Keinawa Cycling Road

The Keinawa Bicycle Route (京奈和自転車道 in Japanese) is a scenic cycling path in Japan, stretching approximately 180 km between Kyoto and Wakayama, offering riders stunning views of both urban and natural landscapes. Around 70% of the route is on dedicated cycleways, providing a safe and enjoyable experience for cyclists. The path takes you through charming countryside, riversides, and traditional Japanese towns, making it ideal for both casual and experienced riders to explore Japan’s cultural and natural beauty.

The term “Keinawa” (京奈和) comes from combining the first character of each prefectures kanji together. Kei – Kyoto, Na – Nara and Wa – Wakayama.

The Route

The route is well signposted along the way both with directional signs on the side of the road as well as the blue chevorons on the tarmac itself. Approximately 70% is on dedicated cycle paths (mostly along the banks of rivers) with the other 25% being on smaller roads and the remaining 5% (mostly in Wakayama) that are on regular roads with traffic and no cycling infrastructure.

Riding the Keinawa Bike Path

Katsura River

Kizu River

Crossing Nara

Daiichiji Daigokuden (第一次大極殿)

South Nara

Throughout Southern Nara, the Keinawa Cycling route follows smaller roads with minimal traffic. Turns are well signposted and in many locations blue directional arrows are painted on the road, even when the route continues straight. South Nara also contains the only climb of the route. Over about 5km the route climbs 150m making the average grade about 3% although some sections are around 5%.

Yoshino

West to Wakayama

The Wakayama section of the route is the least developed however. Many portions of the section between south Nara and Wakayama are on a grade separated cycling path that follows the Kinokawa River. When on the grade separated paths, following the blue line should be easy. However some sections are on relatively busy roads with no cycling infrastructure (particularly between Gojo and Hashimoto) . In many places blue markings on the road indicate that one is on the road, turns are generally not signposted so the rider has to on the lookout for turns when on the road (in some cases the only marking that the course has turned is a blue painted line for a few meteres on either side of the intersection)

For the Wakayama section in particular, it’s recommended to have the course on a GPS unit to avoid making a mistake.

Wakayama Prefecture has been adding to the grade separated sections so some portions have been moved from the road to a path closer to the river.

Mt Koya

Gose Old Village 五條新町通り

Maps and Official Websites

Kyoto

Kyoto offers a fantastic map that is printable and A2 sized in English! (link to PDF map) as well as tourist information in English ( link directly to PDF of tourist information).

Both of the links are available on the Kyoto official webite which is in Japanese only.

Kyoto will even send my mail (within Japan only) hard copies of the map (up to 4) by sending an envelope with return postage (110yen for 1, 180yen for 2 or 3, 270yen for 4) to the following address: 602-8570 (only need to write the postal code)

Kyoto City also has a page on their website about the Keinawa Cycle Route. They also have a useful PDF map for cycling in and and around Kyoto City which can be helpful

Nara

Nara Prefecture has a simple page about the Keinawa cycle route (Japanese Only)

Wakayama

Unfortuantely, Wakayama does not have a dedicated website, just a generic Wakayama 800 website (Japanese only) about cycling in Wakayama in general with no details about the Keinawa Cycle Route

Getting there and away

While this route is largely through the country side, the route is generally near train lines so train stations are never far away. Through Kyoto and Nara, train lines criss-cross the country side. From Nara onwards the path doesn’t diverge far away JR Wakayama line the rest for the way to Wakayama making it easy to bail out and get back if a mechanical emergency should happy.

This makes it easy to start/end anywhere on the route and be able to get back to Osaka fairly easily.

Arashiyama (Kyoto)

The Kyoto end of the route is in Arashiyama which is severed by 3 railway lines: Hankyu, JR and Keifuku making Arashiyama easy to get to by train.

Alternatively, from Kyoto station it’s only 9km to Arashiyama so it’s a definitely possibile to just ride from Kyoto station (where the Shinkansen stops).

Wakayama (Wakayama)

The Wakayama end is at Wakayama Station which has good service on both JR and Nankai Lines back towards Osaka.

From Wakayama Station to Tennoji (the South end of the loop Line) is about an hour, about 1.5 hours to Osaka Station or 2 hours from Kyoto Station

Food

Large portions of the path, particularly in Kyoto and Wakayama, are on dedicate cycle paths on the sides of river so consequently, there isn’t much in the way of convenience stores / water directly ajacent to the path in those sections. However, the area is relatively well populated so a quick search on the photo should reveal a store not more than a kilometer or two away (one execption being South Nara, where there is a 5+ km stretch with none)

Sleeping

170-180km is a lot of most people to complete in one day. There is a wide variety fo hotels along the entire route (with there being a few less between Nara and Kyoto, however if you make the trip to Uji, there are plenty of hotels there)

Most hotels, even small ones – or even especially small ones, are bicycle friendly and should be able to find somewhere covered to put your bicycle. In worst case, just about every hotel should let you bring the bicycle into the room if it is inside a Rinko Bag (bags for taking bicycles on the train)