Where to Stay in Takamatsu: Station, Arcades, Yashima and Shionoe Onsen

1. Whether you are catching a boat decides the area

A lot of people who sleep in Takamatsu are here for the islands. Naoshima, Shodoshima and Megijima all sail from Takamatsu Port, and the boats go early. The first fast boat to Naoshima leaves at 07:20 and the first car ferry at 08:12. If a morning sailing is in your plan, being near the port makes the whole day easier.

If no islands are on your list, there is no reason to sleep beside the port. Dinner and a drink are concentrated around the shopping arcades, and that is one short train ride away from the water. So the first thing to settle is simple: is there an island day or not? 📍Map

These are the areas this guide works through.

Takamatsu is a walkable size

The station and the arcades are not far apart. Twenty minutes at an easy pace, or a few minutes on the train. Whichever area you pick, nothing is out of reach. The difference shows up on the mornings you leave early and the evenings you come back late.

Renting a car changes the maths. City hotels usually charge for parking, while Yashima and the coast have space to spare. Taking a car onto a ferry is charged separately from your own ticket.

The local trade association lists hotels and ryokan together. The city-centre entries are mostly hotels; Yashima and Shionoe are mostly ryokan. A ryokan generally serves dinner and breakfast, so you are booking a whole evening rather than just a room.

2. The station and the port are three minutes apart

Takamatsu is a city where the trains and the boats meet. It is a three-minute walk from JR Takamatsu Station to the ferry berths, easy enough with a suitcase. On a morning when you have a boat to catch, nothing beats it. 📍Map

The area in front of the station is called Sunport. A few tall buildings, a wide open plaza, and the sea right there. Two hotels sit directly beside the station: JR Hotel Clement Takamatsu, and the lighter JR Clement Inn next door.

Dinner means a short walk

The station side is busy by day and quiet at night. There are restaurants, but not many. For a proper dinner you will walk towards the arcades or take one train.

One way to handle it: sleep near the station on the island day only, and stay by the arcades the rest of the time. If moving hotels sounds like a chore, stay by the arcades throughout and set your alarm half an hour earlier on the sailing day.

3. The JR station and the Kotoden station are not the same station

Takamatsu has two railways and two separate stations. JR Takamatsu Station and Kotoden Takamatsu-Chikko Station are about 300 metres apart, five minutes on foot. The buildings are not connected, so you step outside and back in again. When a listing says “five minutes from Takamatsu Station”, check which one it means. 📍Map

Kotoden is the private railway that links the city with its edges. The station attached to the arcades is Kotoden Kawaramachi, and the same network runs to Ritsurin Garden and Yashima. If you will be moving around the city, a Kotoden station is often the more useful neighbour.

The digital ticket costs less than the paper one

A paper Kotoden day pass is 1,600 yen. The digital 24-hour version on your phone is 1,500 yen. It is cheaper, and it also runs for a full 24 hours from the moment you start it rather than expiring at midnight. On an afternoon arrival the gap gets wider.

For two days the digital 48-hour pass is 2,800 yen. If you are only riding two or three times a day, skip the pass.

4. The arcades put dinner within reach

Takamatsu’s shopping arcades are covered. End to end they run 2.7 kilometres, the longest stretch of covered arcade in Japan. You can walk out for dinner in the rain without an umbrella. If eating out matters to you, this is the easiest base in the city. 📍Map

It matters here that a lot of sanuki udon shops close in the early afternoon. Dinner ends up being the arcades or the lanes behind them. Head into the Kobabacho side and the bars begin.

The port is one train ride away

From the arcades to the port is about twenty minutes on foot. Fine without luggage, less fine when you are working to a ferry timetable. Kotoden Kawaramachi to Takamatsu-Chikko takes a few minutes, so that is the sensible way out.

Give yourself a little extra on a sailing morning. After the train there is still the walk past the JR station to the berths.

The arcades run north to south, and the two ends are not the same. The northern end at Hyogomachi is closer to the station; the southern end at Kawaramachi is closer to the food and the bars. Heavy bags point north, long dinners point south.

5. East of the station is where the business hotels are

If price is your first filter, look east of the station. Jotocho, Fukudacho and Nishikicho are dense with business hotels. You can walk to the station from here and you can walk to the arcades, which makes the position useful rather than awkward. 📍Map

Rooms are not large. What you get instead is a lower rate, and in some cases a shared bath house downstairs. If your plan is to drop the bags and spend the day out, this area fits.

“Ekimae” in the name does not always mean by the station

Japanese hotels often put a station name in the title, and some of them are several blocks away from it. Takamatsu has two stations, which makes it easier to get wrong. Read the address on the booking page.

When you look at the map, drop pins on both JR Takamatsu Station and Kotoden Kawaramachi. Wherever the hotel sits between those two points tells you which side of the city it really belongs to.

6. Around Ritsurin Garden it is quiet

The streets near Ritsurin Garden are far quieter than the arcades. If you want the garden early, this is the useful side of town. Ritsurin opens at a different hour each month and in summer that means 05:30. Being nearby is what makes that possible. 📍Map

This is also where the airport bus reaches the city first. Coming in from the airport it passes Ritsurin, then the arcades, then the station, so you can drop your bags sooner.

