PRICE:
Frommer's Very Highly Recommended

Just across the street from Nijo Castle and offering rooms with castle views, this hotel has one of the most eye-catching lobby lounges in town, complete with a glass wall overlooking an impressive waterfall and tiny landscape garden, all to the accompaniment of koto music (a Japanese stringed instrument). Kimono-clad hostesses greeting guests as they enter the lobby is a welcoming touch. Rooms are attractive if a bit cramped, with well-crafted, Asian-accented furniture, roomy bathrooms, and unusual extras like shoe dryers and dehumidifiers (both handy during the rainy season), and ion-free hair dryers and hair brushes. None of the singles face the castle; double rooms that do -- with floor-to-ceiling windows -- start at ¥31,185 ($260/£130) during the regular season. Another plus: a complimentary shuttle bus four times an hour to and from Kyoto Station from 8am to 7:45pm. Facilities: 5 restaurants; bar; lounge; indoor pool and sauna (fee: ¥1,575/$13/£6.50); computer w/free Internet access in the lobby; shopping arcade; salon; room service (7am-midnight); in-room massage; same-day laundry/dry-cleaning service; nonsmoking rooms.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Japan, 9th Edition, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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