Great trip to beautiful Kyoto - Our fabulous guide Kalid met us at the port and did an excellent job of guiding us through the train journey to Kyoto. It was our first time using the rail system and we were very happy that he was there to help us. We went to the top of Kyoto station to get a great view of the city. We were amazed at all the shops and restaurants tucked into the station. The best part of the day was our visit t the zen garden and bamboo forest. After the forest we had a nice walk down to the river where we relaxed with a snack. Another walk to the beautiful “kimono forest” near the old railway. I enjoyed seeing the dragon ball pond. Our time with Kalid was far too short but it was a great day. Thank you Kalid!

GREAT DAY IN KYOTO WITH OUR PROFESSIONAL GUIDE, SHU - We had a very limited time in the cruise port of Osaka. But we really wanted to see Gion section of Kyoto. Although very seasoned world travelers we realized an experienced professional guide was needed. We were very, very lucky to have Shu, a resident of Kyoto, as our guide! He picked us at the Osaka cruise port and arranged our travel to Kyoto. Enroute he presented options of how we could spend our limited time. We choose to concentrate on the Gion district, famous the Geshia. After the 1.3 hour travel to Kyoto Shu had the whole day planned out for us and we arrived prepared to make the most of our day. The highlights that Shu guided us to were prefect for an overview of Gion. Shu's in depth knowledge of Kyoto was the key. In addition he was very personable and considerate of our energy limitations (this was the 27 day of an 34 day cruise; 5 counties and 16 ports). Shu made sure we were safe in all high traffic/crowd situations. The conversations we had Shu during our visit, breathe life into the Japanese culture and enhanced our day. To add to our memories once home, he took over 30 excellent pictures of my wife and myself at the high points of our day and email them to us. We made the most of our day in Gion and then Shu traveled with us back to the ship in Osaka with 30 minutes to spare before the ship's departure. Perfect timing. My wife and I travel the world and this was our sixth time in Asia. However, Shu's professionalism, knowledge and caring made it the very best personal guided tour we have taken. Thank you Shu! If you are looking for a personal tour around Kyoto, Shu is your man.

Don't miss this trip - It was a fantastic trip. Kyoto and the surrounding areas were stunning. Our tour guide, Khalid, set up a great itinerary for us, and we had a great day out.

Trip to kyoto - I enjoyed seeing all the sights. We were able to see so much in a short amount of time. Out guide was very good about making sure we saw as much as possible and also getting us back to the ship on time.

We enjoyed touring the... - We enjoyed touring the Fushimi Inari shrine, the Nijo Castle and, on a modern note, the beautifully done train station. The best part of visiting Kyoto however was simply walking around the old town, having a casual local lunch and engaging in good and informative conversation with our guide, Loys Le Goff. We strongly recommend him to anyone wanting to have the benefit of a well organized, intelligent and caring guide when visiting Kyoto.

Not the best tour! - We are a group of 4 friends over 70 years and in hind site should have booked a private tour with a van. We traveled from Osaka to Kyoto by train & metro changing about 4 times on route! We only visited 2 area's, Arashiyama & Bamboo Grove & also Gion as we had also booked ourselves tea with a Geisha ( which was a great insight ). We traveled back again by train & metro, all travelling was at our own cost at which we were quite amazed as other tours we did we didn't have to pay for petrol???? Our guide Jonathan left us in between trains on way back and unfortunately we got off at last stop instead of one before and had a taxi fare back to cruise port!! We enjoyed what we did but it didn't meet our expectations considering the cost of the tour per person. We used Viator for our day tours in Japan & Busan as they were highly recommended but on this occasion we were left disappointed.