An unforgettable experience. Evan the guide was funny and attentive. He was great at supporting the group and showing us unique and lesser known spots. The group bonded and became fast friends. Truly an incredible trip read more

I just recently returned from my husband and I's very first trip to Japan and our honeymoon with PacSet. I honestly cannot praise them enough! I don't tend to leave a lot of reviews but they deserve it! the PacSet team worked very hard to make this trip smooth and special. before and during the trip they were responsive and quick to answer any questions or concerns. there is no other tour group I would go with we are definitely PacSet travelers for life! if you are interested in going to Japan but are a little nervous about going solo this is your company! Evan, Greg and Naomi-san were an absolute delight to be around and made everyday an absolute blast! They will give you the freedom to go explore Japan with or without the group and help you find your way around the other people in our group we're amazing. We don't speak the language but we still were able to communicate with the locals and the tour guides were always there to help when needed! we look forward to going back to Japan with this company again! This trip truly changed our lives for the better and we will forever be grateful to the PacSet team for working so hard to make this trip happen! thank you Evan, Greg, Naomi-san and all the volunteers and behind the scenes staff for all you hard work! we miss you already and can't wait to see you again. if you are still reading this go sign up for a tour now! you will not regret it! my personal rating: 100/10 Dōmo arigatō, watashitachi wa anata o aishiteimasu!​ read more

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I did the 2017 food tour and it was so much fun. Even though I was traveling alone, I made a lot of friends and had a great time. I wasnt trapped on a tour bus being shipped from one tourist place to another tourist place. Instead, it felt like going on huge school trip with lots of fun people, with an amazing group leader who knew where exactly to go and what exactly to do. Yes, it is possible to travel through Japan alone and without knowing Japanese. Will it be difficult and waste a lot of precious time? Yes to that too. (Ive traveled to Japan before without Pacset.) You wouldnt even be able to get half of the things to done without Pacset. I would definitely recomend this travel company to all my friends. read more

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Now that I've had a chance to recover a bit from my jet lag... it's time for me to type out a long rambling review while things are still fresh in my mind! A trip to Japan is a big investment so I want to make sure to be thorough... I had originally been planning a week-long trip to just Tokyo on my own. It was a frustrating exercise in futility, mainly because everything seemed so expensive and my knowledge of the Japanese language was lacking, which I felt closed a lot of doors for me. My itinerary consisted of mostly of tiny hotel rooms, free sightseeing, and eating on the cheap. Then I happened to stumble upon a tour being offered by PacSet in collaboration with the authors of a webcomic I frequent. My jaw dropped; the price of the Perfect tour (which included extra days to other cities + all options) was only a mere few hundred above my original budget and the itinerary was full of so many events I could only have dreamed of experiencing. After having some initial questions answered by PacSet, I signed up for the Perfect Tour and opted for the payment plan that they offer (very convenient and less traumatizing than having all of your money disappear at once!). The owners of Pacset (who are also the guides) were very prompt in answering my e-mails and kept everyone updated on any changes. Not only did they handle EVERYTHING, they also helped me book my domestic flight to and from LAX and to purchase travel insurance. Upon meeting at LAX, they also provide an extensive guide book that recommends sights to see, restaurants to try, maps, and some useful Japanese phrases. We were assigned roommates, but for those who didn't want to share hotel rooms, there was the option to pay extra for a single room. The trip was a whirlwind of excitement and was full of things to do and see. Evan really knew his way around! Sometimes we weren't able to stay long at a destination, but if we missed something, there was free time alloted for us to revisit if we wanted, or we could even go explore new places! Once in an area, a meeting time and place would be set and we had the option to stick with the guides or be left to our own devices and immerse ourselves in the culture! This was no "sightseeing from a bus" type of tour. Not only was I able to experience Tokyo, but the extended tour brought us to Osaka, Takarazuka, Kyoto, and Ito. There's nothing quite like going to a festival, visiting a butler/maid cafe, seeing shrines, soaking (naked!) in an outdoor hot spring bath, and so much more! Some meals were not included in the tour, but food was amazing and cheaper than I thought it would be! I rarely paid more than 900Yen for some incredible meals. Leftover money originally budgeted for food went to more souvenirs! We had plenty of opportunities to shop. There was a very sizable group of us (30+!) and I have to commend our two guides for being so patient and accommodating to everyone's needs. They had great senses of humor and kept everything pretty relaxed. Our group consisted of individuals from all over the world and I was able to make some awesome new friends! I went to Japan with a list of goals to accomplish and was able to complete all of them! I'd visit that wonderful country again in a heartbeat and I would definitely go through PacSet Tours. read more

