Kyoto Itinerary- pls help!
 

Hi fellow travellers!

I'll be staying four nights in Kyoto, with 1 night in Kinosaki Onsen, where I'll be visiting Himeji enroute.

I intend to see a bit of everything during my time in Kyoto, covering as much as possible. I've tried to come up with the detailed itinerary, but am not sure if it's right... pls help me to see if it's feasible/ comfortable, and if there's anything i should do better/ avoid.

Day 1,Tues, 21st - Arrive in Kyoto around 2:15pm. Toji Temple for the monthly bazaar.
Ryoanji and Kinkaju ji (I will be staying at Utano Youth Hostel, which is near Ryoanji.)

Day 2: Wed, 22nd - Visit
• Ginkakuji
• Philosopher’s Pathway
• Kyoto Museum of Traditional Crafts (near Heian Shrine)
• Heian Shrine – Shinen Garden
• Kyoto Handicraft Centre
It's the Matsuri Festival that day.

Day 3: Thurs - will be spending whole day out of Kyoto (to Himeji and Kinosaki Onsen)

Day 4: Friday, 24th: Will be going to Osaka, from Kinosaki Onsen. Only return to Kyoto at night.

Day 5: Visit: (not in order)
• Kiyomizu Temple – Jishu Shrine
• Kodaiji Temple
• Sansusangendo Hall
• Kyoto Craft Centre
• Gion
• Nishiki-Koji-Dori (north of Shijo Dori
Lunch at Hale (at Nishiki Koji)
I would like to leave for Nara and spend the afternoon there.

Day 6: Visit Kyoto in the morning, leave after lunch for Kanazawa
• Nijo Castle
• Kyoto Imperial Palace (10am/ 2pm tour)
• Nishijin Textile Centre

Appreciate any comments, especially if you're familiar with Kyoto/ staying there.

Thank you very much!!

Don't know if on any of my visits to Kyoto I've ever done in a whole day what you're proposing for a half day! Pare it down, especially on Tuesday and Friday. Unless your travel style is really "hit-and-run," I'd opt for less in more depth. Maybe cut out Kinkakuji and Ginjakuji and one ore two of the craft centres. Kobo-san at Toji is worthwhile, as is Kiyomizudera; Ryonaji, yes, since you're near there. If you want to go to Nara, better leave a whole day for it, or at least plan to leave Kyoto before noon.

I agree with WillJame - you are doing much too much....I don't even think it will be physically possible to see all those sights in the time you have allotted.

I think you will enjoy your trip more if you slow down...

Enjoy!

Dear WillJame and Mara,

Thanks for the advice! Just to check, when you say Tues and Friday, do you actually mean Day 2 and Day 5, ie Wed and Sat?

Ok, it seams that I can make the following adjustments perhaps?

Day 1: Tues, 2:15pm visit Toji Temple, Ryoanji and Kinkakuji.

Day 2: Kyoto Museum of Traditional Craft, Heian Shrine, Kyoto Handicraft Centre, Nishiki Koji Dori, Gion

day 3 out (Himeji, Kinosaki)
day 4 out (Osaka)

Day 5: Sansusangendo Hall, Kiyomizu Temple- Jinshu Shrine, Kodaiji Temple. Go to Nara for lunch.

Day 6: Nijo Castle, leave after lunch for Kanazawa.

Does it look better this way?

Oops, I was thinking of Day 1 (when you can't really go to the market at Toji, where the grounds are huge and will be crowded) and two other temples in less than three hours. Remember, it'll be dark before 6 PM, and there's some distance between them. Again, on Day 5 you had too much to cram in before noon. But if your aim is "covering as much as possible," then go for it, and you'll see what you can do.

You have very little time to see both Kinkakuji and Ryoanji on Day 1. Both close before 5 pm and it's a good hour to get there from Toji in heavy city traffic.

Day 5 - You plan all that before lunch in Nara? At the very least drop Nara.

Really, unless you are planning to go to each place, buy entry, walk around for 10 minutes, then head off to the next place, you've got too much planned.

You could eliminate Osaka and do on Day 4 some of the Kyoto things you have listed on other days.

I, too, am one who tends to plan too much for one day, but even I think your itinerary is un-doable.

Day 1 - You don't even arrive until mid-afternoon and by the time you get to your hotel and check in, it will be even a bit later. I would think you'd be able to do nothing more than go to the bazaar, but since you're staying near Ryoan-ji, you might be able to do a quick "drive by" before heading to the bazaar. How late is the bazaar open?

Day 2 - Again, way too much planned, but maybe doable if you're planning to get an early morning start and extend seeing Gion into the evening. Very full day. Plus, I don't know how much impact the Matsuri Festival may have on traffic and crowds.

Day 5 - As I believe someone else said (or implied), you have more than enough planned for an entire day, but you want to try to do it all before lunch? Like KimJapan said, if you want to just run by each place, maybe you could fit it all in, but I wouldn't plan on it. Pick the place you most want to see that morning before you leave for Nara. If, by chance, you have time for one other, great. Btw, if you're going to try to see two places before leaving for Nara, I would think it would have to be Sanjusangendo and Kiyomizudera, only because you're not taking into consideration the time needed to get to Kiyomizudera or Kodai-ji. You can have a taxi drop you off right in front of Sanjusandengo, but it will take you longer to walk to Kiyomizudera and/or Kodai-ji.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for giving me your experienced perspectives about how much is doable in a day.

I've made some changes, not sure if it's any better?

Day 1,Tues, 21st
- Arrive in Kyoto around 1:15pm. (an hour earlier than before.)
-Toji Temple for the monthly bazaar.
-Kinkaju ji(skip Ryoanji?)


Day 2, Wednesday:
Kyoto Museum of Traditional Craft, Heian Shrine,
Kyoto Handicraft Centre,
Nishiki Koji Dori,
Gion

Yes, I was thinking of visiting Gion only at night.

day 3 out (Himeji, Kinosaki)
day 4 out (Osaka)

Day 5: (will be staying at K's House in Days 5-6, so access to these places will be faster?)
Sansusangendo Hall,
Kiyomizu Temple- Jinshu Shrine,
Go to Nara for lunch. (I actually wanted to go to Nara later, but someone suggested that I spend at least half a day there... depending ... perhaps I should skip Nara? )

Day 6:
Nijo Castle
Imperial Palace if possible.
leave after lunch for Kanazawa.


Do you think there is any improvement in this itinerary?

Thanks everyone for all your valuable feedback!

http://sankan.kunaicho.go.jp/english/index.html

You need a reservation to take the Imperial Palace tour - see above link and the English language tours are at 10am and 2 pm.

Nijo Castle opens at 8:45 according to japan-guide.com so it would be pretty hard to do that first....

I saw both of them but on different days.

Maybe you could do the Palace then the Castle and have lunch a bit later before you have to leave....

If Day 6 is Saturday or Sunday, the Imperial Palace is closed.

With so little time for Nara, I would skip it. We are slow at sightseeing for sure, but we have spent 9 days there this year and not seen all that we want to. I would give it an entire day or nothing, because your schedule is so packed as it is dropping it and spending the time in Kyoto would give you some time to enjoy there.

Hi,

I see you are having as hard a time as we did trying to arrange your days. We wanted to see it all, also! You are getting good advise especially about the Imperial Palace which we really enjoyed. If that ia a a place you want to see...reserve your ticket for the 10am tour now and work the rest of your time around that date. This is how our days actually worked out (not what we what planned to do!) and we tend to see things at a faster pace than some. This may help you s little in you planning as we did some of the things you want to do....

By days here is what we did.

Day 1, AM- We walked (took about 20mins) from our Hotel(Okura) to our 10am tour at the Imperial Palace in English.)There is a subway from the train station to the Imperial Palace Gardens.) We enjoyed this site and our guide was good. it gave us aot of history that really helped understand some of the other sites too. You don't go into the Palace, but doors are open and you can see inside. It is mainly the gardens and the building stlye that are so beautiful. The Imperial Palace grounds are nice too. There were no crowds of tourist! The cherry trees were still in bloom while we were there, so that was extra special. This took about 1 hour to see.

From the Palace entrance we walked zigzaging through the small alleyway like streets toward Horikawa-dori and Nijo Castle. We saw small gardens and shops and many interesting homes. We came out on Horikawa about half way to Nijo. We found a small "Pastry" shop and bought some wonderful fresh rolls with meat filling and some pastries and had a mini picnic on the Castle grounds. The walk took about an hour with stops.

