Kyoto First-Time Visitor Private & Personalized Walking Tour

Kyoto, Japan

8 hours (approx.)
Pickup offered
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

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Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture

5.0

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Kyoto Food & Culture 6hr Private Tour with Licensed Guide

from $153

Price varies by group size

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Overview

Eliminate language barriers, put away your map, and explore Kyoto with ease on this private and bespoke guided tour. The route is tailored to your interests, and an English-speaking guide is there to make discovering the city a stress-free and easy experience. Along the way, get help with taking photos, communicating with local vendors, booking restaurants, and getting access to Kyoto's top landmarks.

Enjoy a tailor-made Kyoto tour where you can personalize the itinerary
No getting lost: A private guide takes care of navigating
Get assistance with booking tickets and itinerary planning
Lots of potential sights to visit—including Kinkakuji Temple

What's Included

Private Guide
Personalized Itinerary
Assistants throughout your Trip

Private transportation
Entrance Fees
Accommodation Fees
Meals (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner...)

Meeting and Pickup

You can head directly to your preferred meeting point, or request pickup.

Pickup points

Select a pickup point

Pickup details

***This is a door-to-door service. Other than hotels and ryokans listed above, we pick up and drop off all guests at other types of accommodation like AirBNB, train stations or their desired destinations within the traveled city. ***Pick up and drop off time could be arranged according to your convenience.

Meeting points

Select a meeting point

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

Arranged start time

Confirm time with the local provider in advance of your experience.

07/01/2019 - 05/21/2027
Monday - Sunday : 6:00 AM - 10:00 PM

Itinerary

Kinkaku-ji

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

Kiyomizu-dera

45 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

Sannenzaka Ninenzaka

45 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Yasaka Shrine

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

Fushimi Inari-taisha Shrine

15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Arashiyama

1 hour • Admission Ticket Not Included

Nishiki Market Shopping District

40 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Gion

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Ginkakuji Temple

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

Sanjusangendo Temple

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

Kyoto Imperial Palace

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Nijo Castle

45 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

Eikando Zenrinji Temple

45 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Wheelchair accessible
Stroller accessible
Near public transportation

Infants must sit on laps
Most travelers can participate
This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate

Supplied by

Cancellation Policy

This experience is non-refundable and cannot be changed for any reason. If you cancel or ask for an amendment, the amount you paid will not be refunded.

Traveler Photos

Gallery picture 1 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 2 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 3 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 4 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 5 (from a traveler's review)

Featured review

thachvo

Our team enjoyed the tour with Jinshi every minute of it. We were able to visit some of the best places of Kyoto and just like exactly the books say, all is marvelous, the gardens, the temples, the shrines and the food. We will come back to Kyoto again. Thanks Jinshi!

Reviews

3.9

based on 23 reviews

Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor

We perform checks on reviews

Short tour of kyoto

wbm825i, Apr 2024

I wished that we had more time to explore Kyoto. We were on a cruise so not enough time to explore the place. Rio was good and quite patient with us being seniors.

Great trou, with a great companion

Bernard_B, Jul 2023

Femin was great. He did a super job answering my son's questions. Always smiling and trying to help, it was fun to pass the day with him.

Quite literally a travel "companion"

Megan_W, Jun 2023

The night before our tour, the arranged guide messaged us to say he was unwell and would try to find a last-minute replacement. The guide we met the next morning was very friendly and enthusiastic, but he was a college student who had been in Japan for two years and could not speak or read Japanese. Even if he did not know much about the locations we visited, it would have been fine if he only helped us navigate the public transportation routes. To my dismay, he had to rely heavily on Google Maps the entire way and even got lost a couple times. At one point I found it faster to just find the directions myself, and he followed along with the rest of the group. I am grateful that he showed us how to use the buses and took photos for us, but I do not believe that this service was worth the price. I'm not sure what goes on behind the scenes for this tour, but the "travel companions" should definitely be better trained.

