Kyoto Private Tour: Local's Secrets & Hidden Gems Revealed

We toured Kyoto with Milo. Almost immediately after booking, we received a questionnaire about our interests. Based on that, Milo contacted us with an itinerary for our approval. I shared my concerns over being shoulder to shoulder the entire day and he assured me that the itinerary would allow us to get the maximum experience with limited crowds. I was skeptical but that is exactly what we got. We enjoyed some quiet walks out in nature, say the Silver Temple, walked through the Geisha areas and went through the Tori gates. We also had lunch in a little tucked away spot run by an older couple that offer delicious food at reasonable prices. Then he said goodbye to us at a rooftop bar near our hotel to watch the sunset. Before we even got back yo our hotel, he had sent us links to other places to try and the most efficient way to group them. It was the perfect introduction to Kyoto.

Eiko was a wonderful guide. She was attentive to our wishes and needs, and was very knowledgeable about the sites we visited. She was also helpful in recommending additional sites to visit, and in getting an Uber. Her English was also very good.

Hiro was an enthusiastic, knowledgeable and accommodating guide. We appreciated his thoughtfulness in providing us with a customized tour and felt we got to see interesting places that we would not have found on our own. We really enjoyed visiting the Shogun wife’s house for Matcha tea and exploring the art gallery. We highly recommend a tour with Hiro!

Great private tour. Our guide, Alex, was a phenomenal host. We saw multiple sites and our guide was very knowledgeable.

Kyoto is a fabulous, historic and traditional Japanese city, and our guide Mia made everything “come alive”. We had very limited time in the city, and had to reschedule our tour in Kyoto due to an incoming typhoon changing the entire itinerary of the cruise we were travelling on, such that we would arrive in Kyoto at different times on a different day. Mia had been assigned to be our guide on our initially booked tour, and had been very proactive in communicating with us and subsequently designing a tour to meet with our initial requests. Then, when our cruise itinerary was changed at the last minute, and despite the fact that we had surpassed the deadline for cancellation or refund, City Unscripted (the tour company) went out of their way to do all they could to reschedule our tour and accommodate us, as we were not entitled to a refund. (Much appreciated, and above and beyond agreed T&C’s 👏🏻👍🏻). Fortunately for us, Mia was reassigned to be our guide, and again designed a new bespoke tour for us to avoid duplication from an e-bike tour we had earlier in the day, and to include other sights and information we asked for elsewhere in the city. She rearranged our meeting point to be convenient for us after our bike tour, and also geographically more sensible to allow for a route to enable us to fit in as much as possible (as per our requests) in the available time. Mia was absolutely superb : really enthusiastic, passionate, warm, bubbly with a huge depth of knowledge (I believe she was just about to graduate in a degree related to Japanese culture / History / Tourism), and as a tourist, what she didn’t know wasn’t worth knowing ! We met at and toured Nijo-Jo Castle, went onto Fushimi Inari Taishi shrine, amongst other places, but my wife’s primary desire was to explore the Gion district and to learn about Geisha and Maiko with the hope of seeing one. We were not disappointed ! A truly brilliant tour, with a fabulous guide on our penultimate sightseeing day in wonderful Japan. Thank-you Mia (& City Unscripted) for everything ! Cheers, Dave & Alison xx

Our guide was Emi, she was great. She taught us history, culture, how to use the trains and plenty more. Nothing was too much trouble

Micheal was very responsive right from the start with suggestions of how to spend our time. He met us on time and we covered a lot of ground during our day together. He provided historical information along with personal insights. And lots of recommendations for the remainder of our time in Kyoto. Saw so much and it was a great overview and orientation to the city.

Our guide was Henry.... without a doubt my favorite guide I have ever had and I have travelled extensively ... so knowledgeable /witty/ and took us to some fabulous and not "touristy" sites. I would go again if he was the guide!!!

I was looking for insights into Japanese culture, customs and history beyond the level provided by standard off-the-shelves travel guides. Cici very competently (and patiently) led me through 1.000 years of Kyoto history and - even more important to me - gave me valuable insights into the Japanese perspective on current and past events.

Miki was an amazing guide who gave me lots of background and history on all the sites we checked out. She also had wonderful recommendations on where to eat and even took photos of me as we were walking around for me to have later on. Would totally book with her again!