I’ve always been the trip planner in our family, but this time my husband and I tried something different: we planned our entire vacation through Klook. Our destination was Tokyo during cherry blossom season, a bucket-list trip we’d dreamed about for years.
We were intrigued (and a bit nervous) about using Klook for almost everything, from airport pickup to attraction tickets, but the idea of having all our bookings in one place was too convenient to pass up.
I recount our experience, the smooth parts, the surprises, and the lessons we learned along the way, in hopes it helps fellow travelers considering a Klook-planned adventure.
Booking Everything on Klook
Planning began months before spring. Once our flights and hotel were sorted, we dove into the Klook app to fill in the rest of our itinerary.
We were amazed at how Klook offered just about every service we needed – airport transfers, local SIM cards, city transport passes, attraction tickets, guided tours, and day trips – all on one platform. It felt empowering to essentially build a DIY package tour ourselves, piece by piece.
We spent several evenings browsing and booking on Klook. To ensure quality, we diligently read through user reviews for each activity before reserving. (This step proved wise – reading others’ experiences helped us pick the most reliable tour operators and avoid any sketchy deals.)
We also kept an eye out for promotions. Klook often runs seasonal discounts, and indeed during cherry blossom season many tours had special prices – we snagged a couple of activities at nearly 30% off thanks to spring promos. Another perk was that Klook let us pay in our home currency, which saved us from bad exchange rates or foreign card fees.
With a few clicks, we booked an airport transfer from Narita Airport to our Tokyo hotel, a local 4G SIM card for pickup on arrival, 72-hour Tokyo subway passes, Tokyo Disneyland tickets, a street food night tour, a traditional tea ceremony in a kimono, and a full-day Mount Fuji bus tour.
By the end, our entire week’s worth of activities were neatly organized as e-vouchers in the Klook app, like a personalized travel concierge in our pocket.
Arrival and First Impressions
Our journey kicked off on a drizzly April afternoon when we landed at Narita Airport. Armed with our Klook e-vouchers, we felt cautiously optimistic that our arrival would go smoothly. It did – mostly.
After clearing immigration, we headed to the airport arrivals lobby and easily found the SIM card pickup counter (helpfully described in our Klook confirmation email).
The staff at the counter recognized the Klook voucher on my phone and swiftly set up our SIM, ensuring both our phones had data before we left. Being instantly connected was a huge relief; it meant we could contact our driver and navigate the city without a hitch.
Tokyo welcomed us with bursts of pink cherry blossoms and crisp spring air. Despite the light rain, the sight of sakura petals fluttering around the airport roadway gave us an immediate sense of the season’s charm.
We met our Klook-arranged driver just as described – our booking details had told us exactly where to go, and indeed a friendly man in an orange jacket holding a “Klook” sign was waiting at the arrival hall. He helped with our luggage and led us to a comfortable van.
Soon we were on our way into Tokyo, watching the city’s skyline emerge. Neon signs began to glow as evening set in, and we caught glimpses of cherry trees blooming in parks and along canals as we drove. The first impression was magical: Tokyo felt both enormous and yet inviting, with old temples tucked between modern towers.
During the drive, my husband remarked how stress-free this arrival was compared to some of our past trips. There was no scrambling to figure out train tickets or haggle with taxi drivers after a long flight.
We also appreciated that our driver knew our flight details; our confirmation stated he would wait up to 60 minutes in case of delays, which gave us peace of mind when our plane had been a few minutes late. (We’d heard horror stories of no-show airport pickups from other travelers, so I was relieved this part went without a hitch.)
By the time we reached our hotel in Shinjuku, we were tired but excited – armed with data on our phones, a stack of Klook e-tickets for the week, and a curiosity for what the next days would bring.
Highlights of the Trip
Over the next several days, Tokyo unfolded in a series of wonderful experiences – many of which we had arranged through Klook.
