What is the value for you in ABD trips?

[sayhello]

Maybe I didn’t need much convincing but I think I will book the Japan ABD. Anyone know when 2025 dates roll out? Gonna work backwards from that to plan Thailand

You won't regret it!

If it's the same as previous years, 2025 season dates should be announced in early May 2024.

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[jimmymc]

We done several other ABDs. I’m a lazy planner. Is this really that awful of a deal?

Compared to other guided tours, the price is in line with what you'd expect to pay. But Japan has great public transit and the yen is weak right now, so if you go on your own then you can do a more full itinerary for a lot less money. If you don't want to do all that planning, AbD does still give you all the benefits it does for every trip.

 

[aggiedog]

I think the planning would be a bit more overwhelming than in Europe, due to language, and the myriad of choices of transport and lodging Japan has. Just read that Tokyo is the world's largest city - 34 million. That's a lot of hotels and neighborhoods to choose from! There are multiple train, subway, bus, and metro systems that more or less work seamlessly together but require different tickets and reservations. I was glad to have our company do that leg work.

Our trip, for 10 days, that covered Tokyo, Nagoya (Ghibli Park tickets for one day), Takayama, Kanazawa, and Hiroshima, with at least one guided tour in each city, train and bus tickets, a pre-loaded subway card, lodging, and a pocket wifi was $5,500/person.

What we did not have was a full time, 24 hr access guide, someone to navigate you thru confusing train stations (google maps worked well for that,) meals included, and luggage handling/forwarding. Or a large group to travel with, with some people prefer.

Regarding luggage, if you travel by train, there is limited luggage space, and anything larger than a carryon needs a separate reservation for space. You also have drag all of that thru stations where the elevator/escalator may not be convenient to where you're going. Japan has a smooth system of luggage forwarding, with several companies that will pick up your luggage at your hotel and deliver to the next location the next day. We used this a few times. This means that you need a smaller bag, like your carry on, to use for the next 24 hours until your luggage shows up. Luggage forwarding can not be used to an airbnb, as they need a human to sign for it. You can also, usually, do this from/to airport locations as well.

I can see why the initial ABD's used buses, so they didn't need to deal with this. If they are doing trains now, they're either going to make you forward your luggage at some point, or they've mass-reserved the luggage space.

 

[sayhello]

I think the planning would be a bit more overwhelming than in Europe, due to language, and the myriad of choices of transport and lodging Japan has. Just read that Tokyo is the world's largest city - 34 million. That's a lot of hotels and neighborhoods to choose from! There are multiple train, subway, bus, and metro systems that more or less work seamlessly together but require different tickets and reservations. I was glad to have our company do that leg work.

Our trip, for 10 days, that covered Tokyo, Nagoya (Ghibli Park tickets for one day), Takayama, Kanazawa, and Hiroshima, with at least one guided tour in each city, train and bus tickets, a pre-loaded subway card, lodging, and a pocket wifi was $5,500/person.

What we did not have was a full time, 24 hr access guide, someone to navigate you thru confusing train stations (google maps worked well for that,) meals included, and luggage handling/forwarding. Or a large group to travel with, with some people prefer.

Regarding luggage, if you travel by train, there is limited luggage space, and anything larger than a carryon needs a separate reservation for space. You also have drag all of that thru stations where the elevator/escalator may not be convenient to where you're going. Japan has a smooth system of luggage forwarding, with several companies that will pick up your luggage at your hotel and deliver to the next location the next day. We used this a few times. This means that you need a smaller bag, like your carry on, to use for the next 24 hours until your luggage shows up. Luggage forwarding can not be used to an airbnb, as they need a human to sign for it. You can also, usually, do this from/to airport locations as well.

I can see why the initial ABD's used buses, so they didn't need to deal with this. If they are doing trains now, they're either going to make you forward your luggage at some point, or they've mass-reserved the luggage space.

Sometimes your luggage doesn't actually travel with you on the trains. They'll truck or bus them to the next hotel, since suitcases don't care how long they are on the bus! But since this is a long distance from Takayama to Tokyo, I don't know if that's practical or not. Maybe someone who has done the trip since they changed it can tell us how it worked!

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[aggiedog]

Good point. They probably just drive everyone's luggage down, kind of a personalized luggage forwarding. Easier than trying to tell people they don't get their suitcases for 24 hours!

 

[AquaDame]

Good point. They probably just drive everyone's luggage down, kind of a personalized luggage forwarding. Easier than trying to tell people they don't get their suitcases for 24 hours!

Or longer depending... it can take up to two days when you are outside the major urban areas. When my husband forgot a charger in one hotel we couldn't get it at the next as it was again just one night; we had to wait until the one after.

 

[TeeKo]

For those who have done the ABD Japan
What did you think about the Tokyo portion of the trip?

 

[sayhello]

For those who have done the ABD Japan
What did you think about the Tokyo portion of the trip?

They've changed the Tokyo portion pretty much every year since they introduced the trip. They seem to struggle with stuff that actually appeals to everyone. I think the current iteration looks good, but it's mostly different from what we did in 2019.

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