When To Use Klook To Book Things In Japan?

There’s no doubt that you’ve come across a company called Klook when doing your research in Japan. Travel blogs recommend them and plenty of people who have returned will offer some advice on Facebook groups involving using Klook to buy Shinkansen tickets or to book DisneySea or Universal tickets. As an Klook Affiliate, I’ll give you my honest take on why people use Klook, if you get better prices, and when I think you should use it.

What Is A Klook Affiliate?

Practically every travel website or blog you visit uses some affiliate links.

As an affiliate, the there’s an ID attached to most links on a website, including this one. This allows the platforms to know which website “referred” people to their product or service. It’s really a win-win for everyone. Small businesses pay a commission so people can find them on bigger platforms, and these platforms share the commission with affiliates who take the time to write guides and share information. Readers, like you, get useful information and recommendations for free.

It’s the foundation behind how a website can money without costing the reader anything. Big or small, websites may earn money from ads, but for many, most of the money comes from commissions paid when someone clicks on a link and buys or books something from websites like Amazon, Booking, Expedia, GetYourGuide, Viator, and Klook, to name a few of the big ones.

Klook Affiliates earn a small commission, anywhere from 0-5% from when someone completes a booking on Klook after clicking on an affiliate link. So, if you found a blog’s content useful or that leads to you booking a hotel or an activity, you can feel good knowing that you’re helping to keep their blogs running.

Is Klook Legit?

Yes, Klook is a legitimate company and probably the biggest activity aggregator platform in Asia, and especially Japan. It’s a great resource for looking up activities to do, especially mainstream and popular ones like visiting a micro pig cafe. For more unique and special activities, my go to is Wabunka and ometimes, Rakuten Travel Experiences will offer local activities and tours not found on Klook, so I’ll search there too. But Klook is probably where I tell friends to go to book most of their activities and tickets in Japan.

So What’s The Catch With Klook?

Sometimes you might pay more using Klook or GetYourGuide or Viator, etc to book an activity. In Japan, that’s not really the case, but for example, there’s a fulfillment fee to book Shinkansen tickets through Klook versus buying it at the station or through the official SmartEx site. However, for many people, using Klook is a lot easier. I’ll touch on buying Shinkansen tickets later as well as other popular activities like tickets for Disneysea, Disneyland, and Universal Studios.

There are many instances where you’ll pay a little for the convenience of Klook, but not always. A lot of the times, especially for popular activities, the price will be the same, and sometimes there are even promo codes and flash discounts that make it cheaper than booking direct. You also get freebies, like an eSIM or earn Klook Cash with every booking that you can use for future bookings, like a reward program.

Here Are The Main Reasons Why People Use Klook

It’s convenient to keep all your tickets and reservations in one place and a pain to create a new account at a different website every time you want to book a new activity.

The following is my full experience helping a family of six book their first trip to Japan. The parents are in their late 40’s and comfortable using their phones, but I would not call them tech savvy.

For starters, I created new accounts for them with Booking, Expedia and Agoda to find the best prices on hotels. I used GetYourGuide, Klook, and Airalo for activities and an eSIM. When it came to buying tickets for Disneysea, Universal Studios, the Harry Potter Studio Tour and TeamLabs, they all had their own ticketing system as well. In other words, I had to create many new accounts and potentially more if I was booking certain activities directly.

Ultimately, I booked all the activities through Klook because the prices were the same and everything was in one place.

Midway through the trip, I logged onto their Klook account and was surprised to see that they had a booked a bunch of other activities there on their own. The mom said it easy to use.

Using Klook For Airport and Amusement Park Transfers

It’s cheaper and easier to book car transfers, especially for groups.

On arrival, the family landed into Haneda Airport at 9:30 pm and their hotel was in Ikebukuro. We agreed that it was probably better to take a taxi or private pickup instead of trying to figure out the train system at night with four kids. If it was just 2-4 people, I’d tell them find the taxi line and take a cab to their hotel. However, I wasn’t sure how easy it’d be to find a taxi at night large enough for 6 people along with all their luggage.

Klook was the first place I looked and I found a large van service to pick them up for around $65 + a late night fee of around $18. It ended up being the best price I found and less than what I heard other people on online forums being quoted. It was easy to put in their hotel address and choose their exact flight, so that the pickup would wait 90 minutes after the flight LANDED. The important part was that they didn’t have to haggle for a large taxi at night and try to explain where they needed to go.

