A lit department store facade on Shijō at blue hour, traffic and crowds below

Maksym Grinenko / CC BY-SA 4.0

Where to stay in Downtown — Kawaramachi & Shijō

Downtown is the grid between Shijō and Oike, from Karasuma east to the Kamo: the Nishiki food market behind Shijō, the covered arcades of Teramachi and Shinkyōgoku, and the restaurant lanes of Pontochō and Kiyamachi along the river. It is the one part of Kyoto that is awake in the evening, the one with a full choice of places to eat, and the point the city's train and bus lines pass through or end at. What you give up is the atmosphere people come to Kyoto for: this is a working commercial centre, and the temples and wooden streets are ten minutes east rather than outside your door.

Price level · Upscale

Kyoto

Area scorecard

Scored 0–10 by Where Stay Guide. No overall total: every traveller weights these differently.

Sightseeing: 8.0
Walkability: 9.3
Transport: 9.0
Food: 9.5
Nightlife: 8.5
Quietness: 3.5
Families: 7.5
Value: 6.0
Airport / station: 7.0
First trip: 9.2

Best for

A first trip, where reaching a scattered city matters more than the view from the room
Travellers who want dinner to be a decision made at seven, not booked in advance
Stays of four nights or fewer, when time lost on buses is the expensive thing

Choose elsewhere if

You came for the Kyoto of the photographs and want to step straight into it
You want quiet: Kiyamachi is the loudest street in the city
You are out for temples at opening time and asleep by nine

Our picks in Downtown — Kawaramachi & Shijō

Best all-round central base

Hotel Okura Kyoto

Our strongest all-round pick because it stands on the Kawaramachi-Oike corner, which is the point Downtown's transport and its restaurants meet: the subway is underneath, Pontochō and Nishiki are a walk south, and the Higashiyama temples are across one bridge.