The 25 best things to do in Kyoto, built around highlights like Fushimi Inari, Kinkaku-ji, and Arashiyama, based on our own family trip and plenty of research.

A 5-day Kyoto itinerary built around highlights like Fushimi Inari, Kiyomizu-dera, and the Arashiyama bamboo forest, plus hotel picks and practical tips, based on our own family trip and plenty of research.

Our favourite quiet Kyoto temple, and a UNESCO site most visitors skip in favour of the bigger names. Home to one of Japan's oldest pagodas and a stunning Japanese garden, this ended up meaning the most to us out of every temple in Japan.

We missed out on Nintendo Museum tickets ourselves, so we spent hours figuring out exactly how the lottery works and what we'd do differently, based on our own (failed) attempt.

A comfortable, well-located hotel in Kyoto, easy for temple-hopping and genuinely great with kids. Here's our full, honest review

Our one-day Arashiyama itinerary includes the famous bamboo forest, Iwatayama Monkey Park, and Tenryu-ji Temple, plus practical tips based on our own visit.

Explore Daigo-ji Temple on Day 10 of our RTW trip! Discover Kyoto's serene Daigo-ji, enjoy fluffy pancakes, and savor delicious curry!

7 October 2025 Steps: 24,187 Today was our biggest day yet (almost 25,000 steps), and while it was great to see so many amazing sights, we are all absolutely exhausted. Tomorrow we are just going to do a half day of sightseeing to try and recharge a bit, before heading down to Nara and Osaka, and then on to Hong Kong. Hokan-ji Temple (Yasaka Pagoda) We decided to walk straight to the famous Yasaka Pagoda viewpoint from our hotel, as we got a Google alert telling it was 'less

6 October 2025 Steps: 21,590 We had to check out of Ben's Guesthouse by 11am, so we got out quite early to visit one of the most famous temples in Kyoto - the Golden Palace, as it was quite near to our hotel, and we had enough time to fit it in before check out. Kinkaku-ji (Golden Palace) We got to Kinkaku-ji Golden Palace, just after it opened at 9am, but there was already a steady stream of tourists walking up the path to the entrance. The viewpoints were quite busy, but we

Welcome back to our Round‑the‑World Family Sabbatical diary! We’re a Calgary‑based family travelling for 100 days, sharing the real, unfiltered experience of long‑term travel with kids - the good moments, the chaotic moments, and everything in between. This is Day 7 of our journey, spent exploring Kyoto’s beautiful Arashiyama district in the rain! You can browse the full 100‑day contents list here, but for now, join us as we wander through Arashiyama's historic streets, visit

Welcome to our Round‑the‑World Family Sabbatical diary ! We’re a Calgary‑based family travelling for 100 days , documenting each step so other families can get an honest, real‑life look at long‑term travel with kids - the highs, the chaos, and everything in between . This is Day 6 of our journey, where we wrapped up our time in Tokyo with an incredible cooking, calligraphy and origami class called 'Homecoming TAKA', before catching the famous Shinkansen to Kyoto. You can bro