Kyoto

Kyoto is where the kaiseki meal, the tea ceremony, the garden and the ryokan reached their most refined forms, and its top hotels — Aman Kyoto, the Ritz-Carlton on the Kamo river, Hoshinoya in Arashiyama, Four Seasons by the temple pond — draw on all of them. Gion and Higashiyama hold the temples and the geisha districts; Arashiyama has the bamboo grove and river; Fushimi Inari's torii gates are best at dawn. Cherry blossom (early April) and autumn foliage (mid–late November) are the most beautiful and most crowded times; book a year ahead for those weeks. The city has grown protective of its residents — follow photography rules in Gion, do not touch or block geiko and maiko, and keep quiet in residential lanes. Kyoto is 15 minutes from Osaka by Shinkansen and 75 minutes from Kansai airport.