Japan
Karuizawa and the Highlands
Karuizawa is the highland resort where Tokyo has spent its summers for more than a century, with villas in larch woods below Mount Asama, and the mountains of Nagano, Gunma and Gifu around it hold hot-spring valleys, old post towns, the alpine valley of Kamikochi and the farmhouses of Hida.
Our places reach from Karuizawa itself, with Hoshinoya Karuizawa’s pavilions along a river and the Mampei Hotel in old Karuizawa, to Bettei Senjuan at Tanigawa Onsen, Byaku Narai in a Kiso valley post town, the Imperial Hotel, Kamikochi below the Hotaka range, and Wanosato, relocated Hida farmhouses by a river south of Takayama. We know 12 places to stay here, 4 of them ryokans. At 6 of them, every room has its own hot-spring bath.
How to choose
For a classic hotel
Mampei Hotel: Karuizawa's classic wooden hotel, in Kyu-Karuizawa
With children
Hoshinoya Karuizawa: children welcome, in pavilions beside the Wild Bird Forest
For a hot spring of your own
Bettei Senjuan: every room has an open-air spring bath with a view of Mount Tanigawa
For walking in the Alps
Imperial Hotel, Kamikochi: a 1933 mountain hotel in Kamikochi, open late April to early November
For an old post town
Byaku Narai: sixteen rooms in restored Edo-period buildings of Narai-juku on the Nakasendo
When to go
July and August are cool and busy, and the woods colour from mid October to early November; Kamikochi is open only from late April to mid November, and winter is cold, with deep snow in the Gunma and Niigata valleys.
How long
Two nights from Tokyo, or a stop on the Hokuriku Shinkansen on the way to Kanazawa.
Getting there
The Hokuriku Shinkansen reaches Karuizawa from Tokyo in about 70 minutes; Matsumoto is about 2 hours 40 minutes from Shinjuku by the Azusa limited express and about 2 hours from Nagoya by the Shinano, Kamikochi about four and a half hours from Tokyo by train and bus, Tanigawa Onsen about 1 hour 45 minutes from Tokyo by the Joetsu Shinkansen and a bus, and Takayama about 2 hours 20 minutes from Nagoya by the Hida limited express. From Haneda, take the train into Tokyo station, about 30 minutes, for the Shinkansen.
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Tell us where and when. Our team in Japan books the room we would choose, at the inn’s own rate, settles your requests with the inn, and stays in touch before and during your stay. Price and cancellation terms are confirmed with you first.
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Have it reviewed for USD 85Ryokans and hotels
Kyu-Karuizawa
HotelMampei Hotel
万平ホテル
Kume Gonkuro's 1936 Alps Wing, an inn since 1764
Shiono, Miyota
AubergeThe Hiramatsu Karuizawa Miyota
THE HIRAMATSU 軽井沢 御代田
Jomon pottery dug on site, Mount Asama across the forest
Tanigawa Onsen, Minakami
RyokanBettei Senjuan
別邸 仙寿庵
Habuka's curving corridor, Mount Tanigawa from every room
Narai-juku
HotelByaku Narai
BYAKU Narai
Sixteen rooms around Narai's 1793 sake brewery
Nagakura, Karuizawa
HotelFufu Karuizawa Wind in the Sunshine
ふふ 軽井沢 陽光の風
A heated stone bed beside each bath, Mount Asama ahead
Kumoba Pond, Karuizawa
HotelFufu Kyu-Karuizawa Restful Forest
ふふ 旧軽井沢 静養の森
Twenty suites with fireplaces by Kumoba Pond
Yudanaka Onsen
RyokanShoraiso
松籟荘
Five rooms, rebuilt after the 1939 house burned in 2021
Tobira Onsen, Matsumoto
RyokanTobira Onsen Myojinkan
扉温泉 明神館
Alone at the end of a valley road, 1,050 m up since 1931
Ichinomiya, Takayama
RyokanWanosato
日本の宿 ひだ高山 倭乃里
Gassho-zukuri and Hida farmhouses in a forest on the Miya
Hoshino area, Karuizawa
HotelHoshinoya Karuizawa
星のや軽井沢
Pavilions along a river beside the Wild Bird Forest
Kamikochi
HotelImperial Hotel, Kamikochi
上高地帝国ホテル
A red-roofed 1933 mountain hotel below the Hotaka range
Asama Onsen, Matsumoto
HotelMatsumoto Jujo
松本十帖
A book hotel in bare concrete above 10,000 titles
Sample trips through Karuizawa and the Highlands
Routes we have drawn up that stay in Karuizawa and the Highlands: starting points for a trip we build around your dates and pace.
6 nights · Winter
Snow country in winter: Ginzan, Uonuma and Tanigawa
A round trip from Tokyo to three hot-spring ryokan in the snow: Ginzan Onsen in Yamagata, then Osawayama in Niigata's rice country and Tanigawa Onsen below the mountains of Gunma.
8 nights · Summer
The Japanese Alps in summer: Takayama, Kamikochi and the Kiso post towns
A trip west to east across the Northern Alps, from Takayama by bus into the Kamikochi valley, down to Matsumoto and the old post towns of the Kiso valley, and out by the hot-spring town of Yudanaka to Tokyo.
9 nights · Any season
Kanazawa and the craft towns: lacquer, gold leaf and Kutani porcelain, then the Hida hills
A trip from Tokyo to the Sea of Japan coast in the first-class car of the Hokuriku Shinkansen, then over the mountains through Shirakawa-go to Takayama and on to Matsumoto.
Collections for Karuizawa and the Highlands
Elsewhere in Japan
Q&A
Both Fufu houses, Fufu Karuizawa Wind in the Sunshine and Fufu Kyu-Karuizawa Restful Forest, have one in every suite, and The Hiramatsu Karuizawa Miyota has a half-open-air onsen bath in every room. Further afield, Bettei Senjuan, Shoraiso and Matsumoto Jujo give every room an open-air hot-spring bath.
Hoshinoya Karuizawa and the Mampei Hotel both welcome children, and at the Mampei 12 and under stay free in your bed. Matsumoto Jujo's Koyanagi takes all ages, while Shoraiso takes no children under junior-high age, Byaku Narai no pre-school children, and Wanosato children of primary-school age and over, in its detached rooms.
Yes, from late April to early November, at the Imperial Hotel, Kamikochi, a red-roofed mountain hotel of 1933. Private cars cannot enter the valley, so you park at Sawando or Hirayu and take a bus or taxi in.
At Hoshinoya Karuizawa's Tombo-no-yu tattoos must be covered with stickers, sold at reception. At Shoraiso a palm-sized tattoo with a cover sticker is allowed in Yorozuya's shared baths, and the Fufu houses have no shared baths at all.