Buyer Beware

Darlene_M, May 2023

Let me start by saying I liked Karim, our “travel companion.” he seemed like an earnest young man, he let us know that he had several side hustles, helping to put him through college and get his sisters out of Afghanistan, so they could come to Japan to study. However, we only took this tour because our original tour was canceled last minute, and we were not made aware that he was a “travel companion, “ and not a tour guide. When I asked what the difference was, I was told that he is literally just a person who takes us from place to place. This was not very useful since we had already been in Japan a week and had no problems navigating subways and buses. Additionally, even though I sent several emails to confirm that we actually had a tour, no one reached out to me, until almost midnight the night before the trip, so we didn’t even know if we had a guide or what their name might be. Very unprofessional, and definitely caused us some anxiety. At any rate, Karim seemed annoyed to be leading us during the tour, spent a lot of time on his cell phone texting, and at one point, just walked away and left us in the middle of a crowd at Kiyomizu-dera temple. We had difficulty finding him as he had run so far ahead of us. He also had zero knowledge about anything we saw. I am a practicing Buddhist, and literally every single fact he told us about the Buddhist temples we visited was incorrect. When I questioned him about it, he even doubled down on the wrong answers. I don’t think he is the primary problem, but whoever he works with or for did not make it clear that we were not getting any sort of tour guide, pretty shady in my opinion, and for that reason, I’m giving this tour one star. I’m very disappointed that we were unable to learn anything about the places we visited, our guide seemed annoyed, and it was certainly not worth the $328 we paid for it. I asked the company for a refund of half the amount , because I feel as though he did get us from place to place and should be paid for his time, but the trip was not as advertised, and certainly not worth that kind of money (we have taken several tours with Viator that have all been great), and since we only had a couple days in Kyoto, we were really cheated out of the cultural experience we had been looking forward to. I’m also disappointing to in Viator, since they were very unhelpful and didn’t even even work to negotiate with this company on our behalf. All I can say about this whole experience is buyer beware, and after looking at the other tours offered in Kyoto that advertise “travel companions,” I would not recommend taking one, but if you have to (the way we did), that you try one of the less expensive ones. That way if all you’re getting is a third person that you have to pay all expenses for on that day, (in addition to the tour price)that you’re not paying more than necessary.

Walking Kyoto with Karl

hgsender, Apr 2023

Saw a good mix of Temples, Shrines and then local interests. We wanted to experience the culture as well as see the history.

Horrible

natasha_s, Apr 2023

The guide did not have any knowledge of Japan, Kyoto or the sights we visited. It was a waste of money!

Response from Host, Apr 2023

Dear Natasha Shah, Thank you for your review. 1.) Your traveling date is on April 8th, 2023, while you attempted to request for refund on April 7th, 2023 at night time around 21:00 PM Japan time (overnight) This already broke viator cancelation policy! 2.) On April 6th, 2023 we sent an email asking for more information about the tour you are looking for to customize your tour. However, we did not receive any information except this message from you "there are 3 persons. please revise total". We then proposed some itinerary and you tried to cancel and asked for refund even before the tour. 3.) The travel companion reported us that you requested to do 5 hours tour instead of 8 hours on April 8th, 2023. However, after the tour which is on April 9th, 2023, you requested for refund from viator stating that the tour ended in 5 hours not 8-10 hours as advertised. All in all, we don't understand you.

Worst Tour, scam and ripoff

Rishi_B, Apr 2023

Hello It was the worst tour ever. Total ripoff. The guide did not know her way around, always taking us in wrong direction, had no clue not prepared at all. She didnt know anything about japan as she had come 4 months back from Nepal . We had to tell her directions from google. No idea about any tourist spot. No (zero) explanations about sites. Could not even explain what was each place. No clue of directions. She was going against google directions. Kept saying site was closed when it was open. Utter waste of time wasted half day then we used google. How can you keep such guides who have no adea about a single tourist spot. She is in kyoto for 4 months!! How can you guys not check competence of guides. We wasted our day and money . We came from osaka and kept a day for kyoto . We had to take taxi and help of someone to finish our itenary. Your guide was just a tag along. Even after sharing sites that we wanted to visit 2 weeks ago, she was totally unprepared, resulting us missing half the spots. Really disappointed with your service. We trusted you by your name . Regards Rishi

Awesome!

Rebecca_H, Mar 2023

Dalivanh was amazing! Knowledgeable, informative, flexible with our list of things to see and do. She met us at our AirBnB and navigated the bus and train transportation for us. Thanks again for a great time!

Kyoto walking tour

thachvo, Nov 2019

Response from Host, Dec 2019

Thank you very much for your five stars review. Jinshi is very happy to read this and he says thank you. We wish to see you again on your next trip! Best wishes,

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