The best hotels in Kyoto

Nanzenji, Sakyo-ku

Fufu Kyoto

2021 · 40 rooms

A 40-room hot-spring ryokan-style hotel from the FUFU group, on the Lake Biwa Canal near Nanzen-ji in Kyoto's Sakyo ward, next door to the Murin-an garden. Four low floors of lacquer and lattice rooms, each with its own hinoki cypress bath, set around a preserved Japanese garden with a detached wooden house used as the bar.

1 MICHELIN Key

Shimogyo

Dusit Thani Kyoto

2023 · 147 rooms

A Dusit Thani of 147 rooms and suites set around a courtyard on Nishinotoin-dori in Shimogyo, in the Hongan-ji monzen-machi temple quarter near Nishi Hongan-ji, 850 metres from Kyoto Station. The interiors mix the aesthetics of Kyoto and Ayutthaya, and the restaurants are Thai as much as Japanese.

1 MICHELIN Key

Nakagyo

THE HIRAMATSU KYOTO

2020 · 29 rooms

A 29-room hotel from the Hiramatsu restaurant group in a Meiji-period machiya on Muromachi-dori just north of Sanjo, in central Nakagyo, once the house and shop of a kimono draper. The yarn-merchant lattice facade is almost unchanged; inside are a pine garden, a bamboo garden, a pre-1899 kura storehouse used as a lounge, and Japanese and Italian restaurants.

Arashiyama

Muni Kyoto

2020 · 21 rooms · Renovated 2026

MUNI KYOTO is a 21-room hotel on the bank of the Katsura river at Arashiyama, in western Kyoto, looking at the Togetsukyo bridge and the wooded hills, a few minutes' walk from Tenryu-ji. The building by Yasuda Atelier, with black-and-white interiors by Uchida Design Institute, has rooms of 50 to 70 sq m and a French restaurant serving a kaiseki-form tasting menu.

Kawaramachi Oike

Hotel Okura Kyoto

1888 · 320 rooms · Renovated 1994

A 320-room city hotel at the Kawaramachi-Oike crossing in Nakagyo, on the site of the Choshu domain's Kyoto residence, where a Western-style hotel has stood since 1890. The present 17-storey building opened in 1994, with the subway station connected underneath and the upper floors looking east to the Higashiyama hills.

Okazaki

Hotel Okura Kyoto Okazaki Bettei

2022 · 60 rooms

A 60-room Okura hotel in the Okazaki district of Sakyo, set within the precincts of Higashi Hongan-ji's Okazaki Betsuin temple on Marutamachi-dori. Rooms are themed as Higashiyama mountain villas and fitted throughout with work by the GO ON collective of Kyoto craft heirs; dinner is Okura's French cooking at Nouvelle Epoque.

Nijo

HOTEL THE MITSUI KYOTO, a Luxury Collection Hotel & Spa

2020 · 161 rooms

A 160-room hotel directly in front of Nijo Castle in central Kyoto, on the site of the Kyoto residence of the Kitake, the executive branch of the Mitsui family, which the family held for more than 250 years. Guests enter through the restored 1703 Kajiimiya Gate, the rooms are a modern take on the Japanese tearoom, and a natural hot spring rises from about 1,000 metres below the building.

3 MICHELIN Keys · Marriott STARS

Saga-Tenryuji, Arashiyama

Suiran, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Kyoto

2015 · 39 rooms

A 39-room hotel on the Hozu River in Arashiyama, western Kyoto, on part of the grounds of Tenryu-ji where the government guest ryokan Rantei once stood. Two restored buildings survive on the estate, Baron Shozo Kawasaki's 1899 summer villa and a 1910 thatched-roof building, and 17 of the rooms have their own hot-spring bath.

1 MICHELIN Key · Marriott STARS

Nijo

The Ritz-Carlton, Kyoto

2014 · 134 rooms

A 134-room hotel on the west bank of the Kamogawa at Nijo-Ohashi in central Kyoto, on a riverside site favoured by the nobility since the 17th century, looking across the water to the Higashiyama mountains. Set around Zen rock gardens and a four-storey waterfall, it keeps the character of a Meiji-era house and courtyard and a preserved listed building, Ebisugawa-tei.

1 MICHELIN Key · Marriott STARS