When to visit Kyoto

I'm cracking my brain trying to decide when to set my visit to Kyoto. I know late Nov/Early Dec is when the autumn colors are spectacular but i'm trying to not hit right smack into the super peak season. Can be hard to maneuver when crowded and i dont' speak Japanese (planning to learn).
Would late October/Early Nov be an option? Any recomendations? I plan to spend 1 week in Kyoto. else last few days of Nov and early Dec.
Thanks!

Would late October/Early Nov be an option?

Yes, any time of the year is nice. But from mid December through March the gardens can be a little bit barren.

October and early November are very attractive with comfortable temperatures. It is pretty busy, though. Another of my favorites is May, just after Golden Week. June comes with a lot of rainy days and July and August are very hot and humid.

Hello,

I visited Kyoto this November (19-22). Some areas had reached foliage peak, some have not. Tourist spots were quite crowded but there are ways to mitigate this and still have an enjoyable time ....

1) Wake up really early to visit places that open early (this also maximizes daylight since the sun sets around 4:30PM during this time):

e.g. Kiyumizudera temple - open at 6AM
Fushimi Inari shrine - open 24 hours
Arashiyama - Togetskuyo bridge, Sagano Bamboo grove, Kameyama Park Observatory - all free and refreshingly devoid of crowds until around 10AM
etc., for some reason, most people there don't go out early ... :-)

2) Prioritize temples to visit. There is no dearth of beautiful temples in Kyoto and you won't be able to visit them all, unless you just breeze through each one, which isn't much fun - e.g, for us, Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) was a must but it was also on everybody's hitlist - so we visited on a weekday, were at the ticket booth before opening time, ahead of the hordes of tour groups, it became crowded quite fast but we were able to get the shots we wanted

3) Try to get a place near the subway stations (not near Kyoto station) but away from downtown Kyoto, (and nearer to the tourist destinations) so you will benefit from convenient transpo w/o the crowds and concrete jungle feel of downtown Kyoto.

4) Go for the out-of-the-way but interesting places (e.g. we went to Otagi Nenbutsu-ji in Arashiyama, Iwatayama Monkey park, Jikkoin temple in Ohara, etc) it wasn't crowded at all

5) Try to incorporate subways in your routes and avoid traveling during rush hour (already packed buses will be more cramped because you also compete with students and office workers) You can schedule your coffee breaks and meals at these times :-)

6) Temple night lightups - try to go near closing time, crowds would have thinned already and they don't really close on the dot, it takes a while to clear the grounds of the visitors so you can linger a bit

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to share our experience of peak season travel in Kyoto. We had a great time :-) But if it's the zen feel you want, then maybe offpeak season is for you, not summer though, as Uji said, the extreme humidity can dampen your travel energy :-)

There are something like 1600 temples and shrines so no one can hope to visit them all..

Save for a few places that are both famous and worth seeing (not all famous places are..it is a personal choice..) I have enjoyed many neighbourhood temples or shrines I have stumbled upon ..EVERYTHING is interesting for one reason or another..

Thank you very much!! these is a great help!!