Hiiragiya

Kyoto's 1818 inn of writers and film stars — near-flawless service and kaiseki, koyamaki-wood baths, and no hot spring

Hiiragiya has welcomed guests in central Kyoto since 1818, and Japanese reviewers treat a stay as a once-in-a-lifetime event: it averages 4.91 out of 5 across 40 reviews on Japan's leading luxury booking site, with 4.95 for service. The original wooden building, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, has rooms dating from the Edo and Meiji eras; a seven-room new wing was added in 2006. Guests remember the details — a room 'without a speck of dust', a young attendant telling a nervous first-timer not to be so tense, the old building's corner rooms associated with Charlie Chaplin and Yasunari Kawabata. Kyoto kaiseki is the other reason to come: grilled ayu, hamo in early summer, simmered tofu and clay-pot rice at breakfast. Know what it is not: there is no hot spring. Every room has a tub of fragrant koyamaki wood filled with gentle groundwater, and there are two small family baths. The criticisms are few but real — thin walls in the old building, Kyoto seasoning some find too delicate, the smallest rooms without their own bath or toilet, and, in 2026, a new-wing guest who disliked sharing an unpartitioned dining room. Prices start around ¥73,000 per person with two meals before tax.