Evenings are a little dull

Quiet cuts both ways: there is not much within walking distance after dark. Dinner means going into the arcades and coming back, and Kotoden Ritsurin-Koen to Kawaramachi is only a few minutes, so it is no great hardship.

Travelling with children, or here to rest, this side suits. Planning to be out late, the arcades suit better.

7. There is an onsen in the middle of the city

You do not have to leave town to get into a hot spring. Dormy Inn Takamatsu Chuo-Koen-mae has a real onsen bath called Tamamo-no-yu. It is within walking distance of the arcades and stays open late, which is exactly what you want after a day of boats and island paths. 📍Map

One more place in the centre carries onsen in its name: New Grande Mimatsu on Torimachi is formally Shikoku Takamatsu Onsen New Grande Mimatsu. It sits somewhere between a hotel and a ryokan, so the feel is different.

A large bath is not the same as a hot spring

Plenty of business hotels advertise a communal bath. That means a big tub, not necessarily spring water. If the onsen itself is the point, look for the word on the booking page.

For the real thing, Yashima and Shionoe are the answers, and both get their own section below.

City onsen have one practical advantage: they stay open late. Come back on the last boat and you can still get in. Mountain ryokan work the other way, with set bathing hours and a dinner time that shapes the evening.

8. The hilltop hotel runs a shuttle

Up on the Saihocho hill sits Yunagi-no-yu Hotel Hanajyukai. It has a panoramic bath looking over the Seto Inland Sea and the city, and some rooms come with their own open-air tub. You will still see it called by its older name, Kiyomi Sanso Hanajyukai. 📍Map

Being on a hill, it is not a place you walk up to. A shuttle runs from JR Takamatsu Station between 15:00 and 19:00, once an hour, and you need to book it. Line your check-in up with the shuttle and the arrival is painless.

Not the choice if you are eating out

Going down and coming back up is a nuisance. Treat dinner at the hotel as part of the deal. In exchange you get an evening that ends with the view, which is the whole reason to be up there.

Splitting the trip works too: one night here and the rest in the city. You move your bags once and you get both.

9. At Yashima you sleep at the bottom of the hill

Yashima is a lookout on top and a village underneath. The accommodation is all at the bottom. Hotel Taiyo-no-en Yashima and Hotel Route Inn Takamatsu Yashima are here, along with a few small ryokan. You ride a shuttle bus up to the plateau. 📍Map

The shuttle runs from JR Yashima Station, Kotoden Yashima Station and Shikoku Mura. There is now a direct bus from Takamatsu Station as well. Evening services also run on specific dates that are announced month by month, so check before you count on one.

Count the trip back into town

Getting from Yashima into the city means Kotoden. If dinner is going to be in the arcades, add the round trip, and note that the last train runs earlier out here than it does downtown.

What you get back is a quiet morning and a hill you can climb straight away. If Yashima and Shikoku Mura are both on your list for one day, sleeping here makes that day far less rushed.

The ryokan out here are small. Some have only a handful of rooms, so weekends fill up. Want a big hotel with a proper bath house, take the Route Inn; want the ryokan feeling, take one of the other three.

10. Shionoe Onsen is ninety minutes away by bus

Shionoe has a Takamatsu address and sits up in the hills. The bus takes roughly an hour and a half from the city. Book it on the strength of the address alone and you will be surprised. This is a place you go to when you have decided to give a day to the baths. 📍Map

The bus is the Kotoden Shionoe line. It picks up at Takamatsu Station, Takamatsu-Chikko and Kawaramachi, so you can set off from any of the city areas. Look for Shionoe on the destination board at the front of the bus.

A car makes it much easier

The buses are not frequent. With a car it is about forty minutes from the city and you stop worrying about the return.

By bus, plan on staying the night. Going up and back in a day spends three hours on the road.

The lodgings are strung along the valley rather than gathered in a village, and there is next to nowhere to buy dinner outside your own inn. Book a rate that includes meals and the evening takes care of itself.

11. There are places on the coast too

Fukuokacho and Ajicho face the water. Hotel Marine Palace Sanuki and Hotel Pearl Garden are in Fukuokacho; Aji Kanko Hotel Umi-no-Yadori is further east, right on the shore. Quiet, and a lot of the rooms look at the sea. 📍Map

They are a long way from town. These are not bases for a walking trip; they work when you have a car or when you want the day to go slowly.

Aji is a stone town

The Aji area has quarried granite for centuries and stone workshops are still there. The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum is on this side as well. It opens three days a week and takes bookings, so if you are staying nearby, reserve before you arrive.

If looking at the sea is the point, this is the area. If it is not, sleep in town and come out for the day.

12. Sleeping on an island is an option

A night on Naoshima or Shodoshima means no early boat at all. You get the islands before the museums open and you are not watching the clock for the last sailing. There are not many rooms, though, so they go early.

