Where to Stay in Kanazawa: Station, Omicho Market, Korinbo, Higashi Chaya and Kenrokuen Compared

1. Six areas hold almost all the places to stay

Decide first whether you want to be next to Kanazawa Station or next to Kenrokuen, and most of the rest follows. The station sits alone at the northwest corner of the city and the sights are clustered to the southeast, so the places to sleep are strung out between the two.

Kanazawa City Tourism Association sorts its official accommodation register into nine districts. Six of them are in town and hold nearly everything; the others are the port, the hills, and a hot spring village well up the valley.

Three districts sit outside the city centre

Yuwaku Onsen is a hot spring village up in the hills. The distance matters, but what really shapes a stay there is how rarely the bus runs. That has a section of its own further down.

Kanaiwa and Ono are out by the port, and Morimoto is at the foot of the hills to the east. Between them they hold only a handful of places, so unless you are driving there is little reason to look at them.

The types of place are not spread evenly

Sorted by type, the register is mostly business hotels, then guesthouses and small family-run inns, then ryokan, city hotels, and whole townhouses you rent to yourself.

Those types cluster. Business hotels are concentrated around the station, Omicho Market and Korinbo. Rentable townhouses are concentrated in Higashi Chaya. Inns with hot spring water are concentrated at Yuwaku.

Kenrokuen is the odd one out. Of the seven places listed there, only one is a business hotel; the rest are city hotels or small properties with a handful of rooms. There was never room for large buildings beside the garden.

The city as a whole has far more rooms

The register above lists the properties the tourism association carries. The Kanazawa Convention Bureau counts the city differently and puts the total at more than four hundred properties holding over fourteen thousand rooms.

Most of those are very small places with a few rooms each. The rooms you will actually see when you search a booking site are concentrated in the business hotels.

2. Nothing is walkable from both the station and Kenrokuen

Plot the register on a map and no property is within a kilometre of Kanazawa Station and within a kilometre of Kenrokuen at the same time. Not one.

This catches out most first-time visitors. It is natural to assume that a hotel in front of the station puts you near the sights, and in Kanazawa that assumption does not hold.

There is a gap between the two ends

The properties closest to the station are a little over two kilometres from Kenrokuen. The ones beside Kenrokuen are more than two kilometres from the station. Filling the middle is Omicho Market, roughly fifteen minutes on foot from either end.

What changes with your choice is simply when you ride the bus. Stay by the station and you ride it every morning and evening. Stay by the garden and you ride it on arrival and departure days, with your luggage.

The sights themselves are close together

The attractions cluster tightly. Kenrokuen, Kanazawa Castle Park, the 21st Century Museum and Omicho Market are all within walking distance of one another. Higashi Chaya means crossing a river, and that is not far either.

Base yourself in the southeast and you can spend most of a day on foot. How the loop buses work and when a day pass starts paying for itself are set out in the Kanazawa travel guide.

Laundry and large baths are concentrated near the station

One difference is easy to miss when you compare areas. Of the properties in the register that have a coin laundry, two out of three are around the station. There are none at all around Kenrokuen or in Teramachi.

Large communal baths follow the same pattern, with close to half of them near the station. If you are staying several nights and plan to wash clothes, or you want a proper bath at the end of a day of walking, that alone can settle the area.

Which end suits you

3. Kanazawa Station has a third of everything

One in three properties in the register sits around Kanazawa Station. Most are business hotels, and a good number are within a five-minute walk of the concourse. 📍Map

Via Inn Kanazawa is inside the station building itself. AB Hotel Kanazawa, ANA Crowne Plaza Hotel Kanazawa, Garden Hotel Kanazawa and Hotel Kanazawa follow. Hyatt Centric Kanazawa and Hyatt House Kanazawa share a building a few minutes out.

The widest range of prices in the city

Not everything here is a business hotel. Kanazawa Chaya, a ryokan that serves its own kitchen’s cooking, sits in the lanes on the east side, and so do older inns like Kashimaya and Shibaya. The cheapest beds in the city are here too, at Guest House Pongyi, Guest House Nande and Guesthouse Namaste.

This is the only area where you can pick anywhere along the price range without changing neighbourhood. Everywhere else leans one way or the other.

The practical fittings for a longer stay

More properties here have a coin laundry than in any other area, and more have a large communal bath. If you are travelling light and expect to wash clothes halfway through, this is the easy choice.

