Japan ports - tour guides from Aviator

[dhy10565]

We are booked on a Japan & Korea cruise with Celebrity Millennium sailing in April 2019.  For some of the ports in Japan, we would like to do private tours. Has anyone hired tour guides from Aviator ? Their website is  Tourguides.viator.com. We are thinking of hiring one for Kobe-Kyoto. Any recommendations?  We checked Triplelights and toursbylocal but have not found exactly what we want. Appreciate any help ...Thanks. 

[JMorris271]

2 hours ago, dhy10565 said:

We are booked on a Japan & Korea cruise with Celebrity Millennium sailing in April 2019.  For some of the ports in Japan, we would like to do private tours. Has anyone hired tour guides from Aviator ? Their website is  Tourguides.viator.com. We are thinking of hiring one for Kobe-Kyoto. Any recommendations?  We checked Triplelights and toursbylocal but have not found exactly what we want. Appreciate any help ...Thanks. 

May I inquire which date your cruise is? We are on the 13th and looking to do that as well.

[cruisemom42]

6 hours ago, dhy10565 said:

We are booked on a Japan & Korea cruise with Celebrity Millennium sailing in April 2019.  For some of the ports in Japan, we would like to do private tours. Has anyone hired tour guides from Aviator ? Their website is  Tourguides.viator.com. We are thinking of hiring one for Kobe-Kyoto. Any recommendations?  We checked Triplelights and toursbylocal but have not found exactly what we want. Appreciate any help ...Thanks. 

 

I think you are asking about Viator, not Aviator, right?

 

If so, my experience with them has been very mixed. Some good tours, some not so good. They are a consolidator (e.g., middle man), and the common wisdom is that it is better to track down the actual local provider -- but I realize that is not so easy in Japan.

 

And with that said, I will say that two of the better tours I did with them WERE in Japan. I think Japanese tour companies have high standards in general. I've had not-great experiences with Viator in Italy, Portugal, and the US and I have moved away from using them due to some of those experiences....

 

[dhy10565]

3 hours ago, JMorris271 said:

May I inquire which date your cruise is? We are on the 13th and looking to do that as well.

Yes, we are on the Apr 13th sailing starting from Yokohama. I am signup on CC roll call. So far some of the people on this roll call have booked private tours with a van but not enough room for the 4 of us. We don't mind taking public transportation, Shinkansenm, from Kobe to Kyoto, but we prefer to have the guide meet us at the port. So far, many guides want to meet at the Kyoto JR station.

[dhy10565]

24 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

I think you are asking about Viator, not Aviator, right?

 

If so, my experience with them has been very mixed. Some good tours, some not so good. They are a consolidator (e.g., middle man), and the common wisdom is that it is better to track down the actual local provider -- but I realize that is not so easy in Japan.

 

And with that said, I will say that two of the better tours I did with them WERE in Japan. I think Japanese tour companies have high standards in general. I've had not-great experiences with Viator in Italy, Portugal, and the US and I have moved away from using them due to some of those experiences....

 

Thank you for your feedback. I found tourguides.viator reviews on Tripadvisor but not on Cruise Critic. Tripadvisor have mixed reviews too.  I think we will continue to look for other options first. 

[JMorris271]

On 12/12/2018 at 4:49 PM, dhy10565 said:

Yes, we are on the Apr 13th sailing starting from Yokohama. I am signup on CC roll call. So far some of the people on this roll call have booked private tours with a van but not enough room for the 4 of us. We don't mind taking public transportation, Shinkansenm, from Kobe to Kyoto, but we prefer to have the guide meet us at the port. So far, many guides want to meet at the Kyoto JR station.

Yep. . I Believe the train to be a good option anyway with more alternatives in Kyoto that are not advertised online.

We are booking a hotel in Kyoto so we can get some of the evening flavor of the city.

Edited December 14, 2018 by JMorris271
correction