This was my first time using Amaztravel. Before our trip, the representative from Amaztravel was super helpful and would answer back quickly when we have questions or concerns. Once we fully paid for our trip, we hardly heard from him. When I emailed him during the trip, it took him much longer to answer me. After our trip, he didn't even reply back to my email about my concerns about part of my trip in Korea. We were disappointed with part of this trip. We were super excited for our trip, but ended up a bit disappointed.
Our trip was for 5 days in Korea and then 5 days in japan. My friend and I were driven around by an individual playing as a tour guide. He seemed informed and friendly. The places we went to see were Interesting enough, though mostly outside of Seoul, so travel time between sites were long. We did not see any of the popular tourist attractions like the Seoul Tower with our guide. In Korea, the hotels were decent, probably 2-3 stars at the most. Our biggest disappointment was with our food. Experiencing the food is part of learning about the culture. Our meals were cheap and minimal. We were hoping to taste a variety of foods from Korea, especially since we stayed in different areas of Korea. We had the cheapest meals possible. We had a fillet of fish and bean paste soup for one meal. We had a different type of fried fish for the second meal. Our third meal was at a rest stop and it was less than $10. It was a bowl of bulgogi noodle soup with rice. Our last meal with the guide was bibimbap for less than $10. The side dishes were basic kimchi radish and cabbage. We can do better than that on our own.
Our trip to Japan started out a bit off because our tour guide didn't come and pick us up as promised. We were told that he would be there to pick us up at the airport if we got there before 930pm. We arrived around 820pm and by the time we got our luggage it was close to 9pm. We went looking for the guide with the sign, but couldn't find him. We spent about 20 minutes trying to find the guide and when we couldn't, we tried to get someone to help us call him. We finally was told how to use the pay phone to call him. When he answered the phone, all he said was that it was already 920 pm and acted like it was our fault and that we arrived late. I told him that we arrived on time, but wasted 20 minutes looking for him because he did not pick us up as promised. He just brushed me off and told us to read the chart outside and wait for the shuttle. The chart was obviously all in Japanese. Luckily the name of the hotel was in English.
But, other than a rocky start, the rest of the trip was good. Most of the hotels were pretty decent and each meal was different. We got to try different foods in many of the towns that we stopped in. Our last day was super busy, and we were rushed because they took us to a super expensive pearl store and some medicine dealer. Those two places could have been deleted from the itinerary since most people didn't even buy anything. It was more of a money maker for the tour company it seems. We should have been given more time at the shopping area in Osaka instead of spending about 3 hours at those two places. (Drive there and time to shop). read more