Several ultraluxe hotel openings offer elite…
Until Japan’s capital was moved to Tokyo in 1869, the nation’s emperors ruled from Kyoto’s Imperial Palace for 11 centuries. During that millennium, town flowered with dozens of shrines, temples and castles constructed in a rhapsodic selection of East Asian vernaculars: some meditative and simple, some with towering Chinese-style pagodas, others wrapped in gold.
No surprise so many vacationers flock to Kyoto. It could also be a fashionable metropolis (population
1.4 million), but it guards the last remnants of previous Japan — from temples (like Kiyomizu-dera, Kinkaku-ji and its silver sister, Ginkaku-ji) to slender alleyways of the uniquely preserved hanamachi, or “geisha districts.”
“Kyoto has been insanely popular since Japan reopened from the pandemic, and it’s just not slowing down,” says Stephanie Conchuratt, the Virtuoso-affiliated luxurious journey agent behind Vibe Travel Co. “But, overall, it’s such a great destination and most people who go consider it one of their all-time favorite trips.”
The gates of Kyoto’s shrines welcome guests from around the world. Getty Images
The commonplace advice for avoiding crowds? Travel in the low season and go to shrines early. But there’s another, less egalitarian answer: Book ultraluxury lodging, where you’ll be cocooned away from the plenty in personal gardens, onsens and eating places. The metropolis’s top resorts also have the pull to access the best guides and reservations even at the peak of sakura (cherry blossom) season.
Fortunately, a number of new and newish openings at the top of Kyoto’s hotel scene have expanded the choices for well-heeled vacationers.
“There hasn’t been anything fresh to consider for quite a while now,” says Anna Tretter of Tretter Travel, whose TikTok posts about the shifting Kyoto market have drawn viral curiosity. “So, the arrival of a proven luxury brand is really exciting.”
The metropolis’s brand-new luxurious hotel debut, Capella, wows with a scorching spring-fed onsen. Capella Kyoto
She’s speaking about the world’s latest Capella, which opened in March in the guts of Miyagawa-chō, one of Kyoto’s iconic geisha districts, nestled between Kennin-ji (the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto) and the Kamo River. The 89-key retreat, which begins just shy of $2,500 a night time for two visitors, riffs on town’s conventional machiya wood townhouse structure, with modern-meets-Meiji-era touches.
Capella is the latest five-star flag re-couching modern wellness practices within a conventional Japanese context. It’s also only the second hotel in town to have a true scorching spring-fed onsen on-site. Those mineral-rich waters are sourced from a nicely drilled 2,985 toes below the floor. Far from a bare-bones ryokan with small, communal onsens, the hotel’s Auriga Spa has three deluxe personal onsen rooms and “lunar-inspired” rituals.
“For people who want more privacy, for people who have tattoos or an LGBTQ couple, being able to have their own private onsen space is meaningful,” says Tretter.
Hotel the Mitsui Kyoto, which debuted in 2020, led the charge of latest posh openings in town. HOTEL THE MITSUI KYOTO
Its predecessor is Hotel the Mitsui Kyoto, which opened in 2020, steps away from Nijō Castle, the historic web site where Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the last shogun, surrendered in 1867. It was the first hotel in Kyoto to risk deep drilling to faucet uncommon waters and construct sprawling personal onsen suites in its Thermal Spring Spa.
With three Michelin keys, it’s arguably the best hotel in town, mixing a conventional four-season Japanese garden courtyard and a 300-year-old palace entrance gate with 161 glossy and refined André Fu-designed rooms. The unfamiliar Japanese branding and the reassuring Marriott possession make Mitsui — at about $875 per night time in a deluxe room — one of the most aggressive bookings in town, says Henley Vazquez, a journey adviser with Fora.
“The Japanese branding is a real benefit, because people want to stay somewhere unique, local and special,” she says. (Of course, the Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, Park Hyatt and Aman also have a presence in Kyoto, and all have their devotees, notes Conchuratt.)
Six Senses made a splash in 2024 with a Zen spa and decor impressed by Twelfth-century relics. Six Senses
In 2024, the Banyan Tree Higashiyama Kyoto and the Six Senses Kyoto adopted go well with, bringing more fashionable wellness to this oldest of old-school cities. Located in Kyoto’s quieter Higashiyama Ward, the 81-room Six Senses appears to be like back to town’s Heian period (794-1185) origins — the period that birthed Japan’s intricate and punctilious courtly rituals.
You’ll spot 504 handcrafted raku-yaki tiles on a folding screen that reference Kyoto’s famed Twelfth-century Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga scrolls (“Scrolls of Frolicking Animals”) in the public areas. In its spa, you’ll marinate in a soup of “smart science” and Zen traditions. Rooms start at about $1,100 per night time.
Nearby, the 52-key Banyan Tree gives a boutique take on contemporary-traditional Japanese design from starchitect Kengo Kuma, including a distinctive Noh dance stage. The hotel’s mission, to be a “sanctuary for the senses,” is seen most clearly in the spa. It, too, has a personal onsen, paired with more typical leisure remedies (in case you’ve kneeled at one too many temples and need a soothing Balinese therapeutic massage pronto). It begins at close to $550 per night time.
“The high-end hotel inventory is finally there,” says Tretter. “I’ve booked cherry-blossom travel two weeks out and there’s been no problem. Now, it’s possible to book last-minute during peak season.”
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