Where to stay in Arashiyama

The far west, where the Katsura comes out of the hills at the Togetsukyō bridge: the bamboo grove, Tenryū-ji and its garden, the river. It is the one area on this list that is a destination in its own right rather than a part of the city, and that cuts both ways. By day it is as crowded as anywhere in Japan; by evening the day-trippers are gone and the riverside is close to empty, which is a genuinely different experience of Kyoto and the reason people stay. The cost is distance: everything else is a train ride, the last ones are not late, and dinner is limited to what is open near the bridge.

Price level · Upscale