I really don't know where to begin with how wonderful my experience with PacSet Tours was. If you're traveling on a budget, their prices really can't be beat, nor the experience. If visiting a country from a tour bus is more your bag, then PacSet probably isn't for you. Walking through the city and jockeying for a spot on the trains during rush hour will really accelerate your cultural immersion, and while that can be intimidating for some, it only contributed positively to my experience. The way PacSet is set up strikes me as especially friendly for folks who have never traveled before. The level of their tour prep went a long way to making a complete control freak like me feel completely at ease. Upon signup, you get a whole series of e-mails with various helpful information - e.g., what to pack (particularly helpful for those who have never traveled internationally before), what to consider health-wise, how to budget your spending money, etc. Not only that, but the information is presented in a very appealing infographic rather than as blocks of text (Lanny is also an artist!), making it much easier to read than this review. They also did a livestream Q&A session on Twitch and set up a forum just for the tourgoers to "meet" and introduce ourselves prior to the tour proper. In addition to all this prep, Evan and Lanny were extremely patient with any questions I had for them and always responded promptly to my e-mails. They will even go the extra mile to help you set up outings that aren't included in the itinerary - one group of folks went to an aquarium, another attended a Kabuki theater performance. Evan and Lanny helped them set up both excursions. (They also helped my brother order a Hanafuda deck online when he couldn't locate the one he wanted in stores. They're seriously great.) I can't go into the tour itself without first mentioning their outstanding guidebook, which is full of incredibly detailed information - not only does it include maps and points of interest for each prefecture you visit, it includes rudimentary Japanese phrases for communicating with locals, information on restaurant chains, train stations, visiting an onsen, what to do if you get sick and need to visit a pharmacy, using the fancy bidet you'll likely find in your hotel bathroom, and more. All with visual reference, by the way. The amount of work that goes into this guidebook is staggering. When I wasn't people-watching on the trains, sometimes I'd read the damn thing just for fun. But I guess that doesn't tell much about the Animated Spring tour itself. This particular one was more pop culture themed, which I believe PacSet has cornered the market on - none of the other companies I looked at do tours quite like theirs, only adding to how special they are. If you're an otaku or self-professed weeb, you're going to love PacSet. And even if you're only a casual viewer of anime (e.g., me), you're still likely to have a great time. There is an itinerary, which you can see at their website, but there's also a lot of flexibility for individual exploration if you don't feel like tagging along with the group, which I took fair advantage of. This means you get ample opportunity to explore whatever city you're in (in my case, Tokyo) at your own pace. PacSet Tours is a genuine small business, run by Evan and Lanny alone, but the level of attention they put into the company and your experience is grand-scale stuff. They have my highest recommendation and are going to be my first (and only) stop when I'm looking to visit Japan again. Some parting words! I have two protips for any Yelpers considering taking the plunge w/PacSet (you definitely should, but with a couple of caveats below): 1) Be ready to WALK. I believe the Animated Spring tour is rated as a 3 on their 1-5 scale, but chances are the average US citizen doesn't walk NEARLY as much as is necessary to do this tour comfortably on a day-to-day basis. They mention this frequently in their prep e-mails and guidebook, but it is important enough that I feel it bears mention here. If walking sounds just awful, you may want to seek out their more easygoing tours, perhaps 1-2 on the walking scale. 2) After you sign up, READ ALL THE LITERATURE THEY PROVIDE YOU. If you're excited about traveling to Japan and having the best experience possible, reading the e-mails should only get you more excited about it! The less you have to worry about the minutiae of things like what to pack and what to budget, the more you can enjoy yourself, but you need to do the prep work necessary to enable it. Wait, I lied. I have one more caveat! 3) If Sega Joypolis in Odaiba is on the itinerary and you get the all-day pass, get in line for the Half-Pipe IMMEDIATELY. The ride is - much like PacSet Tours itself - incredible. Trust me. read more

Just got back from their 2014 3rd Impact tour. We hit Tokyo, Matsumoto, and Hakone. The tour was amazing, we saw so many awesome things, I'm still processing it all. Our guides, Evan and Lanny, were great, very friendly and helpful, and just generally fun people. If you're looking for a reasonably priced trip to Japan, or are into Japanese pop culture, this is the way to go! read more

I had a tour with PacSet in Fall 2016. The tour guide Evan was not very friendly or professional. He knew a couple on the tour. They were the main clique and basically made it feel like we had to do what they did, assuming like we're all friends already. Pretty much spoiled the trip. In fact, I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want to spoil it either. My first tour ever and I didn't know what to expect. I even feel bad and worried about posting this but just wanted to warn people what they could get themselves into. I wore domo kun PJs for the flight and the tour guide said sarcastically that he liked my PJs when we met. Basically talked to only my girlfriend the whole time, and not me. His recommendations to eat were alright but not to our liking. When I had something to eat more expensive he pointed it out many times while we were eating one day. When I brought it up as an issue he got upset like it wasn't the first time someone complained about him. He also tended to be very loud on trains, which I thought was rude in Japan? Hmm another thing that annoyed me was that he brought friends along for one dinner and just like basically talked to them the whole time at dinner like he was taking a break from the tour? I have never been on a long guided tour but didn't think that it was appropriate. Those were few of the things I remember. We had a better time going off on our own, but it was a nice intro to Japan especially that we do not know much Japanese. Because of my experience, I would never go on a tour with them again. If you are in a couple or have a group of friends, I'd highly recommend a different tour guide or going on your own and setting up your own tour. read more

We traveled with Evan and Christine in December 2017. What a great introduction to to travelling in Japan! We had an awesome time, and saw so much (everything from shrines, castles, anime, and delicious food with seasonal festivals thrown in!) They were also great about helping us arrange our add on to Hokkaido after the tour (booking flights and shipping luggage up partway through the tour), which made it very easy and stress free for us. The tour itself felt like you were travelling with a group of friends, which made for a very comfortable experience. We particularly loved the flexibility, which allowed us to sometimes sit back and let someone else do the thinking, and sometime explore more on our own, depending on how we were feeling. I would highly recommend Pacset tours, we had a really great time. read more

My daughter and I went on the Matsuri Tour to Japan in Aug 2012. What a great experience! First time traveling to Japan but PacSet made everything so easy. Getting through the airports and the train stations was a breeze; Evan sure knows his way around Japan. We never would have traveled to all those places on our own which was why we picked PacSet Tours in the first place. I would recommend them to anyone who wants a great trip to Japan. read more

The people at PacSet are rock stars. They put together an awesome tour and really took care of their guests. Every detail was perfect and I would recommend them to anyone. Evan really went the extra mile as a tour guide! read more