Park Hyatt Kyoto REVIEW - MASTER THREAD - FlyerTalk Forums (2024)

antonius66

Join Date: Jan 2008

Posts: 3,578

Personally I would say you could do a week in Kyoto easily and for me 2 days (once) in Osaka is plenty. Now if you tolerance or interest in temples, shrines, soaking in the ambience of a city and your willingness to hike out on transit to various sites is limited, you may not enjoy Kyoto as much. Definitely can easily spend more than 3 days there especially if you have never been.

I will say however as I've said before, to each his own, but this hotel is absurd in it's pricing and I did not find it worth 45k points a night at all. I actually overall think the HR is the best choice when the pricing is reasonable all things considered (price location product staff etc) of the 3 Hyatt choices. While the PH is nice and the hard product lovely, it just doesn't justify 800-900 USD a night in points or 2k plus in cash.

Clemson

Join Date: Oct 2021

Location: Bay Area

Posts: 347

Thanks for your thoughts! I was thinking we might take a day trip to Kobe or go to Universal during one of the days, so basing out of Osaka for a few days made sense. I have been to Osaka and Kyoto before, but only very briefly, so it will basically be like the first time. Agree that PH Kyoto cost is pretty steep compared to the HR, which also looks great, but for our "first" time I don't mind splurging a bit. If we come back to Kyoto in the future I could see us doing the HR instead.

WaterBottle18

Join Date: Aug 2021

Location: Madison, WI

Programs: Delta Platinum Medallion, Marriott Platinum Elite, World of Hyatt Globalist

Posts: 63

We had the exact same question, and we ended up doing 3 Osaka and 3 Kyoto, with one of the Osaka days being a day-trip to Nara. That worked out well for us, but I certainly could've stayed another day in Kyoto. Kyoto's a bit tough because many of the attractions are far apart (e.g. Kinkaku-Ji, Arashiyama, etc.), so travel time is much higher than in Osaka. Kyoto is certainly the more interesting and picturesque city though! Though I will say my viewpoint is skewed a bit because of how much I loved the PH Kyoto

Dave510

Join Date: Aug 2014

Location: YYZ

Programs: Ex-Bonvoyed, Hyatt, Hilton, BR, AC, AA

Posts: 1,298

Yes, and Kyoto is also a bus city (where as Osaka and Tokyo are very much "subway cities"), so very much a "take it slow" kinda city and experience.

jbeckett

Join Date: Mar 2009

Programs: Hilton credit card Diamond, Hyatt Globalist

Posts: 2,653

Thank you, I just had a look and found three consecutive nights in May that were not there earlier.

antonius66

Join Date: Jan 2008

Posts: 3,578

I certainly understand that regarding the hotel...when it was announced, I was committed to the fact that there was no chance I was going to miss staying at a Park Hyatt in Kyoto at some point, so I did at the first chance I got after global shutdowns stopped my first two attempts. In the end, I was pleased I did it but did not feel at all that it was worth it. Having stayed at the HR several times and even the HP a couple of times, I remain committed to my belief that overall when all factors are considered, the HR is the easy winner unless the price starts getting into crazy levels or if the HP is just absurd cheap (like it was on my recent trip this year where it was ~$80 pre tax). Certainly the HP comes with major drawbacks but at that price point, it was impossible to pass up.

As has been mentioned, one of the factors about Kyoto is that many of the must see things are decent commitments of time on the bus at different ranges of town and you can only see and do so many things in one day, especially when you factor in eating etc, and especially since choice of place to dine at any given meal is equally as important (especially in Japan) as sightseeing, as each meal should be a destination in and of itself. To just see the major items in Kyoto, I would say 4 days is a minimum. I am told that in Osaka, the joke is that Osaka Castle is the most popular attraction because it is the only attraction. Not quite true, but for me, not terribly far off and I find as a base for places like Nara, etc., Kyoto and Osaka are basically the same. Osaka certainly does have some charms and is closer to the airport etc.

Fiberwalker

Join Date: Mar 2019

Posts: 32

I had booked a number of nights as they became available in April. Some of my nights had 2 night cancellation policies, others were 30 day cancellation policies. I think it depends on the hotels load at the time of booking. As we got closer to the dates the cancellation policies grew more restrictive.

WorkToLive

Join Date: Nov 2023

Posts: 8

I have much of July booked for award reservations that it looks like we are not going to be using. New trip planned for first half of April of next year but no availability unfortunately.

We loved PHK when we went last year. Will the regency be even somewhat comparable?

Fiberwalker

Join Date: Mar 2019

Posts: 32

Spent a week there in early April for the Cherry Blossom season, all booked on points. Great design and art throughout the hotel! We wanted to buy some pieces they were displaying. The staff is very attentive and the breakfast was good, though I think the Andaz Tokyo had a better breakfast. Our room was towards the back of the building, facing the hillside. Our view was basically a garden wall, but it was a peaceful sanctuary for us in Kyoto. We had a toddler in tow, and they converted the day bed into a bed for our little one which made our lives easier. I'd echo, the bed was good, much better than the Andaz (which was way too firm). We didn't get a chance to try any of the other restaurants, but we did have in-room dining which was good.

The gym/spa were small but did the job. The biggest downside is also it's biggest upside - the location is great, but it's impossible to get a cab quickly from one place to another during the peak periods. Might as well walk - which we did.

They had musicians playing traditional instrumental music in the lobby a number of times during our stay, it was always a blast to walk into the lobby and hear them playing. Loved the attention to detail as well, they had cherry blossom branches set up in vases throughout the hotel and they would remove and update them with different branches as the blossom progressed. When we arrived they were buds/blossoms, by the time we were leaving they had blossoms/leaves on the branches.

The staff was very accommodating to our little one, and we saw a number of other families with children there so it wasn't awkward at all - very family friendly.

Dave510

Join Date: Aug 2014

Location: YYZ

Programs: Ex-Bonvoyed, Hyatt, Hilton, BR, AC, AA

Posts: 1,298

Very true. Almost missed my train in a previous stay not because there was a line, but because it was all but impossible for taxis to cut through the crowd. It was only when the staff noticed that I was cutting it very close, that they sent someone to go out and actively guide a taxi in, through the crowd.

Chemystery

Join Date: Feb 2015

Posts: 184

We got to the point where we would often walk down the hill and then use Uber to order a cab once we got away from the traffic on the street leading up to the hotel. This was over the New Year holidays, so nowhere near as busy as it is now, I'm sure.