5 days in Kyoto over Golden Week 2022 with our 18 month old daughter.
For our friends outside of Japan, Golden Week is a series of four national holidays that take place within one week at the end of April / beginning of May, most people end up making it one long break of about 10 days. This is the 1st time I've actually taken Golden Week off, I used to save up those holiday days and use them at a different time in the year when it was cheaper and not so crazy to travel. But now I am a mum and our daughters daycare is also on holidays so for us as a family it was the most convenient time to travel.
Many people said to us it was crazy to go to Kyoto during Golden Week as it would be packed but we found out it was the opposite for us. In saying that we did head to all the shrines early in the morning to beat the crowd and did end up going back to our accommodation during lunch time for our daughters nap as she still has one nap a day.
In the lead up to our trip I tried to plan an itinerary so we would have everything set when we arrived, I wanted good places to eat, the obvious site seeing places, and places that our daughter would enjoy but I also wanted some fun things for mum and dad to do. The reason I wanted an itinerary was I didn't want us to have a frustrated toddler on our hands while we figured out what to do. In the end we mostly stuck to our itinerary and I was glad that I had planned a lot but as we got there we found out some restaurants, cafes etc weren't the best for our toddler so we had change plans.
I've also realised traveling with a toddler is a whole new ball game, I had to throw out the window the idea of how we used to travel and learn how to travel with a toddler. I lowered my expectations and decided that we could only do one big thing per day - one big thing meant for us visiting a shrine or some sort of tourist destination.
Table of Contents / Our Itinerary
Day 1: Travel Day: Explore accommodation neighborhood
Travel days are always tiring for me so I kept our day simple once we got to Kyoto. We left Tokyo around 11am and I planned our travel time to be during our daughters lunch time nap that way she could sleep on the train there and be ready to wander the streets when we got to Kyoto. Our accommodation Kyoto River View House 京楽 was located in Zaimokucho, Shimogyo Ward, I loved the area we were staying in as it's right on the river, easy to walk to a lot of places or get the bus/train to where we wanted to go. The area I found is really relaxing and maybe that's because it's on the river, things seem a bit more slower than staying near the hustle and bustle busy streets. Our 1st stop was Babbi Gelato and it is by far the best Gelato we have had, we were staying right near it so it was visited frequently on our trip. We choose to walk along the river with our gelato and our daughter had the best time looking at all the birds and people along the river bank. That night we just had a casual dinner at an Italian restaurant Amore Kiyamachi, wasn't my favorite but convenient location with a nice view in the back and it was also suitable for our daughter.
Day 2: Kiyomizu-dera + House of KI NO BI
Today our big ticket item was Kiyomizu-dera Buddhist temple, we started walking there around 8:30am and stopped past Sagan as it was directly on our walk up to Kiyomizu-dera, a friend had gone there the week before who has a toddler the same age as us and said the wait to get food was long so told us to just get takeaway. Great tip, we got their muffins to go and ate them once we got to Kiyomizu. If you're a parent reading this you understand that we don't have the luxury to wait long for food with a toddler that can't sit still. If you have an older child the food looked amazing so def worth trying to eat in.
We were able to take our stroller around the whole site (they have wheelchair access ramps so you can avoid all the big sets of stairs, just follow them around the side a bit. Kiyomizu-dera was such an amazing place to see high up on top of the hill with amazing views of all of Kyoto. We were in awe of how it was built too, solid giant tree trunks holding it all up. Going early meant it wasn't too busy, next time we go I would aim to get there even earlier. We spent a few hours there following the path around and then walked back towards our accommodation to find some lunch before we went back to put our daughter down for a nap. Our lunch spot dining cafe 11 was great and they had a kids menu which was devoured by our daughter.
House of KI NO BI
The afternoon adventure was more for us (mum & dad), we went to 季の美ハウス / House of KI NO BI a gin distillery, I love gin so really wanted to check it out. Let's just say doing adult fun things with a toddler has proven to be more difficult than I thought but I guess you only learn as you go. The gin distillery is in an awesome warehouse space, we had to wait about 40 mins to get a tasting spot so we went upstairs to wait and tried to entertain our toddler, let's just say thank god we had lots of sticker books to get by.
Once we sat down we actually didn't have long before she started to get frustrated with this place so we quickly did a tasting and then had to be on our way. We got to see the private tasting room which is decked out with old english furniture nice little back room that you wouldn't know about unless one of the staff members show it to you.
