What other travelers are saying about Fushimi Inari Taisha
Unreal place. Absolutely beautiful and a great place to explore for a long while at any time of the day. The place is bigger than I imagined with tons of shrines and gates. There is a lot of walking and exploring to do with great sights just about everywhere. Always packed with tourists but a must visit nevertheless. Absolutely unskippable when visiting Kyoto. Also the shops and food places around are great!
Tourist trap, but a really awesome tourist trap, so many gates, thousands of shrines, temples etc. totally crawling with tourists, but amazing regardless. Can see the whole of Kyoto and Osakas skyline in the distance. I went at sunset and it was stunning. I imagine sunrise would be even better as the view is to the west making sunset somewhat blinding. Definitely visit if you’re in Kyoto
would’ve given this 5 stars but it was very busy!!! you can hike up all the way to the top which takes about 1-2 hours. there are many different trails that lead to the top and i did get lost a bit as i took a different pathway which had some signs to guide me but not many, i also had to translate some signs with google translate picture mode (not the main route with the gates, maybe that’s why it took 1-2 hours for me to get up but 30-40 mins on the way down through the main gate route). towards the top it gets less busy and more space to move. the view at the top is very pretty and there are many temples to visit on the way up, alongside many shops for trinkets/ shrine related things and had a couple of rest stops for drinks and small food.
This is probably the best Shinto shrine in the world. There is quite a bit of climbing, but that helps with the crowd control and makes you get into the state to appreciate the climb and nature. There are tons of torii / gates and you can easily get a spot on your own for pictures the more you go up, so its probably not worth fighting the crowds closer to the bottom.
The trek to the top was not the most straightforward but the view near the top was pretty good. Plus it's an amazing place to watch the sunset. It's also well lit during night which really helps with safely making the trek uphill and downhill. I will most definitely be returning here when possible.
With a beautiful trail (hike) leading upto the top, a picturesque view of the city from up above and a sea of humanity thronging at this famous spot, everything I'd heard about this tourist attraction was true. I'd, however, highly recommend to take the hiking route to reach the top. Not only one gets to enjoy a quiet early morning hike through dense bamboo forests, it also avoids the crowd allowing one to enjoy the peace that nature offers. The torii gates are quite impressive to behold, with their bright colours and seemingly endless trail.