Here are some of the standout moments and how Klook played a part in each:
Cultural Immersion in Asakusa
On our second day, we joined a street food walking tour in Asakusa that we’d booked on Klook. A local guide led our small group through the historic alleys, where we sampled steaming takoyaki (octopus balls) and sweet dango skewers from vendors.
The tour even included a surprise stop at a tucked-away shrine where we learned how to perform a traditional prayer ritual. The look of delight on my husband’s face as he bit into his first freshly-made taiyaki (a fish-shaped cake filled with red bean) is something I’ll never forget.
We loved that the tour combined history, culture, and delicious bites. It would have been hard for us to find these hidden gems on our own, so this Klook experience truly enriched our understanding of Tokyo.
Traditional Tea Ceremony in Kimono
One afternoon, I lived out a personal dream by booking a tea ceremony experience for us. Through Klook we found a highly-rated tea house that provided kimono rentals as part of the package.
We arrived at a tranquil garden estate where friendly instructors helped us dress in elegant silk kimonos. We joined a small group and learned about the art of chanoyu (tea ceremony) – from purifying the utensils to the graceful gestures of serving matcha.
Kneeling on tatami mats in our kimono, whisking bright green matcha tea, we felt transported in time. The experience was peaceful and meditative, a nice change of pace from the busy city.
Everything matched the description on Klook perfectly, and the hosts even took photos of us under the garden’s cherry blossom tree. It was romantic and culturally immersive – exactly what we’d hoped for as a couple traveling in Japan.
Tokyo Disneyland
No trip to Tokyo is complete without a little magic! We had reserved Tokyo Disneyland tickets on Klook a month before. This turned out to be incredibly convenient.
The tickets were delivered as QR codes on our phone, so on the day we went, we simply scanned our QR e-ticket at the park gates and strolled right in without any trouble. Being tech-savvy travelers, we loved not having to print anything or wait in a ticket queue.
Disneyland itself was a blast – from riding Space Mountain to eating Mickey-shaped churros, we let our inner kids run free. Thanks to Klook, we also discovered we could pre-book a Disney Resort Line day pass (the monorail around the park) which saved us time.
One particularly memorable moment was watching the evening parade with twinkling floats, then easily finding our way back because our transit was pre-arranged. We emerged from the park tired and happy, grateful that logistics had been so smooth.
If we’d tried to buy tickets on-site the same day, we might have been out of luck (or stuck with a Japanese website that didn’t take our credit card). Klook truly made the Disney day hassle-free.
Day Trip to Mount Fuji
The absolute highlight of our trip was the full-day tour to Mt. Fuji and Lake Kawaguchiko. We booked a guided bus tour on Klook that promised stops at several scenic spots around Fuji. Early one morning, we met our tour bus (along with a friendly English-speaking guide) in Shinjuku.
The bus whisked us out of the city, and within two hours we were gazing at Mount Fuji’s iconic snow-capped cone gleaming in the sun. We got incredibly lucky with the weather – it was a clear day, and cherry blossom trees were in peak bloom around Lake Kawaguchiko, creating a picture-perfect scene of pink flowers framing Fuji’s reflection on the water.
Standing by the lake with my husband, surrounded by fluttering sakura petals and the majestic mountain in the background, felt almost surreal. We snapped countless photos, but no picture could capture the awe of seeing Fuji in person.
The tour continued to a small village where we tasted fresh wasabi and sake, and then to the Arakurayama Sengen Park pagoda – another classic viewpoint where a pagoda, cherry blossoms, and Mt. Fuji aligned in one breathtaking panorama.
Our guide was informative and warm, sharing folk tales about Fuji and patiently taking group photos for everyone. By the time we returned to Tokyo that evening, we were happily exhausted.
I was thankful we booked this as a guided tour; figuring out trains and multiple sites around Fuji in one day would have been daunting on our own. The Klook tour delivered exactly as advertised, and even exceeded our expectations with a few extra photo ops. It was truly a day to remember.
