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Kyoto Private Tour: Personalized City Walk
4.7
31 Ratings
Kyoto
Experience a personalized and private one-day tour of Kyoto with a local guide. Explore iconic sites, hidden gems, and immerse yourself in the city’s rich culture and natural beauty.
Experience a personalized and private one-day tour of Kyoto with a local guide. Explore iconic sites, hidden gems, and immerse yourself in the city’s rich culture and natural beauty.
Duration:
8 hours
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
- Kyoto - Experience an authentic introduction to Kyoto with a private guide on a fully customized full-day walking tour. The itinerary is tailored to your interests and pace, providing an insider’s perspective on the city’s rich history, cultural traditions, and hidden treasures. Here are some highlights you might explore:
- **Kyoto Station…
- Kyoto - Experience an authentic introduction to Kyoto with a private guide on a fully customized full-day walking tour. The itinerary is tailored to your interests and pace, providing an insider’s perspective on the city’s rich history, cultural traditions, and hidden treasures. Here are some highlights you might explore:
- Kyoto Station Building - Discover this impressive modern landmark with its striking architecture, rooftop gardens, and panoramic city views—a perfect starting point for your Kyoto adventure.
- Kitano Tenmangu Shrine - Travel north to visit this esteemed shrine, dedicated to the scholar Sugawara no Michizane. It’s renowned for its plum blossoms in late winter and its vibrant monthly market. Your guide can also suggest a great nearby spot to try Kyoto’s specialty, yuba (tofu skin).
- Kinkaku-ji - Proceed to one of Kyoto’s most iconic landmarks. Originally a shogun’s villa, Kinkaku-ji was converted into a Zen temple in the 1400s and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Admire its shimmering gold-leaf exterior reflected in the surrounding pond.
- Sannenzaka Ninenzaka - Head south to the charming lanes of Higashiyama. Stroll through these beautifully preserved, sloping streets lined with wooden townhouses, traditional merchant shops, cafes, and restaurants offering Kyoto specialties. It’s the perfect place to shop for pottery, sweets, crafts, and other local treasures.
- Kiyomizu-dera Temple - Conclude your day at one of Japan’s most renowned temples. Famous for its expansive wooden stage with sweeping city views, Kiyomizu-dera is especially stunning during the autumn foliage season. Don’t miss the Otowa Waterfall, whose three streams promise longevity, academic success, or good fortune in love—choose your wish wisely!
What's Included
- 8-hour tour with a personal host
- Custom, private tour experience
- Option for hotel meet-up in central locations
- Tailored walking journey with transport suggestions if needed
- 8-hour tour with a personal host
- Custom, private tour experience
- Option for hotel meet-up in central locations
- Tailored walking journey with transport suggestions if needed
What's Not Included
- Food, drinks and tickets to any attractions
- Transportation (primarily a walking experience, public transport may be used at an additional cost)
- Gratuities (optional)
- Food, drinks and tickets to any attractions
- Transportation (primarily a walking experience, public transport may be used at an additional cost)
- Gratuities (optional)
Additional Information
Experience Kyoto in a uniquely personal way with a full-day private walking tour led by a local host who knows the city intimately. This tour offers a flexible, tailored experience that revolves entirely around your preferences.
Wander through historic streets, explore hidden shops, admire tranquil temples and gardens, and listen to local stories that…
Experience Kyoto in a uniquely personal way with a full-day private walking tour led by a local host who knows the city intimately. This tour offers a flexible, tailored experience that revolves entirely around your preferences.
Wander through historic streets, explore hidden shops, admire tranquil temples and gardens, and listen to local stories that bring Kyoto’s culture to life. Your host will design the route to align with your interests, whether you are fascinated by history, cuisine, architecture, tradition, or unique discoveries off the beaten path.
Upon booking, a brief questionnaire about your interests will be provided. Your host will then contact you to propose an authentic, adaptable itinerary that feels like exploring Kyoto with a knowledgeable friend eager to reveal the city’s secrets.
- After booking, you’ll receive a short questionnaire to share your interests, preferences, and must-sees. Your guide will personally reach out to craft a fully customized itinerary that suits your style—whether you love history, food, hidden gems, or cultural experiences.
- This private tour is a walking experience. A private vehicle is not included.
- Public transportation or local taxis may be used to transfer between sites. Exact transportation costs can be discussed with your host after your reservation is finalized.
Location
Starbucks Coffee - Kyoto Sanjo-ohashi Bridge
This is a great central point to meet your host if your hotel is not listed.
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
4.7
(31 Ratings)
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Stevendc1164qf
Apr 18, 2025
A personal tour around the highlights of Kyoto. - Our local guide met us at our hotel and we discussed the best places to visit for our tour. Off we went by taxi to the Kikomizu-dera temple. Just as shown in the travel brochures, the temple and grounds were magnificent. We then meandered around the gift shops to buy presents for family and friends. Our guide then took us to a local Soba restaurant and the food there was 'oishii'.
