Kyoto Private Tours & Local Tour Guides

“Fantastic Guide!”

This should be your guide in Kyoto! Akira is passionate about his work - he spent a full 8 hours telling 4 Canadians all kinds of information about Japanese culture and history - in a way that was engaging and interesting. Also loved his restaurant choice and his uber-comfortable van! What a great day - I can't recommend him strongly enough!!

“Good kid, not great as a historical guide though. ”

Atsushi drove us everywhere we wanted to go, which made the trip very convenient and flexible. He was friendly, accommodating, and willing to adjust the itinerary based on the places we wanted to visit, including a few locations he visited for the first time with us a couple of days ago. One of the highlights was definitely his food recommendation, the place he suggested in Kyoto was excellent, and this is clearly one of his strengths. If you are looking for someone to take you around comfortably and point you toward good local food spots, he does that well. That said, he seemed to know very little about the history, cultural significance, or background of many sights in Kyoto. Even for some of the more well-known Kyoto locations that he regularly takes visitors to, there was only rudimentary information provided. It appeared that his experience is more centred around Osaka, with only a basic familiarity with parts of Kyoto. He was willing to take us wherever we wanted to go, which we appreciated, but the experience would have been greatly improved if he had put a bit more effort into learning about importance Kyoto and various sights / locations have in Japan before guiding visitors there. For travelers looking for historical or cultural insights during the tour, that is something to keep in mind.

“Thank you for taking us in-spite of not being too well. ”

Hiro San was a warm, patient and knowledgeable guide who took us to many significant sights in Kyoto. We truly appreciated that he still went ahead with the tour despite not feeling too well, rather than cancelling at the last minute. Because of this, however, the explanations at each site were very brief, usually only a few minutes on the religious and historical significance at each location before moving on. For most of the 8-hour tour, there was very little conversation or commentary from him, with much of his time spent in silence so we just spoke amongst ourselves. Nevertheless, we appreciated his effort and commitment in accompanying us throughout the day. Wish we could have caught him on a better day. Will definitely ask him to guide us if we go back to Kyoto again.