The Gate Hotel Kyoto Takasegawa by Hulic

Excellent location!! Front of hotel near Takase River. Walking distance to Pontocho Alley, Higashiyama, Geisha district, great shopping malls, Samurai museum, Nishiki markets and more!! Lovely quiet lounge area on Lv 3 where free daily refreshments can be enjoyed after 2pm. Evenings has an exterior fire pit, weather permitting. Staff are Wonderful throughout the hotel. Foyer area , level 1 you will find Blue bottle Cafe which makes great coffee (oat milk available) Masters Bar/restaurant with great food & prompt service. A few other shops too ( dessert, Incense sticks)

Overall, the hotel is good enough, as a perfect location, not so expensive price, and even better if you are a fan of Cardcaptor Sakura. Personally, the most important reason for me to choose this hotel this time is that it is modified from an elementary school, even though if you walk in the hotel now, you even cannot imagine except the outside look of the hotel. You can feel it used to be a school. More importantly, this elementary school is the model for Tomoe school. The location of the hotel is great, kawaramachi is a great location not only it is close to gion, but also you can feel the quiet atmosphere in the morning but enjoying late night life at night at the same time. However, kawaramachi station is kind of hard for traveller with large suitcase as it is very hard to find an lift or escalator in the subway. You might need to consider how to move your suitcase up and down. The room is large with very interesting room planning, which is kind of hard to see in other hotels. However, at least the room I stayed in did not provide a suitcase stand so I had to put my suitcase on the ground, which was annoying.

Beautiful room designed perfectly for all the little details to be exactly right. Huge shower room with a wonderful rain overhead shower with high pressure as well as a handheld if that's your preference, plus a huge tub. Great Japanese toilet that flushes itself but not obnoxiously or before you get off it. Comfortable bed, and a nice small couch and table to sit at and work or eat. Tea kettle in the room, as well as wonderful amenities - including Epsom salts and tiny, wonderful hand lotion! I'm super sensitive and generally don't use any products other than my own, but used the shower products here all four days of my stay and had no issues. Staff is incredibly friendly and helpful at both the front desk and reception. There is functioning heat AND A/C in the room, controlled individually, even in winter, so if you want it cool while sleeping in the winter and the heat in most places is too hot, this is a good place for you. I was sorry to leave and would absolutely love to stay in this super comfortable, high value hotel again.

The hotel itself is beautiful in the perfect location for exploring Kyoto. The lobby, longest bar in the world I think, and the breakfast room are a pleasure to the eye and for comfort as well. The breakfasts are lovely, you want to linger; it's fascinating to have the formal Japanese breakfast (included with your room if you booked breakfast included. Do!) The staff was very helpful; when I had complicated requirements, we used Google translate to good advantage. For example: I needed to buy a used SILK kimono and the woman at the reception told me where to go and then wrote a small card for me to show the staff at the store to verify if I were in the right place and what I needed. Most tourist kimonos are polyester (and beautiful too) but the request I'd had was for used silk. Authentic, in other words. We were able to walk to so many sites, shopping, & markets, When you want to explore further afield (further than you can walk) the "GO" taxis are plentiful and excellent. You might even luck in & get one of the "4 clovers" rated taxis as we did unknowingly. So many charming extras at this hotel: the lounge with free wine/snacks for happy hour(s) plus the marshmallow roasting fire pit in the atrium patio. (sorry to spoil your surprise!). I was delighted by the people paying hundreds of dollars a night for a room getting so excited to get a free cold can of pepsi or a glass of cold white wine whenever they want from the fridge. Whomever thought this up is a genius!

Very clean, quiet, bed comfortable, good size room, near Kyoto Main Street, received fast very courteous service whenever requested, made arrangements for transportation to Osaka airport.