Nijo Castle is very interesting and definitely worth seeing, you tour on your own most of the inside and many rooms have models in the dress of the period set up. This helps with the understanding of the function of each room as there is no English. There were more tourist here -especially older school children. The gardens are most impressive and were especially colorful with all the cherry blooms draping over the garden walks. This took us about another hour.

It started to rain as we left the Castle about 1:30, so we took a cab back to the Hotel on Oike-dori at the river- min charge of ~$5.50. But there is a subway stop in front of Nijo that will take you to Kamaramichi Station(basically where our hotel was). This stop is a great place to start an afternoon exploring Kyoto's great shopping district including the Taramachi Shopping Arcade.

If you are not into shopping, just walk over to Pontocho Alley(an interesting alley like street next to the river lined with old buildings that are bars and small restaurants on the river side and a tree lined canal on the other) and walk down to Shijo-dori. If you walk across the river here, you are on the edge of the Gion District. You can spend the rest of the afternoon walking the narrow streets on either side of Shijo-dori up to Yasaka Shrine. I really liked this shrine and the area. We came to this area almost every evening exploring different streets up to the Shrine on our way to a dinner spot. There are great places to eat down the back alleys. The back streets really give you a feel for old Japan, especially when you see a lady in a beautiful kimono!

Day 1, PM It stopped raining about 3:30, so we took a taxi from the hotel to Ginkakuji(~$8). For some reason the temple was closed for the afternoon, so we didn't see it.

From there we walked down the Philosopher's Path. This is an interesting walk and there are several nice temples along the way. From Konchi-in Temple we worked our way along the canal to the large orange Tori in front of Heinan Shrine and continued along the canal to Higashioji. This walk took us about a hour, more if you go in any of the temples. I would do it again in a heart beat-there are lots of Temples and interesting local life along the way! We ate at the Garlic Restaurant above the Gion Kaikan Theater across from the Yasaka Shrine. This was very good and fun too. There were lots of young Japanese couples there- it seemed popular-Japanese dishes-chop sticks only!, no tourist. From there we walked back Shijo-dori across the river and up Ponotcho Alley to the Hotel.(From our Hotel it was a $10 taxi ride to the Train Station or we could just take the two subways.)

More of our time in Kyoto:

Day 2, AM Since it was the 21st of the month, we took the E-W Subway in front of our hotel and changed to N-S subway to the train station. From there we walked to the Toji Temple Market. Wow what a treat! Hundreds of booths of neat stuff-clothes, antiques, household goods, food, plants and things I have no idea what they were! I shopped and looked till my husband couldn't stand it anymore! But as I said I did find three beautiful silk obis. All are in great shape. My husband tried some of the stall food, but I didn't because of my soy allergy! We walked over to the Garden area and wonder around for a while. This is really a nice garden and Pagoda. The temple is massive and really interesting too. We walked back to the station and found a storage locker for our "finds".

PM - We bought tickets on the Kintetsu Limited for Nara. I know many on the board think this is a wonderful tour, but I was disappointed in Nara. First it is a big city! When you get off the Train and walk up to the street, it looks just like Kyoto, so for me the first impression was a real turn off. I expected more of a village setting for some reason! We found a food take out place and bought some more of the sandwich like rolls that we found so fresh and good. We walked up the street past Kofuku-ji. These grounds aren't nearly as nice as Toji to me. We walked on the the Park, found a place(tree stump) to sit and had lunch. Fortunately the deer did not find us, but we could see them and since it was hot we could smell them too! We then walked on to the Todaiji Temple grounds. It was a hot sunny day, more so, since Kyoto had been so cool and cloudy the last two days. The Nandai and Daibutsu are massive and interesting but were crowded with school children. I did not think the park very nice-lots tourist stands around the sites, not too much grass, no flowers, but lots of sand. From there we walked up the hill to Kasuga-taisha. That must be neat when all the lanterns are lighted. At this point, my husband was bored with temples and I was hot so we walked back to the train station bought tickets back to Kyoto.

Agsin we walked over to the Gion District from the Hotel for dinner. It was dark and Yasaka Shrine was lighted up so we walked around a bit.

