Where to stay in Kyoto, for a first visit, is Higashiyama: the old eastern quarter, where the lanes to Kiyomizu-dera, Yasaka Shrine and the teahouse streets of Gion are all on foot from the door, and where several of the city's great hotels stand. Central Kyoto, around Kawaramachi, Karasuma and Nijo, is the choice for a long and full stay; Arashiyama, on the river beneath the western hills, rewards a return; and the streets near Kyoto Station serve a short stay with days out in Nara or Osaka. The district decides the stay more than the room does.
The morning shows why. In a room at the foot of the eastern hills, a paper screen turns the early light into a pale square on the tatami, and beyond it a small garden holds one pine and a stone basin still dark from the night's rain. A delivery van moves through the lane, a bicycle bell rings once, and the first sound inside the room is the kettle for tea. A few hundred metres west, on the shopping streets of Kawaramachi, the same hour belongs to traffic.
the districts
Where to stay in Kyoto, area by area
Higashiyama: for a first visit, and for luxury
Higashiyama runs along the foot of the eastern hills, from the Yasaka pagoda and the stone steps of Ninenzaka up to Kiyomizu-dera. It is the Kyoto of the photographs, at its best early and late in the day, and some of the city's great hotels stand within it: one beside Kodai-ji above the lanes of Ninenzaka, the pagoda below its windows; and one among the machiya streets between Yasaka Shrine and Kodai-ji, a few minutes on foot from Gion, where The Classic Cherry Blossom Tour of Japan and The Autumn Leaves Tour of Japan spend their Kyoto nights.
Gion and Shirakawa: staying near Gion
Gion is the teahouse district, and its lanes are at their best after dark, when the lanterns are lit and the stone canal of the Shirakawa runs black under the willows. Rooms here are in small hotels and ryokan along the canal, among them nine suites on Shinmonzen Street, each with a balcony over the water. A stay in Gion asks for discretion around the teahouses and repays it with the walk home through the lanes.
Central Kyoto: Kawaramachi, Karasuma and Nijo
Central Kyoto is easily underrated. Around Kawaramachi and Karasuma the shops, galleries and restaurants are all close at hand, which makes a long and full stay much simpler, and the old merchant streets of Nakagyo hold some of the most celebrated rooms in the city. Two of the great ryokan of Japan face each other across Fuyacho-dori, one kept by the same family since 1818. On Muromachi-dori, a hotel lives within the Meiji-era house of a kimono merchant, its lattice front kept almost as it was built. Another stands on the bank of the Kamo River at Nijo, Gion a walk along the water, and one beside Nijo Castle draws its own hot spring from some 1,000 metres beneath the city.
A central room needs stillness of its own, though, or a guest can feel the street never ended.
Arashiyama: the river and the western hills
Arashiyama belongs to the Oi River and the western hills, and to its residents again once the day visitors have gone. It is a district of evenings and early mornings, which suits a second visit, or a last night after the city. Upstream from the Togetsu Bridge the river gorge holds a ryokan of low pavilions reached by its own boat, and Arashiyama has a hot spring of its own, which most of Kyoto lacks.
Near Kyoto Station: for short stays and days out
Kyoto Station is the gateway, not the centre: the old quarters lie a short drive to the north and east. A room near the station serves a guest with one or two nights, or with days given to Nara and Osaka. What it gives up is the evening, which in Kyoto is spent in the lanes. The southern edge of Higashiyama is the better choice for most: around Sanjusangen-do, a short drive from the station, a hotel opposite the garden of Toyokuni Shrine has the old city at its door.
The northern hills: Takagamine, Kamigamo and Kitayama
Old shrine land, cooler air and quiet residential streets. Takagamine sits at the foot of the hill marked by the bonfire character of the Hidari Daimonji, lit each August on the last night of Obon, and there rooms, suites and pavilions stand in a forest garden, with an onsen fed by mineral water that rises nearby. The north suits a return, or a guest who wants the temples by day and a forest by night.
Beyond the city, Ohara is a temple village among wooded hills to the north-east, and Kurama and Kibune lie further into the northern mountains, where cedar forest and a cold river replace the warm air of the basin. A night at a ryokan in Kibune, with dinner served on a platform over the river in summer, suits a second or third visit.
