TWIN-LINE HOTEL KARUIZAWA JAPAN — Hotel in Karuizawa

Twin Line is definitely one of the best hotels in central Karuizawa, as far as I can tell. It's right on the main street, walkable or a short taxi ride from the station, and ten mins walk from Old Ginza shopping street and the restaurants and cafes nearby. The building is modern and stylish and really stands out amongst the buildings on the same street.|Despite being in the centre of town, Karuizawa is very quiet in the evenings and we didn't notice any noise at night. We slept really well and the room was very comfortable, however we were in Japan for two weeks and were travelling with two large suitcases, and so the room felt rather small for us. If you are travelling with big suitcases I'd highly recommend paying for a larger room as we just booked a standard double and it's not very big. However the design and furnishings were of a high standard.|The communal areas in the hotel are very comfortable and the design is very stylish. We booked a room with breakfast and we really enjoyed our breakfast, but there isn't much variety especially if you're vegetarian as there's only one option which is meat-free. We were only there for two days so if you were staying longer you might find the breakfast menu limited. Also they were a little slow with breakfast service on the first day we were there, although the second day was better.|There is also a Happy Hour at 9pm where a secret room is opened and you can enjoy free alcohol, snacks, and ice cream. As I said there's not much to do in Karuizawa in the evening, so this is a nice feature. In addition there is a great selection of scented bath salts at the 'bath salt bar' on the first floor, so you can enjoy a relaxing bath before or after your snacks.|The staff spoke a good level of English and they were responsive by email beforehand when I contacted them...

Twin Line is definitely one of the best hotels in central Karuizawa, as far as I can tell. It's right on the main street, walkable or a short taxi ride from the station, and ten mins walk from Old Ginza shopping street and the restaurants and cafes nearby. The building is modern and stylish and really stands out amongst the buildings on the same street. Despite being in the centre of town, Karuizawa is very quiet in the evenings and we didn't notice any noise at night. We slept really well and the room was very comfortable, however we were in Japan for two weeks and were travelling with two large suitcases, and so the room felt rather small for us. If you are travelling with big suitcases I'd highly recommend paying for a larger room as we just booked a standard double and it's not very big. However the design and furnishings were of a high standard. The communal areas in the hotel are very comfortable and the design is very stylish. We booked a room with breakfast and we really enjoyed our breakfast, but there isn't much variety especially if you're vegetarian as there's only one option which is meat-free. We were only there for two days so if you were staying longer you might find the breakfast menu limited. Also they were a little slow with breakfast service on the first day we were there, although the second day was better. There is also a Happy Hour at 9pm where a secret room is opened and you can enjoy free alcohol, snacks, and ice cream. As I said there's not much to do in Karuizawa in the evening, so this is a nice feature. In addition there is a great selection of scented bath salts at the 'bath salt bar' on the first floor, so you can enjoy a relaxing bath before or after your snacks. The staff spoke a good level of English and they were responsive by email beforehand when I contacted them...

If most of your itinerary is around Kyu-Karuizawa + visiting the Prince Shopping Plaza near the station, then this hotel is at an excellent location because it's somewhere in the middle of everything. There's a bus stop right in front of the hotel (Shindo/新道), which is a stop of the Seibu bus that runs between Karuizawa station and Kyu-Karuizawa and up to Shiraito Falls. It's also about 1km/15min walk to/from the station if you feel like walking. The hotel is also about a 15min walking distance to the Kumoba Pond (Kumobaike/雲場池, walk), about 10min walking distance to the popular Sawamura Bakery and Roastery, and about 20-25min walk to the Old Karuizawa Ginza street. We could have picked a hotel closer to the Ginza street, but we wanted a quiet area, which this hotel was in.

The rooms are the "standard" small-sized hotel rooms, not any bigger than business hotel rooms. It can feel cramped if you have big luggages, but we just had overnight bags so it was a cozy fit for 2 people. The rooms look new, and had a modern style to it. There's an unlimited and free variety of bath salts you can take from the common area, though we couldn't find any bath soaps. The bed was comfortable, and coupled with a hot bath, we had a nice sleep after a long day of...