If steps or thresholds are a problem, several properties here are flagged as step-free in the register. A flag does not mean every room qualifies, so ask the property directly before you book.

You will not walk to Kenrokuen

From here the garden is over two kilometres away, which is more than half an hour on foot, so you will take a bus most mornings. Even Omicho Market is close to a twenty-minute walk.

Staying here makes a day pass more likely to pay off. Stay southeast instead and you may only ride twice a day, in which case paying per ride works out cheaper.

These are the properties on the official accommodation list whose rooms and prices you can check for your own dates.

4. The east and west exits are used for different things

Station-area properties split into an east side and a west side, and the two are used differently. City sightseeing buses leave from the east; the airport limousine leaves from the west. 📍Map

The east exit is called Kenrokuen-guchi. It is the side with the large wooden gate you have seen in photographs. The west exit is called Kanazawa-ko-guchi and faces the sea.

More beds on the east side

Of the properties within a ten-minute walk, roughly twice as many are east as west. East faces the city, so it is marginally closer to everything, and the older inns and guesthouses are on that side.

The west side holds the two Hyatts, Hotel Vista Kanazawa, MyStays Premier Kanazawa and Kanazawa Manten Hotel Ekimae. Newer buildings, quieter streets, and rooms that tend to be a little larger.

Pick the wrong side and you cross the station every day

The two sides are joined by a concourse, but it is not a short walk with a suitcase. Arrive on the airport bus and stay on the east side, or stay on the west and ride a sightseeing bus each morning, and you cross it every time.

For a night or two that is nothing. With an airport transfer at each end of the trip it is four crossings, and with heavy luggage the difference is real.

Where to buy bus tickets

Day passes for the city buses are not sold on board. You buy them beforehand at the Hokutetsu ticket centre by the west exit, the information desk at the east bus terminal, at hotels, or at a tourist information counter.

Buying the evening before saves you working it out at the door of a bus in the morning.

5. Omicho Market sits in the middle

Around Omicho Market you are roughly fifteen minutes on foot from the station and fifteen from Kenrokuen. It leans neither way, which makes it the safest choice for two nights or more. 📍Map

The chains cluster here, within a few streets of one another. Mitsui Garden Hotel Kanazawa and Hotel Intergate Kanazawa sit on the market side. The Square Hotel Kanazawa, Hotel Resol Trinity Kanazawa and Four Points Flex by Sheraton Kanazawa are a little further in, and ANA Holiday Inn Kanazawa Sky stands to the north.

The market is downstairs

Omicho is where people in Kanazawa buy their food. Many stalls open in the morning and close in the early afternoon, so staying nearby means breakfast is a short walk. Fish and shellfish dominate, and some stalls will serve you on the spot.

It is a working market, which means delivery vans from early in the morning. A room facing that side may hear them.

Small properties alongside the chains

It is not all large hotels. Asadaya, a ryotei inn, sits here along with Sumiyoshiya, Nakayasu and Yamamuro, all long-established. Newer places are mixed in, including Soufuan, Uan Kanazawa and KUMU Kanazawa by The Share Hotels.

Kanazawa Hakuchoro Hotel Sanraku is one of the very few properties in the centre with hot spring water. It stands beside Kanazawa Castle Park, under ten minutes’ walk from Kenrokuen.

A day here needs no bus

From this area you can walk to Kenrokuen, Kanazawa Castle Park, the 21st Century Museum and Nagamachi. Higashi Chaya is about twenty minutes across the river.

If you are not riding buses there is no reason to buy a day pass either. It suits a short stay spent mostly on foot.

These are the properties on the official accommodation list whose rooms and prices you can check for your own dates.

6. Korinbo and Nagamachi are the shopping side

Korinbo is the city’s main shopping street and Nagamachi is the surviving samurai quarter behind it. They adjoin, and the official register treats them as one district. 📍Map

Korinbo holds Kanazawa Tokyu Hotel, Toyoko Inn Kanazawa Kenrokuen Korinbo and Henn na Hotel Kanazawa Korinbo. Just north of it is Kanazawa New Grand Hotel Prestige.

Kenrokuen is a walk from here

The garden is under a kilometre away and the 21st Century Museum is closer still. There is a slope, but fifteen minutes covers it comfortably.

