Philosopher’s Path: Walk or Bike

12 comments

1. The path gets crowded during sakura season so I think having the bike will be more of an annoyance than something useful. You can get buses from the Nishiki Market area to Jodoji Bridge then walk to Ginkakuji then walk the path to Nyakuoji Bridge. I also wouldn’t recommend trying to ride a bike around the Gion/Nishiki Market area during sakura season. The area gets super busy and trying to ride a bike will just get annoying.

2. Another thing you might want to consider is actually visiting the temples along the path as well. There are some that requires over 50 steps to get to the entrance from the path itself. I walked the path and only got through half way because of the several temples I visited on the hillside which took a lot out of me.

3. I would recommend leaving your bike near wherever you’d like to start/finish the walk along the path, rather than bring your bike with you/ride in general. It’s pretty narrow, and I feel like it’d be inconsiderate to other people who are enjoying their time at a leisurely pace.

4. > I know the Philosopher’s Path can actually be a decent walk

   Eh, the scenic part of the path is not particularly long. I think most people say its a walk because the walking to/from it is where the distance adds up.

   There is no right answer here, just depends on where you’re staying and how much time you want to devote to it. Biking to/from it is fine. As you already called out, biking down it during the busy season will probably be difficult and annoying to people on the path.

5. Might seem like a dumb question but when did you last ride a bike?
   My wife and I got electric bikes for philosopher’s path and it was the single worst thing about our trip.

   We stepped out of the rental shop into Kyoto traffic, only to realise we haven’t ridden a bike in 15 years and couldn’t control the damn things. They were so heavy and unwieldy, it was really stressful trying not to crash into people and avoid other bikes as well as the cars and busses.

6. Walk, breath, and smile

7. I accidentally ended up on the path while exploring this March and walked it all the way through around 5pm. Everything in kyoto closes early so it was pretty dead imo.

   Go before 4:30pm unless you JUST wanna walk.

8. I would definitely walk it. I remember the path being somewhat narrow so during primetime it would be challenging logistically. I went around sunset and there was not many people there at all (1 week after prime sakura season). The path itself is not long so i think on bike it would be hard to appreciate it.

   It was also the last thing we saw that day and it was really easy to hop on a local bus to take to Kyoto Station (we were staying in Osaka).

9. Would definitely just walk. The scenic part is not that long. IMO get up early, grab a coffee and have a leisurely stroll, enjoy some temple detours. There are some amazing bike bike rides to be had but I would go more out of the way for that.

10. From experience I would say walk rather than bike. Here’s some advice from Kyoto that seconds it. There are parts of the downtown where you aren’t allowed to cycle and others where it is not recommended. http://www.cyclekyoto.com/areas-to-avoid

11. The path itself is a lot of uneven stones and pavers, so biking isn’t the best idea.

    I walked it in March using bus at either end. If you do it as I did and don’t take detours to visit temples and shrines along the way it’s not particularly interesting.

12. I moved in Kyoto almost exclusively biking. I think I would have liked to be in the philosopher path walking just to be there more time, but biking is definitely ok. Although I went in low season