Gion is Kyoto, Japan’s famous geisha district, located between Yasaka Shrine and the Kamo River. This guide offers info & tips for visiting, dining & dessert recommendations, including Gion in a Higashiyama itinerary, and how to spot geisha. (Updated November 7, 2019.) Although Gion is a fairly small district, it packs a powerful punch. The […]
Nishiki Market is known as Kyoto’s Kitchen or Japan’s Pantry, and is an incredibly popular food spot both with tourists and locals. We have a love-hate relationship with this dining hotspot and bona-fide attraction, and will cover the pros & cons, avoiding the crowds, and more in this guide to Nishiki Market. For starters, Nishiki […]
If you’re visiting Japan for the first time and only have one week to experience the highlights, this day-by-day itinerary is for you. It focuses on Tokyo, Kyoto, and a couple of diversions rather than taking you on a whirlwind and superficial tour of the entire country. For starters, we’d implore you to visit for […]
The IT Experience Chapter Two: the Derry Canal Days Festival is a free haunted house that will run August 15 to September 8, 2019, with free tickets that can be booked here. In this post, we preview this new interactive experience with a review & photos of IT Experience: Neibolt House, which we toured prior […]
I love road trips, and my favorite in the entire United States is the stretch of Pacific Coast Highway between Southern and Northern California. This guide will help you plan the perfect ocean-side vacation along PCH, with a multi-day itinerary, tips for where to stay, what to do, dining, and more! Formally known as California […]
Kyoto, Japan is home to thousands of shrines and temples–literally. Most cost around 500 yen, but some are free to enter. In this post, we rank the best options that don’t charge an admission fee and recommend which to include in your itinerary. While spending around $3 to $5 per temple may not sound like […]
Yoshida Shrine is one of several temples and other places on a hill overlooking Kyoto University. This cluster includes some of our favorite hidden gem temples in Japan: Kurodani Temple, Shinnyodo Temple, and Yoshida Shrine along with its array of sub-shrines. In this post, we’ll share further thoughts, tips, photos, and anecdotes from Yoshida Hill […]
Our 1-day Tokyo, Japan itinerary provides an efficient step-by-step touring plan for visiting the best of the city’s best districts, museums, parks, and other things to do. It’s a jam-packed day that covering tons of Tokyo’s highlights, all in a time-saving manner. However, with that bold claim made, we will caution you against spending only a single […]
Want to spend a single day on the Westside of Los Angeles? Staying near LAX and want to easily see the best things to do in the area? This itinerary has you covered, with a step-by-step plan for Beverly Hills, Culver City, Brentwood, Century City, Bel Air, Westwood, and so on. While it’s not a […]
Our Japan itineraries provide 1-day plans for every area of Kyoto, step-by-step itinerary, strategy, and walking tours of Tokyo, Kobe, Osaka, Nara, Miyajima Island, and more. These touring plans offer guides and tips for which temples to visit, where to eat, transportation, and the most efficient order of seeing the highlights of each area. None […]