We will be in Japan for two weeks, and are looking to be in Kyoto around Oct 30/31 through Nov 2/3. (We ended up deciding to go for the free tickets I asked about in this post (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=576183), only we ended up giving the third ticket to a Japanese friend instead of my father, since he had to work.)

The difficulty is that we cannot seem to find a single decent hotel in a good location in Kyoto with availability for two people (the Japanese friend is staying with family).

Does anyone have any suggestions for a good hotel in Kyoto that actually has a room? Or will we be forced to stay in Osaka and take the train into Kyoto every day?

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to call a few places tonight (business hours in Japan) and see what I can find, but any additional places to check would be great. Thanks!

If you are willing to stay in a traditional Japanese B&B and don't mind the expense try the Tamahan Roykan. I stayed earlier this year and was truly satified with the accommodations and experience. As well as being in an excellent location. Their site is http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~tamahan/

A traditional inn is an excellent idea. Or, perhaps you would have luck booking a bullet train tour from Tokyo which can include several nights at a hotel. Sunrise Tours may have access to room which are otherwise not available. However, some of their hotels are a little overpriced.

Or will we be forced to stay in Osaka and take the train into Kyoto every day?

While not ideal, staying in Osaka is workable. The Hilton Osaka, where we stayed, is right across the street from Osaka Station. Easy train rides to Kyoto and Nara. You'll of course pay a price in lost time and train fares, but it's an option if nothing else pans out. Good luck.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to call a few places tonight (business hours in Japan) and see what I can find, but any additional places to check would be great. Thanks!
There are literally thousands of hotel rooms in Kyoto and I don't know why you are having trouble, unless you are running into holdover crowds from the Jidai Matsuri. That should be over by the time you plan to arrive, but there is a national holiday on the 3rd and that period may be a traditional long vacation break. A check of some of the nicer hotels shows that they have minimum stay restrictions in place during that week and no availability for your arrival days.

Why don't you tell us what you consider to be a "good hotel?" I have listed a link to a booking service I have used and trust for low to moderate priced hotels. If none of the properties they use have availability, you may be screwed. The Osaka option is not ideal but not a horrid alternative. The local train is not too expensive and operates frequently. Another option might be Nara, which is also a short ride but may have limited hotel choices.

http://www.japanhotel.net/

I'd suggest trying "Central Kyoto" first and branching out further afield if nothing is available there.

JR

Try the areas around Doshisha and Kyoto Universities. For example, Imadegawa street has several smallish but clean and nice business hotels with fairly good breakfast.

One is the Peare Kyoto complex that includes a business type hotel with Japanese and Western rooms, conference facilities, a fitness centre and pool and a cafe & restaurant. It's just off Imadegawa street a short walking distance from the Imperial Palace Gardens. Tel/fax: 075-431-1123

I managed to get one of two remaining "Deluxe Twin" rooms at the Hyatt Regency Kyoto. None of the tour guides mentioned this property, which just opened this spring. It was a bit more than I was looking to spend ($1500 for 4 nights...) but it was the best I could find and got excellent reviews on TripAdvisor.

I appreciate the recommendations, all of which looked great but were also unavailable. :(

If anyone else is looking for a room around those dates, check out the Hyatt Regency. I think they should have one room left now. :D

... If anyone else is looking for a room around those dates, check out the Hyatt Regency. I think they should have one room left now. :D
The HR was actually one of the properties I checked, but when I saw the 33,000 yen/night rates I decided not to mention it. It is the old Park Hotel which was purchased by Hyatt and completely renovated. It has indeed had a couple of nice reviews here as well. In case you are interested, the HR is within very short walking distance of several nice temples, the must-see Sanjusangendo Hall and the Kyoto Museum is right across the street. The "chin-chin" tourist bus #100 has a stop right out front.

JR

What a coincidence.

I booked a room for a colleague in Kyoto just yesterday - check in 30th Oct, check out 1st Nov. 2 nights for under 13,000yen. Not as luxurious as the Hyatt, but decent, clean, not overly cramped and well situated. Kyoto Garden Hotel. http://www.flyertalk.com/reviews/review.php?review_id=178

I did notice that there was hardly any availability for the weekend anywhere in Kyoto (2nd & 3rd Nov) but she'll be in Osaka then as there is a festival there on the 3rd Nov.

- on the 2nd Nov, my colleague will be staying on Koya San.


