JAPAN · ROYAL PALACE TOURS IN JAPAN
The 15 best royal palace tours in Japan you can book today, with what each entry covers, what it costs and how long it takes. Number one is top for a reason; start there.
Review of Tokyo’s Imperial Palace and Shogun walking tour, with East Gardens, Edo Castle ruins, guide quality, value, meeting tips, and practical advice.
“Wonderful experience with the knowledgable Michi. A thoughtful and informative tour in the peaceful grounds of the imperial palace.”
Explore Tokyo’s Imperial Palace gardens, Edo Castle ruins, samurai history, koi ponds, and Japanese culture with an English-speaking guide.
“Mika was a wonderful guide and did an excellent job of explaining the history of the castle and of Japan. We would highly recommend this tour!”
Explore Edo Castle ruins, Ninomaru Garden, koi ponds, and Tokugawa history on a 2-hour English walking tour for $16.
“Blake was a great guide. He did a great job explaining the tour and is very friendly. the pace of the tour was perfect.”
Explore Tokyo’s Imperial Palace East Gardens and Edo Castle ruins with a guide, scenic stops, samurai stories, and practical tips for this $25 walk.
“Definitely worth it! I recommend to all first time travelers to Tokyo. We enjoyed a lot and especially our guide KAZ was great”
Review of Kyoto’s 3-hour Nijo Castle and Imperial Palace walking tour, with expert guides, small groups, practical tips, and honest value advice.
“Thank you for today’s tour. We had a wonderful day, saw a lot, and learned many new things. We highly recommend it to everyone!”
Explore Tokyo’s Imperial Palace East Gardens, Edo Castle ruins, shogun history, and Ninomaru Garden on a friendly 2.5-hour walking tour.
“K was so knowledgeable and friendly. No better way to experience the Palace than with a tour with him. Last day for us and went out with a great experience!”
See Tokyo’s Imperial Palace exterior, Sensō-ji, and Tokyo Tower in four hours with transport, an English-speaking guide, and free time.
“It was all good from start to finish, the guide was great with good knowledge and very friendly.”
Review of Tokyo’s Imperial Palace, Edo Castle, Shogun and Garden walking tour, with costs, itinerary, guides, value, tips and booking advice.
“Good tour off the east side of the imperial palace grounds. For those not familiar with the palace the place is huge (so walking in the summer heat or cold are not recommened for the unprepared) and split into east and west sides AND the Read more”
Explore Tokyo’s Imperial Palace East Gardens, Edo Castle history, koi ponds, and shogun stories on a relaxed two-hour English tour.
“We really enjoyed our tour despite the fact that it was a rainy day! Hitoshi is very friendly and knowledgeable (and he speaks English really well, which obviously helps). We highly recommend this tour to anyone interested in visiting the Imperial Palace Gardens and learning a bit about its history along the way!”
Explore Kyoto’s Nijo Castle and Imperial Palace with a small-group English guide, included admission, and practical tips on timing and transport.
“"Perfect" is the word I would use to describe this experience, and I am not an easy person to please. The guide arrived on time, gave us a lot of information, it allowed us enough time to view and take photos of all the things of interest but managed to keep a pace fast enough as to not get bored. So yes, definetly recommended.”
Review of Tokyo’s private Imperial Palace East Gardens tour, with Edo Castle ruins, history, practical tips, price value, and honest drawbacks.
“This was the ideal way to see the Imperial Palace East Gardens and site. We learned way more on this tour than we ever would have by ourselves. Yoshiko, our guide, made the experience really enjoyable despite the heat and sun. She was fuRead more”
Review of Kyoto’s 3-hour Nijo Castle and Imperial Palace tour, with guide insights, pricing, route details, and practical booking advice.
“Everything comes down to which guide you get. Goku was spectacular in explaining japanese culture and answering all our “random” questions (even the more uncomfortable ones i.e. relationship with US after WWII). The Nijo-jo and the imperial palace are nice but not the best things to see in Kyoto. However during spring gardens are very beautiful and the visit is mostly outside.”
Review of Tokyo’s 7-hour highlights tour, covering Meiji Shrine, the Imperial Palace, Asakusa, Akihabara and Skytree.
“The tour was very good, made even better by a fabulous tour guide! The guide, who is getting his masters degree in philosophy, was a subject matter expert in Japanese religion and spirituality. Make the only suggestion was that it was a lRead more”
Explore Edo Castle ruins, palace gardens, rare koi, and Japan’s past on a small-group Imperial Palace walking tour for $40.
“the guide was awesome, a real fountain of knowledge”
Review of Tokyo’s private East Gardens tour, with Edo Castle ruins, seasonal flowers, expert English guides, tips, value, and practical details.
“What a great tour! Naoko, our tour guide, was warm and extremely knowledgeable about the the buildings, the inhabitants past and present, the hybrid species of koi and the gardens. Perfectly paced, the time went by pleasurably while soaking in the surroundings and its history.”
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