The last ten days of November are when Kyoto's maples are most often at their deepest, and when the city is at its fullest, with visitors from across Japan as well as from abroad. Come if you want the temple gardens in colour and can share them. If a queue spoils your day, pick another month.
The dates shift. In central Kyoto the maples tend to turn from mid-November and in some years hold on into early December. A warm autumn can push the whole thing back a week. Check the Kyoto City autumn leaves calendar in the days before you go, and treat any peak forecast published months ahead as a guess.
Book the room before anything else. The second half of November fills early, and if central Kyoto is full, Osaka is under an hour away by train. Wherever you stay, choose somewhere near a subway station or the Keihan line. On autumn weekends the buses into eastern Kyoto crawl through traffic and fill to the doors, so plan on trains and walk the last stretch.
While you are booking, reserve Ruriko-in. The temple in the hills north of the city, known for the maples mirrored in a polished lacquer desk upstairs, opens only for special seasons, and in its peak autumn weeks it admits visitors by advance reservation alone.
Labour Thanksgiving Day, a national holiday, falls on 23 November. Keep away from the headline temples that day and on the weekend nearest to it. The second Sunday of the month brings the Arashiyama Momiji Festival, with costumed performers in boats on the Oi River near Togetsukyo Bridge. It falls before the colour peaks, but it is a good excuse for a morning in Arashiyama.
Start each day with the most famous garden on your list, at opening time. For most people that means Tofuku-ji, where the Tsutenkyo bridge looks down into a ravine of maples. The temple bans stopping for photos on the bridge during the autumn crush, so walk across and take your pictures from the paths alongside, where the view is much the same.
Use the middle of the day for lunch and a rest, then go out again at dusk. Mornings start around 7°C and highs reach about 16°C, so dress in layers with a warm jacket for the evening, and wear shoes you can step out of quickly, since temple halls ask you to remove them.
If you have time for one light-up, make it Eikando, long known as the temple of maples. It usually opens for evening viewing in the second half of November, and the lit trees are doubled in its pond. Kiyomizu-dera holds a special night viewing in late November as well. Both are calmer on weekdays. Eikando sells its evening ticket separately from the daytime one, so a morning visit will not get you back in after dark.