Tokyo

1-Day Kyoto Rail Tour by Bullet Train from Tokyo

Tokyo, Japan
Likely to Sell Out

From $419.22

Select Date and Travelers

up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)

  • 12 hours
  • Mobile ticket
  • Offered in: English

Overview

See the highlights of Kyoto on a full-day tour from Tokyo. Learn about the history of the region from your guide as you visit top attractions including Fushimi Inari Taisha, Sanjusangen-do Hall, and Kiyomizu-dera Temple. Enjoy a delicious lunch in Kyoto, and take a round-trip ride on the super-speed bullet train.
  • Visit Sanjusangen-do Hall, Fushimi Inari Taisha, and Kiyomizu-dera Temple on an afternoon tour
  • Get great views over Kyoto from a hilltop temple
  • Have your choice of standard or first-class bullet train ticket

What's Included

  • Lunch
  • Afternoon sightseeing tour of Kyoto
  • National Government Licensed English Guide Interpreter
  • Round trip bullet train fare between Tokyo and Kyoto
  • Gratuities
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off
  • No Free Wi-Fi access
  • Drinks

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting point

  • 2-chōme-7-2 Marunouchi, Chiyoda City, Tokyo 100-0005, Japan

    Please meet at Tokyo Station Marunouchi South Exit Tokyo City i on the 1st basement floor of the KITTE building by 9:20 a.m. The meeting location is on the 1st basement floor, please be careful not to confuse this with the 1st floor. URL: https://en.tokyocity-i.jp/about/access/

Start time

09:20 AM

End point

  • Tokyo Station
    1 Chome-9 Marunouchi, Chiyoda City, Tokyo 100-0005, Japan

    Approximate arrival time: 8:30pm-9:30pm

What To Expect

Catch the morning bullet train (Shinkansen) to Kyoto. As you look out of the train window on a clear day, catch sight of revered Mt Fuji. After the approximately 2-hour journey, arrive at mid-day to Kyoto Station where your local guide welcomes you.

Upon arrival enjoy a Western-style lunch in an elegant hotel restaurant. Then, travel on foot to the nearby tour operator desk before beginning your comprehensive city tour. Travel by comfortable coach to the spectacular Fushimi Inari Taisha, located at the base of Mt Inari. Discover the head shrine to the god Inari and marvel at its numerous shrine gates.

Take a moment of quiet reflection within the temple and see the colossal size of the Thousand-Armed Kannon, an altar flanked by more than a 1,000 life-size statues dedicated the Buddhist deities. Afterward, visit Kiyomizu-dera Temple and hear the story behind the temple's construction from your guide.

After your city tour, return to the station for the bullet train back to Tokyo.

Fushimi Inari-taisha Shrine

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Sanjusangendo Temple

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

Kiyomizu-dera Temple

1 hour 10 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

Additional Info

  • Confirmation will be received within 48 hours of booking, subject to availability
  • Infants must sit on laps
  • Not wheelchair accessible
  • Near public transportation
  • No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
  • Travelers should have a moderate physical fitness level
  • If the tour is canceled, customers will be notified by the conducting company or their travel agent.
  • This is a special tour for international visitors. Please understand that residents of Japan cannot make bookings for this tour.
  • Participants will walk from the parking lot to Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine (about 15 min one-way). Thank you for your understanding.
  • The order of activities and arrival times may differ depending on road conditions and congestion at destinations.
  • Seats may not be designated.
  • Lunch will be a semi buffet. Only the main dish may be changed to a vegetarian dish. (Same-day changes are not allowed. )
  • It will not be possible to bring large luggage whose total height, width, and length exceeds 160 cm onto Shinkansen. If bringing large luggage, please make use of a delivery service on your own.
  • This tour/activity will have a maximum of 40 travelers

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

  • For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
  • If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
  • Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
  • Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.

Traveler Photos

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Featured review
GJ_H
We booked this trip to see more of old Japan to get a contrast with Tokyo and of course to experience a bullet train. We really enjoyed both parts and had a nice lunch as well. All of the tour guides looked after us very well so everything was worry free.

