Meander ancient Japan’s coastline and visit kimono makers, bonsai tenders and ryokan guest houses. Stop now and then to gaze at rice paddies, visit Buddhist shrines, and at the end of the day take a dip in the hot-spring onsen baths.
All of our scheduled trips can be booked as private trips (your dates, your group).
The right number of like-minded travellers to make new friends.
Your dates. Your group. Our expertly-designed itinerary.
Tailored to your interests, a bespoke travel experience.
“I can’t say I really ‘work out,’ but I’m in good shape and am relatively active.”
“I enjoy a good walk or ride, and feel comfortable while on the move.”
“I get moving at least once a week, and don’t mind a little sweat.”
“I get moving a few times per week and enjoy some exertion.”
“I want to feel invigorated each day and going hard is how I like to do that.”
We use premium hotels that are unique expressions of the region. Often they’ve had a previous life as a monastery or a castle, but in every case they offer an exceptionally comfortable stay.
These are stylish 4-star properties that offer a casual and comfortable stay. Often without a 24-hour concierge or room service, they tend to be smaller family-run hotels that are perfect for the region.
We craft extraordinary experiences, tailor made to meet your every need,
with every stitch of every day crafted just the way you want it.
Trip Designer Orsolya Kako plans experiential and in-depth excursions to locales as varied as Japan, Morocco and Iceland from her home base in Toronto. Her name gets butchered a lot, but she’ll usually respond to “Ursula.”
Meet OrsolyaGet tunnel vision.
The biking was great but the Japanese cultural experience was even better. The Ryokans, the meals, and the special events such as paper making and saki tasting were really an excellent introduction to the culture of Japan.
Stroll serenely.
In a small village on the western coast of Japan, I found the perfect persimmon. I stopped my bike to pick the ripe, orange-hued orb off of a roadside tree. And as I took a bite, it succumbed to my teeth with its honey-sweet juice. ...
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Noto Hanto, the Noto Peninsula, juts out 100km into the Sea of Japan, midway down the country’s west coast, and is a one-hour flight north-west of Tokyo. It is as peaceful as Tokyo is frenetic. Every now and then I pass a person, typically aged, leathery-faced and hunched, toiling over rice paddies or the immaculate gardens of neat, wooden houses in tiny rural ...
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Trip Designer Orsolya Kako presents her picks for the "beyond great" Tokyo hotels where you can do so much more than simply rest your ...
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"With travel, adventure, conflict and learning coalesce into shared memories to last a lifetime, making it the gift that keeps on giving. To whet the imagination, and in no particular order, here are ten trips from ten points around the globe at various price ...
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Though Japan’s long period of isolation kept it closed off from much of the world, one upshot was the rise of cultural touchstones that persist to this day. ...
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Japan is on the bucket list for many world travellers, so why not make a family excursion out of it? Experience the most fascinating elements of the country’s culture from Tokyo’s frenetic urban cacophony of sights, lights and sounds to a heritage richly preserved in subdued ...
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"Offering luxury bespoke walking and cycling expeditions to nearly every corner of the world since 1966, Butterfield & Robinson knows how to get you from point A to point Z in active ...
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Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, there are plenty of things to do in Kyoto that will give you a sense of the city and its ...
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"Blame it on Bill Murray... It started, innocently enough, as a bike trip with Butterfield & Robinson, that upscale globe-trotting ...
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B&R Trip Designer Orsolya Kako rounds out our three-part Insider’s Guidewith this list of her favourite things to do in Tokyo. ...
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In our latest installment of "Where to Eat" Trip Designer Orsolya Kako offers a few a few of her favourite Tokyo restaurants where you can do just ...
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Bow or shake? Shoes on or off? Smile or frown? (Just kidding—always smile.) Consider this your cheat sheet to mastering Japanese culture and ...
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In this ongoing series, we pose some essential questions and arm you with answers from our regional ...
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Of all the art forms that Japan adopted from China, chanoyu or tea ceremony, had the most profound influence. ...
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"You did what?" Elizabeth asks, looking up from her newly purchased and costly looking sake bowl. ...
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Sake rice wine elicits a feeling from the Japanese akin to the enthusiasm Scotch elicits from the Scots and wine ...
READ MORESee adventure blossom.
There’s nothing in the world like a Japanese mountain descent, the way the roads arc and roll with the landscape, like some ancient artist’s immortal brushstroke.
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