Sky Hop Bus Kyoto station — Local services in Kyoto

I purchased a 2 day pass because getting around Kyoto is a challenge. Was really excited by this decision. It was -1 degree celesius and open roof bus turns up. The online bus timetable turns out was incorrect, there was a new timetable at the bus stop from 1 December. After waiting we were frozen. The bus turns up, open roof, I begged the lady if we could sit in the warm part underneath. She said no and insisted we sit in the freezing cold. Freezing cold was an understatement, it was the worst experience and the worst customer experience ever. We departed quickly for a stop, when we returned another bus turned up and again I begged the lady to please not allow us to sit in the cold, she no you have to and I said I will give a negative review, she didn't care. Anyway eventually a closed bus turned warm inside turn up, we quickly took it to Gion departed. Tomorrow we forfeit our second day ticket, there is NO WAY I am doing this again. Update 9 January - In response to the supplier comments. We used the app and timetable within the app. At Nishiki Market the bus was 10 minutes late and according to these timetables posted at the bus stops, they did not match the app timetable. The app timetable was out. At no time was it clear prior to the booking that we would be sitting in an open top bus in freezing weather. It it was made clear then we would not have booked it especially for 2 days. Anyway I did not use the bus the second day and found that the trains and local bus was actually easier and alot warmer. Downgraded this review from a 2 to a 1 star given the lack of empathy or apology for...

I personally enjoyed the bus ride very much especially after a tired day of walk. Thanks God it’s was a sunny day yet not too hot when we took the ride around the city in the open top bus, the breeze was refreshing and I was so excited when it passed through the big Tori Gate.

Here are a few tips I would like to share

1.) Do check the weather forecast and be prepared before deciding on a day pass purchase. Your riding experience very much subjects to weather condition. There is a ticket counter in front of Kyoto Station facing Nidec Kyoto Tower, we bought our day pass there ( it’s not difficult to locate as you will see all the Sky Hop buses there). Umbrellas are not allowed in the bus cause it would affect other passengers. According to the broadcast, they will distribute rain coat if it rains.

2.) Do plan your itinerary in advance, you may check the bus route and the bus’s timetable through their official website to see if it covers the destinations you wish to stop by. It connects most of the shrines, temples and museum. However, the schedule may have slight delay depending on traffic condition.

3.) Start with the earliest ride if you can in order to optimise the use of day pass, so I won’t recommend it for those who are in rush. We started with 10.20am ride( it was just an ordinary bus) to visit the Kinkakuji and had our lunch at Sea Bream Rice MAKI. The second bus we took at Kinkakuji was an open top.If you wish to have a ride on open top bus, you may have to wait for its turn.

Hope the above tips will help with your decision and hop on hop off riding...

Terrible experience. Finding the bus stop was nearly impossible, they don’t provide a clear address and there aren’t any identifiable signs unless you look at the regular city bus timetables and randomly see that the Skyhop also drops there. Next, the staff are unkind. My friend and I tried so hard to find this stop, we crossed over to the wrong side and by the time we figured it out wee could see the bus in the distance. Since you can only cross at designated walkways in Japan, w waited for the lights to turn, my friend ran but I’m mobility impaired so I couldn’t. She caught up with the bus to tell them I was a few feet away waiting to cross and they just left without us, they said they couldn’t wait they had a schedule (literally 40 seconds for me) and closed the doors and left us there. We waited another 45 minutes for the next one (it was late… guess they don’t keep to their schedule). This wasn’t a great tour, we had more success just using Google and finding spots to go to. The recording on the bus is not informative at all. Also the bus is not the one pictured, they have a bunch of closed roof buses and only one open roof one, so you’ll most often get the closed buses that aren’t a...