Hotels near Kinkaku-ji Temple, Kyoto

It's neat to see and it's very golden, but there's not much else to see other than taking the typical shot of the building. This place is a little over-hyped in my opinion and they are much more beautiful things to see in Kyoto, but I felt like I had to go because it's one of the main things to see in Kyoto. It's pretty easy to get here by bus. I was intimidated by the bus system at first, but there's no need to be. Just use Google Maps for directions and you'll be fine :)

Picturesque, but you should go early because there is a lot of tourist visiting this place and if you like to take pictures, then you should go before te crowd gets there. A tip, there are a lot of kimono rental shops, so if you want to take nice pictures en dress up a little, then rent a kimono

Temple was nice but not all that like I expected based on the reviews. A lot of tourists to include myself of course. You have to take bus 101 and 205 there from Kyoto Station then get off at the bus stop and walk 10 minutes. I expected the temple to be huge but it wasn’t. The gold of the temple was nice but I thought I was going to see earth shattering gold. Maybe as the sun is rising? Either way there was beautiful scenery and great photo ops but I expected more with the temple itself.

I cannot find enough word to describe the beauty of this Temple, not only the Temple in itself, but also the surrounding gardens. You must be there, to feel it, to be able to understand; works won't make it justice.

I recommend you read a novel Kinkakuji by Yukio Mishina before you visit there. Incompleteness of the complete beauty is the theme of the novel. Mishina, a worldwide well known gifted author, killed himself by Harakiri in 1970 after agitation to soldier of self defense force.

Cool temple, 1,000 other people visiting on a daily though so be prepared to share your personal space. It's not worth arriving early for good photos, as generally the walkways don't encroach on your photo frames. You'd be better off spending your morning (first visit) at either the bamboo forest (which isn't that long btw) or doing the Red gate shrine (although that's huge - like a 40min to 1hr walk up & down hill)