The station is the other way, 1.6 kilometres, so around twenty-five minutes on foot. That is an awkward distance with a suitcase, which means a bus or a taxi on arrival and departure days.

The airport bus stops here

The limousine bus to Komatsu Airport calls at Korinbo. You can board near your hotel instead of going out to the station, which matters if you are flying in and out.

The same bus also calls at Musashigatsuji and Omicho Market. Two areas in the city are therefore just as easy on airport days as the station itself.

Nagamachi is a different kind of stay

Behind the shops the accommodation is not hotels but whole townhouses. Machiya Residence Inn Kanazawa has two of them in the samurai quarter, Hanatsume and Shiori, inside lanes still lined with earthen walls.

Whole-house rentals usually have no reception desk. Find out how you get in and from what time before you book.

These are the properties on the official accommodation list whose rooms and prices you can check for your own dates.

7. Katamachi is where the city goes at night

Katamachi is the drinking quarter immediately south of Korinbo. The official register files it with Korinbo, but it sits further out and feels different. 📍Map

Hotel MyStays Kanazawa Katamachi, APA Hotel Kanazawa Chuo, APA Hotel Kanazawa Katamachi and Murataya Ryokan are here, along with OMO5 Kanazawa Katamachi, run by Hoshino Resorts.

The furthest of the central areas from the station

Katamachi is over two kilometres from Kanazawa Station. Apart from Teramachi it is the most distant of the central areas. Kenrokuen is under a kilometre away, so this is firmly the sights end of town.

On arrival day you will take a bus or a taxi from the station. Walking it takes more than half an hour.

Useful if you eat late

More places stay open late here than anywhere else in Kanazawa, along the lanes running down towards the Sai River. Dinner, one more drink, and a walk back to your room is a realistic evening.

The same thing makes weekend nights noisy outside. If sleeping undisturbed matters, choose a building a block off the main street, or look at another area.

One of the two places that take pets

Only two properties in the register are marked as accepting pets, and one of them is OMO5 Kanazawa Katamachi. The other is Hyatt House Kanazawa on the west side of the station.

With two to choose from, travelling with an animal means starting from the property rather than the area. Conditions and extra charges differ between them.

8. Kenrokuen has almost no large hotels

Seven properties sit beside Kenrokuen, and only one of them is a business hotel. The rest are city hotels or small places with a handful of rooms. 📍Map

The garden, the castle grounds and the museums occupy the whole area, which left nowhere to put a large building. The list is short as a result. What it offers instead is not available in any other part of the city.

You can be there when it opens

Kenrokuen opens early. Staying here means walking out of your accommodation and being at the gate as it opens, before the coaches arrive. If seeing the garden without crowds is why you came to Kanazawa, that is worth a lot.

From the station you would need an early bus to manage the same thing, and the first departures do not always line up neatly with the garden’s opening time.

What is here

Hotel Ao Kanazawa and KKR Hotel Kanazawa are the larger options. Kanazawa Hakuchoro Hotel Sanraku stands north of the castle grounds and is close to the Omicho Market side as well.

The smaller properties are Camellia Inn Yukitsubaki, the temple lodging Shukubo Shinsen, and Akatsukiya. Koshomachi Stay is a whole-house rental. With so few rooms between them, they fill early in the busy months.

The drawbacks are equally clear

The station is over two kilometres away, so arrival and departure days mean a bus or a taxi with your bags. No property in this area has a coin laundry.

Convenience stores and late restaurants are thin on the ground too. Dinner usually means walking down towards Korinbo or Katamachi, and that route goes downhill and then back up again.

These are the properties on the official accommodation list whose rooms and prices you can check for your own dates.

9. Higashi Chaya has most of the townhouse rentals

If you want a whole machiya to yourself, this is where most of them are. Close to half the townhouse rentals in the register sit in this one area. 📍Map

Higashi Chaya is a street of former teahouses. It is a nationally designated preservation district, so the buildings cannot be freely altered, and the accommodation reflects that: old houses adapted rather than replaced.

The street is a different place after dark

By day this is among the busiest spots in Kanazawa. The shops close early in the evening, though, and once they do the street empties out.

Stay here and you get the lanes in the evening and first thing in the morning, with nobody in them. Day visitors never see that. It is the main reason to choose the area.

