Kyoto is near Osaka, a city with excellent air connections to Australia, we chose Osaka over Tokyo as our first destination to explore in Japan. Kyoto is a good place from which to visit Arashiyama (The Bamboo Forest, popular with influencers), Nara (polite deer) and Fushimi Inari Shrine. It’s on Honshu Island, in the south of Japan. There is plenty to do in and near Kyoto on your vacation. Here are our recommendations for the best things to see and do in Kyoto.
This was a mum and teenager trip, Kyoto would work just as well as a destination with younger kids.
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Where did we stay in Kyoto? We booked Hotel Clam Chowder, a traditional older building and a cute room in a great location, we loved it. It felt very safe walking around here, even at night. Take a look at this hotel here. Go here to check out flights to Osaka for Kyoto.
Things To Do in Kyoto, Our Top 10
We loved Kyoto and we loved everywhere we went in Japan, I was surprised how great this trip was, it was well above expectations. We’ll tell you all about Kyoto on this page, things to do, foods to try, things to see and how to see them.
Our top 10 things to do in Kyoto are the things we chose to do, the things that were most interesting to us. There are plenty of things we skipped in Kyoto because of lack of time, or because they were more difficult to get to. We mention those too.
Basically, these are the things you need to know about Kyoto before you visit or book your flights.
We didn’t know most of them, we flew by the seat of our pants, as usual.
Where To Stay in Kyoto?
We chose to spend a few days near the food market in Kyoto, west of the river, plus a couple of days on the other side of the river, near the Gion district. The former was a much better area to stay and Gion district was an easy walk away.
We were close to a covered shopping centre, even this was home to some of Kyoto’s 2,000 shrines, and it was a short walk from the train station and the riverside. There were also plenty of convenience stores, there weren’t so many on the other side of the river.
Here are a few hotel options in this area. Hostels seem to be quite expensive in Kyoto, hotels weren’t too costly. Bathrooms in Japan are amazing! Find out about those in our “Things to know about Japan before you visit” guide.
- STITCH Hotel Kyoto. Their family rooms are incredible! See it on Booking.com or Agoda
- A cheaper option, again with family rooms, is KIZUNA Hotel, again, on the west side of the river, near the train station. It is on Booking, and Agoda.
- Where did we stay in Kyoto? We chose to stay here. Our hotel is also on Agoda, it was great. They even allowed us to check in early, straight from the train, nowhere else in Japan did this.
About Kyoto
The nearest international airport to Kyoto is in Osaka, Kansai International Airport (KIX) and for us, it was cheaper to fly to Osaka than Tokyo. Itami airport is also in Osaka for domestic flights. Kyoto does not have it’s own airport but it has a huge train station.
Kyoto is only about 36 Km from Osaka, we took the special sightseeing train that runs on weekends. We’ll write about that shortly.
There are 17 UNESCO sites in Kyoto Prefecture, some are in Uji and Otsu Cities, not Kyoto City. These are collectively called the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto. These are made up of 16 religious structures, both shrines and temples, plus Nijo-jo Castle. Most were constructed between the 10th and 17th centuries.
Kyoto was Japan’s Imperial Capital between 794 and 1968, when the capital migrated to Tokyo. The rich history of Kyoto makes it the cultural centre of Japan and an important tourist destination. Interestingly, Nintendo is based in Kyoto.
Kyoto is big, and some of the tourist attractions are very spread out. We would suggest you book a Hop on Hop off bus tour to get your bearings, and to figure out where the various places are. Do this on your first day, or 2 days.
Visit The Food Market, Nishiki Market
We love a food market, and we booked our accommodation in Kyoto to be close to Nishiki Market. It’s a fun place to visit, but it does get absolutely packed, avoid peak times.
A lot of what’s available in the market is junk food and street food. There is a very good bakery with coffee and we liked the gyoza. There was one sit-down restaurant that we found, selling noodle soups.
We did try the wagyu beef, but we had no clue really what we were buying and it was just a very small piece of beef. There is sushi and sake available.
We struggled a bit with food in Japan. When I say we, I mean I struggled, my child will eat junk food all day.
The best meal of this trip was actually at a Nepalese restaurant very close to the market.
Kyoto Imperial Palace
This place is huge and it’s well worth seeing. We walked here from our hotel but taking the hop-on hop-off bus may be a better option. Once you arrive at the Imperial Palace, there is a lot more walking to do!
Take Ninja Classes!
This was a fun thing to do! We got to dress up and play with swords and ninja throwing stars. Plus more, we had to sharpen up some stealthy skills and sneaky walks. It’s a short class and suitable for children, there was one very young child in our group and he was adorable dressed as a ninja. There are a lot of samurai and ninja activities available, take a look here.