Day 3 We took a taxi to the train station for the 7:44am Shinkansen Hikari to Himeji.I bought all our tickets the day before based on my HPERDIA research. We arrived at 8:31 and walked up to the Castle. This took about 20mins. We could see the Castle the whole way so no chance to get lost! We got to the entrance gate about 5 mins before it opened. Like all things Japanese there were two men standing there, one by the gate and another by a bell with a watch. At exactly 9, one hit the bell several times as the other opened the gate! There were only two other people there so we had it all to ourselves. It is a beautiful Castle, well maintained, one of only a few that haven't been destroyed. Plus there were still some cherry blooms-I was so surprised! It took about an 1 1/2 hours to see at our own pace with an English guide booklet we got with our tickets. The Castle is huge and six stories up, but worth the climb! We walked back to the station and stopped at a covered shopping area where we got a lunch to go- there are great little places on every street almost!

We caught the 11:41 Shinkansen Nozomi for Hiroshima and ate lunch along the way. At 12:45 we walked out of Hiroshima station and caught the tram in front of the main entrance for the "A" Dome and Peace Park. It took about 20 mins to get to the park. All my husband wanted to see was the Dome. Since we had already spent time at the memorial museum in Nagasaki, we just walked around a bit. At a board member's suggestion went to the Hall of Remembrance. This Hall was worth the trip! It is an under ground building displaying the stories and pictures from people who lived through the experience.

From there we went back to the tram stop boarded it and rode to the end of the line which was the Miyajima Ferry dock (another 40 mins). We took the 10 min ferry across to the Island. The Tide was just coming in at about 3:30, so we got to see the people clamming around. We wandered around the shops and then on out to the Itsukushima Shrine. We walked back across the inlet by the Torri(it is huge) and found a Okonomamiyaki shop back in the village. By this time all the day trippers were gone! We walked back to the park and Torii for me to get some pictures as the sun set over the bay behind the Torii. This was a beautiful setting and I got great pictures. The Island is peaceful this time of day and we really enjoyed it. There are other neat things to see on the Island, but my husband was tired of the Temples and much preferred the park area.

We caught the ferry back to the mainland and bought tickets on the next local train to Hiroshima Station. This all took maybe an hour. We had tickets for the 8:33 Shinkansen Nozomi, but it was only 7:15 when we got to the Station so I changed the tickets for the next Nozomi at 7:30. It was about 9 when we got back to Kyoto. It was a great day. I am glad we did the trip. It was one of our most fun days.

Last day in Kyoto:

Our last day was spent seeing things in a very disorganized way. Mainly this was because we side tracked ourselves some on the first 2 days and didn't see everything on the list for that day or saw something we want to go back too.

Day 4, AM- I wanted to see the Kiyomizu Temple at sunrise, but...! We took a taxi there about 7:30 ($10). The first of many groups of older school childern had just arrived and were having their pictures made in front of the Gate. This a beautiful Temple complex, and if it is a clear day like ours, the view of the city below is very nice. It is really worth seeing and is a good staring or ending point for a day tour in that part of the city. From there we worked our way down to Higashioji through the interesting narrow streets.

We caught a taxi (`$24) to Kinkaku-ji(Gold Pavilion). This was another of my "must sees" and I was not disappointed. It and its grounds a really beautiful. If we had seen Ginkakuji earlier, we might not have made the effort as it is some distance from other sites.

From there we took a taxi back to the Nijo Castle area($8). There was a sword shop my husband wanted to see. We also went to a kimono shop in the same area. That was most interesting as it turned out to be a store front on an old home. The kimono area was in the back in the rooms of the home. I was treated like a queen. It was a wonderful hour for me and kimono clad young women entertained my husband in front with tea!

From there we took the E-W subway to the hotel stop(last one I think) We wanted to have a traditional tempura meal. There is a great little restaurant -Takasebure in the alleyway off Sanjo-dori near the river. Well I thought there was a bar we could eat at and there was, but they insisted we eat in one of the special rooms. It was a wonderful experience and the food was out of this world. From there we walked back to the Hotel and took a taxi to Osaka about 2pm.

I hope this helps with your time planning. Kyoto is a great city. Just know that we were take 2 years ago and taxi prices are higher now I'm sure! We will be back in April to see more of what we missed!

Have a great trip!

Cwn, kimjapan, and mara, thanks so much for all that advice and details!Really didn't check properly - didn't know that some attractions close on weekends. Thanks for mentioning it!