What is here

Koto Toki lets the upper floor of a former teahouse built in the late Edo period. Kikunoya, Kanazawa Kutsurogi-yado Tomarigi, and Machiya Residence Inn Kanazawa’s Kagabi and Matsunoma are also whole-house rentals.

For inns there are Kinjohro and Yamanoo, both long-established houses that serve their own cooking. If you would rather have a hotel, Hotel Rashiku Kanazawa is here, and Kanazawa Guest House Stella covers the cheaper end.

What to check before renting a house

Machiya rentals often have no reception. Establish how you get in, from what time, and who to call if something goes wrong, before you book.

These are old buildings, and some have steep stairs. If your luggage is heavy or stairs are difficult, ask about that first.

These are the properties on the official accommodation list whose rooms and prices you can check for your own dates.

10. Teramachi and Nishi Chaya are the quiet end

There are no large hotels in this district. The seven listed properties are inns, small family-run places, and a single business hotel. 📍Map

Teramachi is named for its temples. They were gathered on the far bank of the river to defend the castle approach, and the walls and gates are still lined up along the streets. Nishi Chaya is the smaller of the city’s teahouse quarters, next door.

The furthest central area from the station

It is around three kilometres from Kanazawa Station, too far to walk with luggage, and the bus crosses the Sai River to reach it. Kenrokuen is 1.4 kilometres away, over twenty minutes on foot.

What you get in return is space. When Higashi Chaya is packed, Nishi Chaya is usually not. Myoryuji, the temple you have to reserve to enter, is in this district too.

What is here

Kanazawa Geihinkan Kinchaya Honten is an inn converted from a former villa. Teramachiya Fushin-an is a machiya inside the temple streets, and Hashimotoya Ryokan and Yuya Rurusaisai are also here.

For a hotel there is APA Hotel Kanazawa Nomachi. Petit Hotel Ivy and Saik round out the list.

It works well if you are driving

A higher share of properties here have parking than in the centre, simply because there is more room. If you are driving out to Shirakawa-go, Noto or the Kaga hot springs, that helps.

If you are relying on buses, you will ride one morning and evening every day. Stops differ by route, so check which one is nearest your accommodation before you arrive.

These are the properties on the official accommodation list whose rooms and prices you can check for your own dates.

11. Yuwaku Onsen is not in the city

Yuwaku Onsen is inside Kanazawa city limits but well up a valley away from everything else. It is more than thirteen kilometres from Kanazawa Station. 📍Map

There are fewer than ten places to stay. Hot spring inns line the valley and there is very little else. It is not somewhere you walk out to find a convenience store.

What is here

The Yuwaku Onsen Tourism Association’s own list gives Atarashiya, Oyado Yamashita, Sakaeya, Yunode, Kanazawa Yuwaku Yamane, Kokorian, and Hyakurakuso’s two houses, Kagura and Iroha, along with Shizen Yumekan.

Most include dinner and breakfast in the rate, and many cook in the Kaga style. Room counts are small, so they fill early in the busier months.

Combining it with the city is hard

Basing yourself at Yuwaku and coming into town during the day does not work well. The reason is the bus timetable, which has a section of its own below.

What does work is putting Yuwaku at the end. See the city, go up in the late afternoon, soak, eat, sleep, and come down on a morning bus to catch your train.

Things to walk to in the village

There is a little to see besides the water. The Yumeji museum is here, and an outdoor stage on the square hosts performances in the warmer months. A path circles the pond, and there is a free foot bath.

All of it is within about ten minutes on foot. It will not fill a day, which is why an evening arrival and a morning stroll is the right shape for a stay.

Boarding nearer the garden helps

The bus to Yuwaku leaves Kanazawa Station, passes Omicho Market and Hashibacho, and calls at Kenrokuen-shita about ten minutes later. Spend your day in town and board there instead, and you cut that time off the ride.

Taxis work the same way. The tourism association quotes roughly twenty minutes and about four thousand yen from Kenrokuen-shita, against about seven and a half thousand from the station.

These are the properties on the official accommodation list whose rooms and prices you can check for your own dates.

12. The Yuwaku bus runs four times a day on weekdays

Four buses a day run from Kanazawa Station to Yuwaku Onsen on weekdays, and eight on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. The gaps on a weekday reach four hours.

That is the first thing to check if you are thinking about staying up there. The figures below come from Hokuriku Railroad’s own published timetable for the route.

