My boyfriend and I will be in Kyoto at the end of May and I’m struggling to figure out an itinerary that means we’ll be able to enjoy ourselves and not feel too rushed but also make sure we don’t miss anything. Any tips / thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
We’ll arrive around midday-ish on the Wednesday and we’re leaving on the Saturday (probably mid-afternoon). I think we’re going to hire bikes from the weds afternoon to Friday afternoon to help get around. We’re both relatively fit and decent cyclists so I’m not worried about that. I’ve looked at a map which details where not to cycle / where you can park so also feeling good about that side of things.
We’ll have seen Himeji castle the day we arrive but other than that won’t have seen many temples / castles etc before arriving and we’re heading to Osaka afterwards with no real plans to see temples there so we can go pretty heavy on temples in Kyoto but obviously I’m concerned about getting tired. I’ve written an itinerary I think will work with room to be flexible depending on how we feel.
**Key questions -**
1. How does the itinerary look?
2. Is there anything obviously missing?
3. In terms of temples, any that are must see / any that can be skipped?
**Day 1 -**
We’ll probably get to Kyoto around midday – our hotels a 10 min walk south of Nishiki market so we’ll probably dump our bags and then go for lunch.
Pick up bikes and get them parked up near the hotel – .
Spend the afternoon / evening exploring Ninenzaka / Sannenzaka / Gion (will have time to come back so will just take it easy and see where we end up).
**Day 2 -**
Get up early and cycle to Fushimi-inari (should be about 30 mins so can get there nice and early) – park up bikes and do the full walk. Probably grab breakfast at a convenience store – is it okay to sit and eat somewhere near the top assuming we take all our rubbish home obviously?
Then I’m thinking we should cycle to Ginkaku-ji temple because that’s the furthest North we’ll go today so we can take our time making our way back to the Gion area not worried that we’ll run out of time for the further away places.
Ideally (I think) we’d park at the southern end of the philosophers path then walk up to Ginkaku-ji and back – but the map I have of bike parking doesn’t show any. For ease, I’m thinking we could park at Okazaki park and walk to the bottom of the Philosopher’s path. Spend a couple of hours walking the path and seeing the temples.
Have Junsei (tofu restaurant) saved as a possible place for lunch – think you can book for 13:30 so should be able to make that – can leave seeing Nanzenji temple and Heinan-jingu shrine until after lunch if needed.
After lunch (and possibly Heinan-jingu) – cycle to the Higashiyama area and depending on how we’re feeling see Marayuma Park. There’s a good chance we’ll be templed out for the day but if not see Kodaji and the ones in that area.
Spend late afternoon / evening, in similar areas to previous night.
**Day 3 -**
Cycle to Arashiyama Togetskyo bridge (will probably take an hour but will be able to cycle by river for a lot of it). Not going to bother with the monkey park but will have a walk around the bamboo forest and visit Tenryuji temple.
Depending on how we feel we could cycle to see some more temples in this area (Jojakkji / Gioji / Otagi-Nenbutsuji).
Cycle to see Ninna-ji, Ryoan-ji then Kinkaku-ji (maybe skip one or two depending on how we feel).
Return bikes and spend evening wandering wherever we feel like we haven’t explored or want to spend more time.
**Day 4 -**
We’re heading to Osaka – I’m thinking of maybe getting the Aoniyoshi train which leaves Kyoto at 16:20 so we have a decent amount of the day to spend in Kyoto. Maybe go to Nijo castle and the imperial palace. And/or if we didn’t see Kodaji on day 2, could go there. Or just see how we feel.
by Status-Inevitable925
