Highlights

• Nishiki market
• Fushimi inari hike to the summit early morning
• Kinkakuji golden temple
• Ginkakuji
• Kiyomizu-dera
• Philosopher’s path along the canal for a walk, especially during cherry blossom season
• Kyoto tower
• Kyoto Imperial Palace
• Samurai and ninja museum with Ninja training for kids
• Nishi Hongan-ji Temple 
• Higashi Hongan-ji Temple
• Nijō Castle
• Arashiyama park viewpoint
• Arashiyama bamboo forest
• Arashiyama monkey park
• Kyoto aquarium
• Kyoto Botanical Gardens
• Kyoto City Zoo
• Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art
• Eikandō Temple
• The Museum of Kyoto
• Yamazaki whisky distillery nearby
• Nearby Lake Biwa

Before you go

• Temples tend to open and close early, and they can get crowded so try to go early in the morning
• April is usually the time to see cherry blossoms in the city
• Many toilets don’t have hand dryers so people tend to carry around their own small towels. Sometimes they also don’t have soap
• The main Kyoto rail station is bustling for transport and food. Leave plenty of time to find your platform as the station is large, on multiple levels and with many entrances
• Add Suica card to Apple wallet and load yen onto it for local travel
• Some places only take cash and others take only physical credit cards
• Eating while walking is considered rude, so at food markets, you should stand and eat where you buy food
• At temples, you will need to take your shoes off to enter
• Book tickets for popular attractions in advance

Transport

• The train system in Japan is very efficient and quick. For longer distances, you can book Shinkansen trains. Most require a ticket and seat reservation so read carefully
• The Shinkansen between Kyoto and Tokyo takes about 2.5 hours
• Kyoto does not have an airport, and the closest ones are in Osaka
• Kyoto has a metro system and it goes to some places, but for public transport you’ll probably also need to take buses. It is a large and sprawling city so not walkable to all attractions. You can also buy a day pass if you will be using transport a lot
• Uber works but it is more popular to use Go or DiDi apps to get taxis. You can also just ask hotels or restaurants to order a taxi
  
  

Accommodation

• Our first hotel was the four-star Righa Royal Hotel Kyoto
• Three of us were in a triple room and it was small, but big enough for us to open our luggage. We had a fridge and a nice view from the mini balcony
• Breakfast buffet was a bit pricey but had a great selection of food
• Later, I stayed at the Via Inn Prime Kyoto, just across from the Hachijo exit of Kyoto station. It was nice and the room was a decent size for Japan, but quite small. The toilet paper was the thinnest I’ve ever seen!
• Service at Via Inn Prime Kyoto was not great. You check in and out with a computer terminal, and the staff were not as helpful as at other hotels
• As usual I recommend checking reviews on Google Reviews or using AirBnB

Food

Snacks and Quick Food

My top food recommendation in Kyoto is Nishiki Market, which is a lively food market with endless options. Keep in mind that you need to eat the food you buy at the stall, and dispose of your rubbish there. It is very rude to walk while eating, and there are many signs forbidding it.

Kichi kichi is the Instagram-famous Omurice restaurant, which has a complex reservation system. We tried but didn’t manage to get a table. Omura house or Omuraya are good alternatives. The dish is simple, a thin omelette filled with rice and usually seafood or meat, with a side of sauce. I had a delicious chicken omurice with sweet and sour sauce.

There are a variety of mochi options (pounded sweet rice cakes or balls). Souzen mochi dango on a stick is a beautifully packaged treat for eating or gifts. Mitarashi Dango have mochi balls on a stick with a sweet soy sauce. Finally, warabimochi is a sticky mochi covered in kinako (roasted soybean flour).

Ginkakuji Matsubaya had delicious ice cream and desserts, and other branches are around the city.

Moxi was a great place for bubble tea and matcha, and also for us to have a rest in air conditioning.

We enjoyed the creative drinks at Tsujiri Cafe at the bottom of Kyoto Tower. For example, the matcha sakura fizzy drink.

Restaurants

Kitada clam ramen has a queue out the door, so it is best to go early. A twist on the traditional ramen with clam broth.

Moko is Michelin-starred French-Japanese restaurant which was friendly, classy and relaxed. The delicious and beautiful dishes used local ingredients in the French style.

Kura Sushi Plus Kyoto is a fun revolving sushi restaurant. It was so reasonable compared to the equivalent restaurant in California! Lots of choices and fun for kids.

Hitomebore is an izakaya-style restaurant. It was very loud and busy, and mostly filled with young people drinking beer. However, it was fun to try lots of small plates of food.

Nearby is a special restaurant Yoshibe, with the poisonous blowfish. We didn’t try it but saw the pile of blowfish tails outside.