Hotel Review: Aman Kyoto
- K
- Oct 19, 2023
- 7 min read
Updated: Oct 22, 2023
Dates visited: 2nd - 4th October 2023
Average room rate: 500,000 - 700,000 JPY per night, after fees/taxes for the basic rooms. 2 million JPY per night, all inclusive, onwards for the suites.
Room type booked: Susuki
Overall Score: 8.0/10
Score breakdown at the end!
For a description of how hotels are scored, refer here.
TLDR: Excellent hotel most worth the splurge, just make sure you do not have a packed itinerary and long list of places to visit in Kyoto.
_________________________________
Aman Kyoto is a fantastic hotel, if you can even call it a hotel. It is not simply a place to stay, it is a place to go to, relax, recharge and have all your needs taken care of.
This is a hotel that you definitely do not want to visit if you have an itinerary that's packed full of places to go to. You'll want to spend time exploring the hotel, soaking in its outdoor and indoor onsens and exploring the area which has a hiking trail within the compounds!
HOTEL INTRODUCTION
It is best suited for tourists who want to explore Kyoto at a leisurely place, or for people whom have been to Kyoto so many times the standard Kinkaku-ji, Kiyomizu-dera, Ginkaku-ji, Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, Fushimi Inari shrine and other standard Kyoto attractions no longer excite you. Aman Kyoto invites you to discover a side of Kyoto even more slow-paced, even more tranquil, even more exclusive than you already know.
Such understated, extreme luxury comes at a cost. This is, as far as I know, Kyoto's most expensive hotel. During peak periods, a suite can cost as much as 30,000 SGD a night all-in. Such extreme pricing usually invites the wrong sort of crowd - snobs if you will who have nothing other than money to throw and who do not appreciate the product for what it is. Just look at the hoardes of people who own Patek Philippes or Audemars Piguet watches and are yet unable to even name the movement in their watch, much less describe it. Aman Kyoto, however, manages this very subtly in an amazing way. The rooms are so spaced out and the number of rooms so limited that you barely even run into any other guests apart from breakfast time - so their behaviour doesn't matter, only the hotel has to deal with them, not other guests. Contrast this with a city hotel where you run into guests screaming down the corridors at weird hours of the night - yes it is not the hotel's fault but it does contribute to an unpleasant experience. Aman Kyoto has somehow managed the impossible to manage - other guests' behaviours without offending anyone nor restricting anyone's behaviour. THAT is what you pay 500,000 JPY a night for.
THE ROOM
There are 4 types of rooms (Susuki, Kaede, Hotaru and Nara) and two 'suites', called pavilions here.
The main differences are the views and the Susuki room having a private balcony (which was amazing!!). I am not too clear if there are other perks available as part of other rooms as it is not shown on the site.
Also, the interiors of the rooms are largely the same as far as I can tell. The rooms are fairly large at 60 sq. m each, more than enough space for a comfortable stay.
Step in to the room and you are immediately wowed by the view of the garden outside, your own private balcony and the extraordinarily spacious bath area on the right.
The bed is in the center of the room, with views towards the garden outside. If you don't mind keeping the blinds up while you sleep, you will wake up to an amazing view of the balcony with lush greenery (or momiji in fall!) outside.
The washroom comes with double sinks, Marvis toothbrush and toothpaste, shaver and shaving cream in a proper canister.
The shower was really good. Excellent temperature control, no surprise water stream attack from nowhere, intuitive controls.
The bathtub, which was placed outside the shower, was what I mainly used. Big enough for me (1.76 m) to lie completely flat in. There's even space to do pushups in it without my arms hitting the sides (trust me I actually did a push up in there to test this).
MEALS PROVIDED
Aman Kyoto also offers daily complimentary breakfast as well as daily afternoon snacks they call Kanmi. From 4-5pm, guests are also invited for free champagne at The Living Pavillion, which is the main restaurant at Aman Kyoto.
The breakfast options are Japanese and Western. The Japanese breakfast is fantastic - it is a 2-course affair where they bring an appetiser (cold steamed egg with caviar on one day) and then the proper meal later. The variety and volume is just amazing. You will probably be too full for lunch if you eat breakfast late like 10am.
You have a choice of Beef or Fish, and the condiments also change daily. The condiments are generous, there was uni and chutoro even and they were of rather decent quality!
Day 1 Breakfast:
Day 2 Breakfast:
Afternoon Snack: Kanmi
Exquisitely made sweets with a most excellent roasted tea. Usually when people say roasted tea they mean houjicha which is roasted green tea, but this was (my guess) iribancha, a much more fragrant and umami tea in my opinion.
