b) someone we could chat with knowing we didn't have a huge huge budget. We also obviously wanted to make sure we got the most out of the money spent. All of those things met (I'd say even exceeded) our expectations. From start to finish, the team at Hitotoki were enthusiastic, honest, communicative, thorough, and just so so nice! They made us feel understood, gave great suggestions, and were always open to discussing options/making tweaks. Overall, we spent 10 days bouncing all over Japan and they did an excellent job facilitating our travel from point to point, our activities, and accommodations. They were also great to help out when I had accidentally left our next train's ticket on the previous train (oops!). The guides we had for our activities and tours were excellent and engaging (we loved our bike tour in Kyoto the best!) and the places they'd recommended for us to stay were all so well located. The older I get the more I realize there's a new "luxury" of traveling and it's not necessarily doing the best and most expensive things, it's taking the guesswork and some of the decision-making out of every hour of every day, and I'm pleased to say that Hitotoki and their team were excellent at helping us with that. We highly recommend them and wouldn't hesitate sending anyone their way.

We spent two weeks travelling from Tokyo via Kyoto and Kirishima to Yakushima in the far south all organised by Hitotoki. Alex did a brilliant job, everything went like clockwork and we had a fantastic time.

Flawless. We loved our private tour. From start to finish, Alex helped us plan the perfect itinerary, patiently adapting everything to our personal needs, including no early mornings! Guides and drivers were top notch and Alex checked in frequently and was always available when needed. VERY highly recommend this company.

Alex and his team organized an incredible and unforgettable trip for our family. We traveled in May for 12 days in country and visited Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, Osaka and Kanazawa. We thoroughly enjoyed each and every guide for their knowledge and great personalities! We also had fun and were impressed by the cooking class and tea ceremony in Kyoto. Every city was amazing and unique with phenomenal food. The ramen tour and Sumo tournament were also great experiences. Lastly, every taxi/van that provided us transfers to hotels and train stations were also on time (usually 15 mins early) and provided very pleasant and stress free transportation.

Alex was always prompt in communications before our trip and reached out twice as we were on our trip to check in.

Our expectations were exceeded by both the trip planning/design as well as the people, culture, history, hotels and food!

Alex from Hitotoki was excellent. He crafted an amazing trip to Japan from me and my family. He was extremely responsive and met all of our needs. His guides were very friendly and made our trip wonderful. He listened to our input and added whatever we wanted to do or see in Tokyo, Kyoto, Hakone, and Osaka. The ramen guided tasting tour is a must. My son and I also had a great private Kendo experience. Strongly recommend this travel agency to anyone looking for a great travel experience to Japan.

This was our first time with a travel service and we choose Hitotoki Luxury Travel Designer after we spoke to Alex. Our travel was very well organized and we enjoyed all of it. It was great to have transportation, hotels, most meals and entertaining planned for us. All the guides were giving their best and going above our expectation. I highly recommend Hitotoki for anyone wanting a travel design to Japan.

My husband and I have just returned from a 12 day luxury trip to Japan. Created and executed by Alex from Hitotoki. From the moment i started dealing with Alex a couple of years ago to design and organise this trip i knew we were in good hands. Alex and his team's attention to detail and planning is exceptional. All the guides and drivers were knowledgeable and fun to be with. Nothing was a problem and the one and only small hitch was caused by us!!! My husband and I would highly recommend Alex and Hitotoki Travel.

Wow what an amazing trip Hitotoki put together for us! We just got back from our 2-week honeymoon tour of Japan and everything was so well planned - we had such an incredible time! Alex and his team’s attention to detail is superb and made for a seamless, luxurious honeymoon for my husband and I. All 3 of our tour guides were so lovely, knowledgeable and made getting around the country a breeze. Alex was always available for questions and recommendations and jumped on any requests that we had. All we ever had to do was show up and his team took over! Would highly recommend Hitotoki for anyone looking for an immersive, lux travel experience in Japan!

We just returned from 12 wonderful days touring Japan with Hitotoki. Our itinerary was perfectly designed and every detail was covered from friendly local guides and drivers to wonderful hotel accommodations. We were so impressed with the warm welcome we received from everyone associated with Hitotoki. Alex helped us negotiate all the Covid 19 entry requirements. He worked with us for two years during Japan’s closure to finally complete our trip. All of our guides and drivers expressed how great it is to work with Alex. They really make a great team. Every detail went smoothly. We highly recommend Hitotoki for your Japan adventure.

