Ichiro-San was a wonderful host and guide - knowledgeable, humorous, patient and always professional with the six gaijin in his custody. I highly recommend he and his company.
We all agreed it was a 1st class experience.
We made reservations a few months in advance and checking in for our private boat was easy. We had the entire boat to ourselves and we brought some snacks and rinks to enjoy as we floated along. Our boatman kept the boat going smoothly and guided us along but one thing is he really didn’t point out anything not told us about some of the area and sights we were seeing. Luckily several of us are local and knew what things where so we had to point them out to the rest and explain things. We were disappointed that the floating snack/ drink boat never came up along side to offer more drinks or other items as we were hoping to enjoy some warm sake and other treats that wood have made the boat ride a bit more fun.
Bring snacks and drinks to enjoy as you glide along the river
Value for money. Easy to find start location outside Kyoto train station.
Very welcoming with checks of passengers so we don't get left behind.
Great communication in different languages with earphones.
Train ride with great views nice to get out the big cities. Boat ride great. Rickshaw added extra but discount vouchers given. Brilliant staff. A trip for everyone, people with walking difficulties may find the boat ride difficult but speak to staff as the opportunity to stay on the coach.
None, nothing you can do about a bit of cold weather.
A good experience that you can eat in the boat and enjoy the sightseeing at the same time.
Went with my family, since we came the service was very efficient, no waiting line and it was a private reservation so we had the boat by ourselves.
The view is beautiful, the food was really good and had a lot of variety of Japanese food, the presentation of everything was really well thought!
There is also a convenience boat, which selled drinks, grilled squid and dango. It was very nice! 1 hour of boat trip but it was totally worth it.
Would do it again!
I recommend going to the private boat ride if you would like a peaceful experience.