Reviews

4.0
349 reviews
Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews
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0
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Reviews by Viator travelers.
Showing 1-10 of 349 reviews
Bad tour company
Doodnauth_N, Apr 2024
I did not get tyo go on this trip as the location of the tourist company was hard to locate. I would not reccomend this one unless you can speak Japanese. The company and Viator is reluctant to give me a refund.
Seeing Kyoto. Traffic was...
Pam, Apr 2024
Seeing Kyoto. Traffic was horrible though. Would have liked starting earlier so we weren’t at the last shrine at 5pm.
Short and Sweet time in Kyoto
Sandrine_A, Apr 2024
This day trip to Kyoto was great! KC our tour guide was very knowledgeable, funny and energetic; exactly what we needed for the heavy touristy areas. The Fushimi Inari Shrine was beautiful to see but we only had 10 mins to take pictures at the start of the Orange gates and then we headed back to the bus (wish we had more time here). We then went to the Sanjusangendo Temple where we learned a lot about Buddhism and archery; we were not allowed to take pictures here but it was a great experience. Our last stop was the most popular, Kiyomizu, a beautiful temple on a hill overlooking the city of Kyoto. The views from the too were amazing! We had about 40 mins at this stop which was also not enough. There are awesome souvenir shops all the way up to the temple. Kyoto should definitely not be done in a day but if you are pinched for time like I was, this tour does a great job of taking you to the highlights and history and it was fun! I highly recommend our tour guide, KC! He was great!
1 day temple rush
Gary_H, Apr 2024
A rushed day full of waiting was a bit disappointing. Was looking forward to an authentic lunch and was simply in a hotel at the station, but it was good food but not authentic. Might be better to stay in Kyoto and not do it in 1 day.
Can't fault the operator just a very busy time and stopping points
Robert_F, Apr 2024
Overall I am glad we did this. Had I known more I would have skipped this and just did the Tokyo Countryside private tour we did the next day. The Tori gates were nice and the temples were beautiful, but all three stops were SO busy with loads and loads of people. Lunch was really good too. we were greeted at the pick up location and guided to the bullet train departure platform and met on the other side as we exited tge train. Momo our Kyoto guide was great with great knowledge of the area and her English was good. Howevet, if you want a better experience in Kyoto plan at least two days and explore other temple sites or better still, if you are in Tokyo do yourself a favor and save yourself a 5 hours of riding on a train and book "Tokyo Countryside private tour" with Jeremy as we had epic scenic views, two 1300+ year old two beautiful temples, ( one was the taming of the dragon temple) no people (really there might have been 12 people at either temple in total) and a wonderful giant statue/burial site. These were truly wonderful sites. Then we were treated to a excellent lunch that juxtaposed excellent brick oven pizza served in a traditional Japanese setting with tano mats and cushions overlooking the quaint Japanese garden (ability to sit outside in garden available and Jeremy will tailor lunch to your request in the booking if you prefer only a Japanese experience including traditional Japanese food just mention it). He is an awesome guide full of knowledge with excellent english.
Response from Host, Apr 2024
Thank you for sharing your detailed feedback regarding your recent tour with us. We're delighted to hear that you found value in the experience, and that you appreciated the beauty of the temples and the Tori gates. We're also pleased to hear that you enjoyed the lunch and that you found our guide Momo knowledgeable and helpful. We understand that the crowds at popular tourist spots can sometimes be overwhelming. Kyoto, being a city rich in culture and history, tends to attract many visitors, especially during peak seasons. We appreciate your patience and understanding in this regard. We take note of your suggestion about spending more time in Kyoto to explore other temple sites. We agree that spending more time in a place allows for a more immersive experience, and we'll certainly consider this feedback in designing our future tours. Your feedback is invaluable to us as we strive to improve our services and offerings. Thank you once again for choosing JTB Sunrise Tours, and we look forward to serving you again in the future.
Details
damon_j, Apr 2024
Unfortunately the rain affected our experience of the tour. Meeting place was clear, getting to the bus was fine, and the lunch was actually good. Shinkansan ride to and from was awesome, and our escort/ guides were great also. I liked our tour guide, Nobu (I don't quite remember his name), but his English was a struggle to understand. I wish we had more detailed information of the sites we were visiting.
Interesting and well managed tour
Elmira_E, Apr 2024