Allow closer to an hour than half an hour

The ride takes around fifty minutes. The first bus of the day is slower and the afternoon ones are a little quicker. The tourism association’s own page says twenty to thirty minutes, which is roughly half what the operator’s timetable shows.

Plan on fifty minutes. If you are trying to reach an inn in time for dinner, the difference lands squarely on your arrival.

What a weekday actually looks like

Miss the three o’clock bus and the next one is at 18:43. Linger in town and you will struggle to make an inn’s dinner sitting.

Coming down is the same. To be in the city in the morning you take the seven or the eight o’clock; after that it is ten. Either can collide with when breakfast is served.

Weekends are far easier

On Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays there are eight buses up and nine down, roughly every two hours through the morning. Moving between the village and the city stops being a problem.

If you can put Yuwaku on a weekend, do. If it has to be a weekday, budget for a taxi and stop worrying about it.

Fares and where you board

The fare is 630 yen each way. Buses leave from stand 6 at the east exit of Kanazawa Station and set down at the east-side alighting point on the way back.

You are not limited to the station. The route passes Omicho Market and Kenrokuen-shita, so if you are staying in town you can board at whichever stop is nearest. The return runs call at the same stops.

The last weekday bus down leaves Yuwaku at 19:45 and reaches Kanazawa Station at 20:45. If you are moving on to another city that night, build your train time around that.

13. There is hot spring water in the city as well

You do not have to go to Yuwaku to sleep beside hot spring water. The register flags onsen inns in several places besides the valley. 📍Map

The advantage is obvious: you keep your city itinerary and add the bath, rather than trading one for the other.

One of them is beside the castle

Kanazawa Hakuchoro Hotel Sanraku stands next to Kanazawa Castle Park and has hot spring water. Kenrokuen is under ten minutes away on foot.

It is the only place in the middle of the city where that combination exists, which is also why its rooms go early.

Upriver and in the hills

Kanazawa Saigawa Onsen Kawabata no Yuyado Takitei sits up the Sai River valley, about ten minutes by car from Kenrokuen, so noticeably closer in than Yuwaku.

Fukatani Onsen Motoyu Ishiya is at the foot of the hills near Morimoto, and Nanamagari Onsen Onsen and Garden Nana is between the two. All three suit a trip where you have a car.

Large baths without the hot spring

Plenty of properties have a big communal bath without the water being from a spring. Close to thirty are flagged in the register, and nearly half of them are around the station.

Business hotels increasingly include one. If what you want is somewhere to stretch out after a day on your feet, that flag is the one to filter on.

14. There are beds by the sea and in the hills too

Kanaiwa and Ono are on the coast and Morimoto is inland at the foot of the hills. The three districts together hold only a handful of listed properties. 📍Map

They are far from the centre and the buses are infrequent, so if you plan to sightsee on foot there is little reason to consider them. In a few situations they do make sense.

Kanaiwa and Ono are the port

This is where Kanazawa’s harbour is. Ono is known for soy sauce and still has working breweries. It is around five kilometres from the station.

The listed properties are Kanazawa Minato Hotel and Business Hotel Tsutaya. Both have parking.

Morimoto is at the foot of the hills

Morimoto lies east of the city and rises quickly. The one listed property is Fukatani Onsen Motoyu Ishiya, a hot spring inn, so people who stay there have come for that.

When these work

If you are driving out to Noto or the Kaga hot springs, being outside the centre can be easier than being in it. Parking is straightforward and the main roads are close.

If Kanazawa itself is the trip, they are hard to recommend, because every day starts and ends with a bus. Picking from the six central areas will save you time.

15. Kanazawa charges a lodging tax

Stay anywhere in Kanazawa and you pay a lodging tax on top of the room rate. It is 200 yen per person per night, or 500 yen if the room is expensive.

Cheaper stays are exempt. If the rate works out under 5,000 yen per person per night before consumption tax, nothing is due. Guesthouses and dormitory beds often fall under that line.

The exemption was added later

Kanazawa originally charged the tax on every stay regardless of price. The 5,000 yen threshold came in afterwards, so older write-ups and printed leaflets may still describe the earlier rules.

Ishikawa Prefecture does not add its own

In Kanazawa you pay the city tax only; the prefecture has no lodging tax of its own. Yuwaku Onsen is inside the city, so the same rules apply up there.

