Shore excursion: Private Full Day Kyoto Tour From Osaka/Kobe Port

I was grateful for how organized this tour was. The pick up from Osaka cruise terminal was perfect and our driver was efficient and flexible allowing us to see things off the beaten path. Tom our tour guide was very accommodating and gracious. We went during the Gion festivities in Kyoto and we got to see the floats which was a real thrill. The temples were spectacular. Kyoto itself is a very large city which surprised us, but they have managed to preserve the old city very well. Great tour which I highly recommend.

Ahmed our tour guide was wonderful. He was full of educational and historical information. He and our driver were attentive to our need to be back at our cruise ship port on time. If you are cruising Japan, I highly recommend you book private tours through Viator. Having your own private guide and driver is so much better, and often less expensive than booking tours thru the cruise ship. You have the personal touch with the guide and your own driver to where you are not shoved on a bus with 30 other people and one guide. If you're traveling this far to Japan, pay the extra money for a private guide.

This was a fantastic day trip around Kyoto. The booking was easy and our contacts at Viator (John and Brent) were very quick to respond to my last minute request and organised a vehicle for 8 travellers and a guide at midnight the night before we needed it. The driver was very professional and his vehicle was excellent. The guide (Noriko) was incredible. She was local and very knowledgable and answered out plethora of questions. She took us to 5 different locations including temples, forrests, stunning waterfront locations and 2 different maket and local shopping locations. We were thrilled with our day and could not fault it.

+6

A wonderfully beautiful day of visiting lasting about 10 hours, with an excellent French-speaking guide, Terry! The vehicle was impeccable. The guide was attentive to our preferences and areas of interest. Everything went as planned; the welcome, etc. We will highly recommend Terry to any visitor who wishes to explore Kyoto on foot, by bike, or by car.

We were picked up by car and driven from Kobe to Kyoto for a full day tour. Our tour guide Mariko met us at the first location. Mariko was excellent. She was not native to Japan but had one parent that was Japanese. She was raised in Canada but had moved to Kyoto many years ago. She was fluent in both English and Japanese. Mariko's knowledge of Japan and the culture was excellent. She gave wonderful commentary and was able to answer all our questions. A highlight was exploring an arcade street (shotengai) which is a covered pedestrian shopping, eatery street. Mariko was able to teach us Japanese etiquette and point out interesting food stalls that she personally recommended. We had an appointment at 2:30 for a komono wearing and a tea ceremony and she got us to the appointment right on time. This tour was a mix of walking and transferring to different sites via car. This worked well and was time efficient.

We are on the Oceania in Japan and didn’t book a tour thru them , We waited for the last minute and went through Viator and found a last minute tour which turned out to be Fantastic, The guide was amazing she knew everything about Japan, Extremely knowledgeable, They supplied a great Driver with a nice spacious van as there were 4 of us, Was a long day but we saw probably more things than we would of seen if we took the tour thru the Ship, Plus much better Value, We would definitely use them again and recommend them to all , Much better experience than a Ship tour , Yes we did both and we can’t compare them, Viator is much better and professional

Absolutely enjoyed working with Japan Experiences and Tour company. Abu and his team are 5 star and we really covered this area and got to experience the incredible cherry blossoms .

The guide was very good and the tour was excellent. However don’t make the same mistake I did about paying an additional 120000 yen for the car and driver. The tour organiser did not txt until it was too late to cancel the tour.

7 of us spent an amazing day with Ahmed in Kyoto. Prior to the trip communication was excellent and on the day our driver was right there when we got off the boat. Ahmed was so knowledgable about everywhere we visited, took great photos of our group and knew exactly where to take us to avoid crowds where possible. I cannot recommend this tour enough it was absolutely five star. Thank you Ahmed !

We had a lovely day visiting many highlights of the Kyoto area. Yukari gave us so much information about Kyoto and each place we visited.

+1