Guide was positive and told us many interesting historical and cultural things about temples that we visited. General information about culture of Kyoto also was provided.
Rushed and Crowded
Runbir_S, Mar 2024
Too rushed. No time to enjoy Kyoto. The guides were playing tag team - passing us from one to another. The last stop was so crowded that we could hardly walk up to the temple. The timing was so tight that we had to leave the other people from the group staying at Kyoto and run down to catch a taxi to the train station.
Only half day, not one full day!
ionel_r, Mar 2024
I start my review with a correction, its half day in Kyoto, only 3 sites to visit. A nice experience with bullet train, all the guides (too many: tokyo central station, kyoto station, a guide for the 3 sotes and a guide for kyoto station) were good, profesional, nothing to complain. Lunch was good also. But the prise is a little bit too high for what its offer you.
Terrible
Ximena_Q, Mar 2024
The budist temple we went to see was closed very disappointed waisted a lot of money and time to go for it to be closed
KC travel master
Svetlana_H, Jan 2024
KC the travel guide from Sunrise Tours is the best, very funny and made our trip very enjoyable, our travel from Tokyo to Kyoto was very well organized, would highly recommend
Good tour but no Golden Pagoda
mjlaw, Oct 2023
Tour was well handled but we were very disappointed that the Golden Pagoda, which was our main objective in signing up for the tour. Only 2 of the 3 places to be visited were mentioned in the advance info. The third place was only revealed in the paper given to us on the day of with train tickets. That said tour guide Jun was very good and the staff took us by taxi to the Kyoto train station when it became apparent the bus would not get us to the station in time to catch our train back to Tokyo.
Kyoto Day tour
Krzysztof_B, Mar 2020
The pick ups and drop offs were ok but the tour was way too rushed without significant time for pictures or visiting. Barely had any free time and returned to train station way too soon with too much time to spare.
Not good
DANILO_C, Mar 2020
We bought 8 train tickets in first class and for the return they only have us 7 tickets , the guide told us to buy the missing ticket that they will refund afterwards. Now they said we lost it and the wouldn’t refund it. Also they make walk long distances to take the bus and we’re all stressed about the time , one person approaches while we were eating and told us we can’t finish the meal because we have to take the bus that was far away from the restaurant. If you can go by your own for the day in Kyoto it will be more pleasant
Speed,comfort and punctuality
pwinterbottom, Feb 2020
Fab journey at high speed. Train very clean and punctual. Definitely experience it again. Unfortunately we had to wait for about an hour so tour could have been shorter thereby getting us back to Tokyo earlier.
Enjoyable Day Spent In Kyoto
Nancy_I, Dec 2019
The tour guide and also the individuals who helped us to find our seats on the bullet train train could not have been kinder. The tour guide presented us with a very informative understanding of the three temples which we visited. Our lunch which was a buffet was both delicious and plentiful. You should be aware of the fact that five hours of the day is spent on transportation to and from Kyoto, but the experience of the bullet train was worth it. I would have liked to see less touristic temples. The first one we visited was too commercial.
A long day of travel and not a lot to show for it
Scott_W, Oct 2019
While everyone we encountered was polite and helpful, the overall experience was very disappointing. It was very difficult to find the pick up location to get the tickets for the train ride. The lunch offered was fine but rushed. The tour guide was kind and offered good info but the timeline was rushed at all locations. There was no time to experience any location we visited and then we ended up back at the departure point almost an hour early. Then, we had to wait an additional 15 minutes while a few of the others on the tour finished a meal in the hotel before taking the train back to Tokyo. We won’t book any group tour ever again. While more expensive, we will only book private tours.
Perfect day trip!
MOHAMMED_H, Aug 2019
Just a perfectly planned trip. Very well organised. Must visit Kyoto on bullet train. We got to see Mt. Fuji on our way after 40 mins ride towards Kyoto from the train. Very helpful and caring staff
Great tour with a local in Tokyo!
OnAir170873, Jul 2019
Excellent Buffet Lunch offered in Miyako, Kyoto. Well organized bus, polite tours ladies. Very comfortable, fast bullet train. Only missing pieces: Main structure at First shinto shrine is under construction and 2nd stop at the 500 year old buddhist temple is not allowed photography.
Too little time
turista11111, Jun 2019
Guide kept us running throughout our tour. No time to really enjoy the places. People were terrified to be left behind. I felt we needed more time to walk around and less time dropping everybody off after the tour was over
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