Kyoto Early Bird Walking Tour

Sumiko's tour was fun and diverse and everything was well thought out. Using public transport to move between different locations was a nice experience in itself showing many sides of the city. Sumiko's open and easy-going attitude set a nice, friendly mood for the tour. Highly recommended!

A great way to see three of Kyoto’s major attractions in a relatively short amount of time. Our guide, Satomi M, was absolutely lovely. It felt more like being shown around by a longtime friend than being on an organised tour. She was incredibly knowledgeable and navigated the trains, buses and crowds with such ease and professionalism. We would never have managed to see and do so much on our own. A really enjoyable experience which we would happily recommend!

We had a wonderful tour with Akiko! She was so knowledgeable about Kyoto and the sights and so kind and fun to hang out with for the morning. She gave us some other great tips for the rest of our stay as well. We highly recommend booking the tour! It's an early morning, but definitely worth it to avoid some of the crowds at some of the most popular Kyoto sights.

We had such an enjoyable morning with Satomi! Visiting three different areas of Kyoto in one tour could have been difficult to navigate on our own with the combination of buses and trains, so having Satomi guide us made the day much easier and more enjoyable. She was active, friendly and easy to talk to throughout the tour. We ended up having some really interesting conversations about life, including ikigai, her time living in Illinois and California, and her experiences in Japan. It felt like we got to know our guide while also getting to see three major Kyoto destinations efficiently. A really fun and worthwhile morning!

We had the pleasure of meeting Satomi-san on our Kyoto walking tour today and couldn’t have asked for a better guide. She has such a bright and wonderful personality that makes getting up early worth it. Satomi-san was extremely knowledgeable about all of our stops, took excellent pictures for us, and knew all the fastest routes between stops. This tour with Satomi-san is a must to see the highlights of Kyoto while learning all of the history along the way. You won’t be disappointed!!

An excellent tour and an even better guide. Our guide Kaki was outstanding, super knowledgeable and super friendly. We enjoyed the many stops and his in-depth knowledge about both the places we visited in the history of Kyoto. He took tons of pictures and four of them all to us on the same day of the tour. Super enjoyable highly recommended.

We were very grateful for guidance in getting to each of these locations. It made the morning smooth and enjoyable. One less thing to worry about with someone to help us find the way.

Great experience. Tons of walking. Lots of history. Our guide Koichi was amazing. Tons of history. Learned our names in Japanese. Great tour. You will need a pasmo or suica card. Long awesome day

The earlier the better. You get to the sites before the crowds start coming. Our guide Toru was extremely knowledgeable and wonderful to be experiencing these sites with him. Toru knows all the sites well and explains the history and meaning. Beautiful tour with Toru.

This was a great tour. Our guide was lovely and very informative. It’s a bit long due to distance to travel between sites but plenty of opportunities to rest, get snacks, etc.

Wonderful experience, great guide. Going early was the best move, and we saw and learned so much! I highly recommend.

Tomoko was a wonderful guide. Very knowledgeable of Kyoto. She made the whole day very easy. We really enjoyed it.

Highlights of Kyoto in half a day, but without any hectic. Excellent guidance with lots of interesting information about the visited sights. We now even understand the difference between a temple and a shrine :-) Thanks to our fantastic guide Miho.

Very extensive morning tour. Have a large breakfast, as there is ample opportunity for walking/hiking stairs! We enjoyed getting to the sites early, so we weren’t caught up with too much crowding. Megumi was very knowledgeable and personable, and went out of her way to surprise us with accurate directions to our next adventure. Highly recommend!

Tomoko is a well informed tour guide and a very warm person. She gave us information throughout our tour that helped us appreciate what we were seeing. We could never have duplicated our experience using a book or audio guide. She also sent us photos and made some recommendations for other activities based on our conversations.

Our guide was so lovely and informative. We travelled to places easily on public transportation and managed to see a lot of the city this way.

Stunning and informative walking tour of shrines, temples, and pagodas in Kyoto, Japan. Our guide Ikki was phenomenal.

