Osaka Kickstart: Hotspots and Hidden Gems Private or Group Tours

Rutti was a great guide, spoke perfect English and Japanese, and tailored our tours to accommodate timing and things we wanted to do along the way. Lots to see and explore in Osaka, I'd recommend this as a great way to see a lot without the pressure of a group tour that dictates timing.

Adam showed us the top things to do Osaka in a short time. Very thorough and enjoyable. Gave us a great list of restaurants.

Our guide was Meryam and she was absolutely incredible. Her vibrant personality along with her vast knowledge of Osaka, made this tour so enjoyable that we really didn’t care about the awful weather at the start. Fortunately, Mother Nature pushed the clouds away for the second half. Meryam provided us with a wonderful introduction to this beautiful city and was happy to answer all our questions. As a fellow teacher, I really appreciated that she made a point of interacting with each of us individually. Upon completion of the tour, we all walked away saying “I’m so glad we did that!”
We will definitely be recommending to others a stop/stay in Osaka should they travel to Japan. Thank you Meryam!

Shelly, Dan, Blair & Willow
British Columbia, Canada

Dom our guide was friendly and took us around and also explained the Historical significance... A must 1 day tour. It was a wonderful day spent.

Fantastic experience and a great start to our one week holiday in Osaka. Adam was an excellent guide, who nor only was extremely knowledgeable, but also super fun to explore the city with. The mixture of historical and cultural sites paired with the best food market and fantastic shopping areas really gives you a great idea of the essence of Osaka. We both had been to Osaka before and know about Japanese culture quite a bit. However, Adam just was a well of "insider knowledge" regarding local city life & history as well as Japanese lifestyle. We were constantly learning so much valuable, surprising and entertaining new details about Osaka and Japan in general - it was absolutely fantastic. Adam was also greet fun to be around and talk to. He takes great care to ensure that his guests are having fun, discover new foods, views and stories about Tokyo. We could not have had a better guide, and a more inspiring start to our Osaka holidays.

Regarding the tour itself, we chose to take the taxi to some places farther out if the way - and would recommend to spend extra to ensure that you can see all the sights and have time yo enjoy them. Overall organization and communication was great, and we always felt in very good hands with this excellent tour operator.

Our favorite parts were the visit to o the food market, the Sake tastng and the tour of Osaka Castle. Adam is definitely one if the best tour guides we have ever met: what a great guy! We highly recommend the 5 hour tour since it just seems to be the right time frame to get a great first impression without feeling rushed at all. For a first time visit to Osaka this tour is highly recommended, and we enjoyed it immensely. Arigato goseimas, Adam!

Our guide was amazing! highly reccomend, very knowledgable engaged and easy to talk to. knew the city excpetionally well and generated interest from the whole family.

Our Fabulous guide Caroline showed us so many spots on this tour that we would never have seen if we were walking the vibrant area by ourselves. We did a 5 hour private tour and it was wonderful.

Caroline gave us an insight in to the history of Osake and the Dotonbori area, explained food stalls, was well informed and presented a tour incorporating the traditional and quirky sides of
Dotonbori.

We loved her personality and the fact that she realised we were at the end of 3 weeks in Japan and were a bit tired (74 and 76 year olds). She found quiet spots to give us information and a few minutes for a quick and appreciated rest.

Thank you so much Caroline! We would certainly recommend this tour to anyone visiting Osaka

Adam was a great tour guide. He is friendly and knowledgeable, instantly making you feel that you’re in good hands. He tailored the tour to our interests and gave us a crash course in Osaka. Would highly recommend!

Mik was a wonderful guide and a great introduction to Osaka. He was well informed and presented a balanced tour of must see Osaka and quirky off the beaten path sites. He also knows his food and took us to great tasting places. If that weren’t enough, after the tour he was a great person of resource with tips for more restaurants and the Expo. Highly recommend!

The tour covered spots around the Dotonburi area which was very nice. These were definitely hidden spots

Good walking tour. You hit the spots you want to hit. I recommend doing it day 1 after you arrive so then you know where to come back to. Our tour guide was an epic rocker who knew how to have fun

Our first day in Osaka we signed up to have a private 4 hour tour. Wecouldnt recommend it highly enough as the best start to see parts of the city and to get one's bearings. Adam met us at our hotel, he was engaging and so helpful. He tailored the tour to our interests and what we wanted to do. He showed us the train system and how to find the balance and top up our IC cards as a great start! Adam also gave us great recommendations on where to eat during our stay. Some of the highlights included walking through the entertainment area, Amerikamura ( the western american area) Dotonbori, the longest covered shopping district, through little back lane to the Hozenji Temple and Hozenji Yokocho, the amazing fish markets ( and pointed out which stalls to come back to based on the foods we liked). He took us to a lovely quiet mall for a rest and saki tasting ( which waa tastier and a better experience than my first taste of it the night before). Adam also showed us the long underground shopping mall that led to the train stations we never would have found on our own. Adam was knowledgable and engaging, very easy company. My husband and i could not recomnend this tour more on your first visit to Osaka.

Excelente time spent with Stephanie, very interesting tour. Found out lots of history and also expirienced tradicional foods!

An amazing experience so much fun. First time at karaoke! Dan was an amazing tour guide. He was personable, funny and knowledgeable. Great night.

We booked the 5hr Private Walking Tour, however did not cover all the spots listed on the experience description. We only figured this out on the tour itself, when I asked about the knife experience. It’s important to note that booking a later time slot means that you will NOT make it in time for the Markets and specific shops as they close by 4-5pm. Honestly, we ended up doing something similar to a 3hr Group Tour. I expressed my disappointment to my Tour Guide and he made up for it, but by then it was a bit rushed and not as enjoyable as the description made it seem. If you do book a Private Tour, I’d recommend getting clarity on your expectations to avoid disappointment.

Dom did a great job showing us around Osaka. A friendly and informative tour. We really enjoyed our day and could not have seen all the areas or learned as much without going on the tour!

Rahat was extremely knowledgeable, friendly & a fun tour guide. Made 3hrs seem one hour. Highly recommended tour.