Kyoto Private Tours & Local Tour Guides

“Valuable Guide in Kyoto”

Kazuhiko is a very kind man who was a valuable guide in Kyoto. Since we arrived via cruise ship, we were relieved that he could meet us at the Osaka cruise port, and then brought us to Kyoto by train. He had a lot of printed material at the sites explaining what we were seeing. His English comprehension and written English were very, very good. And although he speaks with a Japanese accent, we were able to understand him. Communication was excellent before our tour, with quick responses to our questions and requests, and he tried his best to accommodate them all in the tour. Alas, we were a bit too ambitious in our goals, and Kyoto was insanely crowded, which made it too difficult. Not to mention the many steps at the shrines and temples, which a few in our party had a problem with after a while. The only problem we encountered is that we were a party of four, which made 5 with Kazuhiko-san. To make the most of our time, we agreed to take taxis from one stop to the other. Almost all taxis could only take 4 passengers, so it meant either waiting a long time for an Uber Taxi that could handle 5 passengers, or having to take 2 taxis. So we had to either sacrifice money or time. In our time in Japan, Kyoto was definitely the most expensive place (by far) in terms of taxis, drinks, food, etc. But it was still a great day immersing ourselves in the culture of the city.

“Totally enjoyable and deserving beyond 5 stars with Lisa W.”

My family of 3 visited Kyoto during peak cherry blossom season in early April, 2025 and spent 4 wonderful days with Lisa. It's our first time vacationing in Kyoto so we spent a lot of time contacting tour guides for more information starting in October, 2024. After a few email exchanges with all of them, we decided to go with Lisa with complete confidence. She was very responsive, patient, flexible, and informative during our search for a tour guide. She helped us build a totally customized and very active itinerary for each of the 4 days and advised us with changes to optimize travel time and accommodate operating hours and open/close days of the attractions. She also recommended some off-the-beaten-path attractions away from the usual crowd of tourists and they were very charming and enjoyable that we would have missed if not for her recommendations. After we decided to go with her and finished building the itinerary, we continued to email her with additional questions and changes and she always replied quickly to acknowledge our questions. If she was busy, she would let us know that she could not answer our questions right now because she was guiding a long tour currently but promised to get back to us later and she always did and kept her promises. She managed to keep us to the very active itinerary we built each day without the feeling of being rushed and the amount of time we spent at each site was just perfect. She also recommended a car company whom we hired and she coordinated with the driver perfectly throughout the day to optimize drop off and pick up locations at each site to save time and minimize walking to and from the car. On our last day, she went out of her way to accompany us to the airport and all the way to the security checkpoint and waved us good-bye. We were very touched and appreciative of her extra effort and her caring up to the last step. Don't look any further and book with Lisa W. now before it's too late!

Jackie A.

5 / 5

May 27, 2025

Half-Day Highlights Tour of Kyoto

May 27, 2025

Kyoto

4 hours

“Learn the real scoop!”

Maria led us on a tour of 4 temples and street food. We learned about spirtual practices, history and the food. she was great.

Maricel E.

(10 reviews)

Thank you so much for your excellent review, I am glad and honored to be your guide. Keep healthy and happy, regards to all the ladies. Girl power!