What Didn’t Go as Planned
Not everything was perfect, of course. Despite our thorough planning, we hit a couple of bumps during the trip. In the spirit of an honest review, here’s what didn’t work out so well:
Last-Minute Cancellation
One of our planned activities was an evening sakura river cruise in Tokyo. I had reserved it through Klook to cap off a romantic night, imagining us drifting under illuminated cherry trees. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans.
On the afternoon of the cruise, the weather turned nasty with high winds and rain. A few hours before departure, we got an email (and a text via the Klook app) notifying us that the boat tour was canceled for safety reasons. We were disappointed, but we understood that safety comes first.
The silver lining was Klook’s response – they automatically processed a full refund for the cruise within a couple of days. I had half-expected a hassle to get our money back, but to Klook’s credit, it was quick and painless.
We had to improvise our evening (we ended up finding a cozy izakaya pub and doing our own impromptu “food tour”), but the ease of the refund softened the blow of the missed experience.
Scheduling Snafu
Another hiccup came from our own over-ambition. In excitement, I had booked activities back-to-back on one of our days – a morning city tour that ended at 1:00 PM and an entry ticket for a teamLab art exhibit at 1:30 PM across town.
In theory, timing looked okay on paper, but I underestimated Tokyo’s transport times. That day, our morning tour ran slightly late, and we found ourselves sprinting through subway stations to make our 1:30 entry. Stress levels rose and a minor couple’s quarrel ensued about who planned the tight schedule (guilty as charged!).
We did make it to teamLab Borderless, panting and just in time, but it was not the relaxed transition I’d envisioned. In hindsight, I should have left more buffer time between activities.
Klook bookings happen at fixed slots, so if you miss your slot you might be out of luck or incur a fee. This was a lesson learned: don’t cram too much in one day, and always account for transit delays. Thankfully, this was a self-inflicted issue, not Klook’s fault, but it’s something others can avoid.
Communication Glitch
We had one minor communication issue with a tour provider. For our street food night tour, the meeting instructions on the Klook voucher listed a station exit and a landmark.
We arrived on time but didn’t see our guide anywhere. After a few anxious minutes, we contacted the guide at the phone number provided. It turned out we were waiting at the wrong exit of the station (there were multiple exits with similar names).
The guide kindly stayed on the phone to direct us, and we joined the group a few minutes late. It wasn’t a big deal in the end, but it taught us to double-check those meeting point details. In this case, the Klook description was a bit vague, and a quick clarifying message to the operator beforehand could have saved us some panic.
We didn’t need to involve Klook customer service for this since the issue was resolved on the spot, but it was a reminder that when you’re in an unfamiliar city, even small miscommunications can throw you off.
Despite these hiccups, nothing disastrous occurred. If anything, the few things that went wrong gave us stories to tell and lessons for future travels.
And whenever we faced an issue, we either got it sorted out with the local operator or, in the case of the cancellation, received prompt support from Klook (the refund was issued without us even having to ask). It was reassuring to see that Klook had our back when plans changed unexpectedly.
Final Thoughts and Tips
Using Klook as our one-stop shop made our travel planning more streamlined and gave us confidence as first-timers in Japan. We loved having all our booking vouchers neatly in one app and knowing that we had secured spots in the popular activities we cared about.
The convenience factor was truly high – it saved us from navigating dozens of Japanese-language websites or lining up for tickets in person.
Moreover, the cost savings from bundled deals and promo codes were a nice bonus, especially for a pricey city like Tokyo.
That said, relying on a single platform taught us a few things. Klook is a marketplace, meaning it connects you with many different tour operators and vendors.
Most of our experiences were fantastic, but it’s wise to remember that quality can vary by provider. We also learned to stay flexible: even with everything pre-booked, travel can throw curveballs like weather or scheduling changes.
In the end, would we use Klook again for a major trip? Absolutely – but with a bit more savvy gained from this experience.
