Aman Kyoto: Autumn, In Private

Kyoto during its peak foliage season is an extraordinary sight. It is also exceptionally crowded. Aman Kyoto solves this problem. The hotel sits within a secret garden, a place of profound stillness just thirty minutes from the city’s central station.

The estate covers eighty acres at the foot of Mount Hidari Daimonji. Seventy-two of these are permanent forest. Moss-covered pathways navigate between mature cedars, granite boulders and Japanese maples. The gardens were once forgotten; today they are the heart of the experience.

This was the final project of the celebrated architect Kerry Hill. Twenty-six suites are housed in a series of minimalist, black timber pavilions. Each is a contemporary interpretation of a traditional ryokan, with tatami floors, shoji screens and floor-to-ceiling windows that frame the forest outside.

The garden’s maples turn extraordinary shades of red, gold and amber. Unlike the city’s famous temples, you experience it in near-total privacy.

Unusually for Kyoto, the property has its own natural onsen. The mineral-rich hot spring is the foundation of the Aman Spa, where treatments draw on Japan’s natural apothecary: local sake, camellia oil, and Kyoto green tea. For dining, there is omakase kaiseki at Taka-An and afternoon tea by the fire in the Living Pavilion.

Written by Marta Diaz · CEO & Editor-in-Chief

Avid tennis player, photographer and traveller. She curates every hotel in the collection and writes The Edit.