Tazuru

If you're looking for a traditional stay experience, Tazuru is great at a reasonable price for a short stay. There was a rest area in the room off the tatami with chairs and a table that was a nice break from sitting on the floor. Breakfast was pretty great as it was a Japanese style that was offered (must book in advance). For a ryokan experience, it definitely met my expectations. It even had an elevator!

The room was incredible. My wife and I went with our 2 teenage kids and we had booked the Quad Room. They gave us the top floor (6th floor) entire room. It had 2 bedrooms with 2 beds each, 1 sitting/living room, 2 toilets, 1 bathroom, and an amazing balcony with the view of the river. The tatami mats and the beds were incredibly comfortable. The staff was very responsive and very helpful. They helped call the previous hotel where we lost something to check. They helped ship our luggage to the next hotel and coordinated with the next hotel so that our bags were already in our rooms when we reached there. The location was next to the river and short walk from Gion, Kawaramachi station, Nishiki Market, etc. The walk outside the hotel was just magical. I highly recommend this place if you want to get an experience of a traditional Ryokan, be in a quite neighborhood and still within 5 mins of walk to all the happening places.

We decided to stay for a single night in a traditional ryokan inn and so had little conception of what it might be like. And it was certainly a unique experience. The room was tatami matted with shoji paper sliding window screens. On the floor were two futons and a low table and chairs. I’ve spent most of my adult life with futon beds but I think many westerners might find them hard/uncomfortable. As someone with hip issues I found the low seating a bit of a challenge … but these are not criticisms of Tazuru as they would be the same in any other ryokan. We decided against the main meal as we wanted to explore Kyoto a little but we did have their traditional breakfast, which was awesome - even if I could imagine those with no prior exposure to Japanese cuisine struggling with some of its content. And it was the only place where we state during our time in Japan that provided slippers that would fit our size 10/11 feet!

It was great location, traditional Japanese Ryokan. The facilities were somewhat rundown and needed a touch-up but everything was neat and clean and staff was friendly.

The staff were fantastic. We made a mistake regarding what train we had to catch on the day we had to check out. We were confused by the train website and transfer times. We rang and the staff kindly let us check out earlier than we had intended. Thank you very much for your flexibility and accommodating our schedule so last minute. You made our trip much less stressful and we were able to make our train and transfers as a result. We greatly appreciate it and apologise for any inconvenience we caused. Thank you very much. The hotel is lovely, quiet, and clean. We highly recommend staying here.