What‘s Included

What To Expect

Reviews

• Brilliant Tour

  Rita C,

  Oct 8, 2025

  - Viator

  5.00

  The tour guide was vey knowledgeable, a lively person to talk with, super patient and cared about every step we took. Highly recommend this tour with all its perks - especially the guide

• great tour!!

  Vaughn J,

  Sep 12, 2025

  - Viator

  5.00

  Iki and his coworker made this tour unforgettable by providing insights and explanations we never would have known just by walking the sites on our own. Their knowledge brought meaning to every stop, connecting the history, culture, and symbolism behind what we were seeing. It gave us a much deeper appreciation for Kyoto and its traditions—highly recommended!

• WOW! An Actual Local Guide

  Eric T,

  Jul 26, 2025

  - Viator

  5.00

  This was a great tour and exactly what we expected. However, after spending 3 weeks in Japan, and having booked countless tours in 9 different Japanese cities, what really stood out about this tour was that fact that our guide (Ikki) was both Japanese (born & raised in Kyoto) and yet fluent in English (studied in he US). We did not find these two attributes with any other tour guide during our 3 weeks in Japan. In fact, all other Viator tour guides we experienced in Japan were non-Japanese, and most had only lived in Japan a few years. While our non-Viator tours had local Japanese guides, their English was often very poor--for that matter, many of the non-Japanese guides also had very poor English skills. In summary, while this tour may seem like others the key difference from most other Viator tours is the "Passionate Local English-Speaking Guide." Prior to spending 3 weeks in Japan, I would have simply glossed over the importance of having a LOCAL guide. Just as important, because Ikki studied in the US he is fluent in US-English (e.g., he knows the slang words commonly used in the US) so we didn't have any communication issues. All other Japanese guides we had only spoke "limited" English, which made communication difficult and stilted as best. In summary, this is a great tour, but after 3 weeks in Japan the real standout of this tour is the guide. If I could redo my trip to Kyoto, I would book Ikki as my private guide for my entire stay--I don't know if this is a tour option on Viator, but it should be. If you can't book this tour, or Ikki for another tour in Kyoto, be certain to always look for "local" guides when booking on Viator. It makes a big difference.

• Great guide and best...

  Harpreet B,

  Jul 2, 2025

  - Viator

  5.00

  Great guide and best attractions to see for your first experience in Japan. There was enough time to experience the sites, take breaks, shop, eat food, take pictures and ask lots of questions!

• Thank you for an...

  Nate B,

  May 29, 2025

  - Viator

  5.00

  Thank you for an incredible tour, Ikki! We thoroughly enjoyed the time and learning more about your beautiful city. Thanks also for being so kind to our 8 year-old daughter, we all really enjoyed learning more about Kyoto and will have lasting memories.