Hi! I’m a long-time lurker but first-time poster. I’ve noticed that the folks on this forum are super generous with their travel suggestions. My husband and I will be in Kyoto for a week in early October. Any suggestions on what to see or do or where to eat? What day trips are recommended?
We love art, food, traditional crafts, historical sights and the like. We are staying at the Hyatt Regency but now I’m wishing we had booked a ryokan for one night. Any suggestions in that regard?
Does anyone have suggestions for a guide?
It’s our first trip to Japan and all suggestions are welcome!
I was there for 4 nights in June, 4 years ago, with kids. Places we loved - Golden Pavillion (kinkaku-ji), Bamboo forest, Temple of 1000 gates (Fushimi Inari temple), Nijo castle, Nishiki Market. Also enjoyed, maybe not quite as much - Ginkaku-ji, Philosopher’s path, Ryonan-ji, and Nanzen-ji. But they were all good. We stayed in an apartment we booked through airbnb and didn’t eat anywhere special. We got around by the subway, bus, taxi, and walking.
We were in Kyoto for about a week three summers ago visiting my son who was studying abroad there. We stayed in a machiya in the Higashiyama area near the Kiyomizu-dera temple, which I recommend visiting. I also second several of the places @washugrad mentioned. Our favorite of those was Fushimi Inari, but we also loved all of the temples we visited and the bamboo forest at Arashiyama. A couple of restaurants near where we stayed were our favorites–Abura Soba Nekomata, whose specialty is spicy soba noodles (we ate there more than once) and a place that specializes in udon called Omen Kodai-ji. There were a lot of good ramen places also. We loved every minute we spent in Kyoto and were able to get around easily.
We didn’t stay in a ryokan in Kyoto, but did stay in one later when we traveled to Takayama. I highly recommend staying in one for at least one night, but I don’t have a particular recommendation in Kyoto.
As far as day trips, I highly recommend going to Nara, which is about an hour south of Kyoto via train. There’s an amazing temple there, Todai-ji and a park full of tame deer that are fun to feed.
I used the Japan travel forum on Tripadvisor to plan our 2-week trip which included Kyoto, Takayama and Tokyo, so I would highly recommend going on that forum for more information and specific suggestions for itineraries to maximize your time there.
Ryokan Ugenta. One of the best experiences of my life. Fantastic room. Private dinner on a deck over a babbling brook with paper lanterns and a zillion courses of delicious foods. This was part of a 30th anniversary trip. Not cheap (quite expensive) but extremely memorable.
We were there in summer of 2017. We took a day trip to Himeji castle by train (about an hour and forty minute trip from downtown Kyoto). We also saw most of the temples/shrines suggested above by washugrad and all were interesting. We were there in the summer, so it was very hot and muggy.
We stayed at a Ryokan a bit north of the Hyatt but name was in Japanese and we stayed with our kids. On the other side of the Kamo River (again north of the Hyatt), where the Shijo bridge crosses, is a small road/alley lined with restaurants and shops. We found an italian place for dinner there one night which was OK (kids wanted something different) We also went to a Katsu place in the area called Katsukura which was very good.
Last year we did a group tea ceremony here https://www.tea-kyoto.com/ and it was a lovely experience. We stayed in Gion at Rinn Gion yasakamae. It’s basically like a vrbo but very traditional and nice. Walk to everything in Gion. You can get a bus pass for the day for maybe $8-10 (I can’t remember) and we did that to go to several temples.