Kyoto and its ten hotels
Kyoto was the imperial capital for more than a thousand years, and it still keeps the shape of one.
Luxury hotels in Kyoto
10 hotels
HOTEL THE MITSUI KYOTO
Five-star · Central Kyoto: Nijo & Kamogawa
A house built around the Mitsui family's 300-year-old Kajiimiya gate, opposite Nijo Castle, with a hot-spring spa.
From $900 per night
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The Ritz-Carlton, Kyoto
Five-star · Central Kyoto: Nijo & Kamogawa
A low-rise house on the bank of the Kamogawa at Nijo-ohashi, built around a Meiji-era garden and its waterfall.
From $1,200 per night
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ROKU KYOTO, LXR Hotels & Resorts
Five-star · Arashiyama & northern Kyoto
A resort at the foot of the Takagamine hills in northern Kyoto, with a hot-spring pool and rooms on the Tenjin river.
From $600 per night
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Four Seasons Hotel Kyoto
Four-star · Higashiyama & Gion
Kyoto's first Four Seasons, built around an 800-year-old pond garden in the temple district of Higashiyama.
From $1,000 per night
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Park Hyatt Kyoto
Four-star · Higashiyama & Gion
A small house on the Higashiyama slope by Kodaiji temple, sharing its grounds with the 140-year-old Kyoyamato ryotei.
From $1,100 per night
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Suiran, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Kyoto
Four-star · Arashiyama & northern Kyoto
A riverside inn on the Hozu river in Arashiyama, with open-air baths in the garden and the century-old Kyo-Suiran villa.
From $800 per night
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Dusit Thani Kyoto
Four-star · Central Kyoto: Nijo & Kamogawa
A Dusit Thani house of 2023 beside Nishi Honganji temple, a short walk north of Kyoto Station.
From $300 per night
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The Hotel Seiryu Kyoto Kiyomizu
Four-star · Higashiyama & Gion
The Kiyomizu elementary school of 1933 below Kiyomizu-dera, now a hotel with a rooftop bar facing the Yasaka Pagoda.
From $350 per night
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SOWAKA
Four-star · Higashiyama & Gion
A machiya-style house in a century-old former ryotei by Yasaka Shrine, among the lanes of Gion.
From $400 per night
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Six Senses Kyoto
Four-star · Higashiyama & Gion
Six Senses' first house in Japan, opened in 2024 in the Toyokuni Shrine quarter of Higashiyama.
From $800 per night
Any mandatory hotel fees are shown before you confirm.
Kyoto was the imperial capital for more than a thousand years, and it still keeps the shape of one. It holds the temples and pagodas on the Higashiyama slopes above Gion, the castle and the merchant streets of the center along the Kamogawa river, and the bamboo and the Hozu river at Arashiyama to the west, with the Takagamine hills to the north. Ten hotels, chosen on merit: three that hold five-star standing and seven four-star addresses listed at exactly the tier they hold.
The neighborhoods
Higashiyama & Gion
The temples of the eastern slopes and the lanes of Gion below them – home to five of the ten hotels. Here are Kiyomizu-dera and the stone streets of Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka, the Yasaka Pagoda and Kodaiji, Yasaka Shrine and Maruyama Park. In Gion, the teahouses line Hanamikoji and the Shirakawa canal.
Central Kyoto: Nijo & Kamogawa
The grid of the old capital, between Nijo Castle and the Kamogawa river – home to three of the ten hotels. Here are Nijo Castle and the Imperial Palace grounds, the merchant streets of Karasuma and Nishiki Market, and the Kamogawa river with the terraces of Pontocho. Nishi Honganji and Kyoto Station lie to the south.
Arashiyama & northern Kyoto
Kyoto's west and north, from the bamboo of Arashiyama to the Takagamine hills – home to two of the ten hotels. At Arashiyama lie the bamboo grove and the Togetsukyo bridge over the Hozu river, Tenryu-ji and the Sagano temples. To the north, the Takagamine hills rise above Kinkaku-ji and Daitoku-ji.
Good to know
Which are the five-star hotels in Kyoto?
Three. The five-star hotels we list in Kyoto are HOTEL THE MITSUI KYOTO, opposite Nijo Castle; The Ritz-Carlton, Kyoto, on the Kamogawa at Nijo-ohashi; and ROKU KYOTO, LXR Hotels & Resorts, at the foot of the Takagamine hills. Alongside them we keep seven four-star addresses that hold four-star standing and are never called five-star: Four Seasons Hotel Kyoto, in Higashiyama's temple district; Park Hyatt Kyoto, by Kodaiji temple; Suiran, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Kyoto, on the Hozu river in Arashiyama; Dusit Thani Kyoto, beside Nishi Honganji; The Hotel Seiryu Kyoto Kiyomizu, below Kiyomizu-dera; SOWAKA, by Yasaka Shrine in Gion; and Six Senses Kyoto, in the Toyokuni Shrine quarter. Each has its own page, reached from the list above, with a concierge behind every stay.
Which part of Kyoto should I stay in?
The ten hotels sit in three districts. Higashiyama and Gion hold five – the temple slopes of Kiyomizu-dera, Kodaiji and the Yasaka Pagoda, the teahouse lanes of Gion below – for the old city on foot and the evenings in Gion. The center along the Kamogawa holds three – Nijo Castle and the merchant streets of Karasuma, the river and Pontocho, Nishiki Market and Kyoto Station a short ride south – for the trains and the restaurants. Arashiyama and the northern hills hold two, for the bamboo grove, the Hozu river and the temples of the north, half an hour from the center.
When is the best season for Kyoto?
The cherry blossom from late March into mid April and the autumn leaves from mid November into early December are the two seasons the whole country travels for – rooms sell out months ahead. Golden Week, from late April into early May, closes what is left. May and June are green and quiet before the rains, July brings the Gion Matsuri and the heat, and winter is cold, clear and the quietest time for the temples. The rates shown are mid-season.
How do you get to Kyoto – and do I need a car?
Kansai International is about seventy-five minutes from Kyoto Station by the Haruka express; Osaka Itami is about an hour by bus; the Shinkansen from Tokyo takes a little over two hours. No car is needed – taxis, the subway and the buses reach every district, and Higashiyama, Gion and the center are walked. Arashiyama is twenty minutes by train from the center.
How do I reserve a stay?
Search your dates on the hotel's page to see reference rates, then send the concierge a request. The concierge confirms exact rates and availability with you before anything is booked, and any payment and its timing are set out before you confirm.
