City Essentials: First Day • 4 hours 5
(36)

Kickstart Hiroshima

Begin your Hiroshima adventure with a local expert! Get a crash course in Hiroshima’s history, and learn to get around the vibrant city it is today.

The easiest and most convenient way to travel to Miyajima is the direct ferry from Peace Memorial Park

What makes this experience special

Key highlights

  • Set yourself up for a successful trip by learning how to navigate Hiroshima like a local
  • See some of central Hiroshima’s most iconic attractions (and a couple reserved for in-the-know locals)
  • Experience Hiroshima’s beautiful nature, bustling city, and devastating history in just three hours
  • Visit the museum at Hiroshima Castle, and shop for souvenirs at Orizuru Tower
  • Have a helpful host to share tips and recommendations for the rest of your trip (and answer any questions you might have)

What to know before you go

Here’s everything you need to know before your day unfolds.

4 hours
Fully tailored to your preferences
English Other languages may be requested

What’s included

Private and personalized experience
3 hours with a Host
Walking experience (other transport can be arranged at an additional cost)

What’s not included

Food and drinks
Tickets to any attractions
Transportation costs
Gratuities (optional)

Meeting point

In front of The SOUVENIR SELECT HitotoKi located in Hiroshima Orizuru Tower ground level.

Cancellation

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the experience

What to bring

  • We recommend wearing comfortable shoes and carrying a light bag for your essentials.
  • Public transport may be used during the experience - please bring a travel card or small amount of cash for fares.

How your day could unfold

A flexible, unscripted experience designed entirely around your interests. Your host will adapt the day based on what excites you most

What you’ll do

The name Hiroshima will forever evoke images of devastating events, but the city is so much more than its museums and memorials. To get a full picture of the friendly, vibrant Hiroshima of today is to see it through the eyes of someone who lives here – so who better give you a crash course in navigating all its sides than a local host? Jostle through Hondori shopping arcade, a small slice of big city life, with trendy coffee shops and crowded stores, and take a serene stroll through 400-year-old Shukkei-en garden, a survivor of the atomic bomb. Hiroshima Castle is a trove of treasures once belonging to samurai lords, while the Peace Memorial Park and Atomic Bomb Dome are must-sees to fully comprehend Hiroshima’s strength and resilience.

1. Select a date
2. Select start time
3. Tailor your experience
Answer a few quick questions to help your host craft the perfect day tailored to you.
1. What’s your preferred hosting style?
2. How would you like the pace of your day?
3. What’s your walking comfort level?
4. Are you celebrating something special?

Real Stories, Real Connections

See our hosts and guests creating memories
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Kaku_Otori_Hiroshima_YRJ075944

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What travelers think of our Hiroshima experiences

Benjamin Jul 2025

Our guide Kaku was amazing. He took us to the local hotspots that tend to not where the tourists go including this incredible curry restaurant. Both my partner and myself don't like curry all the much but decided to give it a try as it had been a while and walked away from the meal being easily one of the best meals we had. He was very knowledge and easy to talk too.

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Benjamin Jul 2025

We did a hidden gems tour of Hiroshima on our last full day and it the perfect way to end our first trip to Japan. Our guide Kaku showed us some of the local hotspots and great advice on where we should have our last dinner. Highly recommend!

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Benjamin Jul 2025

We enjoyed being taken to the lesser known areas of hiroshima as it meant we learnt a bit more history like we wanted and the lesser known stores. We wanted an offset spatula for our butter knife at home and Kaku took us to a knife store that had one. Awesome service. Although we typically dont like curry dishes the host recommended a place and lowkey some of best food we ate all trip!

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Tory Jul 2025

Masa was very knowledgeable and catered our tour perfectly for our family. Not always easy to capture teenage boys attention but she did! We all agreed our time with Masa was a highlight of our trip.

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Tory Jul 2025

Masa was amazing and catered our tour perfectly. She answered all our questions and was very knowledgeable. She is a warm and generous person and we loved our time with her.

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Ryan Jul 2025

My family and I had the 2-hour walking tour with Ken that focused on the bomb dome and bomb memorial/museum. Ken was very prompt in reaching out over WhatsApp to understand our desires for the tour and schedule the meeting time, place, etc. Ken was also very friendly and met us at the Hiroshima train station to help navigate us to the Bomb Dome and local area. He showed us the location of the hypocenter, a cemetery adjacent to the hypocenter, and walked us from the bomb dome over to the museum. Once in the museum, however, there was little interaction, and we were self-guided for the most part. It was helpful to have Ken purchase trolley and museum tickets for us and then reimburse him. Overall, this tour was not a great value for me. It was helpful to have a guide navigate us from the train station to the bomb dome using the trolley, however, I would have preferred that we meet at the museum or bomb dome and not take 20-30 minutes of our 2-hour tour on a trolley ride where there was no interaction. There were interesting pieces of information, but overall we learned little information beyond what could be learned by browsing through the museum on our own. I think a better itinerary would be 2 hours of touring around Hiroshima and the bomb dome area, and then ending the tour at the museum, with the museum being pretty much self-guided anyway.

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