Scifience - if you'd like to save a few yen, you may want to try looking again and adjusting your search to include two stays. Make a search for lodging from the 30th Oct to the 1st or 2nd Nov, and perhaps keep your rooms at the Hyatt for the last two/three nights.

Sorry I didn't pick up on your post earlier - I've only just returned from a long weekend away and hadn't gotten up to speed.

If you do decide to go to Osaka for the 3rd (for the Matsuri) I can strongly recommend the Chisun Hotel Shinsaibashi - Expedia have fantastic rates at the moment that include a very hearty breakfast (press 'more rooms & rates' to see all the options). If you can pick up a room for 2 at 7-8,000 yen a night, it offers one of the best lodging bargains I’ve ever seen in Japan (outside a fare glitch ;) ). And the rooms, although small, are genuinely pleasant - they even have electronic 'bidet' toilets. http://www.flyertalk.com/reviews/review.php?review_id=176

The Granvia shows availability then - although some arrival dates require a minimum stay (within your guidelines). Go to its website and check its "booking engine". Robyn

I managed to get one of two remaining "Deluxe Twin" rooms at the Hyatt Regency Kyoto. None of the tour guides mentioned this property, which just opened this spring. It was a bit more than I was looking to spend ($1500 for 4 nights...) but it was the best I could find and got excellent reviews on TripAdvisor.

I appreciate the recommendations, all of which looked great but were also unavailable. :(

If anyone else is looking for a room around those dates, check out the Hyatt Regency. I think they should have one room left now. :D

I just got back from 5 nights at the Hyatt Regency (9/5-9/10), and liked it very much, though we did experience a few service bobbles, similar to those mentioned on TripAdvisor. The location was very convenient. I'm planning to do a full review when I get a chance, but feel free to PM me if you want info in the meantime.

We're going to Kyoto in mid-November. There was very limited availability for the hotels we were looking at. The Granvia, a tripadvisor favorite, had weekday but not weekend availability. We booked the Hyatt Regency.

Anything I should know about staying there?

We're going to Kyoto in mid-November. There was very limited availability for the hotels we were looking at. The Granvia, a tripadvisor favorite, had weekday but not weekend availability. We booked the Hyatt Regency.

Anything I should know about staying there?

The Hyatt Regency's location is, IMHO, preferable to the Granvia. The Granvia is directly on top of Kyoto Station, which I suppose is convenient for arriving and departing, but isn't so scenic and puts you right in the heart of all the congestion. The Hyatt Regency is right next to Sanjusangendo Temple, which is beautiful, and across from the Kyoto National Museum, which we didn't make it to. It cost on average 650 Yen for a taxi to Kyoto Station, and buses were easy to use and stopped right in front of the hotel. Also, many sights were walkable. The hotel is also offering, at least temporarily, a free one way car service from Kyoto Station. We had no trouble finding the location of the car service, and were met even before we could step inside by a gentleman who took our names and immediately put us in a car to the hotel.

The hotel itself is gorgeous. Modern, but not starkly so. The room was spotless. We had a deluxe twin room and it was on the ground floor with large windows and a pretty garden view.

We ate at The Grill for breakfast every day (included as part of the B&B package I booked). We also at at Trattoria Sette three times (1 lunch, 2 dinners) and Touzan once (dinner).

The dinner at the sushi bar at Touzan was very good. The food at Trattoria Sette was mixed - the penne puttanesca and a fish dish my sister had were very good to excellent, but the gnocchi was abominable - WAY undercooked, it just sort of mushed apart in your mouth. I'll talk about the Grill breakfast and one small issue we had at Trattoria Sette below. We also very much enjoyed the ambiance of the Touzan Bar, but it was virtually empty every night, which was kind of a bummer. The sho-chu mojito could be my new favorite drink, though! :D

The staff is nice, but I think still a bit green and so clueless in some respects. I also think that there is more of a language barrier than at, for example, the Park Hyatt Tokyo. As examples:

1) When checking in, I asked about a suite upgrade with 6,000 Gold Passport points, if available. The woman checking me in clearly had no understanding of the program and repeatedly insisted that there are no "free upgrades."

2) As mentioned above, we ate breakfast at The Grill every day as part of our B&B package. The food was fine - pastries, yogurt, meats, and various hot items. But every morning, our coffee cups would sit empty for 5-10 minutes before someone would come around, or we could snag someone, to refill them. I understand this if the place was busy, but most mornings only a few other tables were occupied, and there were plenty of staff.