See The Famous Gion of Kyoto and Hashiyama District
I think the Gion district of Kyoto is possibly the most famous sightseeing spot here, famous for Geisha and Maiko (trainee Geisha) culture. This area is full of traditional tea houses and up market restaurants.
This area is on the east side of the river in Kyoto and the Shirakawa Area and Hashiyama district are adjacent. This whole area is great to explore on foot/ Shirakawa with it’s stream and willow trees, is particularly pretty and had far fewer tourists when we were there.
Hashiyama is the most overrun by tourists. It was packed, and we were there early in the morning.
The old streets and quaint wooden buildings are lovely, but a lot of them are shops selling street food and gifts as you leave the actual Gion area, which is more up-market.
It’s hard to know which area or district is which, if you’re a first timer like us. I would strongly suggest booking an inexpensive walking tour to have everything explained to you.
Yasaka Pagoda dominates the skyline, and everyone wants to get a photo. It’s hard to get one without tourists, maybe go around dawn.
Yasaka Shrine (Gion Shrine)
Yasaka Shrine, AKA Gion Shrine is next to The Gion and Higashiyama district. We wandered through here by chance as we explored on foot, again, a tour would probably help you get your bearings. Maruyama Park is adjacent, famous for cherry blossoms in spring.
This shrine hosts the huge festival in July, the Gion Matsuri.
Pontocho
Pontocho is a traditional area with a narrow lane on the west side of the river. It’s lined by restaurants and those on the riverside often have patios or decks overlooking the Kamogawa River.
We ate here a couple of times and found the famous Kichi Kichi Omurice here, which was closed during our stay.
It’s a nice area to explore and even if you don’t plan on eating here, you should take a look.
Fushimi Inari Taisha
We walked to Fishimi Inari along the river most of the way. There is also a train line that will take you here. If you want to see as many of Kyoto’s best historic and UNESCO sites, book a bus tour and save yourself time and struggle. We found the public buses and trains very hard to navigate at first. A guide is an extremely helpful thing to have in Japan.
Visit Arashiyama from Kyoto
Arashiyama is on the outskirts of Kyoto City, and has a lot to see. Easily enough to fill a half day, or a full day. It has Kodai-ji Temple, beautiful Togetsukyo Bridge, Iwatayama Monkey Park, Tenryu-ji Temple and a main street filled with cute shops and street food.
We enjoyed taking a rowboat out on the Oi River, and just walking, peeking into homes and gardens in the back streets of Arashiyama. The autumn leaves were just starting to turn when we were there in October, it’s a beautiful spot,
You can dress up in traditional costumes here or take a ride in a human-pulled rickshaw, these guys and girls are super fit and can run through the town and bamboo forest pulling you and a friend. We couldn’t figure out how to organise these rides because of the language barrier. It would be much easier to book one online, here.
Take A Day Trip to Nara From Kyoto
My top place, of all the places we saw in Japan, was the temple below, in Nara. I wish we’d had more than 1 day in Nara, we should have stayed overnight.
There were indeed loads of “polite” deer here, bowing for food, but it felt wrong to be feeding deer biscuits, it can’t be good for them. So I’ll just leave it up to you.
Nara’s deer-shaped ice cream was fun too.
We took the train to Nara from Kyoto, it was easy to do this as a day trip independently, once we’d had a bit of practice with Japanese trains, or you can book a tour.
Places We Didn’t Go in Kyoto
We skipped Kinkaku-ji Temple (the Golden Pavilion) and Nijo Castle. In part because we both went down with bad colds while we were in Kyoto, also because we spent so much time just wandering around and taking in the sights. For optimum efficiency, book a tour!
Kyomizudera Temple, Pure Water Temple, is on the lower slopes of the hill above the Gion and Higashiyama district. It famously has a large wooden terrace looking out over the trees.
We walked here but didn’t go in. It was about to close. It’s one for next time.
We had booked a night walking “haunted” tour of the Bamboo Forest, unfortunately we were too sick to go.
Best Time To Visit Kyoto
Kyoto has a humid subtropical climate. Summers can be very hot, up to almost 40 °C, 103°F. Winters can get close to freezing, with occasional snow. Spring and autumn, for cherry blossom and autumn leaves, are the best times to visit.
We visited in October, just before the peak of autumn leaf viewing, which cut our costs somewhat. The climate was perfect at this time. Cool enough for a jacket, but not cold.
How Long To Spend in Kyoto
We were in Kyoto for 4 days and crammed a lot in, including 2 full-day trips to Nara and Arashiyama. It’s also possible to take a day trip to Hiroshima from Kyoto, but the bullet trains are expensive, so we decided to save that for another trip. I would suggest that you spend a night in Nara, there was a lot to see there. Four days is a good amount of time to see the sights of Kyoto. I would not want to see Kyoto on a day trip from Osaka, unless you’re really short of time.
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