Day Trip by Bus to Kyoto and Nara from Osaka/Kyoto

We use Viator a lot with my family, however this was the most disappointing tour in the last 6 years. It was very badly organised and we were initially put on the bus with a Chinese speaking tour guide and we do not understand a word of Chinese! I had to insist to be changed to an English bus and so happened another group did not arrive, we managed to swap buses. However the sights were amazing and we had lots of fun with the deers at Nara Park.

Nara and Kyoto are beautiful. Excellent tour guide, and just the right amount of stopping at each location. A bit chaotic at first trying to figure out which bus you go to at the hotel, but it was sorted then everything worked out.

The good: The locations are good to visit. The coach is fairly peaceful and comfortable (tho there are quite frequent announcements about next visit etc) We left, returned on time The tour guides tried hard to be helpful - in particular Emily was very active both helping us in English and also helping others in Japanese and Chinese at the same time so thank you very much. The OK: There is limited explanation / historical background given. But to be honest you can also read inscriptions at the locations visited or use Wikipedia. Given it's a large group with multiple languages needed, I think this is not surprising. The time available at the different locations is not that much - this is just a result of the schedule and travel time needed. At the bamboo forest in particular, move quickly if you want to see things and also have time for food. The not so good: The company (NOT the fault of the tour guides) provides pretty useless written materials. For example: The pickup point described as 'Namba OCAT' Come on guys, this is a huge building with multiple floors. A bit of extra information here is really easy to do and really helpful. There is a 'personalised' itinerary given to every person (thank you) but it actually does not include a lot of the information. For example, your time for lunch if you selected the buffet. Why provide each person with an itinerary, but leave off half the information and force the poor tour guides to have to explain all this extra stuff? The map provided of the bamboo forest area is utterly useless - there is limited time to walk around the bamboo forest and temple area, yet the company provides a map which shows attractions which are several miles away - while the local area (how to get to the bamboo forest) is completely unclear. Better off with google maps but of course because they provide the map, probably a lot of people try to use it. So to the company: please do consider the written material you provide, particularly given that people arrive at the tour needing translation into different languages so it's really helpful if the written materials are really clear and detailed.

Not what I thought a tour would be. Booking - Viator indicated the tour operator was Shinki Tours. The tour bus said Limon, the guide had a coat that said Limon. How was I supposed to know that they were the same? I was waiting outside waiting and finally decided to see if that person was with the tour. Don't they have a list of people who are on the tour? It was almost an hour bus ride to Kyoto. Not very much was said between Osaka and Kyoto. It would have been nice if there was more talking - where we were, significance of the area, what we were going to see, cultural aspects, etc. Once we got to Kyoto we were led to the bamboo forest, and for those of us who booked lunch, told what time to meet back at the restaurant. Which was not a lot of walk around time. After lunch, we went to Kinkakuji Temple. Again, drop you off, meet back at the bus. Oh and don't be late or we will leave without you. We will wait 5 minutes. Well no, we waited longer than that and the guide was upset. I don't understand why they were upset. The guide made the rest of the tour wait for these latecomers. Instead, we should have left without them. Then the guide would not be upset and the rest of the tour would not wait. We were all amply warned about being on time and the consequences. They were late because they were buying snacks and souvenirs. Then on to Nara. Same thing, drop off and you're on your own. Also, the your had to be repeated in English, Japanese and Chinese. Next time, I'd look for a tour that had less translations.

Had a pleasant day trip in Kyoto & Nara..., though w/ limited time in Arashima area .., guides were accommodating and nice., overall it was a nice but brief experience! Worth our time!

Good trip..goid food..we had a great time i sh Ed hve longer time to explire more of the site..nice tour guide

I enjoyed the trip. Our tour guide jad good wnglish and everything moved nicely on time. The instructions for where to meet for lunch were very unclear but other than that it was good.

This tour was great as so was the tour guide! we got to see the golden temple, and bamboo forest and the bowing deer, a little bit of everything in one day so it was well worth it if you are limited on time !!

My family and my brother in law , had a very wonderful time with the tour . A very exciting views of Kyoto were seen .

Nice 1-day tour, can see what we expect. Eventhough this is a combination tour collecting from yesterday due to Typhoon, Tour guides were well organised for several groups of tours in the same bus. Reasonable price.