Stay SAKURA Kyoto Higashiyama Shirakawa

Located in a quiet area of Higashimaya. Compact clean apt with basic amenities provided. Nice to have washing machine & drying function in the bathroom. Must try is the Manafu Cafe nearby. Location wise: 10 mins walk to Yasaka Shrine, 20-25 mins walk to Ninenzaka & Sannenzaka Slope, 15-20 mins walk to the Gion District & Pontocho riverside dining, 15 mins taxi ride to Kyoto Station. Taxis (Uber or Go Taxi) are reasonable in Kyoto. For a family of 4, it was a convenient way to visit Kiyomizudera Temple, Fushimi Inari Shrine, and getting to & from the station with our luggages.

Our family of 4 really enjoyed our 3-night stay at Stay Sakura Kyoto Higashiyama Shirakawa. We appreciated coming back to a clean, cheerful, cozy & comfortable room after a day of sightseeing. The size of the room was just about right for our family of 4 with 4 carry-on luggage opened up. The washing machine & the supply of detergent cubes came in very handy, & so did the clothes-line, hangers & the special dryer feature in the bathroom - our clothes were warm & dry within 2-3 hours or so. For us, the highlight was the location of the hotel - it is located along a quiet narrow residential street, which is within a 10 to 20-minute walking radius to several sightseeing spots including Gion, Yasaka-Jinja Shrine, Nanzen-ji Temple, Kyoto Museum of Crafts. It is also very close to one of the Kyoto City Bus stops, where you can take a 5-min ride to the lovely atmospheric old streets of Higashiyama, which is quiet & peaceful, provided you visit it early in the morning before the crowds flock in. We enjoyed our many strolls along a small pretty canal nearby, lined with willow trees & ducks swimming in it, with a few old stone bridges crossing it, including one (Gyobashi Bridge), which is just wide enough for one person to cross at a time. There is also a quiet Shotengai (covered shopping street) with small local shops nearby, with a shop (Manafu) that sells nice matcha ice-cream. Should the opportunity arise, I would happily choose to stay here again, on a future visit to Kyoto!

Great value family hotel - very comfortable rooms. We enjoyed the extra space of the two-bedroom suite, which is interconnecting rooms with two bathrooms, two kitchenettes and two washing machines. Bathroom 'dryer' function really was fabulous - easily dried our clothes overnight. Peaceful, cute laneway - very atmospheric with pretty, tree-lined waterway at one end and a few shops at the other. Not a lot of close eating choices at night, but an excellent Fresco Petite around the corner. Short walk to Yasaka Shrine and Hanamikoji Street (lots of eating places) and a longer walk to main streets of Gion. Would definitely stay again.

The hotel was amazing, very clean, in a good quiet neighborhood. There are many shrines and temples to visit around, and many restaurants and stores. You find everything inside, washing machine, fridge, water boiler, microwave. It was also very clean and the staff very nice. There were three beds. And we could leave our luggage during the day after check out until 21pm which was very helpful. Overall, a very good experience, I highly recommend.

We had a fantastic stay at this hotel. It was in an excellent location, two-minute walk to Higashiyama station and an easy walk to all the main areas of Kyoto. The beds are really comfortable (the thick doonas are far too hot for summer but they gave us spare doona covers to use as a top sheet instead). The inclusion of a washing machine with short cycle is fantastic and the shower room doubles as a dryer — ingenious! Bathroom is a good size too. Overall we had a great stay and would highly recommend.