Each of these hotels and ryokan is named and ranked, district by district, in the guide to the luxury hotels and ryokan of Kyoto.
the kyoto room
Ryokan, machiya or hotel
Each of the three kinds of room gives Kyoto in a different way. A ryokan gives ceremony: tea on arrival, an onsen or a cedar bath before dinner, kaiseki served in the room, and the futon laid while the guest is at the table. A machiya, one of the old timber townhouses behind a narrow lattice front, gives a home of one's own in the city, with a courtyard garden the width of a corridor and no staff in the evening. A fine hotel gives space, a concierge and a calm base for a full itinerary.
A machiya needs a real neighbourhood around it, a corner shop and the ordinary traffic of people who live there, or it feels lonely once the shutters are drawn. A ryokan belongs to its district almost as much as to its garden, because the walk back after an evening out is part of the stay. A hotel can sit further from the old lanes and still serve its guests well, because what it offers is ease of movement.
Kyoto's ryokan baths are deep tubs of fragrant hinoki, and a guest who wants an onsen in town looks to Arashiyama, which has its own spring, or to the few hotels that draw one from deep beneath the city.
every season
Choosing a Kyoto stay for the season
The seasons do not treat every district equally. Central Kyoto's stone and asphalt keep the summer heat long after dark, while the northern hills and the riverside at Arashiyama cool within an hour of dusk. In July and August a room with air and shade around it is worth more than the same room would be in April or November.
Winter reverses the calculation. The damp cold of the basin settles hardest in the low centre, and a ryokan built around an open garden, with paper screens for walls, feels the season far more than a modern hotel does. The reward is a garden room in snow, the screens lit from within and a deep bath waiting, which is one of Kyoto's great winter pleasures for a guest who chooses it knowingly.
Shorter days change the walk home. In November and December dinner comes earlier, and the walk back through Higashiyama or Gion is made in full dark, when the lanes are lit only by lanterns.
what decides it
What decides it
The choice comes down to how a guest wants the day to begin and end. Some want to wake beneath the eastern hills and walk up to Kiyomizu-dera after breakfast; others want a canal outside the window, or the lobby of a hotel that can arrange the day. At night the question is whether dinner is taken in the ryokan, followed by a walk through Gion after dark, or brought back across the river to a city room where sleep needs no further decision.
A first visit and a return ask different things of a district. A first stay sits best in Higashiyama, central Kyoto or a well-placed hotel, with the most famous temples and lanes within an easy walk while the guest is still learning the city; the Japan cherry blossom tour gives its three Kyoto nights to Higashiyama for that reason. A return can afford Arashiyama's evenings, the northern hills, or a night at Ohara, Kurama or Kibune, because the main sights are already known. Guests on a third or fourth visit often leave the centre altogether.
in short
Questions a guest asks first
Where should a first-time visitor stay in Kyoto?
In Higashiyama, the old eastern quarter, or in central Kyoto. Higashiyama puts Kiyomizu-dera, Yasaka Shrine and the lanes of Gion on foot from the door; central Kyoto, around Kawaramachi and Karasuma, puts the shops, galleries and restaurants close at hand.
What is the best area in Kyoto for a luxury stay?
Higashiyama and central Kyoto hold most of the city's great hotels, and the most celebrated ryokan stand on the old merchant streets of Nakagyo. Away from the centre, the great addresses are a forest garden at Takagamine in the northern hills and the river gorge above Arashiyama.
Is it good to stay near Gion?
Yes, for a guest who wants Kyoto's evenings on foot. Its lanes ask for discretion around the teahouses, and a guest comes home through them after dinner.
Is it better to stay near Kyoto Station?
Only for a short stay, or for days spent in Nara or Osaka. The station is the gateway, not the centre, and the old quarters are a drive away; for three nights or more, Higashiyama or central Kyoto gives far more of the city.
Read the manners a guest needs in Gion →
More of the Japan Edition on Kyoto →
Luxury hotels and ryokan in Kyoto, ranked →
Luxury Kyoto tours: in blossom, in maple, and in private →
The Custom Tour of Japan begins with exactly this question, because it is created from a blank page for one party: the district, the room and the order of the nights are chosen around how that party wants each Kyoto day to begin and end, and a ryokan can follow a city hotel in the same week. In Kyoto the Tour Director chooses the hour for each temple garden, the quiet one, and stands beside the guests to say what they are looking at.