3) Our last night, we asked the concierge for a recomendation to a sushi restaurant. He recommended that we try a place called Sushi-Iwa. My sister asked "is it near the hotel?" and he replied, "oh, no. 20 minutes by taxi." We decided to try it anyway, and dutifully got in a cab a few minutes after 7 for our 7:30 reservation. Imagine our surprise when the taxi stopped outside the restaurant...3 minutes later. We were embarrassed to show up 20 minutes early, and it meant that we were seated at a table, rather than the sushi bar. We actually ended up walking back to the hotel after dinner, and that only took 15 minutes. I still don't know whether it was a language miscommunication, or whether the concierge was just unfamiliar with the restaurant. The food, incidentally, was quite good.

4) At lunch one day at Trattoria Sette, we both ordered cokes. Mine came, my sister's never did. By that time our food had arrived, and she decided she was fine with water. But when we got the bill, both sodas were on it. The restaurant eventually took her soda off the bill, and actually took mine off the bill as well without me asking that they do so, but we had to do more explaining than should have been necessary, and the whole thing took close to half an hour.

Even with those issues, which I think will improve as the hotel gets established, I would definitely stay at the Hyatt Regency again. Several staff members were quite good, including one who secured us a reservation for a shuttle to KIX even though we requested it after the requisite 48 hour deadline, and followed up with us promptly.

Even with those issues, which I think will improve as the hotel gets established, I would definitely stay at the Hyatt Regency again.

Thanks for that great review. I can picture exactly what's going on with those "teething problems" you describe. It takes time to build a team that has the necessary combination of language ability, "fluency" with how to respond to guest needs and familiarity with the Hyatt way (or the MO / FS / etc. way).

Great review. With luck they'll iron out some of the kinks in the next two months.

Thanks

Anyone know why Kyoto is so crowded in November?

Anyone know why Kyoto is so crowded in November?

■Autumn foliage - maple leaves (through Oct/Nov)
■Public Opening of the Old Imperial Palace (11/2-6)
■Gion Odori Dances (11/3-12)
■Shichi-go-san (through Nov.)

So you see, there are many compelling reasons to visit Kyoto in November. If you throw in one or two international conferences, some school trips and a few foreigners on a "Lost in the Memoirs of the Last Samurai" tour, it gets crowded.

Some travel agencies seem to hold blocks of rooms - so there are often rooms to be found if you contact a travel agency (such as JTB) even when the hotel seems full online

Also, the English language hotel sites only feature a limited number of properties - so Kyoto can seem "full" on those sites even though there are rooms to be had on mytrip.net or JTB's website if you can get someone who reads Japanese to help you through the site.

Hotels get scarce at certain other times of year (February for university entrance exams, then there's the Cherry blossoms in April, and school trips in May .... and ... and), but it's worth the effort.

■Autumn foliage - maple leaves (through Oct/Nov)
■Public Opening of the Old Imperial Palace (11/2-6)
■Gion Odori Dances (11/3-12)
■Shichi-go-san (through Nov.)



And don't forget National Holiday on the 3rd November

and... this year only...

The Dalai Lama will be in Japan for the first couple of weeks in November... Kyoto gets a lot of Buddhist pilgrims, so you never know. (If I was going to Hiroshima for devout reasons, I’d likely stop off in Kyoto too for a day or so.)

Great review. With luck they'll iron out some of the kinks in the next two months.

Thanks

Anyone know why Kyoto is so crowded in November?

Some friends and someone at JTB said that it was because it was the peak season for autumn leaf viewing and also a popular time for weddings.

It's the leaves(and those foreigner Samurai tours)......Miyajima is just as crowded!

Anyone know why Kyoto is so crowded in November?
My guess is that this is due to mid to late November being the season of the changing color of the autumn leaves (or "koyo") in Kyoto. Koyo is to autumn in Japan what cherry blossoms are to spring. Visits to such famous and popular spots such as Kyoto to view these autumn leaves has long been a popular activity among the Japanese (and non-Japanese :) ), and is sure to draw large crowds and increase hotel room demand.

...

Anyone know why Kyoto is so crowded in November?

It is perhaps the most beautiful time of the year in Kyoto: absolutely stunning fall foliage (not to mention the refreshingly cool temperatures after the summer heat). Room prices go up accordingly, but it is a wonderful time to visit, IMHO.