Audio tour · Japan
Kyoto
A self guided audio tour of Kyoto.
Downloadon the App Store
The app is on the App Store
A self guided audio tour of Kyoto.
Kyoto moves at a pace that feels considered, as though the city itself is in no hurry to be anywhere else. You pass from a quiet temple garden into a street of old wooden shopfronts and then into a hillside path lined with cedars, and the transitions feel almost seamless. More than a thousand years as the imperial heart of Japan left something in the atmosphere here that is difficult to name and easy to feel.
In the app, 100 stops in Kyoto are narrated aloud, about 2h 50m of listening across 8 walking routes, in 13 languages, offline once downloaded. Choose a route or build your own, then walk while a calm voice tells you the story of each stop. The app also maps 100 Instagram photo spots, social media photo locations with directions to where you stand for the shot.
The opening lines of a few narrations, straight from the tour.
"You are walking through a tunnel of vibrant orange torii gates."
"You are standing right where the history of this place began."
"You are standing before a structure that has seen immense change."
"When you walk past this shrine, you are walking through a place that has been central to Kyoto."
"You're standing here looking at the Phoenix Hall, and you might not realize the sheer amount."
"You're standing in front of one of the most famous Zen gardens in the world."
Curated orders through the city. Or build your own and press Play All.
A walk from the ten-thousand torii of Fushimi Inari south through quiet temple grounds to the great pagoda of Toji
Kyotos most beloved hillside neighbourhood winding from the wooden stage of Kiyomizudera down through stone-paved lanes to the lanterns of Yasaka Shrine
From the glittering reflection of Kinkakuji this loop threads through plum-blossom shrines, Ryoanji's stone garden, and the broad courts of Ninnaji
A gentle journey along the Uji river past the golden Phoenix Hall of Byodoin, the oldest shrine in the region, and on to Daigoji's five-storey pagoda
Beginning at the bamboo-lined river at Arashiyama this walk passes Tenryuji's gardens, a hilltop monkey park, and ends deep in the forested hamlet of Sagano
A high mountain walk across the sacred ridge of Enryakuji that looks out over Lake Biwa before descending to the ancient shrine forests of Hiyoshi Taisha
Every stop is narrated. Walk them in any order, or follow a route. Open a category to see what is inside.