Hey guys! Visiting your city in september (will behave I promise) and I was wondering how much cabs cost in Kyoto? Would it be cheaper for 4 people to just take a cab or is public transport reliable/cheaper?
Thanks for helping me!
Also where do you guys love to eat? We have 4 vegetarians/vegans in our group so if you could recommend some cheap/good places that would be great!
by Julesvernevienna
8 comments
If you want to spend tons of money, take cabs. If you want to spend significantly less money, take public transport.
Public transport in Japan is generally safe, reliable, convenient and inexpensive. Cabs in Japan are generally expensive.
However, if going to very tourist-y places during peak times, taking a cab _can_ be worth it, just to avoid the crowds on the commute. Personal preference thing though.
For your vegans and vegetarians, download the free HappyCow app (well, free on Android, anyway). It will come in handy! Here are a couple places to get you started though: Gomacro, Premarche Diner, CHOICE, mumokuteki, MOS burger.
For vegan food definitely hit up the [Kind Cafe](https://maps.app.goo.gl/jXWdAgeJpQL9jase6?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy) and check out the ‘Happy Cow’ site/app.
For short distances that are a bit too much to walk and in between bus routes, it can be somewhat worth it. The bus is 230 yen so that would be 920 yen for everyone. Depending on the distance and traffic you can get to some places for around 1500 yen. However note that not every cab accommodates 4 people. Taxis have fairly strict rules about their sizes and how many passengers they can take. Uber and the other taxi apps let you designate how many passengers I think so they send you the appropriate cab.
We took Uber a few times while we were there and found it no more expensive than we would taking an Uber here (US). And we used it like we use it in the US—sparingly. But Uber works.
Save your energy. You will be walking a lot when you are here. The city buses are very crowded these days. I usually take the subway as far as I can, then take a cab.
Here is a thread on vegetarian food from 9 days ago: https://old.reddit.com/r/Kyoto/comments/1k0e4l6/vegetarian_food_in_kyoto/
Just came back from Japan and in Kyoto we used cabs to avoid the rush and get to the next destination quicker (family of four) and the cost was 500yen flag fee then about 100yen per kilometre.
Did a month in yoto. Have been taking the bus a lot but part way thru my trip there was a thread asking what would you buy if you could go back to Japan and someone said more Japan and I was like Ooooooohhh. And I started taking the taxi more.
Bus is 200 each time and it’s solid. But taxi is 1-2k for most anywhere in an adjacent quadrant, 2-3x if across the city. So like 20 bucks max to save half an hour for public transit over a week- 3min several times a day means you get to one more thing (everything closes at 4pm arrrgghhh and all the dinner is like 6pm is on the late side) so time is so valuable here. If I could go back I would double my taxi spending. It’s super reasonable and I would have spent more time sitting in a zen garden on so many days. Not even a contest when I think about it.
Waco Crepes has a lot of vegetarian and vegan options. 🙂