Staying over puts dinner and breakfast on the island. Places close early, so decide where you are eating before you get there.

The timetable shapes the day

Naoshima is 50 minutes by ferry from Takamatsu, 30 by fast boat. Shodoshima is an hour by ferry, 35 minutes by high-speed craft. The last boats back are earlier than people expect, so on the day you leave an island, check the time first.

Splitting the nights also works. Two in Takamatsu and one on an island covers both without hauling luggage far. The island side of the trip is set out in our Takamatsu travel guide.

The islands differ from one another. Shodoshima is large, with several villages, so it has both places to sleep and places to eat. Naoshima is small and thin on dinner options. Megijima and Ogijima have almost nowhere to stay at all. A twenty-minute crossing does not make an island an overnight destination.

13. The airport bus charges by where you get off

The limousine bus from Takamatsu Airport prices each stop separately, and the fares go up on 1 October. The airport sits inland, so the bus reaches Ritsurin first, then the arcades, then the station and the port. Which means the station is both the furthest stop and the dearest one. 📍Map

Staying at Ritsurin-Koen-mae gets you off the bus 22 minutes earlier and for less money than riding to the station. With heavy bags that gap is worth having.

Some services skip Kawaramachi

The airport says so on its own page. Going out to the airport, not every departure calls at Kawaramachi, so check before you board.

The timetable also changes every month to match the flights. Look again a few days before you travel. You can pay with a transport IC card; IruCa and the national cards all work.

You will use the same bus going back. The airport-only Rail and Limousine pass bundles the bus with a Kotoden day pass for 3,800 yen. If you are flying both ways and riding the trains a fair amount in between, it is worth adding up.

14. Kagawa does not charge a lodging tax

There is no accommodation tax to pay in Takamatsu. What the booking page shows is what leaves your account. No extra levy handed over at check-in the way Tokyo, Kyoto and Kanazawa do it.

The prefecture is looking at introducing one. A draft of 200 yen per person per night exists, but no start date has been set. Worth knowing it may appear, not worth planning around.

Other things do get added

Onsen ryokan sometimes charge a bathing levy. It is small, and it does not always show on the booking page, so it can turn up at the desk.

Parking is separate too. City hotels usually charge per night and send you to a nearby car park when they are full. Bringing a car, check the parking situation while you book rather than after.

15. Arriving from Okayama

Plenty of people arrive by train rather than by air. The Marine Liner rapid service from Okayama takes about 55 minutes to Takamatsu Station, crossing the Seto Ohashi bridge with the water on both sides. Unreserved seats are 1,660 yen, reserved 2,190 yen. 📍Map

Arriving this way puts you at JR Takamatsu Station. A hotel on the station side is a walk with your bags; the arcades mean one change onto Kotoden.

Let the arrival time pick the area

Landing late at night, the station side is the calmer choice. Arriving in daylight, you can head straight into the arcades without any trouble.

Flying in direct from Seoul or Busan puts you at Takamatsu Airport instead, on the limousine bus above, where Ritsurin-Koen-mae is the first city stop.

16. How many nights

It comes down to how many islands you want. The city on its own works as a single night. Add Naoshima and it is two. Add Shodoshima and you want three.

If you would rather not move hotels, stay by the arcades throughout and leave a little earlier on the sailing mornings.

Weekends and holidays fill up

Takamatsu does not have an enormous number of rooms. When something big is happening on the islands, or over a public holiday, the city hotels go quickly. Once your dates are fixed, book.

Island lodgings go faster still. If a night on Naoshima or Shodoshima is the plan, settle that before anything else in the itinerary.

17. What to check on the booking page

In Takamatsu the booking page mostly comes down to which station a place is near, whether there is parking, and whether the bath is actually a hot spring.

The station name is the usual trap. Takamatsu has a JR station and a Kotoden station with similar names. If a listing just says “Takamatsu Station”, go by the address.

Check-in times and shuttles

Hilltop and onsen properties run their shuttles at fixed hours, usually on request at the time of booking. Turn up outside those hours and it is a taxi.

The same goes for islands. Make sure the boat times and the check-in window line up.

Breakfast competes with the udon shops

Sanuki udon shops open early and many of them close in the early afternoon. That one fact settles whether to add hotel breakfast to your booking. If udon in the morning is the plan, leave breakfast off.

Which shops open when is set out in our Takamatsu travel guide.

18. The areas side by side

One table to finish with. Everything above, in short form.

If you cannot decide, take the arcades. It is the choice that is never badly wrong. Leave half an hour earlier on a sailing morning and walk to dinner the rest of the time.

Fitting Takamatsu into a longer trip

Takamatsu is the way into Shikoku, which makes it easy to carry on from. Where it belongs in a wider itinerary is covered in our Japan travel guide.

Choosing a neighbourhood works differently in every city. Where to stay in Tokyo and where to stay in Osaka lay theirs out the same way. Which cities do charge a lodging tax is collected in our note on Japan’s accommodation tax.

Staying in Takamatsu: frequently asked questions

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