Recently, I did a Globus tour of Japan. I'd never toured Japan before and while I was looking forward to visiting it for the first time, I was a bit daunted by it as well. Their language is hugely different from English and, their culture is very different too. Still, one of the great things about Globus is your tour director is with you from the start of the tour till it's end. The tour director knows the language, the culture and their way around. So, I felt at ease until I got a notice from Globus that there wasn't going to be anyone to meet me at Tokyo Narita Airport and, I'd have to take a bus (ticket provided) from the airport to the Tokyo Hilton where my tour group would stay for the first two nights of the tour. (Globus claimed this was the most efficient way to get their travelers from the airport to the hotel.) So, for my first 2 hours in Japan, I was going to be on my own trying to make my way to my hotel. Crap!
That's when I got the idea of using a private car and driver. As some of my readers may remember, I used one in Stockholm, Sweden to get me from the airport to their cruise ship terminal for my Baltic cruise on Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas. By hiring a car and driver, someone would be waiting for me at the airport who knew their way around and would be able to get me to my hotel.
I checked various companies. Viator gave me a price of $394 which was the highest I found. Another company I requested a quote from told me $340 with an extra $35 for an English speaker. Tokyoairporter.com came in at the cheapest with a flat price of 19,000 yen which with the current exchange rate broke out to about $160. Twice during the quote request and when I confirmed my request reservation, I said the driver must speak English. I haven't forgotten my misadventure in Cartagena, Colombia and, I didn't want to subject my travel friend Harvey who was going on the tour with me to that.
Tokyoairporter.com requests prepayment via Paypal which surprised me. Also, they will hit you with a 7.2% charge if you use a credit card. As I was determined to use one, that brought the price up to roughly $180.
On April 5, 2016, after flying over 14 hours non-stop from Washington Dulles International, I arrived at Tokyo Narita International Airport. To my dismay, they had a HUGE line to get through customs. It ended up taking me over an hour and a half to get through the line. My travel friend and I both wondered if our driver would still be waiting for us when we finally got our suitcases and exited the arrival area. To our delight, there was a driver with my last name on her sign.
We quickly realized our driver's understanding of English was iffy at best. Still, she seemed to know what she was doing. She directed us outside to a vehicle parking lot where she indicated we should wait while she got the vehicle. The vehicle turned out to be a mini-van which was fine with us. The lady apparently had been told somehow where we were to go and plugged it into her Japanese Global Positioning System i.e. GPS. Then, we took off for our hotel.
Along the way, we passed one of the buses we might've have taken otherwise so, Tokyoairporter.com is a faster way to get to downtown Tokyo. The driver knew what she was doing and took us directly to the Hilton. I think we got there in roughly an hour. While I wasn't pleased about her apparent lack of understanding of English, she did a fine job and got us where we had to go. My friend and I tipped her $5 each and thanked her as best we could.
Overall, I was very pleased with Tokyoairporter.com. They're cheaper than other services but, they're competent and give good service. I'd definitely use them again and would recommend them if you need a car and driver to take you to your hotel from the airport in Tokyo. Happy travels all!
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