I would not recommend this travel agency if you are traveling in Japan.

Any good review that you might find for Hitotoki is probably fake.

We had some issues, but they were not able (or didn't care) to attend to our complaints.

Bad and unhelpful customer service.

Any request from us and even the guide Hitotoki assigned to us, never got any support, by either phone, email...even wasting our time to go to their office we never found.

And when we finally got some news (already left Japan), they blame other party for the issues.

Don't do business with this company. It is a waste of money and energy and only creates frustration.

I used the Hitotoki Travel for my Japan trip in December 2021, and I can say that it is an excellent service. They helped with every detail of my trip, from booking accommodations, arranging PCR tests to transportation. I would like to personally thank their support staff for the great work they did right from landing at Narita airport until the final day of quarantine. Will definitely use their awesome services again.

We have just returned from a one week tour of Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto and Nara. Our experience with Alex Debbs was outstanding. From the first phone call we found him attentive and concerned about individualizing this trip to our personal interests. We were sidelined from our initial travel dates due to a typhoon. Alex rescheduled all of our hotels and adventures. Alex welcomed us in person on the first day with a welcome gift, our train tickets and an introduction to our guide.
Both of our guides spoke excellent english, were always ready to go ahead of time and were a delight to spend the day with. Both were focused on us seeing those places that were important us. They were thoughtful and kind and were concerned about our well being.
Our transportation was flawless. Drivers were always waiting for us. One driver responsible to drop us at the train station had his wife waiting for us at the train station to make sure we got on the right train! Just one example of over and above service..
If it was possible I would have Alex and his team do all my travel plans anywhere I traveled, I could rest well and know it would be a pleasure.

Alex and I worked on our trip (9 days to Kyoto, Nara and Toyko) for months before we left. I changed the itinerary several times and Alex was very patient and accommodating.
The trip went off without a hitch, everything was perfect and as advertised. We had two guides, Ellie in Kyoto and Yukie in Toyko who spoke very good English and were a pleasure to be with. They were very nice, knowledgeable and fun to tour with.
The hotels we stayed a were 4 to 5 star and were great, the meals that were set up for us were great (best sushi in Toyko I ever had).
My son who traveled with me got sick during the trip and Alex was communicating with us twice a day on how he was doing and offering to help anyway he could. He was very concerned.
Alex's follow-up is excellent, for me that's really important. Through out the whole process from beginning to end his response time was amazing.
Alex gave us a hot spot wifi device to use for free for our entire trip, it was a great amenity as we could text, email and google while we were touring. Little amenities like that can make or break a trip.
For anybody traveling Japan the language is a real problem unless you speak Japanese, not many English speaking people. I would strongly recommend having a guide to make your trip more pleasant.
Overall Alex gets a 5 star rating from both my son and I. He was terrific.
One last thing, I've traveled a lot over the last 30 years and been to just about everywhere including Antartica,Madagascar and the Arctic, Japan is a very safe and cool country to visit. I always do private tours and I put Alex's company at the very top for detail, price and planning. Trust me he's well worth the investment.

Our trip was absolutely perfect. Alex, the founder of Hitotoki, worked with us from the beginning and even met us on our first full day in Japan. He arranged everything for us except our international flights. The whole trip went extremely smoothly as our guides and transfers were always waiting in the hotel lobby or on the train platform holding a sign with our name. All our guides were very friendly, knowledgeable, and spoke near perfect English. The hotels were clean, comfortable, and located close to shopping, dining, and the ever important train stations. We wanted to see as much of Japan as we could during our short stay and Alex made that happen. Our schedule allowed us to see most of our must see list while still allowing us "down time". If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing about the trip.

Every day was filled with wonderful temples, castles, shrines, and memories, so it is hard to choose just one favorite. The people of Japan were incredibly friendly, all of the food was delicious, and the country was beautiful. My husband's favorite part was definitely going to Himeji Castle which was impressively large and beautiful.

I wouldn't change a thing, unless we could somehow find more vacation time and see more of the country.

We had an outstanding trip terrifically planned by Alex Debs (Hitotoki Travel). Our trip, which ran for 16 days, encompassed visits to Takayama, Shikawa-go, Kanazawa, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, Hiroshima, Shizuoka and a few additional towns. We primarily stayed at ryokans, at our request. The ryokans were wonderful and unique, each providing a wonderful Japanese experience, great service and delicious food.

