My turn to ask for advice . . .

Our second Japan trip will be for two weeks next summer. We've decided on a few places we'd like to see this time: Kanazawa, Nikko, Hakone. We'll base in Tokyo and do the trips from there. We did Kyoto and environs last time and Kamakura and would like to head north of Tokyo this time. Any other ideas?

Should we spend two nights in Kanazawa? We'd like to find a nice hotel in the middle of the city, any suggestions? Should we stay overnight in Nikko or just make it a day trip?

Thanks for any advice. I'm kind of overwhelmed with ideas right now and need to narrow them down.

Kelasher

The APA Kanazawa-chuo would be a good choice. Since chuo means central you would find this in the middle of the city, as you require. There is a nice bath on the roof and a Starbucks (or Seattle Coffee?) attached to the lobby.

There is another hotel across the street. Is it a Toyoko, KimJapan?

I think two nights in Kanazawa would be a good idea. Arrive late morning and depart in the morning after the second night.

I haven't been to Nikko but I think that it would be a great place to stay overnight. You can spend the evening and next morning there after the day trippers leave and before they return.

Are you really looking for ideas or are you overwhelmed? What other ideas are at the top of your list?

The APA Chuo has a Seattle's Best. The Tokyu Excel is diagonally across the street. There is a Toyoko Inn behind the Daiwa department store but I personally don't like it.

And if you make your APA hotel or Tokyu hotel on the Japanese language web site your rate will be much, much better...I've seen the English language site rates at 3x the price of Japanese, and you can't get the internet rates by calling or walking in. Let me know if you need help with this.

We stayed at the Tokyu at Kim's advice and it worked extremely well. The room was fine and the restaurant was excellent. Very accomodating and helpful. Good location.