Klook came through. The pick-up was smooth and they got to their hotel without any issues. They liked it so much they asked me to book a van pick-up to DisneySea so they could quickly get there without multiple train transfers in the morning.

At the end of the trip, they needed an even bigger van for the extra suitcases they bought for hauling home their purchases. The price ended up being less than 6 train tickets + the fee for sending their luggage to the airport via Yamato Transport.

Klook Vs. SmartEx For Shinkansen Tickets

Buy your Shinkansen tickets directly at the station if you have time and flexibility. Use SmartEx to book in advance if you know what you are doing or don’t have a complicated situation. Otherwise, for a small fulfillment fee that can be partially offset by a promo code, use Klook for ease of use.

The family liked how easy it was to use Klook on their own, so before I could do it for them, they booked Shinkansen tickets from Tokyo to Kyoto on the app. I looked at the price and noticed that paid an extra $13 fulfillment fee per person for booking the Shinkansen tickets through Klook.

On their way back to Tokyo, they needed to reserve seats that had a designated space for oversized luggage. I looked at SmartEx, the official Shinkansen online reservation system, so they wouldn’t have to pay the fulfillment fee.

It took me almost an hour of reading everything carefully to figure out the correct seat booking options. In the end, I had to make a new account, a separate booking for the seats with oversized luggage and another for the rest of the normal reserved seats. There was no easy way to choose all the seats together. I had to screenshot the available seats in a carriage that did not have over-sized luggage space, and then match that with the available seats that had luggage space. I know what I am doing and it wasn’t easy.

Klook was much more straightforward. You choose when you want to go and choose an option for Reserved (2nd Class or Green Car) or Non-Reserved Seats (2nd Class). Then you choose if you want Window, Aisle, Mt. Fuji Side, or Oversized Luggage Seat. They’ll do the rest and pick the best available seats for you that matches your preference.

Klook Vs Disney Official Ticket Site

For Disneyland and Disneysea ticket, it might come as a surprise, but it’s 100% better to buy through Klook.

Both Klook and the official Disney website have the same availability and prices for adults, juniors and children. For both, you get a voucher with a QR code to enter the park. So why is Klook better? Below are prices for the middle of the week from Klook.

And here are the prices on Disney’s official site.

Through Klook’s Disney Tickets, you can sometimes apply a promo code (it’s rare), but almost always, you can get a freebie add-on, like a 3gb eSIM. I made 6 separate bookings for the family and got 6 free eSIM (one per booking) – for the same price.

Another reason to use Klook is that some people had problems using certain credit cards on the official Disney site, but it worked fine on Klook. You may not run into this problem, but it’s just another reason to just use Klook for Disney tickets. This applies for Universal Studios and the Harry Potter Studio Tours.

Klook Vs TeamLabs Official Site

It’s better to use the TeamLabs official ticketing site to buy last minute tickets over Klook because they have more availability time slots.

Unlike Disney and Universal Studio Ticket, the only time I recommend buying TeamLabs tickets through Klook is if you’re buying at least a few days in advance. If that’s the case, you get the convenience of booking through Klook with its freebies, and rewards for the same price as the official site.

However, for last minute tickets and closer to the date tickets, you’ll find more available time slots on the official site.

Klook In Japan

In general, I can easily recommend Klook in Japan for popular activities because you can consolidate many of your bookings into one place instead of making new accounts for every website. The prices are usually the same as booking direct, but you often get freebies, rewards, and can use promo codes. There are certainly scenarios where I still book direct or through an official site, but surprisingly, it’s not as often the case in Japan. That surprised me.

For families or groups who have transportation needs, I personally have used Klook quite a few times for booking transfers. It is so much easier and cheaper than trying to find a local company and communicating with them over text or email. Please feel free to share your experiences in the comments below. If any of my information is incorrect, please feel free to correct me and I’ll update the information for other readers.

Looking for more travel inspirations? Scroll through some of the 450+ experiences on my bucket list. Maybe you’ll find your next adventure on there.

How You Can Help

If you’ve found the content useful, you can help support this site by using these links when you plan and book your trip. There’s no difference for you, but this site will earn a small commission with each booking.

Booking.com	Expedia.com
Amazon.com	Klook.com
Viator.com	GetYourGuide.com

 

Updated on December 4, 2024