Kyoto Private & Personalized Full-day Tour With A Local Guide

We had a full day private guided walking tour of East Kyoto. Our guide Ada was amazing. Her intimate knowledge of all of the history of Kyoto its emperial times, shrines, temples and Pagodas was so in depth, it made for the most fascinating day. She also took us to a local Ramen house and the food was out of this world. When in Kyoto be sure to book and ask for ADA . Thank you City Unscripted and ADA. You gave us life long memories,

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.

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.

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.

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.

I had Alex as my tour guide and he was very knowledgeable and very friendly. Five stars all around!!

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!

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!

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.

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.

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!

We had an amazing experience with Eko, who took us around Kyoto for two days. He is very knowledgeable and very good at navigating public transportation. We were able to see many sights very efficiently. Eko was very thoughtful, patient and attentive to every request we had.

Great day and tour with Oussama! Oussama contacted me a few days ahead of schedule to organise the tour to maximise time so I could enjoy Kyoto !!! Great guide who suited my tempo and lead to a fantastic day! Also helped me takd tons of photos!!!

Vanessa was fantastic. Highly recommend a private tour. Custom itinerary was well thought out. Vanessa shared valuable information and brought meaning to the gardens and temples. We look forward to returning and booking Vanessa again. Thanks !

I had a most memorable day with Taibi! It didn't feel as if I was with a guide. I felt like I had known him all my life. He's Moroccan, but has lived in Japan for over 20 years so had extensive knowledge of Kyoto. He took me to the places where the locals hang out and made sure that I didn't feel like a tourist. Hands down the best experience I've had and I travel quite frequently. I legit didn't want to leave. Saw so much of Kyoto in 8 hours and now I'm planning my next trip back! 🙌🏾

Excellent walking and public transport tour Helped us find spots we didn’t even know existed. Our guide was most informative about history and also everyday life in Japan.

Juraj (pronounced “your I”) was an absolutely amazing tour guide. He catered the tour to the types of sites we wanted to see and was so knowledgeable about the sites, the history, and the legends. We had ample time at each location and learned so much about the area. In addition to the tour highlights, he showed us little local places to eat, to shop, and to explore. At day’s end, he recommended a fantastic local hot pot restaurant, which was both delicious and reasonable. Definitely ask for Juraj on your next tour of Kyoto, Tokyo, or Osaka. In addition to being a great guide, he is also a really nice and interesting person, which made the day fly by.

Eko was outstanding! Kind, friendly, knowledgeable, and completely accommodating to our wish list of sites to see. Our first personal tour experience, and we will do nothing else in the future.

We enjoyed very much our full - day in Kyoto, Japan, with Tanya. She is very knowledgable and responsive. Thank you, Tanya.

We asked Taibi to cover as much ground as possible in the day and he met the brief really well. A great immersion into Kyoto. Thanks Taibi for a great day

Eko tailored an itinerary that quite closely matched with what we wanted to see. He was great at sharing his knowledge of Kyoto with historical and cultural insights. The route that he planned was empathetic to our specific needs. Everything was great and he is, most importantly, a honest and cool gent. The true rating would be a 3.5. It was solidly good. For it to be a true '4 - Very good', there would have to be a greater level of awareness as to how we were feeling. Given we come from and are more accustomed to hot weather places, there could have been even more awareness and check-in to see how we were feeling and whether the amount of outdoor walking was acceptable. Also, I wished Eko could have been even more gracious in sharing even more knowledge by going even deeper into the cultural and explain more of the daily lifestyle elements & nuances. This was largely missed and it was through my asking that knowledge was revealed. I would recommend Eko. A good guy to get to know. But, there are areas where the experience can be enhanced.

It was great to have a custom tour of Tokyo. Our guide was Justus. He's a nice guy. I don't think he speaks a lot of Japanese, but he knew a lot about the history of Kyoto. One of the things that was not good is the timing of our tour was not correct so we didn't get to see the imperial palace and some other sights. That was a bit disappointing, but overall was a good tour.

Justus was a great guide, knowledgeable and insightful on historical and cultural details. We used taxis to get round, not cheap but we saw a lot more of the city.

We had a great day in Kyoto with Justus, our personal guide. Over an early coffee, Justus talked us through the various options. We wanted a fairly relaxed day without rushing round as many sites as possible. The trail through Arashiyama bamboo forest and along the river,followed by some street food for lunch was a highlight for us. Justus was excellent company throughout.

We took the 8 hour tour with a kind guide who knew all about getting around by bus, train and feet and showed us some spectacular temples and gardens. Thank you Georgia.

Juraj brought Kyoto to life! He knew so much about the history, culture and day-to-day life. He took us to a local restaurant, in which we loved the food, environment and culture. Exactly what we wanted to experience, and never would have on our own.His English was good, never a barrier to our experience. And he was tremendous help in our quest to experience Geisha/Maiko. We highly recommend Juraj and City Unscripted.

We took two tours with City Unscripted while in Japan, and had similar experiences on both. Two nice guides who led us in interesting tours - but it felt more like we were hanging out with a friend of a friend who happened to live there rather than having a professional tour guide show us things we could not find on our own. Interestingly, neither guide was actually Japanese - they were both living in Japan and it seemed like this was their side hustle to make a little extra money, or perhaps they could not find a full time job in Japan. Which is fine, but on both trips I ended up thinking that we could have had a very similar experience on our own. If you are traveling alone, and/or need some extra guidance during your trip, I am sure you will have a nice day out with one of the City Unscripted guides. However, if you want a truly knowledgeable Japanese guide who will show you things you would not find on your own, I would recommend Tours By Locals - we had a much more customized, personalized, truly local experience with them.

Thanks for a good day out Tanya! I Would recommend a private day trip with a guide to anyone visiting Kyoto for a short time. This is a great way to see various sites that you may be interested in seeing.

When I book this private tour, my confirmation indicated that my tour guide would meet me at my hotel..However, the guide called me from Japan and indicated that he would require payment for his transportation to my hotel...I explained that my confirmation indicated that it was included in my price. The tour guide said he would have City Unscripted reach out to me about this. I waited 3 days and never heard back from them and I had to board the plane to Japan and the tour was scheduled for the next day. Well, the tour guide did show up to my hotel the next morning, put required me to pay his transportation fees BEFORE the tour would begin. (I felt bullied and trapped). He also expected me to pay his entire day on transportation and lunch....which I did and included train and bus day passes..This was NOT indicated on the "what is included or NOT included" and really put my in a financially stressed position...Since I had only arrived late the night before, I only carried a small amount of Yen ($100 US dollars worth) with me..This, then, was spent on transportation fees for him that I was not expecting, did not allow for me to buy any lunch for myself. Luckily he was not a big eater and ate from the street food. My guide was nice, but his english dialect was hard for me to understand. Though he talked alot-(mostly about western girls) he shared very little about the history, culture or information about the places and temples visited. So... I feel this tour would be good if you are only expecting to get from one place to another.

Our guide, Jenny Omura, showed us many big name places, but also the smaller things and some great restaurants! I highly reccomend her for the Kyoto area!

If you want a personalized tour catered to you..and not be part of a group tour....This is the way to go!! My tour guide, Till was absolutely amazing.. He was personable and really spent the time to know what I wanted before the tour so he can plan accordingly. We went to so many hidden gems it was unreal (away from all the touristy places). I won't mention it as the surprise is part of the experience. I wish I had one more day or one more night with Till.in Kyoto..as he gave me an unforgettable experience. definitely helped make Kyoto my favorite stop on my 2 week Japan trip Thanks Till!!