Hello everyone!
My (future) wife and I will be going to Japan on mid-Nov 2024 for honeymoon, and we'd love to hear some thoughts on our itinerary for Kyoto. After some time lurking this awesome sub-reddit, I think it's time to jump and ask myself 🙂
We'll be doing 2.5 days in Kyoto + 2 day trips. The 0.5 day is just because we land in Narita and move to Kyoto. I'm a bit concerned about are the days in the city, as I'm afraid of pushing ourselves too hard, and trying to see/do more than we can handle. On the other hand, I'm also afraid to be too conservative and not do enough activities to make the visit worth.
Since this is at the beginning of the trip we might still be fighting the jet-lag. Anyway, this is what we came up with for now (timestamps are only a rough guess). Thanks in advace for your help!
Day 1 (18th Nov)
Arrival and get to Kyoto. This day is a bit over-planned because the anxiety of getting lost in the transfers :). We'll try to make some use of the afternoon after we arrive.
10:15: Landing at Narita
10:15 – 12:00 Immigration, baggage, get suica/pasmo (~1.5-2 hours)
12:00 – 12:30 Takkyubin (~0.5 hours)
-> We still have to decide if we want to take the pain of being without our luggage until the next day, but we've been told that traveling with big luggage in the shinkansen can be a bit problematic.
12:30 – 14:00 Narita Express to Shinagawa
– N'Ex 20 -> 12:24 – 13:23
– N'Ex 22 -> 12:48 – 13:53
14:00 – Transfer at Shinagawa Station.
– Stop to buy an Ekiben for the train.
14:15 – Shinkansen to Kyoto
– Nozomi 73 -> 13:48 – 16:00
– Nozomi 231 -> 14:07 – 16:15
– Nozomi 39 -> 14:12 – 16:23
16:30~16:45 – Arrival in Kyoto. Walk or take the subway to the hotel.
17:00 – Check-in at the hotel.
17:15 – Stroll around Pontocho and Kamo River. We might visit that famous Uniqlo store. Get a nice dinner, ramen maybe. Go to bed soon-ish and try to tame the jet-lag
Day 2 (19th Nov)
Fushimi Inari and Higashiyama area.
08:00 – 10:30: Fushimi Inari.
10:30 – 11:00: Walk to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Tomb.
11:00 – 11:40: Visit the tomb.
-> This is not very common, but my wife is very excited to see it.
11:40 – 12:00: Walk to Kiyomizu-dera.
12:00 – 13:00: Visit Kiyomizu-dera.
13:00 – 14:00: Lunch in Higashiyama.
14:00 – 15:00: Stroll around Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka.
15:00 – 15:20: Walk to Yasaka Shrine.
15:20 – 16:30: Visit Yasaka Shrine.
16:30+: Explore Gion and have dinner.
Day 3 (20th Nov)
This day is what we're struggling with the most. We definitely want to visit Arashiyama and the Bamboo forest and the Saga-Toriimoto district, but we're kinda stuck trying to decide what to do with the rest of the day. Our rough plan is:
Morning:
Transfer to Arashiyama, visit Bamboo forest
Move to Saga Toriimoto by feet, hoping to have some nice experience wandering the (hopefully) less crowded streets.
Explore the preserved street and surroundings.
Have lunch in the area.
Afternoon:
Stuck between several options, and can't really decide. Advice here will be **highly** appreciated 🙂
1- Move to Kinkaku-ji, Ryoan-ji and Ninna-ji
2- Move back to Higashiyama, visit Ginkaku-ji, walk the Philosopher's Path at a very relaxed pace.
3- Keep on the Arashiyama area, but I'm not sure if by noon we might have exhausted all it has to offer.
Evening:
Move back to Nishiki market area to have dinner, as it's relatively close to the hotel (15-min walk maybe)
Day 4 (21th Nov)
Day trip to Kurama and Kibune. Still haven't planned the little details and timings, but it seems to be a pretty standard activity so no much stress here.
Day 5 (22th Nov)
Day trip to Himeji. This will be way more relaxed so we haven't bothered with timings too much either.
Take shinkansen to Himeji early in the morning.
Get to the Himeji castle by ~9:15 approx.
We'll be visiting the castle and gardens in the morning.
Visit the mount Shosha in the afternoon.
Have some dinner in Himeji if time allows.
Shinkansen back to Kyoto.
by krnlp
