The Best Places to Drink and Do in Kyoto

A subterranean spa spread across two floors beneath a Four Seasons, with an 800-year-old pond garden sitting quietly overhead. The space is massive by any measure, one of the larger full-service spa and fitness operations in Kyoto, and the Higashiyama address means you're already somewhere that moves slower than the rest of the city. Vogue named it among its 100 Best Spas in the World, which tracks.

1. Vogue 100 Best Spas in the World

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

A yellow door and a small bee are about all that give away this Prohibition-era speakeasy tucked into Nakagyo Ward. Inside, it's dim and welcoming, with 1920s cocktail classics getting quiet twists from the bar team, and 90s hip-hop on the speaker because apparently no one told them they had to be consistent. Asia's 50 Best Bars has listed it as a Discovery, which feels about right for something this easy to walk past.

1. The 50 #76 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
2. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

The four rocking chairs that give this intimate bar its name seat some of the luckiest guests in downtown Kyoto, assuming you find the place at all, tucked away in the backstreets where signs don't help much. Inside, bartenders in white shirts and waistcoats skip the menu entirely and build your drink from conversation instead. The snacks, particularly the pickles and cured meats, arrive as a happy surprise.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery
2. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

A cocktail bar tucked into a renovated historic home near Kiyomizudera, Furek has built its entire philosophy around water, sourcing a specific supply for the ice and the mixes. It sounds like a gimmick until you taste the difference. The bar holds a spot on The 50 Discovery list, which suggests the drinks world has noticed. Small, considered, and quietly serious about something most bars never think twice about.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Fewer than a dozen people can squeeze into this intimate bar tucked down an unremarkable alley between Kiyomizudera and the Gion geisha district. The interiors are charcoal black and calm, hung with framed art including, inexplicably, Winnie the Pooh. Low lighting and a living-room feel put it at a comfortable distance from the bare-wood Scandi aesthetic that colonized every other bar on earth. A Discovery from The 50 list.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery