Hotel Kamakura Mori — Hotel in Kamakura

The location is perfect, just a block straight out of the station and turn left. Even with luggage, it is close enough to walk, maybe three blocks total. It is on the main street leading to the shrine and one block from the pedestrian shopping and restaurant street behind it.||||The hotel is in an office building, so you take a somewhat dingy elevator up a few floors to the lobby. The staff speaks enough English to do their job, but don't ask any complicated questions. This is a small place and everyone is very friendly. The housekeeper even asked us if it was OK to clean our room as we were going out for the day. You turn in your key at the front desk when going out. ||||Our room faced the street so it was a bit noisy with the traffic during the day. But, the air conditioning worked, so it wasn't necessary to leave the window open. When I booked, there was no option of a non-smoking room, but the room we got had a sign saying "No smoking", so perhaps the rules have changed. The room did smell vaguely of smoke, but it was coming from the air conditioner so maybe they just need to change the filter. There was a built-in air purifier on the wall separate from the A/C unit.||||The decor is dated (pink everything), but it was clean and everything worked properly. This room has a balcony that overlooks the street, but there isn't any furniture on it. But, it was nice to be able to go outside to check the weather before going out for the day. The room had a small refrigerator and there was tea making equipment and a couple of sweets left every day. That is typical of a Japanese style hotel, but I wasn't expecting it here, so it was a nice touch. The bathroom is the usual modular unit, but it was sufficient. There is no electrical outlet in the bathroom, so the hairdryer can only be used out in the room.||||Breakfast is a choice of three set meals: Japanese, Western or Chinese. It is served in the Chinese restaurant in the basement of the same building. We had the Japanese meal both mornings. It was always set out on a tray waiting for us, so everything was cold (which is typical in Japan). The waitress brought a bowl of rice and miso soup after we sat down. I saw the Chinese and Western breakfast. I'd stick with the Japanese version if you can handle it, but everything looked edible. The front desk asked us each day which breakfast we wanted the following morning, so you can choose a different one each day with no problem.||||I agree with other reviewers that this place is a bit overpriced for what it is, but there aren't any other decent options for a Western-style hotel right in town like this one is. I'd stay here again. There are numerous restaurants nearby, but don't go out too late for dinner because almost everything is closed up tight by 8:00 PM. If you run out of options, there is a McDonald's in front of the train station.||||Kamakura is EXTREMELY crowded, so don't expect to visit any of the sights without dodging thousands of other tourists and school groups. The electric train to the daibutsu was standing room only in the middle of the week (FYI, it is not owned by JR, so the rail pass...

The location is perfect, just a block straight out of the station and turn left. Even with luggage, it is close enough to walk, maybe three blocks total. It is on the main street leading to the shrine and one block from the pedestrian shopping and restaurant street behind it.||||The hotel is in an office building, so you take a somewhat dingy elevator up a few floors to the lobby. The staff speaks enough English to do their job, but don't ask any complicated questions. This is a small place and everyone is very friendly. The housekeeper even asked us if it was OK to clean our room as we were going out for the day. You turn in your key at the front desk when going out. ||||Our room faced the street so it was a bit noisy with the traffic during the day. But, the air conditioning worked, so it wasn't necessary to leave the window open. When I booked, there was no option of a non-smoking room, but the room we got had a sign saying "No smoking", so perhaps the rules have changed. The room did smell vaguely of smoke, but it was coming from the air conditioner so maybe they just need to change the filter. There was a built-in air purifier on the wall separate from the A/C unit.||||The decor is dated (pink everything), but it was clean and everything worked properly. This room has a balcony that overlooks the street, but there isn't any furniture on it. But, it was nice to be able to go outside to check the weather before going out for the day. The room had a small refrigerator and there was tea making equipment and a couple of sweets left every day. That is typical of a Japanese style hotel, but I wasn't expecting it here, so it was a nice touch. The bathroom is the usual modular unit, but it was sufficient. There is no electrical outlet in the bathroom, so the hairdryer can only be used out in the room.||||Breakfast is a choice of three set meals: Japanese, Western or Chinese. It is served in the Chinese restaurant in the basement of the same building. We had the Japanese meal both mornings. It was always set out on a tray waiting for us, so everything was cold (which is typical in Japan). The waitress brought a bowl of rice and miso soup after we sat down. I saw the Chinese and Western breakfast. I'd stick with the Japanese version if you can handle it, but everything looked edible. The front desk asked us each day which breakfast we wanted the following morning, so you can choose a different one each day with no problem.||||I agree with other reviewers that this place is a bit overpriced for what it is, but there aren't any other decent options for a Western-style hotel right in town like this one is. I'd stay here again. There are numerous restaurants nearby, but don't go out too late for dinner because almost everything is closed up tight by 8:00 PM. If you run out of options, there is a McDonald's in front of the train station.||||Kamakura is EXTREMELY crowded, so don't expect to visit any of the sights without dodging thousands of other tourists and school groups. The electric train to the daibutsu was standing room only in the middle of the week (FYI, it is not owned by JR, so the rail pass...

A block and a half walk from the JR Station made Hotel Kamakura Mori a better choice for us on our return visit to Kamakura. On our previous visit we stayed at Hotel Ajisai which was a goodly hike from the station. See: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g303156-d2032715-Reviews-Classical_Hotel_Ajisai-Kamakura_Kanagawa_Prefecture_Kanto.html||||Kamakura Mori occupies the third and fourth floors of a mixed use building - there is a drug store on the first floor and a dental office shares the third floor. There is an elevator to the lobby, but from the lobby one is obliged to use the stairs to get to the fourth floor where the more private rooms are. The staff will move your luggage for you. The third floor rooms all open to the lobby which, however, is very quiet. There are only about 8 rooms per floor.||||The staff had enough English to deal with our needs and were very pleasant and accommodating. We were able to leave our luggage with them when we arrived early in the morning; check-in didn’t begin until later in the afternoon. ||||Nothing special about the room - it was indeed pink, as mentioned by others. There were two twin beds which in other hotels we have pushed together to make one king - here there was a sign asking us to contact them if we wanted to move the beds: we left well enough alone rather than try to do same. The room faced the road, as (we were told) did all of the twin rooms. We booked through Japanican which describes the room as having a mountain view - this is a bit of a stretch. The room is on the front side of the building and looks out over a busy street and a parking lot - in the distance there is a hill. We were not disturbed by road noise and it is something that we are sensitive to. There was a balcony with an emergency escape ladder to the balcony below. Ours was the only of the four balconies facing the road that had that escape ladder - the four balconies were connected and separated by privacy panels. ||||Other reviews mention that everything in Kamakura closes at 8 PM. That may have been true a while back when we were here first in 2008 but we did not find this to be the case on our December 2014 visit. Several restaurants and the supermarket remained open although many shops on the tourist street were closed. Union Supermarket just down the street had a fair amount of imported items, which we were not interested in, in addition to Japanese items but it is much smaller and had many fewer options than the large Tokyu Supermarket near the JR station where we shopped. ||||A nice touch is that they have printed in English the rules of the hotel and directions for operating the heater/AC. We were given a modem to plug into the wall for internet which was fine for our needs. We did find other networks available but did not know anything about their source. Included in the rules was the fact that the building is locked up after midnight - a bit of a worry if one should need to exit in...