Published on Nov, 2019
My husband and I traveled to Kyoto for our anniversary. We’re not familiar with the area, so we reached out to American Express concierge to look for tours for us, and this was one of the recommendations. We booked directly through AMEX, and it turned out to be quite affordable!
Tour guide - We met Ryo (our tour guide) at the Kyoto tower, then started from there. As a tour guide, Ryo was very friendly and engaging, obviously a veteran of providing tours. She was incredibly knowledgeable and has lived in Kyoto for quite some time. I was hesitant about doing tours like this, especially given I was jet lagged.. I found Ryo to have strong EQ (emotional quotient) and was able to read my energy and adapt herself to make me feel comfortable. I travel a lot and have been on TONS of tours, and this was one of the best tour guides I’ve had. I found her approach to be very adaptable, welcoming and filled with both historic and current cultural knowledge. I would’ve immediately booked her other tour, but I didn’t feel like biking all around the city lol...
The tour itself - we visited a number of different places, but probably spent the most time at a massive Shinto shrine on a beautiful mountain, and in the Gion district. Both sites turned out to be my favorites that we visited in Kyoto, and we ended up going back to Gion quite a bit after. We learned a lot about the history of Kyoto, the culture there, the establishment of the city, and a lot of both Buddhist and Shinto religions. After the touring, she took us to a small restaurant to eat very traditional Japanese food (vs the newer touristy restaurants of today). That was some of the best food we had on our trip. Overall, the tour was the perfect amount of time, and there was something kind of whimsical about seeing the old city at night.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this tour to any small groups traveling to Kyoto. There were only two of us in the tour group, but I could easily see her expending the amount of people to up to 10-12 while still keeping a good amount of the personalization we experienced. We’ll definitely be reaching out to her to do whatever other tours she has when we come back! :)
