A luxury Kyoto tour, at Luxury Japan Travel, means three nights in the city at the height of its season, a Tour Director present throughout, and a private evening with geiko and maiko. It is built into the Classic Cherry Blossom Tour of Japan, the Autumn Leaves Tour of Japan, and, without a fixed shape, the Custom Tour of Japan.
the published tours
Kyoto inside the published tours
The Classic Cherry Blossom Tour of Japan and the Autumn Leaves Tour of Japan each give Kyoto three nights at Hotel The Celestine Kyoto Gion, timed to the city's own peak. On the cherry blossom tour, that means the Keage Incline in flower over its old iron tracks, the thousand torii of Fushimi Inari, the Golden Pavilion at Kinkaku-ji, and a second hanami picnic laid in the grounds of the Kyoto Imperial Palace. On the Autumn Leaves Tour of Japan, it means a morning at Tōfuku-ji, where the maples run out beneath the Tsūtenkyō Bridge in an unbroken sea of red and gold, an afternoon among the quieter gardens chosen for where the season stands when a party travels, and a day given to Nara, among the deer and the ancient forest. The Autumn Leaves Tour of Japan's 2026 departure, 23 November to 4 December, is sold out; no 2027 date has yet been decided, so none is shown.
Both tours give an evening to a Kyoto teahouse. On the Classic Cherry Blossom Tour of Japan it is a private room in Gion; on the Autumn Leaves Tour of Japan it is a room in Kamishichiken, the oldest of Kyoto's geisha districts. Geiko and maiko dance, pour, and lead the old games of the ozashiki, arranged on the house's own terms. It is company at a low table, not a spectacle watched from across a room.
the day
A Kyoto day with a Tour Director
A Kyoto day on either published tour keeps a steady shape: a morning at one temple or garden, timed to when the light and the season are at their best; an afternoon that moves at walking pace through Higashiyama's stone lanes and machiya streets, or out to a single district chosen for the day; and an evening returned to the hotel, or, on the teahouse evening, to Gion or Kamishichiken. A private vehicle and a Tour Director carry a party between each stop, so a morning at Fushimi Inari or Tōfuku-ji never has to compete with a transfer.
the districts
Kyoto's districts, as the tours use them
Higashiyama, the hill district of temples, machiya lanes and Gion, is where both published tours are based, at Hotel The Celestine Kyoto Gion. Fushimi Inari's thousand torii gates sit south of the city centre; Kinkaku-ji's Golden Pavilion is in the northwest; Tōfuku-ji, with its maple valley beneath the Tsūtenkyō Bridge, is close to Kyoto Station; Nara, with its deer park and ancient forest, is a day's outing by private vehicle. A party on either published tour sees each in the days it is at its height, not on a fixed date chosen months in advance without regard for the season.
- Higashiyama and Gion: temples, machiya lanes, and the hotel both published tours use.
- Fushimi Inari: the thousand torii gates, south of the city centre.
- Kinkaku-ji: the Golden Pavilion, in the northwest.
- Tōfuku-ji: the maple valley beneath the Tsūtenkyō Bridge, close to Kyoto Station.
- Nara: the deer park and ancient forest, a day's outing by private vehicle.
the hotel
Where guests stay in Kyoto
Hotel The Celestine Kyoto Gion, in the machiya streets of Higashiyama, is the hotel named on both the Classic Cherry Blossom Tour of Japan and the Autumn Leaves Tour of Japan. A Custom Tour of Japan can be built around Kyoto's very top properties instead, among them Aman Kyoto, Hoshinoya Kyoto and Six Senses Kyoto, each named plainly on the Custom Tour of Japan's own page.
the custom tour
Kyoto on the Custom Tour of Japan
A Custom Tour of Japan is planned, organised and run by Luxury Japan Travel for one party alone, on the party's own dates, for five nights or more, with a Tour Director present every day. Kyoto can hold as much of the itinerary as a party wants: a temple after its gates have closed, a garden lit for the party alone, a private rotenburo, a tea master in Uji, or an evening with geiko and maiko arranged the same way as on the published tours. The floor rate is per person, per day, and varies with party size: from $3,500 for two guests, from $2,750 for three or four, and from $2,000 for five or more.
in one page
A luxury Kyoto tour, summarised
Whichever path a party chooses, Kyoto in a Luxury Japan Travel tour means the same three things: the season met at its height, a Tour Director present throughout, and a city met at a low table rather than from the far side of a crowd.