We had numerous wonderful encounters including:
a visit to the largest wasabi farm in Japan, high in the mountains;
a visit to a tea farm in the mountains;
lunch at the home of an 84 year old rice farmer in a small mountain town of some 70 villagers;
tour of a small town which uses aquifers to provide most of its water;
tour of a sake brewery;
attending an auction of fish just harvested;
seeing fish and vegetable markets;
a 3 hour cooking lesson in the chef's home;
an ikebana (flower arranging) lesson;
the "usual" visits to shrines, castles, museums
The entire trip was exquisitely planned and flawlessly executed with superb guides, drivers, and staff to meet us at train stations.

The ryokan stays were memorable, particularly one where we wore yukatas to dinner, and another which required a river boat to get to the ryokan. Having lunch with the 84 year old widow who continues to rice farm and share her life stories was delightful. Visiting with the wasabi farmer who shared his tale of going to North Korea in 1985 to help them establish a wasabi farm in his first external trip and first flight was unique.

I would not visit Hiroshima as we found it underwhelming.

Alex and Hitotoki arranged a two week trip for my family and I. We have 2 teenage kids, and he was able to structure an itinerary around key places we wanted to visit while suggesting other locations and experiences. The accommodations and the driver pickups/train reservations were all top notch and very comfortable and smooth. The tour guides in each city were all very pleasant and knowledgeable. I would absolutely use Hitotoki again for our next trip back in the future.
Alex also met us on our second day in Tokyo to hand deliver our tickets. Great service and he was able to also help me make some changes along the way when a short business trip I had got altered in between. He was always accessible during our trip.

The Japanese cooking class and tea ceremony were excellent. Very private and a great experience. We also found the accommodations in Kanazawa to be exceptional.

Awesome trip to Japan!! Hitotoki did a fantastic job planning our trip! I am generally a "do it yourself travel planner", however, in a country like Japan, Hitotoki really made all the difference in developing a well thought out plan. They maximized our time, and every detail was arranged for us with the best of drivers, tour guides, and hotels. I would certainly recommend Hititoki to anyone seeking to experience Japan the right way.

My wife and I just returned from an incredible 2.5 week trip to Japan, where we had the opportunity to visit Tokyo with a day trip to Kamakura, Kyoto with day trips to Nara and Osaka, Hiroshima, Koyasan and Kanazawa. The trip was entirely organized by Alex and his company Hitotoki, located in Tokyo. Since Alex actually lives in Japan, this ended up being a major differentiator as our itinerary was personally tailored by Alex based on his 'first hand' experience living in Japan. This allows him to personally 'hand pick' all of his tour guides, which clearly made a difference. Our guides, Midori (in Kyoto) and Masako (Tokyo) were an absolute delight, making our trip that much more pleasurable.

Alex is extremely professional, was responsive to all of my emails while we were planning the trip, which was very important to me due to the timezone difference (I live in Toronto). Alex was always positive, very pleasant to work with, and as importantly, meticulous with the level of details with the itinerary, to the point where all we had to do while in Japan was to 'sit back, and enjoy the trip'!.

One of the highlights of our trip was visiting Koyasan. If you enjoy beautiful scenery of mountains with incredible trees/plants/vegetation, tranquility, and experiencing the life of Buddhism with real monks, I would definitely recommend spending a couple of nights in the mountains of Koyasan. This was a real treat for us, and a nice change after having visited the larger and busier cities of Tokyo and Kyoto... it almost felt like we were taking a 'vacation from our vacation'! It's only a couple of hours of driving from Osaka to make your way up the hill, and once there, it's definitely worth the experience!

I also had the pleasure to meet Alex on our first day in Tokyo, where he welcomed us and provided us with all of the details/train vouchers we needed for the trip, answered all of our questions, and made us feel very comfortable. To our surprise, he also gave us a beautiful bottle of plum wine - which we have brought back home and will be enjoying this weekend, as my wife and I reminisce on our unforgettable memories of Japan.

I would definitely, without hesitation, recommend Hitotoki/Alex as a travel agency to anyone visiting Japan.

FYI - Alex is also a 'foodie', so definitely take him up on his restaurant recommendations, you won't regret it!

Thank you Alex for making our trip to Japan so memorable, it was truly a pleasure working with you!