Hey! Been loving this subreddit to get travel tips/recs. I will soon be going to Japan for a two-week trip with a group of six friends. Seems like most of our itinerary makes sense but wanted to double-check our plan for Kyoto, since it’s the one that’s giving me some doubts. Would love to get some feedback!
Day 1
We get there after lunch and were planning to drop the bags to our Airbnb which is located near the Ōbiya station.
After this, we were thinking about hitting the following spots:
– Kodaiji Temple
– Sanneizaka
– Nineizaka
– Kiyomizu-dera Temple
Day 2
In the morning:
– Nishiki Market
– Gion
– Hanami-koji
– Yasaka-jinja Shrine
– Minamiza Theatre – see play at 14:00
Afternoon/evening:
– Ginkakuji
– Philosopher’s Path
– Nanzenji
– Heian Shrine
– Yasaka Shrine
– Kodaiji Temple
– Higashiyama
– Kiyomizudera
Day 3
– Gio-ji/Otagi Nenbutu
– Bamboo Grove
– Togetsukyo
– Tenryu-Ji
– Iwatayama Monkey Park
– Kinkaku-ji Temple
Day 4
– Fushimi Inari
Leave to Tokio (we can stay until later in Kyoto, no need to leave just after Fushimi Inari).
What do you think? Is it really packed? In case we need to prioritise could you plese let us know which things we can drop? We don’t want to see as much as possible but without feeling stressed out.
2 comments
I think it might be too packed. I had a similar idea back when I visited Kyoto and it took way longer to see each temple/shrine than I anticipated. You really don’t want to rush. At least for us we wanted to take it all in
I think it’s good if you can prioritise what your number 1 and 2 thing to do each day and have a back up list in case you find you have heaps of time.
But be okay with not seeing the rest of the things on the list.
We stayed a week in Kyoto and we still missed out on a lot.
One thing that was way quicker was the Bamboo Forest. That’s super quick but you can easily spend a lot of time at the surrounding area which is what we did.
I hope you enjoy Kyoto because it was mine and my wife’s favourite part of our Japan trip.
> Afternoon/evening: – Ginkakuji – Philosopher’s Path – Nanzenji – Heian Shrine – Yasaka Shrine – Kodaiji Temple – Higashiyama – Kiyomizudera
This is impossible. Ignoring all the 24h destinations, Ginkakuji/Nanzenji/Kodaiji/Heian Shrine/Kiyomizudera all close at 5-6pm. If you finish the play at 3pm this is five temples in 2-3 hours plus transportation time.