Essence of Japan Tour Improvements
We just returned from a May departure. Here are some of the improvements we noted based on earlier guest comments on this forum.
- Previous travelers did not like the Hotel Nikko in Kanazawa. This hotel has been replaced by the Hyatt Centric which was very nice.
- The lunch menu at Nobu appears to have been changed as we had a very good bento box lunch there
- The dreaded bento box lunch on the train has been replaced by an allowance to buy whatever you like at the train station to bring on board with you.
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Comments
There were issues with Hotel Nikko. The rooms were spartan compared to the other hotels on the trip. The bathroom was also smaller and there were fewer amenities in the room. The hallways were long. Great view though! I also heard that Hotel Nikko did not really like Tauck becuase of having to open the breakfast buffet 30 minutes earlier than their scheduled start time at 6:30 a.m. in order to accomodate Tauck's tight schedule. Some other tourists managed to sneak in. Hotel Nikko were very strict about Tauck having certain number of tables per night for the included dinner at each specific restaurant. We got a choice of Chinese, Japanese(the most authentic meal on the whole trip), Italian and one other choice.
I thought the meal at Nobu was good. Others did not like it!
I did this tour in April 2023 and was one who did not like the Nikki Kanazawa. Also, the meal at Nobu was so “dumbed down” with tasteless stuff. The two pieces of sushi were fabulous. The rest was like grocery store food, and the bento box on the train was simply disgusting and inedible. Glad to hear some positive changes have been made for future travelers!