We take another taxi ride to visit the Sanjusanendo Buddhist temple. Our guide gave us a detailed history of the temple and the 1000 life size Buddhist statues! The Cherry Blossom here was spectacular.
A slight detour and we visit the Nobu zen garden. The was featured on a recent BBC programme and I was always keen to visit it. So here we are; Beautiful and thrilling!
We take another taxi ride back to Kyoto's Nishiki market. the shops were stunning and the food stalls were excellent. If you like fried octopus on skewers, this is the place to be!
Overall, our day trip around parts of Kyoto was brilliant, our tour guide was friendly and very knowledgeable. The experience was unique and personal with just the four of us. This trip will be in our memories for a very long time.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
U7264mbalisong
Mar 6, 2025
Amazing Alex! - A tour with Alex Oberti is like having a friend show you around his home town. He was so knowledgeable about the rich history of numerous spots, so kind and generous with his time (he told us to text him if we need any further recommendations while we are in town). We had a couple of sceptics in our group on whether a tour was a worthwhile investment but Alex added so much value, kept everyone engaged and gave “the navigators” of our group a day off.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Carey_a
Apr 6, 2024
Excellent introduction to Kyoto - Excellent and knowledgeable guide who very quickly and perceptively figured out our interests, how much ground we could cover, and what “extra” experiences we would like.
Review provided by Viator
B3323txerich
Apr 4, 2024
Easy and fun - My daughter and I had a great time with Taibi and really appreciated his expertise and easy- going nature. He tailored the day to us and we had a great time with his plan. I would recommend him to anyone.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Aiden_f
Dec 9, 2023
Definitely Recommend - I had Alex as my tour guide and he was very knowledgeable and very friendly. Five stars all around!!
Review provided by Viator
Destination305714
Nov 17, 2023
Hidden Kyoto - Cannot say enough positive things about our guide Alex and all the things we saw on the tour. We learned a lot about Kyoto and Japanese culture and experienced so many off the beaten path locations. Alex really put us at ease with his ability to navigate us while simultaneously engaging us in conversation. Could not recommend more!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Andrew_g
Oct 23, 2023
Best Way to See Kyoto in 1 Day - My tour guide's name was Alex, and he was fantastic! I had very limited time in Kyoto during my trip to Japan (only about 48 hours), and he helped me maximize that time with this tour. While I wish I could have spent more time in such a wonderful city, Alex's tour helped make sure I left Kyoto feeling like I got a proper experience... wanting more time to go deeper into the city because it was so spectacular, but fulfilled where I feel like I had spent much more time there than I actually did. He picked out a great ramen spot for lunch and showed me all over the city. I highly recommend starting your visit to Kyoto with this tour... it's especially good if you want to fit a lot into a limited amount of time like I did!
Review provided by Viator
Peggytw5725cb
Aug 1, 2023
History, beauty and fun all in two days. Fantastic - Our guide, Tess Liu guided us on 2 days: Day one to the Kyoto Imperial Palace, explaining the pomp and circumstance of this remarkable complex, then on the the crazy vibrant Nishiki Market for some of the best street food and drink ever and the guided us to a spectacular presentation of Maiko dancing and traditional tea ceremony. Day 2 to the Fushimi Inari Shrine which was marvelous because we saw 2 festival ceremonies and learned their significance from Tess. We also hopped across the city to the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove whose cool quiet was a wonderful change from the heat and bustle of Kyoto.Tess was simply the best person to introduce us to this ancient city.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Christina
May 29, 2023
City Unscripted came through with an Excellent Guide - We booked very last minute (48 hrs out) but City Unscripted was communicative, had a great questionnaire and matched us with a wonderful guide.
We had 5 different tours during our time in Japan and Toga through City Unscripted was the best. He had excellent English and was knowledgeable, outgoing and proactive with sharing information and history. He was flexible and open to our lack of planning.
As a party of 3, two of us had visited Kyoto twice before and one of us had never been. Toga helped us balance seeing new hidden gems while also making sure the first time visitor got the Kyoto vibe.
During our 7 hours, we visited multiples areas including stumbling upon a local shrine festival where I was grateful to be with a Japanese speaker to help navigate.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Katherine_s
May 12, 2023
Great to learn the city on first day! - We had a wonderful experience exploring Kyoto with our guide! The tour organizers provide a survey when you book, which you can use to specify the types of experiences you are interested in. We found this helpful, but our guide went above and beyond by emailing us separately to ask for more information about what we wanted to do during the tour. We were able to see lots of different areas of the city and got to use public transit -- very easy to use but it was helpful to have our guide show us how the bus/train systems work. We did the tour on the first day of our 5 days in Kyoto to get a sense of the city, and we got lots of ideas and recommendations for the rest of our trip. Definitely recommend!
Review provided by Viator
