I am interested in a reasonable place to stay in Kyoto for 2 nights with my 18 year old grandaughter. I understand that the inns have tatami mats or air mattresses and I don't think I am up to that. Any suggestions?

There are planty of places with twin western beds. What exactly is your price range? And if you are only going to be there 2 days, what do you plan on seeing/doing? Sites in Kyoto are very spread out, so that might have a part in what area you want to stay in.

I have not stayed there, but the Palace Side hotel has gotten recommendations on this forum as clean, affordable, and well located, w/helpful English speaking staff, a block from subway and bus stop. That is what my notes say, based on comments from this forum and tripadvisor.com. There are photos of it on tripadvisor.com as well.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...oto_Kinki.html

Just returned from a week in Kyoto, our second visit. We stayed at the Holiday Inn which is up in the NorthEast side of town for several reasons. It was reasonable (150 a night) with 2 double beds and attached to a mall that had a great grocery store, food court, Starbucks and a few restaurants. Next we were there over New Year's and all the other places wanted $300 to 500 a night for those two nights. Disadvantage is that you will need to take transportation to everything. But since EVERYTHING is so spread out in Kyoto, we just took cabs, learned the subway and busses and the hotel has a van that commutes about 6 times a day between JRstation and the hotel. Turned out to be a great place for us. Very affordable, comfortable, free internet, did breakfast in the room, and the money we saved on the room we put toward transportation.

hi there. I'm with you! All that rolling around the floor puts me right off!

For clean comfy budget hotels in excellent locations check out:-

http://www.toyoko-inn.com/eng/

They have 3 hotels in Kyoto. We've stayed at the 2nd & 3rd ones on their website. Hit the red button for Kyoto & 3 hotel names will appear. Both the second & third named are close to subways & bus stops and are a excellent value. Request a twin room as the double bed rooms are very small. So are the twin rooms but they are a little larger to accommodate the two beds. You can book on the website & pay on visa when you check in. Book early as these hotels are business hotels & fill up quickly. All good hotels in Kyoto fill up most weekends, we found.

Kyoto is wonderful. See the tourist office in JR's station for info, maps etc. Good luck!

Check out the current "Japan in March" thread also

we stayed at the hotel granvia and loved it. we got a discount rate through utell.com. It is located in the modern train station which may sound bad, but it is great. there is a huge mall--i know this sounds strange--that has amazing restaurants. it is perfect for one-day trip and it is easy to get to other parts of the city. true, it is not charming like the area around the philosophy walk, but it is worth checking out.

Bonjour rwhitehill,

You might consider Hearton Hotel (www.hearton.co.jp or http://www.itcj.jp/hdb/526078.html through the Welcome Inns reservation center) near the Karasuma-Oike crossing. It is well located, with good transportation connexions (subway and busses), and close enough to the center of the city for you to visit a lot on foot (covered galleries, Gion distric, etc.). Last year, the Welcome Inn reservation center got us a fab price of Yen 10000 for a twin (without breakfast but including taxes). It is described as a "business hotel" but is much better than that, rooms being spacious enough (for us), linens changed everyday, coin washmashines and dryers available on several floors, their kaiseki restaurant is excellent and you can get an excellent breakfast on the 1st floor.