
Tour · 8 nights · with Explore Worldwide
An eight-night escorted tour with Explore Worldwide taking in northern Kyushu’s blend of history, hot springs and volcanos, including Fukuoka, Nagasaki and the vast Aso caldera.
Highlights
Tonkotsu ramen tasting in Fukuoka
Peace Park and Museum in Nagasaki
Kumamoto Castle and Suizenji Jojuen Garden
Mount Aso caldera and Aso-Kuju National Park
Beppu’s hot spring ‘hells’ and jigoku-mushi lunch
This small-group tour begins in Fukuoka, Kyushu’s largest city, known for its open-air food stalls and its claim to tonkotsu ramen. From the Dazaifu Tenmangu shrine’s plum trees to a tranquil park that was once part of a castle moat, the city’s quieter corners are never far away.
Journeys
Next is Nagasaki, with its layered history of foreign trade, Christian heritage and the echo of 1945’s bombing at the Peace Park and Museum. Visits to Dejima island and Glover Gardens reveal still-visible traces of the Dutch and Portuguese presence before the tour heads west to Kumamoto, dominated by one of Japan’s most formidable castles and a landscape garden trimmed to a precise Japanese ideal.
The itinerary then moves deeper into Kyushu’s volcanic heart, with the vast Aso caldera and national park, a forest shrine reached by a long stone stairway, and a hot spring village hotel with communal baths. Beppu’s so-called hell springs produce steam and sulphur smells aplenty, while the final walking tour of a preserved samurai town gives an uncommon insight into Edo-period craftsmanship before returning to Fukuoka.
Itinerary
Fukuoka
Nagasaki
Kumamoto
Mount Aso
Beppu
When to go
Lowest price each month, per person.
Explore Worldwide confirms exact dates, availability and prices when you book.
Need to know
For full details of what’s included, check with Explore Worldwide. See the full details on their site
The operator
Small-group adventures, walking and wildlife
Small groups with local leaders, and a fondness for the places at the end of the road. Trips are graded so you know how active they are.
You book with Explore Worldwide directly. They confirm your place, take payment, and look after you from the moment you leave home; Atlas & Passage’s part ends when you click through.

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These are the places the trip visits, in order. Explore Worldwide publishes the day-by-day itinerary on its own site.