Where to Stay on the Nakasendo Trail: 19 Places, 20 Nights, Kyoto to Tokyo

Much more variety than we expected. Over 19 places we stayed in business hotels, two hotels built from shipping containers, a refurbished traditional guesthouse, a whole traditional townhouse to ourselves, tatami inns, a family-run minshuku, a converted old school in Magome and, at the very end, a hostel in Tokyo. Most nights were simple business hotels near a station; the traditional inns are the ones we remember most.

Yes, especially the small places. Meguruya in Kashiwabara, Minshuku Suhara and Minshuku Miya near Wada have only a few rooms and fill up with Nakasendo walkers. Book Magome and Tsumago as early as you can, as they are among the most visited spots on the route. Affordable rooms in Karuizawa go quickly all year, and Tokyo is very hard to book cheaply during cherry blossom season, at the end of March and early April.

Both fill up fast, so book them first. We stayed in Magome at Magome Furusato Gakko, a converted old school with dormitory, semi-private and private rooms. The staff even phoned ahead to reserve us a table for dinner. Our full review, and the other places we looked at in Magome, are in the guide.

Yes, a few. There is nothing near Akasaka, so we took the train down to Ogaki and stayed two nights there. Hosokute has no station nearby, so we took a local taxi to our hotel in Mizunami. Suhara has only one place to stay. Between Komao and Narai we couldn't find any hotels on Google Maps, so we walked to Hideshio, took the train to Shiojiri for the night and came back the next morning. Minshuku Miya, after Wada Pass, has no station nearby either.

Carry some cash whenever you're in the countryside. Minshuku Miya, near Wada, takes cash only and is booked by email, not online. ATMs in convenience stores are your best bet, but withdrawing at weekends can cost more, so take out what you need during the week.

Most of it, yes: the business hotels are on Booking.com or Opodo, or you can book directly. The exceptions are Minshuku Miya (email only), Lion Prince Hotel (we booked through Rakuten Travel; it also has its own website), and a few small inns that are on Booking.com but not Opodo. At Route Inn Ena our booking through a third-party site never reached the hotel, so we'd book that one directly.

Most of our nights cost between ¥7,100 and ¥13,000 for a room for the two of us, in March 2025. The cheapest was a container hotel in Ota; the most we paid was ¥22,000 at Minshuku Miya, which included dinner and breakfast for two. If you finish in Tokyo during cherry blossom season, book early: reasonably priced rooms sell out or go up sharply.

Sometimes. Breakfast was included at Toyoko Inn in Kusatsu, Lion Prince Hotel, Route Inn Ena, Biz Hotel Shiojiri and A/B Hotel Fukaya, and with dinner at Minshuku Miya. The two R9 container hotels give you a frozen meal to heat in your room. Elsewhere we bought breakfast from convenience stores or used the guesthouse kitchen.

Yes. Route Inn Ena has a shared onsen, Hotel La Fontaine in Kamisuwa Onsen has a private onsen bath in the room, Sakudaira Plaza 21 is attached to a public spa, and Komao has a traditional communal bath. After a long day, they're worth planning for.

Book as far ahead as you can, especially in cherry blossom season. We could only find a hostel in Minami Senju, which we wouldn't choose again. Between Fukaya and Nihonbashi there are stations in or near almost every post town, so it's easy to find somewhere to stay along the last stretch; the guide lists the hotels we looked at.