We were extremely lucky to have very sparse crowds at both Fushimi Inari and the Golden Pavilion - definitely worth getting up early! Akiko was delightful and added valuable insights that helped us get more out of the experience, including for our children. She also took lots of photos which was an absolute bonus. The whole family thoroughly enjoyed the experience and Akiko’s approach to the morning!

Our tour ended up just being the two of us and our guide, Akiko. I can’t stress enough how enjoyable it was to spend the morning with Akiko. She was the best tour guide of our entire 3-week trip to Asia, giving us a thorough tour of the main sightseeing spots of Kyoto and providing us with recommendations for the rest of our trip in Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Osaka. She showed us the best spots for photos, offered to take photos of us at each site, gave us time to do some quick shopping for souvenirs at each stop, and even dropped us off close to where we needed to go for our next tour! We are so lucky to have been able to work in such a small group with Akiko and hope everyone is as lucky as we were!

This was an amazing tour with an amazing guide! Megumi collected me promptly from the meeting spot with no issues! We left on time and saw every spot without rushing. She was so knowledgeable about every place and had so much knowledge to impart! I learned a great deal. It was also strategically planned so we avoided most of the crowds! She was happy to take pictures of us and good ones at that! I highly recommend this tour and especially Megumi as your guide! Thank you for the best tour and experience for our first time in Kyoto

This is an excellent way to see and learn about three of the most important sites in Kyoto. It is so much easier when you have a guide to lead you around the city. Our Guide Kaz did a wonderful job explaining about each site and leading us through Kyoto.

Akiko was an amazing tour guide. Very friendly and informative. Our tour exceeded expectations and we learned so much.

We had a great morning with Ken. He navigated all the trains and buses to each destination with ease. This is a fast paced tour but good for those with limited time. Ken was great at explaining Japanese traditions and he also took some nice photos of us at key spots. He even helped us to purchase our onward tickets for the next day. Great way to see three very popular locations in three opposite directions.

We had an excellent tour with Emi as guide.She was very knowledgeable and imparted plenty of information to us. The organization and timing of the tour was perfect and went without a hitch This was an excellent way to cover 3 iconic sites in a very efficient manner

Tomoko was very knowledgeable and kind. The early tour is the best way to do Kyoto, the crowds build quickly

We have taken tours in the past when visiting new countries and cities to get our bearings down and the walking tour with Kaz did not disappoint. He was extremely gracious and kind explaining the history about not only the sights we visited but also questions we had about the culture and random things we had questions about. We felt like we learned a lot and also had a great time exchanging jokes and observations with Kaz. We highly recommend the tour for anyone up for a smaller group experience!

Akiko was our tour guide. She was wonderful. She was knowledgeable and friendly, we learn a lot about Japanese history and culture.

We found Hiro to be very knowledgeable on Kyoto and its Buddhist and Shinto ceremonies. He guided us through out the half day to the different locations easily and nothing was too much trouble even helping us find a pharmacy. He is also an excellent photographer. I would recommend a private tour in Kyoto as there are so many tourists it was a much more pleasant experience.. Also going early the weather was cooler and the sites were a lot less crowded.

Lots of sites to see! Sumiko is an excellent tour guide! Bring lots of water and be prepared to learn a lot about the history of Japan

We had a great tour and covered a lot of ground in Kyoto. Our guide, Emiko, was absolutely lovely and we really enjoyed our time with her. She was knowledgeable, friendly, and very helpful. There is lots of walking but for those that don't have much time to spend in Kyoto, this is a great option! We would recommend!

We had a fantastic early bird tour with Akiko. Everything was perfectly organized and Akiko was very attentive to all our needs along the way. Highly recommended!

We had a wonderful time on this interesting and informative tour. Our tour guide was kind and knowledgeable.

Tomoko was wonderful! She explained everything so well and was very understanding and attentive. We have travelled a lot and she was one of the best guides we have had so far.

We had a private tour with Kaz who was just lovely! He told us all about the history of everything we were seeing and made lovely chit chat with all 4 of us (including the kids about Studio Ghibli films). He was a perfect host and also accommodated when we asked to switch the tour around a little. He was just wonderful and we thank him so much!