How other Japanese cities set their thresholds and rates is covered in Japan’s lodging taxes. The bands differ enough between cities that it is worth a look if you are moving around.

It rarely shows in the booking total

Booking sites usually leave the lodging tax out of the total and the property collects it at check-in. It is charged per person per night, so a family staying several nights ends up with a noticeable amount.

16. How you arrive from the airport changes the answer

The limousine bus from Komatsu Airport calls at Korinbo and at Musashigatsuji and Omicho Market, not only at the west exit of Kanazawa Station. You do not have to be at the station for the airport to be convenient. 📍Map

The instinct when booking is that the station is always the easiest place to be for a flight. In Kanazawa that is not quite right.

No reservation needed

You board without booking. Away from Kanazawa Station you settle up on the bus, and IC cards, contactless credit cards and digital tickets are all accepted.

If a departure fills, you take a fold-down seat or wait for the next one. With large bags, leave a little earlier than you think you need to.

Allow forty minutes or so

The airport to the city takes roughly forty to fifty-five minutes depending on the time of day.

That matters on a late arrival. If you are landing at night, being near the station or at Korinbo, where the bus stops, is the simpler choice.

Arriving by shinkansen is different

From Tokyo you arrive at Kanazawa Station itself, and the distance from the station to your accommodation becomes the distance you pull a suitcase. Omicho Market is about fifteen minutes on foot; the Kenrokuen side means a bus.

What counts as oversized on a shinkansen, and when you have to reserve space for it, is set out in the shinkansen luggage rules.

17. Getting to your room from the station differs by area

The loop bus that circles central Kanazawa runs in two directions, and the two do not serve the same stops. It is not one route run backwards; the stops themselves differ.

That matters when you are choosing where to stay, because the time from the station to your door can double depending on which direction serves your stop.

Work out which one you need

Staying near Higashi Chaya, take the right-loop; the left-loop takes half an hour to reach the same place. Korinbo is the other way round, and the left-loop is much quicker.

Katamachi, Teramachi and Nishi Chaya only have stops on the left-loop. Board the right-loop and you cannot get off at any of them.

Omicho Market works either way

Musashigatsuji and Omicho Market are served in both directions, about five minutes out from the station. Less to get wrong on arrival day, which is another point in that area’s favour.

For Kenrokuen you get off at Kenrokuen-shita and walk the last stretch, which is uphill.

What you can pay with varies by route

Suica, ICOCA and the other nationally interoperable IC cards work on the loop buses. They do not work on every Hokutetsu route bus, and the Yuwaku Onsen service is one of the ordinary routes.

You may end up paying cash, using the local card, or tapping a credit card, so carry some coins. Which cards work where is covered in Japan’s IC cards.

18. If you are driving, start with the parking

Just over half the listed properties have parking, and most of those are around the station and Omicho Market.

People generally rent a car in Kanazawa to reach Shirakawa-go, Noto or the Kaga hot springs. For the city itself a car is more burden than help.

It varies sharply by area

The station area has the most properties with parking, with Omicho Market next. Around Kenrokuen and Higashi Chaya there are noticeably fewer.

Teramachi does better than its small number of properties suggests, simply because there is more space out there than in the centre.

Cars cannot reach houses inside the lanes

The preservation districts at Higashi Chaya and Nagamachi have streets too narrow to drive into. If you are renting a townhouse, find out where you park and how far that is from the door.

Often you will be directed to a nearby paid car park, which costs extra and adds up over a night.

Arriving as a group

Only about a dozen and a half properties in the city say they can take a coach, and most of those are near the station. For a group, filter on that first or you will have nothing left to choose from.

A few list motorcycle parking separately. There are not many, so ask the property directly.

19. The type of place can settle the area for you

If you already know what sort of place you want to sleep in, the area often follows without you choosing it. The types are not evenly spread.

No capsule hotels in the register

Not one property in the tourism association’s register carries the capsule hotel tag. That means the tag is unused rather than that the city has none, but you will not find them through the official listings.

For the cheapest option, look at the guesthouses instead. Several of them are grouped around the station.

What to check at a ryokan

Ryokan rates usually include dinner and breakfast, and dinner is served at a set time you have to be back for. If you intend to be out late, ask whether a room-only rate exists.

Many have shared bathing. If you have tattoos, check in advance, because policies differ from house to house. The general position is set out in the guide to onsen and ryokan.

