⭐ From Kansai International Airport
Kansai International is the usual international arrival, on an island in Osaka Bay. The JR limited express Haruka runs straight to Kyoto Station with no change of train, in about 80 minutes.
Airport limousine buses also run to Kyoto Station, in about 100 minutes — slower, but your bags go underneath and you keep a seat the whole way.
The Nankai line is the other rail route, into downtown Kyoto by way of Osaka, in about 110 minutes. It is the one to choose only if you are staying downtown and do not mind a change.
⚠️ The Haruka runs less often in the middle of the day than at either end of it. Check the operator's timetable against your landing time before you choose it over the bus.
From Osaka Itami Airport
Itami is Osaka's domestic airport. An airport limousine bus runs to Kyoto Station and to some hotels in about 50 to 55 minutes, which makes it the easiest arrival of all if you are flying in from elsewhere in Japan.
By rail it is the Osaka Monorail and then the Hankyu line, reaching downtown Kyoto in about an hour.
⭐ By Shinkansen
From Tokyo the Tokaido Shinkansen reaches Kyoto Station in about 130 minutes on a Nozomi and about 170 on a Hikari. Flying into Tokyo first, Haneda is the quicker connection of the two airports — about two and a half hours to Kyoto in all, against a little over three from Narita.
From Nagoya it is about 34 minutes on a Nozomi.
From Osaka by train
Three railways run between the two cities, and they arrive in three different parts of Kyoto — so the right one depends on where you are staying, not on which is fastest.
JR Special Rapid from Osaka Station to Kyoto Station, about 30 minutes. Hankyu from Osaka-Umeda to downtown Kyoto, about 45 minutes. Keihan from Yodoyabashi to downtown Kyoto, about 48 minutes.
Which part of the city suits you is on neighbourhoods.
By car
Driving into the historic centre is rarely the easy option. The city promotes park-and-ride on its edges; check its own guidance for where, and come the rest of the way by train.
Once you are here
Kyoto Station, where most of these routes end, sits south of the centre. How to move around once you are in is on getting around.
For the day you arrive
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Two things that make arrival easier: somewhere to leave your bags if you reach the city before you can check in, and a data plan working from the airport onward.