We had the best time! Kazuo was very informative and we would have struggled to try and navigate all the public transport needed to go to the major sites. He was extremely personable and a joy to spend the morning with. He also gave us many local recommendations which we appreciated. Highly recommend booking!

Sumiko-san gave us a typed out itinerary and we enjoyed every part. If you come to Japan in the summer bring a sun umbrella. And there’s lots of walking! Having a Suica card on the smartphone to pay for the local train, bus, and vending machines was so convenient! Sumiko-san was very knowledgeable and knew all the good photo spots. The tour was a great way to get a feel for Kyoto.

Mihu has been very informative about the places we visited. We were amazed of how beautiful Kyoto was. Its stress free for us since we were just following Mihu our guide on where to get the train and ride the bus and she was on the dot, we didnt have to wait long for our rides.

Akiko-san was amazing and so so friendly! It was my biggest dream to cisit Fushimi Inari and she had so much knowledge about it! Beating the crowds in the early hours was also great, thanks to that we could get nice photos. Much recommended!!

We had a great experience. Our guide was lovely and so informative. We went to several sites. We started early as things got progressively crowded as the morning moved on.

Toshi does a good job of providing an overview of the 3 sites included in this tour. We had our IC cards ready and charged up before we started. We are a family of 4 with 2 young adults- the pace was fast but good and we appreciated having a guide to figure out best routes between the locations which are spread out on opposite ends of Kyoto.

Perfect Kyoto tour! Sumiko (our tour guide) was perfect. She arrived with printed agendas, navigated the buses and subways, and had more Kyoto knowledge that we could have asked for. She answered every question. It pays to get up early for this tour - popular places were already getting packed - I can’t imagine what it would be like if we didn’t go early.

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!! Our guide, Akiko, was an absolute gem. She was so knowledgable about the different locations and very kind. Akiko was kind, knowledgable, and incredibly personable. She took photos of my husband and I in addition to the tour, so we had lots of adorable photos thanks to her. Each of the locations that we visited were amazing, and going so early in the day allows you to avoid many tourists overcrowding popular areas. I strongly recommend this particular tour and I would also suggest that you request Akiko if you can, she was amazing!

Even though it rained all day, our Early bird tour experience with Makoto-san was beyond our expectations. A day before the tour he reached out to introduce himself and shared pics of our meeting point in Kyoto Station. He also asked about our interests in Japan and pointed out the rain forecast. From the start, he made us feel at ease. Once we met he was so easy to talk to and helped us seamlessly navigate through the different stations to catch the subways and buses to get to our 3 different tour spots located throughout Kyoto. He made it look easy! He was so accommodating always asking if we needed to use the restrooms and making sure we were okay. He shared with us the background and significance of the Fushimi Inari shrine, the Kinkaku-ji temple, and the Arashiyama Bamboo forest which made our visits that much more interesting. We beat the crowds for the most part so that made it even better. He was also our personal photographer and knew the hot spots for photos worthy of Instagram lol. We loved the experience from start to finish and highly recommend it and Makoto-san.

fantastic trip around Kyoto with Makiko. She was an excellent guide, giving us information and background around all the sites and the locations, as well as being very friendly and open. Highly recommended

We spent a beautiful day out touring with Sumiko visiting the Fushimi Inari Tanisha shrine, Kinkskuji temple and the bamboo forrest. Sumiko was very knowledgeable and professional. Very proud to be providing us detailed information on Japanese history and culture. Thank you Sumiko for a great day!

This was a great way to experience beautiful local sites and learn about the history and ask questions. We got much more out of this than if we were doing a self-guided tour. Our guide Akiko was very knowledgeable and great with our young kids.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Akiko who helped us navigate our way to several of our top sites we wished to see while in Kyoto. There’s no way we could have seen as much as we did in the time that we had without her. She was also very knowledgeable and kind. Make sure to bring good walking shoes!

This was a fabulous guided tour. Akiko was our guide and she was just lovely. She took the time to ask us questions but also give us lots of great info about Japan so we could understand and appreciate the sites we were visiting. Well worth it as a way to get acquainted with the beautiful city that is Kyoto!

Three absolute highlights, perfectly organized, excellent (!!) guide (Naoko). You should definitely visit Inari Shrine in the early morning!