What to check when renting a house

A whole house is good value once there are several of you. In exchange you handle more of the tidying yourself, and there is nobody in the building overnight if something goes wrong.

Ask for the heating and hot water instructions and the rubbish rules in advance and the stay runs more smoothly.

20. Travelling with children narrows the list quickly

Only eight properties in the register are marked as taking children. Plenty of others will take them; eight is simply what the official listing confirms.

The eight are Hotel Vista Kanazawa, Kinjohro, KKR Hotel Kanazawa, Kanazawa New Grand Hotel Prestige, Hyatt Centric Kanazawa, Hyatt House Kanazawa, The Hotel Sanraku Kanazawa, and Kaen.

They are scattered across areas

Those eight fall across the station area, Omicho Market, Korinbo, Kenrokuen and Higashi Chaya. Rather than fixing the area first, it is quicker to pick from this list and accept wherever it puts you.

Hyatt House Kanazawa has rooms with basic kitchen facilities, which can make a real difference with small children.

Check the occupancy rules

Japanese hotels set a maximum occupancy per room and usually count children towards it. Rates vary by the child’s age, and adding bedding adds to the price.

Ryokan rooms are large enough for a family, but meals are prepared per person, so a child’s meal is part of the rate. Enter ages accurately when you book.

Step-free properties

If you use a wheelchair or stairs are difficult, filter on the step-free flag. Around thirty properties carry it, most of them near the station and Omicho Market.

Machiya and older ryokan have steep stairs and high thresholds. In Higashi Chaya and Teramachi that is most of the stock, so the list thins out fast.

21. The name does not tell you where it is

Plenty of Kanazawa properties carry a place name that is not a good guide to where they stand. Check the coordinates and two places using the same name can be twice as far apart as each other.

Booking pages show you a name and photographs, which is exactly where this difference hides.

Three names with Kenrokuen in them

All three carry the garden’s name, and the last is more than twice as far from it as the other two. If you booked intending to walk there, that changes your mornings.

Some listings are not in the city

The official register occasionally carries a property well outside Kanazawa. Ichirino Kogen Hotel Roan is over thirty kilometres out towards the mountains.

The name gives you no warning. Being in the register does not mean being in town.

How to check

Put the address into a map. Treat “N minutes from the station” in a property’s own description as a rough guide; walked in practice, these often take longer.

You only need two reference points. Kanazawa Station and Kenrokuen. The distance to each tells you immediately which end of the city a property belongs to.

22. The number of nights changes the answer

One night and three nights in Kanazawa point to different parts of the city. The right area shifts with the length of the stay.

For one night, stay at the station

A single night in Kanazawa is usually a stop on the way somewhere else. The station wins outright: leave your bags, see the city, come back, sleep, and go.

For two, move southeast

Two nights or more and the bus rides multiply. Around Omicho Market or Korinbo you walk more and pay fewer fares.

Both of those areas are also served by the airport bus, so arrivals and departures stay simple.

Splitting the stay

Three nights or more gives you room to split. Two in the city and the last at Yuwaku Onsen is the usual shape.

You do carry your bags on the day you move, unless you arrange forwarding between the two properties. Asking about that in advance makes the day considerably easier.

23. What to check before you book

The things that cause trouble in Kanazawa are fairly predictable. Running through the list below heads off most of them.

Location

Put the address on a map and look at the distance to Kanazawa Station and to Kenrokuen. Treat any place name in the property’s own title as decoration. If it is near the station, check which exit as well.

For anywhere inside the lanes at Higashi Chaya or Nagamachi, find out how far you walk in from the nearest road you can be dropped at.

Money

The lodging tax is usually not in the booking total. You pay it at the property, per person per night.

At a ryokan, check whether meals are included. If they are, dinner has a set time and your day ends earlier than you might have planned.

Facilities

For several nights, check for a coin laundry. They cluster around the station and barely exist at the southeast end. If you want a big bath, filter on that too.

With children or a pet, very few properties are confirmed in the official listing. Start from that condition rather than from the area.

Getting in and out

Machiya and whole-house rentals often have no reception. Confirm how you get in and from what time before you book.

For Yuwaku Onsen, check whether your night falls on a weekday or a weekend, because the number of buses doubles between the two. On a weekday, either build your arrival around the timetable or plan on a taxi.

Kanazawa accommodation: common questions

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