How To Choose A Ryokan In Kyoto

A stay in a traditional inn, or ryokan, is an essential shortcut to experiencing Japanese culture at its most charming and hospitable.

Here’s how to make it happen in Japan’s most tradition-drenched, elegant city.

There are so many different kinds of accommodation options in Kyoto, from hostels to international chain hotels, Buddhist temple lodgings to Airbnbs and super-luxe skyscrapers – but it is the ryokan that conjures up the purest Kyoto experience. Rooms floored with tatami mats, kind kimono-clad hosts and steaming onsen baths characterise this type of accommodation, a world away from the breakfast buffets and cookie-cutter hotel rooms of the Western-style stays.

To plan your own ryokan escape in Kyoto, visualise the final details of your dream experience. Are you looking to try a traditional multi-course kaiseki meal, served to you fastidiously in your own room? Would you like to experience a tea ceremony, performed by a real Kyoto geiko (geisha) or the more colourful maiko (geiko-in-training)? Are you ready to sleep on a futon-style mattress spread out for you on the floor – with or without a fragrant but very firm wheat-filled pillow? Basically, how traditional are you ready to go, and how much are you looking to pay?

The money question

Although ryokans are available all over Japan, they are most sought after in the heritage surrounds of Kyoto – and that also makes them some of the country’s most expensive. The plus side of this is, you’ll find the ‘ultimate’ ryokan experience here, if you’re prepared to pay. The almost mythical Tawaraya is sometimes referred to as Japan’s best ryokan, yet it doesn’t even bother with a website – it has had aristocrats gracing its rooms since the Edo period 300 years ago. Who needs a website?

In the slightly more earthly side of affordability, both Tamahan and Hoshinoya have made a name for themselves over many generations. The time-capsule Tamahan is a hideaway in a pedestrian-only alleyway, with old-school, incredibly humble service from its owners, offering perfectly kept gardens yet a location right in the centre of the sights of Kyoto. Hoshinoya is set up on the picturesque Oigawa River, meaning a private boat trip simply to reach its more modern but still utterly luxurious digs. In both of these, experiencing the service of a traditional kaiseki meal is very much a part of the stay, but the cost of such fine dining can make for an expensive night indeed. This is one of the big reasons why ryokan prices are generally charged per head – not per room.

Not all Kyoto ryokans are in the top price bracket, either. At the other end of the scale, Uemura is also tucked away on a pedestrian-only alleyway, with three simple rooms and only breakfast served daily – fine if you are not after an intricate kaiseki meal; it has an incredible location in the centre of Gion, the old district still serving as the centre of geiko life. Meanwhile, if you’d like to experience such traditional offerings as a communal onsen bath, tatami matted floor and a futon bed, you can find these things for well under $100 at the friendly Kyoto Traveler’s Inn (though they also have Western-style rooms to choose from), in another fantastic location opposite the gigantic Heian shrine torii gate.

The wonderful thing about staying in Japan is that, even at the lowest price points, facilities and rooms are kept squeaky clean as a rule.

Location, location

For such a well-known city, Kyoto is surprisingly compact. Between its train and bus systems, it is quite easy to get around – but it can still be time consuming if you stay far away from the action. Because many ryokans are generations old, some act as waypoints on an ancient travelling route, or exist as a family parcel of land or a nobles’ retreat away from the city (the riverbound Hoshinoya is a perfect example).

Kyoto’s thousand-odd years in history as Japan’s capital city, however, has given it a few heritage districts where old ryokans remain in the centre of the action – particularly in the Gion district. If you have the time and the purse for it, a stay in a quiet ryokan, followed by one right in the city itself, is a fabulous way to sample the best of both. Kyoto’s many temples and shrines are spread across its giant basin, too, so a single ‘best’ location is not as important as in other cities. Additionally, if you are investing in the experience of a kaiseki meal, which can take a couple of hours to enjoy and is way too good to rush, you won’t be leaving your inn at night in any case.

The rules: what to expect when you stay in a ryokan

If you’ve never stayed in a traditional inn before, the unspoken rules that govern everyday life can seem a touch intimidating. Keep in mind that hospitality is one of the most golden rules, though – so don’t be afraid to ask politely for a bit of help if you’re stuck. Your hosts will be thrilled to teach you something new.

Like in most Japanese houses and the more traditional restaurants, you’ll leave your shoes at the door, placing them neatly on a shelf. There will possibly be some slippers left helpfully facing you so you can easily step into them and continue on into the ryokan itself. Shoes never come in, slippers never leave the building. And if you haven’t invested in some decent socks, this is the time to do so – they suddenly become a very visible item in Japan!

Don’t be disturbed if there’s no bed in your room: it will magically appear as you leave for dinner, ready for your return. If you are eating in your room, just go about your business and trust the housekeeping staff to do their thing. It will appear. Likewise, leave it and, as you breakfast or head out to sightsee, it will be spirited away.

Many traditional ryokans will have a hot bath (onsen) on the premises. Check with your host which times of day your gender can bathe: if there is only one bath, they split up the day between women and men. If there are two, they may stay the same, or switch genders through the day. For example, men may get the outdoor onsen in the day, while women get it at night. If you have tattoos, it’s polite to ask if you may use the onsen or not, since they remain a point of controversy in Japan (they are a sign of organised crime gangs), and politely accept the answer. It’s tough for a Japanese host to say ‘no’ to anything, so be kind if they do.

The most fun part of staying in a ryokan, or many Japanese inns – traditional or not? You can swan about in your robe and slippers all day long if you like. Your room will have a cotton yukata (casual version of the more formal kimono) put there especially for you, and it’s completely normal to have meals in it, even in common areas; head to the onsen baths and back; hang out in the reception area or gardens; anything you like. Japan is one of the few countries where it’s acceptable to dress down for dinner – way down. So wriggle your toes in your comfy slippers and enjoy.

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After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.

Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?

Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.

“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.

Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”

Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”

CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.

A new generation demanding more

Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”

We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”

Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels — Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…

bouda stupa prayer flags — Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.

Boudha Stupa vendors — Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.

A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.

Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

tharu woman — Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.

Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.

Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.

Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.

On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.

community homestay entrance — A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.

The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.

In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.

food at community homestay — Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.

The power of community homestays

community homestay owners in Nepal — Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.

“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”

The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.

Sonara community room — An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.

Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.

CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.

“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.

In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.

“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”

Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”

Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.

How to choose a ryokan in Kyoto

A stay in a traditional inn, or ryokan, is an essential shortcut to experiencing Japanese culture at its most charming and hospitable.

The money question

Location, location

The rules: what to expect when you stay in a ryokan

Read more in our guide to everything you need to know about ryokans in Japan and explore more of Kyoto in our Kyoto travel guide for where to eat and what to do while you’re there.

Where to stay in Kyoto: the best hotels and ryokan

A stay at this Japanese hotel will nurture your mind and spirit

These community homestays are changing how travellers experience Nepal