Artisan Pacific Travel LLC - Dublin, California

Gerry Ferrante

My wife, nephew and I just returned from Japan on a trip planned by Artisan Pacific. Travel LLC. Wow!! What a trip! The itinerary planned for us was perfect. The cities and attractions were carefully chosen as it gave us a great flavor of regional Japanese culture and history. Our guides were knowledgeable, helpful and always made us feel safe. We never felt alone, yet we had our private time and never felt overwhelmed. They were friendly and attended to our every need. And speaking of flavor, we got to experience the vast variety of Japanese cuisine. From sushi, tempura, Kobe Beef or Ramen and more, the food was fantastic! Even the Italian food was off the charts! Who would have thought that?!! Our accommodations were carefully selected and most comfortable and varied. We stayed at grand hotels and unique boutiques all perfectly located. We even stayed at a traditional Japanese country Inn that was the epitome of old school Japanese culture. That included the iconic mineral bath fed from the mountain hot springs!! I didn't want to leave!!! That was certainly different and an unexpected surprise!! While we travel quite a bit, we certainly would put this trip up there as one of our all time favorites. I certainly would recommend a Japanese vacation. The cities are great and the countryside is beautiful. Culturally, it is so different from Europe or the Americas. And I certainly would recommend Artisan Pacific as the tour company!! Thank you Artisan Pacific for giving my family and myself a fabulous travel experience!! You nailed it!!

Dave Caputo

What a trip! And Artisan Pacific made it so easy. They really listened to what we wanted to get out of our experience, and then took care of each and every detail to make it happen for us. From locale recommendations to AWESOME tour guides to transportation/luggage to lodging and (fantastic) meals, AP took care of us the whole way. Would definitely recommend!

Mary Wulffen

We am so glad that we chose Artisan Pacific Travel for our trip to Japan! After researching various tour operators, we set up a call with Gary from Artisan Pacific where he listened to our interests. Shortly after that conversation, Gary sent us a proposed itinerary that not only included our thoughts, but also suggested additional options that were available based on our travel dates. Those options were perfect! We had a wonderful trip as their local guides were well informed, easy to understand and enjoyable company. We will use Artisan Pacific again and highly recommend their services.

Ryan Sander

Gary and the team at Artisan made for an absolutely fabulous, stress free vacation to a part of the world I knew so little about! My wife and I initially had booked tickets to the Tokyo Olympics through Artisan, but after the cancellation due to the pandemic, we had to completely change course and redo our itinerary.

Gary and his team took the time to curate a custom trip just for us, taking our interests, dietary needs (we are both gluten intolerant which is not common in Japan) and goals in mind. He put together a balanced trip with time for my wife and I to choose your own adventure (with suggestions from local guides) and private, guided days with knowledgeable, local guides who were flexible to how we felt and what we were interested in each day. I've never had a trip where I felt so at ease, knowing things were planned for me and if the plans weren't right for how I was feeling in a given day, we could adjust without problem!

Artisan also prepared us with how to navigate the country, the customs to be considerate to, and provided pocket wifi so we were always connected and able to reach out for help or advice if needed.

All I can say, is that I wish Gary and Artisan operated in more parts of the world because I would absolutely travel with them again and today, consider Tokyo to be my favorite city in the world and a destination I would highly recommend. (I can't believe it is 5x bigger than New York City, but quieter, cleaner and safer than my local town of 100k people!)

Thank you Gary and the team at Artisan for the vacation of a lifetime!

Jessica Sander

Gary and Chris were wonderful to work with! They planned an incredible Japan vacation that exceeded our expectations. All travel arrangements and logistical details were well organized and communicated to us to ensure we knew our plan throughout the trip. This provided us with peace of mind and allowed us to fully enjoy each day.

We spent time with 3 different local guides, arranged by APT, who were all fantastic. Each provided historical, cultural and religious context to our sightseeing and all 3 were tremendously helpful and friendly. Because of our guides, we took away so much more from each experience and learned a lot about Japan and its people.

Gary and Chris recommended we spend a day in Kanazawa, a city we had never heard of and knew nothing about. This turned out to be one of our trip's highlights! The city was beautiful and interesting. We certainly would not have known to visit had they not suggested this for us.

Overall, we felt our trip was tailored to our specific interests, was paced well for our style of travel, and was very well executed. The personal touches (joining us at a sumo basho event, helping us navigate our gluten intolerance throughout our stay, sharing favorite cultural traditions and cuisine with us) made the trip extra special.

Thank you, APT team! Would highly recommend to anyone interested in an authentic and custom Japan vacation!

Lisa Stalteri

My 13 year old daughter and I did a "lightly guided tour" to Japan in October 2019 and had a great time. Gary helped us plan the trip around our interests and the degree of support/independence we thought we needed. It worked out well. We spent time in Tokyo, Tokyo Disneyland, Hakone and Kyoto and its outlying areas. We had a private full day tour our first day in each of Tokyo and Kyoto. Gary made hotel reservations, cross-country train reservations, airport transportation and provided 24/7 support if needed. There were a couple of times that we had to call on that support, including transportation hiccups during Typhoon Hagibis. We appreciated Gary's responsiveness. We highly recommend Artisan Pacific Travel and Gary.

Kevin Clarke

Gary helped us so much with our whirlwind trip to Tokyo! We had three days and wanted to see popular sights along with off-the-beaten-track destinations. Gary gave us lots of suggestions for itineraries, and fun places for food and nightlife. He checked in with us daily to see what we had done, what we liked, and then gave us new suggestions for the following day. I was impressed by the amount of time he devoted to tailoring his suggestions to our tastes. So, thank you, Gary! You were super helpful!