4 hours private tour of Kyoto

Booked and paid for this tour with email confirmation. The guide never arrived after multiple attempts to contact the company. Still waiting for a refund. Extremely disappointing.

Ryo is a lovely, full of spirit and very joyful. I had a fabulous experience, she took me to many beautiful side of Kyoto. This is must do experience I recommend!!!

Ryo was our tour guide for a group that my friend and I joined. She was super knowledgeable of the city and really easy to talk to. She stopped at major sites in Kyoto and pointed out the best places to go for food, parks, coffee, and to see geisha. She also told us the best times to go there to enjoy the area. Ryo told us about the old culture of japan and the two commonly practiced religions in the area. As we went to the shrines and temple she helped teach us the right way to interact with these religious monuments. Example being praying asking for different blessings or for help to kick a bad habit. Ryo is the best tour guide I have ever had anywhere. I would highly recommend booking a tour with her you will not regret it!I wish I could have spent more time in Kyoto. I will definitely use her services again!

My husband and I traveled to Kyoto for our anniversary. We’re not familiar with the area, so we reached out to American Express concierge to look for tours for us, and this was one of the recommendations. We booked directly through AMEX, and it turned out to be quite affordable! Tour guide - We met Ryo (our tour guide) at the Kyoto tower, then started from there. As a tour guide, Ryo was very friendly and engaging, obviously a veteran of providing tours. She was incredibly knowledgeable and has lived in Kyoto for quite some time. I was hesitant about doing tours like this, especially given I was jet lagged.. I found Ryo to have strong EQ (emotional quotient) and was able to read my energy and adapt herself to make me feel comfortable. I travel a lot and have been on TONS of tours, and this was one of the best tour guides I’ve had. I found her approach to be very adaptable, welcoming and filled with both historic and current cultural knowledge. I would’ve immediately booked her other tour, but I didn’t feel like biking all around the city lol... The tour itself - we visited a number of different places, but probably spent the most time at a massive Shinto shrine on a beautiful mountain, and in the Gion district. Both sites turned out to be my favorites that we visited in Kyoto, and we ended up going back to Gion quite a bit after. We learned a lot about the history of Kyoto, the culture there, the establishment of the city, and a lot of both Buddhist and Shinto religions. After the touring, she took us to a small restaurant to eat very traditional Japanese food (vs the newer touristy restaurants of today). That was some of the best food we had on our trip. Overall, the tour was the perfect amount of time, and there was something kind of whimsical about seeing the old city at night. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this tour to any small groups traveling to Kyoto. There were only two of us in the tour group, but I could easily see her expending the amount of people to up to 10-12 while still keeping a good amount of the personalization we experienced. We’ll definitely be reaching out to her to do whatever other tours she has when we come back! :)

Ryo was a great guide; perfectly fluent in English and highly knowledgeable about the local history as well as current global affairs. She has a great sense of humor and amiable nature that made the time fly by as we strolled around the various neighborhoods of Kyoto. Even better, it was just my husband and I which made the experience far more personalized. She kept us on schedule but it did not feel rushed in the slightest. As foreigners, she provided guidance around appropriate behavior which was very much appreciated. Examples would be not photographing or staring at the maiko and how to purify ourselves before entering shrines. Ryo was very welcoming and engaging the entire time. I hope when we next return to Kyoto she has additional tours available because we would definitely sign up for another one!