As we'd had a pretty big day we opted to walk home and then order uber eats for dinner, we were tired and tired of wrangling our super active toddler.
Day 3: Fushimi Inari Shrine (Red Torii Gates)
The endless gates of Fushimi Inari Shrine the Red Torri Gates is one of my favourite places to visit, this is probably my 3rd time here and I love it every time I go.
Highlights: (the short and sweet)
Get there early - before 10am, to avoid the crowds and have a more relaxed approached to viewing the Torri Gates
There is stroller parking - right at the entrance there is a roped off area for strollers (leave the stroller at your own risk though, but in saying that japan is very safe)
It took us about 2 hour up and down to hike Fushimi Inari with a 12KG toddler strapped to the front of my partner Chris
Kids will love it
Read on for more details:
We set off early to avoid the crowds and it paid off. We arrived by 9:30am (not early for us but in the tourist world early) there were not many people around and it was great taking it all in without the craziness. I had done lots of research before about bringing a toddler there and all the blogs I read said the stroller parking place had closed down due to covid so there was no stroller parking. So we put our 12KG daughter in the carrier to be able to tackle all the stairs, we actually could have bought the stroller as they had a makeshift roped off area right at the entry, it didn't really matter because we still had her in the carrier for the whole hike up the top of the mountain and there is no way you would want to carry a stroller up there and a toddler as well.
The hike to the top of Fushimi Inari with our daughter strapped to my partner took us about 2 hours up and back down. I've been getting back into shape this year and I head to the gym about 4 times a week - I think this really helped me tackle all the stairs. I would say if we were to do it last year being less than a year post birth I would have struggled.
The 1st half of the Torri Gates is where it's busier and then a lot of people turn off to head back down to the main shrine. We kept going and that's the area that is less crowded I think no matter what part of the day you go. Our daughter loved it and was obsessed with all the fox statues (she kept on calling out puppy to everyone we went past).
Ace Hotel and PIOPIKO（ピオピコ）
Our afternoon was spent hanging out at the Ace Hotel as we had dinner reservations at PIOPIKO a Mexican restaurant. We first went for a drink at Dig the line bottle & bar which was great fun but as usual one person drank by themselves for half the time while the other walked around with the toddler. Ace hotel and the indoor garden and shops below is a really cool place to hang out at it's modern and the architecture is flawless. We booked an early dinner at 5:30pm at PIOPIKO and were pretty much the only people there at that time but it worked perfectly for us because we didn't feel guilty about letting our daughter run around the place as there was no one else to disturb. The food and cocktails were amazing - we each got a different set menu so we could try everything. I would love to get back there again as it was the perfect adult restaurant that catered to kids. I love eating out and I get so excited when I find really cool places that I can bring my daughter along too and know that she will somewhat be comfortable.
Day 4: Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) & Kyoto Botanical Gardens
This was our last full day in Kyoto so we went to Kinkakuji known as the Golden Pavilion, we didn't get there as early as the other places. I think we got there around 10am but it was not crowded at all. We actually weren't there for that long and just followed the path around taking photos and taking it all - we have also been here before so felt we didn't need to spend much time here but you can definitely take it slow around the path. We took our stroller as we were going to be out for awhile this time and Kinakuji is not really stroller friendly and they have no stroller parking. We have a Bugaboo Lynx (like the fox but slightly smaller) which has big wheels and it did fine on the pebble path but if you have a smaller stroller it would be super tricky, Chris also had to carry the stroller up a lot of stairs, so take note that you can not really walk comfortable around Kinkakuji with a stroller unless it has quite big wheels and you are willing to carry it up a lot of stairs.
Kyoto Botanical Gardens
On the bus our way to Kinakuji (Golden Pavilion) we noticed the Kyoto Botanical Gardens so decided to stop off there on our way back to get lunch and let our daughter run around the place. The botanical gardens are so beautiful and she absolutely loved running around the big empty fields and exploring all the different garden areas. Lunch was really nice there too, they have a small cafe in the middle with lots of different options - we opted for the Japanese curry and a hamburg for our daughter. The cafe has a vending machine where you order a meal and get a ticket but if you walk inside you can ask for an english menu and order at the counter, the staff there are super friendly and saw me struggling at the vending machine trying to translate so told me to go inside and order with them, so nice of them.
In the Botanical Gardens we loved
The Bonsai exhibition; seeing all the beautiful Bonsai trees were amazing, i've seen a Bonsai exhibition before but never up close as the times I went before they were behind ropes so you couldn't get up close.
