The Best Things to Do in Kyoto – Temples, Gion & Arashiyama

No — but part of it is. Since April 2024 the private alleys of Gion are off limits to visitors, with signs at the entrances warning of a ¥10,000 penalty, and photographing geiko and maiko on those lanes has been banned since 2019. The public streets are open as before and almost every guided walk stays on them. What you cannot do any more is wander into the side lanes hoping to catch someone on their way to work.

Kyoto has no airport of its own. The direct option is the Limited Express Haruka from Kansai International to Kyoto Station, roughly 75 minutes. The limousine bus takes about 85 to 90 minutes and costs ¥2,800, which is the better choice with large luggage because it goes door to door with the station rather than through the ticket gates. Itami, the domestic airport near Osaka, is a separate connection.

It is closer than most itineraries assume: 41 minutes from Kyoto Station on the JR rapid service, 34 on the Kintetsu limited express. Tōdai-ji and the deer park sit together and make a comfortable long morning rather than a full day. Many tours sell Nara as a whole day by adding Fushimi Inari or Uji on the way — which is a good day, but check that you are not paying full-day money for one temple and a train.

Blossom usually falls in the first half of April and the maples in the second half of November, but both shift by a week or two from year to year and the dates are only firm a few weeks ahead. What that means for booking: the evening illuminations at the big temples are separate ticketed events with limited numbers and they sell out. If your trip is fixed to those weeks, book the evenings first and the daytime tours around them.

For the city, no, and we would advise against it. Kyoto is a tight grid with expensive parking, and the big temples have very few spaces. Subway, bus and the JR and Keihan lines reach everything on this site. A rental car earns its keep only outside the city — the mountain roads of the prefecture, the thatched village of Miyama, the north coast around Amanohashidate, Lake Biwa.

The accommodation tax. Since 1 March 2026 Kyoto charges it per person and per night on a scale tied to the room rate: ¥200 below ¥6,000, ¥400 up to ¥20,000, ¥1,000 up to ¥50,000, ¥4,000 up to ¥100,000 and ¥10,000 above that. School excursions stay exempt. It is collected by the hotel, not by us, and it is not included in any tour price on this site.