Come early morning to escape the crowds and enjoy an opportunity to truly soak in the scenic sites of the Bamboo Forest and Arashiyama. On this tour you will explore the beauty of bamboo, the tranquility of temples and some of the best scenic panoramas Kyoto has to offer without all the people. This tour includes several of the top visited destinations of Arashiyama including the world famous bamboo forest, the Togetsukyo Bridge, the gardens of the Unesco World Heritage Tenryuji Zen Temple as well as several of our own local favorite secret spots.
Posted By : megan44442020
Ray was a great guide and made great recommendations for food and activities to do in Kyoto. He also took lots of pictures that he shared with the group!
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Posted On : 2024-06-25 01:44:04 
Posted By : ajal2017
We had a wonderful morning with Ray as our guide. His knowledge of the area and willingness to answer all our questions was exceptional. Ray made sure we were safe in the traffic, with many enjoyable stops it was not to strenuous making the morning one of our best tours we did in Japan.
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Posted On : 2024-06-23 07:09:50
Posted By : lichuan_e
We had a good time with Ray. Beautiful countryside ride with stop at peaceful shine and prayer calligraphy tracing was unexpected bonus. Although we enjoyed Arashiyama, the bamboo forest itself was a bit underwhelming. Tenryu-ji zen temple gardens were beautiful, visit to small shrine and lily pond idlyllic. Winding through the quiet neighborhood and rice fields were wonderful and Ray, a long time resident of Japan though originally from the US was friendly and knowledgeable about Japanese culture and the area. Afterwords we had lunch at one places he suggested, enjoyed a bit of shopping, and couldn't resist picking up a creme brulee donut at the Donut Stand... very good!
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Posted On : 2024-06-21 00:58:06 
Posted By : 702wadeo
This was a throughly enjoyable experience. Everyone in our group (teenagers included) really enjoyed it. The personal touch of this tour helped to make what we were seeing more meaningful and interesting.
I would recommend it to anyone visiting Kyoto.
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Posted On : 2024-06-15 22:52:17
Posted By : jonnamama
My daughter and I had a wonderful experience on the Arashiyama morning bike tour today. The guides were very helpful and shared great information with us at the sites we visited. We loved that we saw less-crowded temples that were lovely and very interesting... ones we likely wouldn't have known about otherwise. We love bike tours when we travel and highly recommend Kyoto Bike Tour! It was the highlight of our visit to Kyoto!
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Posted On : 2024-06-14 06:47:21
Posted By : Sanjeev_P
We had this tour booked for months and the whole family was looking forward to it. Despite 2 weather forecasts the day before on 2 different weather apps clearly showing no rain in the morning (8-noon) the tour was inexplicably cancelled last minute because of “rain in the morning”. It only rained in the late afternoon. We toured the bamboo forest ourselves in the sunshine the following morning.
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Posted On : 2024-06-10 20:57:41
Posted By : caroljne
Fantastic and so much fun, informative - best tour we did in Kyoto - very professional and Ray knew so much about Japanese history and Kyoto. Made great memories
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Posted On : 2024-06-10 08:29:25
Posted By : mattfN6935FY
This was the fourth and final tour my wife and I went on in Japan and we were skeptical because two of the other tours seemed sort of unnecessary. On the contrary, this tour was both fun and informative from beginning to end. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and clearly explained the importance of everything we saw. We greatly appreciated that, even though it was not a private tour (there were 8 people in total), it never felt like it was taking longer than it had to. Some of our other tours had us feeling like we were wasting our time at the whim of a tour guide who didn’t have much to add to our experience. This tour is highly recommended!!!
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Posted On : 2024-06-10 00:08:57
Posted By : J317SLfrankf
Had a great tour with Ray. He really knows the area and shared great insight to the numerous stops we made. The bikes were very nice and well maintained.
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Posted On : 2024-06-03 17:00:32
Posted By : lancejw79
Had an amazing morning ride with Ray and Rob!! The bikes are new and function perfectly. Our bikes had been set out according to size for the riders prior to us arriving and the guides took time to size them exactly for everyone prior to our ride.
Both of our guides, Ray and Rob, are originally from America but have spent decades in Japan and speak fluently. Throughout the tour they were able to answer questions throughly and with an understanding of the Japanese culture.
We started in the Bamboo Forest and Sogenchi Teien temple. We continued to the Mikami Shrine. Ray did a fantastic job differentiating between Shinto and Buddhism and how each is used within Japanese culture.
Next, we stretched the legs, heading up to Atago-Jinja Shrine (mostly a restaurant!) and enjoyed the views of the west side of Kyoto.
Then, off to some neighboring rice paddies where we could see how these fields are laid out and the work the farmers provide.
Finally; we stopped at a wonderful Buddhist temple in the Saga district. Here we were lucky enough to interact with some local high schoolers who were on a field trip.
We then headed down the street to the banks of the Katsura River and back to our meet-up spot.
The morning was great. Our kids (9 and 13) had no issues keeping up. My wife and I, as well as the kids, had great conversations with Ray and Rob. Their experiences here in Japan are so well expressed in their words and stories.
I cannot recommend this tour more. It is well thought out and the physical exertion was only moderate. We learned so much and saw even more. Would suggest this tour to anyone headed to Kyoto!!!
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Posted On : 2024-05-31 18:27:10
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