There is an all day pass available in Kyoto. Since the lines are very limited, would it be of value or should we just plan on walking a lot? (I assume the Sanyo pass is not good in the town). We only have 2 full days in Kyoto so would enjoy seeing varied parts of the area rather than lots of temples, shrines.
Thanks - this board has made planning for this trip a lot easier! It is so hard to read the guide books and not have a sounding board to ask questions!

I was in Kyoto for a week and just used the subway one day as it was raining and more convenient to where I was going. Otherwise I used the buses. Of course, it is also a function of where you are staying and where you want to go....

We uses the taxis, and sometimes, the buses.
The taxi is not so expensive in Kyoto, if you compare it with Tokyo (also the distances are shorter).

The subway would be useful only if you're staying near the Station. It will get you over toward the Gion Area and toward Nijo-ji. I'd get a bus pass instead.

Can't you use the all-day subway pass on the bus as well? Or is my memory a little off?

http://www.city.kyoto.jp/koho/eng/access/transport.html

There are a variety of passes in Kyoto. Since I relied mainly on the buses I bought a kaisuken which is a strip of five 220 yen tickets for 1000 yen. I used two of them in my week in Kyoto.

They do have 1 day subway-buss pass for Y1200 and 2 day pass for Y2000.

Here is the web site, uhhh.. it is in Japanese . But you can get an idea, the small circles represent subway stops (pass covers red line East-West up to Higashiyama) and gray circle represents pass applicability for buses (really pretty much all metropolitan Kyoto.)

http://www.city.kyoto.jp/kotsu/ticke...htm#1_2daypass

One gotcha is that they did NOT accept credit cards for purchasing passes.

Here is the complete route map (of course in Japanese

http://www.city.kyoto.jp/kotsu/broch...map_200505.pdf

The pass is activated at first use.
For subway, you always use the automated turnstyle.
For bus, it is more complicated. There is an empty box at back of the card which is blank when you buy it. The first time you use the pass use the card reader, it prints the last day the pass is valid. Next time you ride the bus, you show that date to the driver when you get off (you don't use the card reader this time) -- you get on buses from back and get off from the front.

Too complicated? just show the card to the bus driver when you get off, he will show you what to do.

daryleann, you are correct: your Sanyo pass would be useless in Kyoto.