Kyoto京都府

Places to seeWhere to go in Kyoto

Start with the first of these. Each is worth half a day.

Fushimi Inari伏見稲荷大社

A mountainside of thousands of vermilion gates. Open all night, free, and empty before 07:00.

Half a day

MAP

Kiyomizu-dera清水寺

A temple on a wooden platform over the hillside, with the whole city below it.

Half a day

MAP

Arashiyama嵐山

A bamboo grove, a river with flat boats, and a bridge.

Half a dayYou can ride

MAP

Gion祇園

Wooden streets that are still lived in. Walk them in the evening, and ask before photographing anyone.

An evening

MAP

Kinkakuji金閣寺

A pavilion covered in gold leaf, reflected in a pond. Small, crowded, and worth the twenty minutes.

1 hour

MAP

Nijo Castle二条城

A shogun’s residence with painted screens and floors built to squeak when walked on.

2 hours

MAP

Philosopher’s Path哲学の道

Two kilometres of cherry trees along a narrow canal in the east of the city. Walk it before eight.

2 hoursSpring only

MAP

Amanohashidate天橋立

A pine-covered sandbar across a bay in the north of the prefecture. Looked at upside down, bent over.

A full day

MAP

What Kyoto is

What is here is the real thing rather than a reconstruction. There are around two thousand temples and shrines, and you cannot see them all — nobody can, and trying to is the commonest mistake visitors make here.

Pick three or four and give each of them time. Fushimi Inari is a mountainside covered in vermilion gates, thousands of them, standing one behind the next; it is open all night and it is free, and after dark or before seven in the morning you can have it almost to yourself. Kiyomizu-dera stands on a wooden platform over a hillside. Arashiyama has the bamboo grove, and a river with boats on it.

When to comeThe same place, four different places

Pick the season first and the days will arrange themselves.

March – May

Cherry blossom in early April — the busiest week of the Kyoto year. Book months ahead or come in May instead.

June – August

Wet in June, then genuinely hot and still — Kyoto sits in a basin. Temples are quietest at 08:00.

September – November

Autumn colour peaks in the last two weeks of November, and it is as busy as spring. Worth it.

December – February

Cold, clear and quiet. Snow on a temple roof is rare, and the best thing in the city when it happens.

Find it fastEverything in Kyoto