I've just booked a tour to Imperial Castle on Wed 22nd. Will try to change my itinerary according to that. I'll take some time to read and digest your posts cwn, and see how I can adjust the itinerary. Thanks for all that help and sharing!

Pat

Pat,I hope my ramblings will help you. I think you probably have time to do most of what you want. Just make a plan, do your most important places first and try to see every thing in one section in the same time frame.

We didn't do that part very well. We side tracked our selves a lot, but had a great time! If you haven't looked at them yet go to the JNTO site and look at the walking tours. Those really hepled me figure out what we could reasonably do in, say, half a day.

Have fun!

Hi everyone!

Thanks for all the valuable help. Without your advice, I wouldn't be able to keep revising to the best possible arrangement. Please see if this is better, and if it's feasible. Appreciate your comments!
(I couldn't get the 10am tour to Imperial Palace, and in fact, the 2pm tour was the only one available for my whole trip. If not for you guys I wouldn't be able to go!)



1) 21st Tues – 1:30pm on wards
• Toji Temple (bazaar on 21st)
Take bus to Hostel.
Visit:
• Kinkakuji


2) 22nd Wed - whole day (day of Festival)
• Philosopher’s Pathway (perhaps just see a bit of it since i will be skipping Ginkakuji? Or should I skip this?)
• Kyoto Museum of Traditional Crafts (near Heian Shrine)
• Heian Shrine – Shinen Garden
• Kyoto Handicraft Centre
• Lunch 12-1pm
• Kyoto Imperial Palace (2pm tour)
• Nijo Castle (enter by 4pm)
• Dinner at Gion
3) 23rd - out
4) 24th - out

5) 25th Sat
• Sansusangendo Hall
• Kiyomizu Temple – Jishu Shrine
• Kodaiji Temple (tea break at Kodaiji Rakushi Tea Room)
• Kyoto Craft Centre
– till 1pm (if really takes much longer, then, skip Nara)

Take train to Nara
• Todaiji Temple
• Kasuga Shrine
• Kofukuji Temple’s Treasure House
Train back to Kyoto, dinner

6) 26th Sun – till 1pm
• Nishiki-Koji-Dori (north of Shijo Dori)


I can see that probably Day 2 is rather cramped, but I don't really know how to split it out and perhaps put some in day 6?

Any ideas?

Probably where you are when on Oct 22nd should be determined by the Jidai Festival schedule: <<In the morning, the shrine procession travels from the Heian Shrine to the Kyoto Imperial Palace, and at noon, processions representing each era parade through the city, and return to the Heian Shrine.>> You've got the Imperial Palace tour at 2PM. It makes sense to see Nijo that day because it's nearby. I don't myself think that Heian Shrine is worth seeing, nor its nearby museum. Why not see the Kyoto Costume Museum and the Textile Center instead and stay near Nijo and the Palace? KCM gets a star in Fodor's Guidebook.
In fact, you might double-check all your choices using Fodor's Guidebook. (E.g., I don't think Kodai-ji is preferred.)

Hi,

WillJame has a good suggestion. I agree about the Heian Shrine. But Nijo Castle is very interesting-so maybe go first thing so you can really enjoy it before the tons of school kids and tour buses arrive. Then do the suggested Kyoto Costume Museum and the Textile Center or see some of the Festival procession when it travels near the Imperial Palace or the processions representing each era as they parade through the city.

After the Palace tour you would probably still have time for Ginkakuji and the Philosopher’s Pathway. Even though it was after 4 before we started the PP walk, several of the Temples along the way were still open.

Ok, you've got a good checklist of things to see in Kyoto and a few in Nara.

How did you come to put Kinosaki Onsen on your itinerary? What are you interested in seeing/doing there?

If you get one of the three daily (Hamakaze) limited express trains from Himeji to Kinosaki then the trip will be just under 2 hours. Actually, only the 1:17PM departure would be useful to you. It arrives at 3:01PM. Otherwise it will be 3 or 4 hours.

It is doable: leave Kyoto at 7:49 on a Hikari shinkansen and arrive Himeji at 8:38AM. You'll have about 3 hours to visit Himeji-jo (don't stop and do a lot of window shopping on the way). Back to Himeji station to get that L'Ex to Kinosaki. Next day go to Osaka and back to Kyoto.

What is your plan for Osaka? What do you want to see/do there?