HOTEL FACILITIES
The hotel's main restaurant is called The Living Pavillion, and there is one other Japanese restaurant on the hotel grounds. Breakfast is served daily at The Living Pavillion.
The hotel also has an onsen (both indoor and outdoor) which I could not take pictures of for obvious reasons, a spa facility.
They have no gym, which I find very very strange for a hotel of this calibre.
EXPERIENCES
The only experience offered by the hotel which I attended was the garden tour. This is an activity I'd highly highly recommend when staying here - it is an absolute waste not to!
The guide, Sakura, was amazing. She pointed out many small details of the garden which she probably had to deduce herself. Told a captivating story about the original owners of the place and how Aman Kyoto came to be, guided me through the garden and described how the various spots looked like in various seasons and even showed me pictures of them. The garden tour is complimentary, there's honestly no excuse not to attend it.
The stone wall was human-made. Stones were stacked on top of one another to create the raised platform that we see today.
Notice how the view from the top of the staircase looks like a smooth path down. The heights of the stone and the length of the steps were calculated to give this effect.
Aman Kyoto's garden is a lesson in design and architecture.
_________________________________
Scoring:
Overall Score: 8.0/10
Breakdown:
Accessibility: 2/10
There's no way to access the hotel other than a 30 minute walk from the nearest station or a 15-20 min walk from the nearest bus station. The hotel also does not have a complementary vehicle (not that they offered) to fetch guests from Kyoto station for check in even. It does not get much worse than this apart from asking you to swim or compulsorily drive so, 0/10. There's absolutely no excuse for this as the taxi fare cost about 5000 JPY from Kyoto station, an amount thats about 1% the daily room rate. The downside of such a ridiculous room rate is that cost simply cannot be a justification for anything.
Check-in/Check-out process: 10/10
Incredibly smooth and personal. Room was not ready for early check-in but that is not an entitlement, what mattered was they addressed it matter of factly in a pleasant manner. Welcome drink was offered. No welcome snack like the excellent warabimochi at Roku Kyoto but again, not an entitlement as long as a refreshment is provided.
Hotel's facilities: 8/10
No gym and pool. This is a major minus point for a hotel of this calibre. Pathways are rocky and walking is dangerous at night without a flashlight (which is provided). No marks were deducted for this as this is Kyoto and they were being really mindful to respect the natural environment. It might be a convenient excuse, but I'm sure it wouldn't please the local community if they smoothened the paths.
The existence of a huge garden with hiking trails is a huge plus point. I don't know of any other hotels (aside from other Amans in secluded places) that have anything close. The fact that Aman could do this in a city like Kyoto is astounding.
Meals provided: 9/10
Excellent. Not awarding full marks means it has some way to go to compare to the city's restaurants, which are honestly too high a bar to reach. Harsh I know, but as long as I can reasonably fathom how it can be better, I cannot award full marks.
No overnight room service. Western breakfast option looked rather pale in comparison to the Japanese breakfast but I did not deduct marks for this as I did not try the western breakfast personally. There was also no buffet style counter which I get that might be to try and reduce waste, as the hotel capacity is small to begin with. A counter with free-flow ikura like Andaz Tokyo might help though hahaha
Value for Money: 6/10
Ridiculous room rate. But also ridiculous space. But you can get a 60-70 sq m room for half the price in Kyoto, even in a luxury hotel so I'm not quite sure I can call this value for money. The only thing propping this rating up is the expansive, immaculately maintained backyard garden sorry I mean forest.
Room: Living Area: 9/10
Balcony door opened to a massive spider-web. The other side did not have a spider web so... I just used that side.
Room: Washroom: 9/10
As perfect as it could get. One mark for there not being any comfort amenities in the bathtub - no slope to sit comfortably in, no headrest to rest while soaking, no side table conveniently placed to put stuff like drinks on while soaking.
Experiences offered: 9/10
As perfect as it can get within the hotel. 1 mark deducted for there not being any effort to incorporate activities outside the hotel, like a shuttle to Kinkaku-ji for instance.
Before-arrival service: 9/10
Excellent concierge. More effort can be made to suggest restaurants, instead of a flat 'sorry we could not secure this'. It is not the hotel's fault of course, but they can suggest other places proactively.
After-arrival service: 9/10
As good as it gets. 1 mark off for the experience on the first day when I went for Kanmi, the guy insisted I needed a reservation. First step should be to clarify if I'm a guest, instead of asking do you have a reservation?
Comments