The Best Hotel in Gifu, Nagoya, Ise-Shima, and the Kii Peninsula

Across the Nagara River from Gifu Castle, Ryokan Sugiyama is a tasteful blend of traditional and modern, offering large rooms with tatami floors and elegant shoji doors—ask for one overlooking the river. The staff are polite in a mannered way, and the food (meals and no-meals plans are available) features the ubiquitous ayu alongside traditional ryokan fare. There's a nice hot-spring bath on the roof. The place is run by the same family whose cormorant fishing masters ply the river every night in ukai season, and some of the staff speak English. It's a 15-minute taxi ride from Gifu Station or a 10-minute walk north of the castle.