The Rose Garden was also amazing and so many different kind of roses that I never knew existed.
Peonies Garden is just as beautiful too
There was a big pond there and also if you followed it around you got to see a water wheel that pretty cool
We had never been to the Kyoto Botanical gardens before as it's not one of the popular tourist destinations but I was so glad we went as it's perfect for kids (they have a great kids playground too) and it's really nice and peaceful in there. You could easily spend the whole day there having a picnic and wandering around.
Day 5: Travel Day: School Bus Coffee Stop & Kyoto Imperial Palace
Today was our last day here and it also happened to be Mother's Day so I wanted to have breakfast out as every other day we did it at home so we could get to the sites nice and early. A friend recommended School Bus Coffee Stop and it did not disappoint. It's probably the best french toast I have ever had, if you are an Australian you can also get a delicious flat white coffee which is rare to find in Japan. The cafe was perfect for our family, it had enough room to fit our stroller in there and we just used that as the highchair. The design of the building feels like you are in a converted warehouse with high ceilings and lots of quirky features.
Kyoto Imperial Palace
Kyoto Imperial Palace is in the grounds of the Kyoto Gyoen National Garden which is known as the Kyoto Central Park. It is beautiful inside with lots of green area's perfect for picnicking and surprisingly not busy at all, our daughter loved playing in the grass that was full of daisy. I will warn you it is not very stroller friendly even with our big stroller, we entered at the complete opposite side of the Imperial palace so had to walk through the pebble path which was proving to be frustrating for us (would be worse if you had a travel stroller).
The great thing is you are able to see inside the gates of the Imperial palace but not able to enter any of the buildings. We just followed the path around looking at the various buildings, gardens and taking in all the history of the Palace. The buildings and detailed architecture is amazing, don't forget to look out for some painted artwork on building doors.
Tip: If you are planning to visit the Kyoto imperial palace with a stroller enter at the Nakadachiuri-Gomon Gate as that's the closet gate to the entrance to the palace.
Where we ate
Amore Kiyamachi (dinner) ⭐⭐
dining cafe 11 (lunch) ⭐⭐⭐
School Bus Coffee Stop (breakfast) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Not the best photos but you get the idea
The location of our accommodation Kyoto River View House 京楽 was perfect. We had a one bedroom apartment that faced the street, as I booked this fairly last minute it was all that was left. It would have been great if it was on the river side.
The apartment was nice and big, it had a small kitchenette, big lounge room with dining table and it had a tatami area as well. The bedroom was a good size but this is what frustrated me about the apartment, the bedroom door was frosted glass so when it came to nap time for our daughter the light really impacted her sleep and also with the frosted glass door when the sun rose at 4:30am and it also came into our bedroom and woke her up. She is a pretty good sleeper and I assumed having an actual bedroom it would be dark. The next time we travel I am looking into getting a slumberpod which will hopefully make her sleeping situation better. They did provide us with a travel crib as well so it was one less thing we needed to travel with but on our 1st night they didn't have it set up properly so she ended up sleeping on one of the tatami mats and then half the night in our bed, the following day we asked them to fix it and they did. We were also able to request a highchair for her, again one less item we needed to travel with.
The accommodation was fine but I don't think I would book it again unless I couldn't find anything better. It was a great price for Golden Week but I would opt to find something else. This is obviously just my view on it.
Google Maps link
Here is link to my google maps of places we went, places we've been on previous trips and also places we were recommended but didn't have time to go. Feel free to follow the list so it's saved in your google maps. In this map there are lots of coffee and food places it would be worth checking out.
If you are after more details on Kyoto this is my go to website for japan japan-guide.com
Tips:
Shinkansen seats
I alway book the seats that have the luggage storage area right behind them. That way we can store our pram and bags nice and close to us. It also means we don't need to fold our pram down.
Snacks
I packed various snacks for our daughter so we didn't have to worry about finding her suitable snacks when we got to Kyoto. I also packed some pouches for when we were running late for lunch or dinner and could easily offer it to her till we found the place we were eating at. As well as pouches I packed a few ready to go meals that I just needed to heat up in the microwave. This is obviously personal preference as I can't read Japanese and prefer to know what ingredients are in snacks for her. As a lot of foreigners here I buy some of her snacks, pouches and ready to go meals on iherb.com I have also found some great snacks for her on Amazon fresh too.
Ok if you've gotten all the way to end thanks for reading my post on Kyoto :)