Where to Stay in Kyoto’s Higashiyama: A Guide to the Hotels Beside the Temples
Where to stay on Kyoto's eastern hillside, from Kengo Kuma's Banyan Tree to the restored Yasaka Kaikan in Gion.
Photo: Park Hyatt Kyoto
Higashiyama is the part of Kyoto that looks most like the postcard: wooden lanes climbing to Kiyomizu-dera and Kodai-ji, tea houses, temple gates. It has also become the centre of the city’s new luxury hotels, so the question is less whether to stay here than which part of the hillside suits you.
For quiet beside the temples: the upper hillside
The upper slopes reward those who want the temples to themselves before the day trippers arrive. Banyan Tree Higashiyama Kyoto, designed by Kengo Kuma, sits in the wooded hills a short walk from Kiyomizu-dera, with a natural onsen and a Noh stage. Park Hyatt Kyoto is beside Kodai-ji and shares its historic site with the ryotei Kyoyamato, founded in 1877.
For a hotel organised around wellbeing, Six Senses Kyoto sits beside the sixteenth-century Toyokuni Shrine, with a spa built on Japanese bathing traditions.
For the lanes and evenings: Gion and Miyagawa-cho
Lower down, the district is more urban and more theatrical. Imperial Hotel, Kyoto occupies the restored Yasaka Kaikan of 1936 on Hanamikoji in the middle of Gion, and Capella Kyoto, by Kengo Kuma, stands in the Miyagawa-cho geiko district beside Kennin-ji. Both are walking distance from the evening life of the old quarter.
For a garden and a slower pace
Four Seasons Hotel Kyoto is a low-rise hotel built around an 800-year-old pond garden at the edge of the hillside, a calm contrast to the lanes above. It suits travellers who want the temples within reach but prefer to retreat to green.
Beyond the room
Pair a stay with a tea ceremony in Kyoto, or time a visit for the floats of the Gion Matsuri in July. Travellers who prefer a wooden townhouse to a hotel should look at a machiya stay instead.
Sources: The Luxury Editor: Higashiyama Ward. Check the official websites for current information.
Stay
Hotels in this guide
Kyoto · Park HyattPark Hyatt KyotoSeventy rooms beside Kodai-ji in Higashiyama, sharing a historic site with the 1877 ryotei Kyoyamato.
Kyoto · Six SensesSix Senses KyotoSix Senses' first hotel in Japan: 81 rooms beside Toyokuni Shrine in Higashiyama.KyotoImperial Hotel, KyotoFifty-five rooms in the restored 1936 Yasaka Kaikan on Hanamikoji, in the heart of Gion.Kyoto · CapellaCapella KyotoCapella's first hotel in Japan: 89 rooms by Kengo Kuma in the Miyagawa-cho geiko district, beside Kennin-ji.Kyoto · Four SeasonsFour Seasons Hotel KyotoA low-rise Higashiyama hotel of 110 rooms and 13 suites around an 800-year-old pond garden.Continue
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