KyotoTravel Guide

The areas and addresses our writers put first

• Josip Ivanković

  Around Kyoto Station

  Unlovely but supremely convenient, the station area suits travelers using Kyoto as a base for day trips to Nara, Osaka or Himeji.

  Where to Stay in Kyoto: The Right Neighborhood, the Classic AddressesCheck prices

• Downtown (Kawaramachi and around)

  Kyoto

  Kyoto's commercial heart — around Kawaramachi, Pontocho Alley and the Nishiki Market area — is the practical choice: hundreds of restaurants, easy transit, and the Kamo River for evening walks.

  Where to Stay in Kyoto: The Right Neighborhood, the Classic AddressesCheck prices

• Okazaki and northern Higashiyama

  Kyoto

  Near Nanzen-ji and the Philosopher's Path, this greener, quieter pocket rewards travelers on a second visit.

  Where to Stay in Kyoto: The Right Neighborhood, the Classic AddressesCheck prices

Tables worth crossing the city for

• Nishiki Market

  Kyoto

  Kyoto's kitchen, a covered arcade of roughly a hundred and thirty stalls running several blocks through the city centre, stopped being a secret a long time ago.

  Hidden Kyoto: 6 Quiet Corners Away From the CrowdsSee on the map

The things that justify the trip

• David Emrich

  Fushimi Inari

  The tunnels of vermilion torii climbing Mount Inari draw something widely reported at around ten million visits a year, and by late morning the lower gates are a slow-moving queue with cameras.

  Hidden Kyoto: 6 Quiet Corners Away From the CrowdsSee on the map
• Thuy Duong Nguyen

  Arashiyama's bamboo grove

  It is a few hundred metres long, it is free, and between mid-morning and late afternoon it is shoulder to shoulder — the pictures you have seen were taken at around seven in the morning.

  Hidden Kyoto: 6 Quiet Corners Away From the CrowdsSee on the map
• :DC Snapshots

  Ninenzaka and Sannenzaka

  These two connected stone-paved slopes below Kiyomizu-dera are the Kyoto of the imagination: wooden machiya townhouses, sloping tiled roofs, teahouses and craft shops stacked down the hill, the whole run protected as…

  The Most Beautiful Streets and Lanes of Kyoto, RankedSee on the map
• Haewon Oh

  Hanamikoji Street

  Gion's main artery, lined with dark wooden ochaya teahouses, with the Ichiriki Chaya anchoring the northern end near Shijo.

  The Most Beautiful Streets and Lanes of Kyoto, RankedSee on the map

Walks, tours and days out we would book again

• Kurama and Kibune

  Kyoto

  Thirty-odd minutes north of the city on the Eizan railway from Demachiyanagi, the temperature drops, the cedar closes in, and Kyoto stops being a city.

  Hidden Kyoto: 6 Quiet Corners Away From the CrowdsFind tours

• The Higashiyama slopes

  Kyoto

  Train back towards the eastern hills and climb to Kiyomizu-dera, the great wooden temple whose veranda juts out over a valley of maples with the city spread below.

  One Perfect Day in KyotoFind tours

• Gion

  Kyoto

  As the light fades, walk the streets of Gion, the old geisha district.

  One Perfect Day in KyotoFind tours

• The Philosopher's Path

  Kyoto

  A canal-side walking path in northern Higashiyama, about two kilometres between Ginkaku-ji and the Nanzen-ji area, following a branch of the old Lake Biwa Canal.

  The Most Beautiful Streets and Lanes of Kyoto, RankedFind tours