Grand Mercure Lake Biwa Resort & Spa — Hotel in Nagahama

quiet, spacious, with onsen & sake lounge|Stayed: May 2025 | Room: Japanese-Western Style, Lake Side | Status: Accor Platinum||I recently stayed at Grand Mercure Lake Biwa, Nagahama — and it truly exceeded my expectations.|If you’re looking for a peaceful hotel with lake views, onsen, and proper lounge access (with alcohol!), this place deserves a spot on your list.||Weather & Season|May in Japan is perfect for travel — no heavy jackets needed, temps around 12–24°C, clear skies, and fresh greenery everywhere. I didn’t see a single drop of rain. The lake breeze made every walk feel refreshing.||Getting There|From Nagoya, it’s a smooth 20-min ride on the Shinkansen (to Maibara), then a 3-stop local train to JR Nagahama. Total cost around ¥3,600. Or just take a direct Limited Express (Kuroshio) — takes about an hour.||The hotel is 650m from Nagahama Station (walkable even with a suitcase), or you can use the free shuttle service.|Shuttle picks up from the station: 15:20 / 15:40 / 16:20 / 16:40 / 17:20|Departs hotel: 09:10 / 09:40 / 10:10 / 10:40 / 11:10 / 15:00 / 15:50 / 17:00||Room & Welcome|I booked the Classic Room with 2 single beds and lake view, but was upgraded to a Japanese-Western Style room (38sqm) with futons and beds — full lake view.|The welcome set included two bottles of water, a small local fish-shaped pastry, and a handwritten card — a nice personal touch.||Check-in & Meals|Check-in was smooth (English is fine), but if you can speak a little Japanese, you’ll definitely get clearer info from the staff.|At check-in, you’ll choose your breakfast and dinner times and receive a meal voucher with set slots:||Breakfast: 07:00 / 07:30 / 08:00 / 08:30 (closes at 09:30)||Dinner Buffet: Every 30 mins from 17:30 to 20:30 (90-min seating)||Every meal is seat-assigned. You must show your voucher + Accor member screen to access the Platinum window-view zone.||Breakfast|Very generous — a mix of Japanese and Western options, soft-serve ice cream, fruit, eggs cooked to order.|One chef impressed me by wiping a tiny drop of sauce off the plate before handing it over. That kind of attention to detail made my morning.||Onsen|Open from 06:00–10:00 and 15:00–23:00. Gender-separated.|You need to bring your towel from the room (a tote bag is provided), and access is via key card.|The lake-view bath was beautiful. I soaked three times — once after walking around town, again after dinner, and once again in the cool morning before check-out.|If you forget your towel, just ask the kind housekeeping lady — she’ll happily grab you one (but you must return it after use).||Dinner Buffet|Impressive spread. Fresh fish, miso soup with baby clams, cakes, soft-serve, and draft beer on tap — free-flow.|Food is both well-made and regionally inspired. You can enjoy at your own pace. Staff will guide you to your table and give you a table card — remember to return it afterward.||Lounge Access|Available for all guests (not just Platinum). Two sessions: 15:00–18:00 and 21:00–23:00|Includes beer, wine, sake, soft drinks, coffee.|The late-night session features local sake from Nagahama — a highlight if you enjoy a quiet drink after a soak.||Nearby Attractions|Everything is walkable from the hotel:||Nagahama Castle (¥500)||Railway Museum (¥500)||Lakefront park and boardwalk||There’s also a 7-Eleven right across the zebra crossing from the station (next to the castle), and several casual eateries, soba shops, and a supermarket inside the station mall.||A funny little detail — there’s a small gang of cats ("the local crew") that hangs around the hotel entrance at dusk. Some sit still watching the lake; some stroll past like they own the place. It made evenings feel even more charming.||Other Facilities||Coin laundry, vending machines||Souvenir shop open 16:00–21:00 (same prices as outside shops)||Free Wi-Fi (Accor login required)||Final Thoughts|If you're looking for a relaxed stay with a real local vibe, beautiful nature, and meaningful Accor Platinum perks, Grand Mercure Lake Biwa Nagahama is a gem.|It’s not flashy — but that’s exactly why I loved it. Quiet, comfortable, and...

Rooms, location, amenities and staff are amazing. Unfortunately the drop in stars is due to the incongruent Westernising of this onsen hotel by Mercure-Accor buy out.

The good: The Japanese aspect that remains is amazing - the hospitality, service, onsen water and omotenashi is exceptional.

Staff at reception were excellent - helped us with our check-in and room selection. Cleaning staff were professional and friendly and very helpful. Staff at onsen and staff at dinner were all fantastic. 5 stars on service, rooms and location.

Bathhouse was very relaxing. The chill out area was a wonderful combination of 5 senses - sight, sound, smell, touch and taste (the health drink).

Unfortunately, the Western company is focused on their brand and increasing rates, less staff and less on authentic omotenashi. And less on onsen. Reducing staff and adding odd touches like clubbing music in the sauna? Please read the manga Sauna-Do by Tanaka Katsuki to understand Japanese Sauna culture. No one wants to listen to fast 2-4 vocal house beats while in the sauna.

Local foods were great but also a pancake machine and donuts?

I feel like Western Mercure-Accor management may not understand the unique reason visitors go to local hotels in Japan. New foreign tourists may be happy, but they then miss what's special about Japan.

It feels like they are chasing and pushing Western branding onto this location, which unfortunately, takes away from the experience that locals and tourists wish to have at local onsen hotels.

Considerate & respectful integration is needed. Or there will be nothing unique.

It becomes a generic Western hotel.

The store sells a "hotel scent" which is very much Mercure-Accor style, but it's totally off-brand when it comes to Japanese style onsen hotels that are much loved by locals, Japanese tourists and foreign tourists. We come for local foods, crafts, produce, community.

In authentic onsen hotels, the hotel has a lot of community engagement and local grown products that take pride in the shop. Onsen items. Stocking more products from local craftspeople, brands, prefectural designs, cultural information. This is missing here.

This hotel used to be quite a big part of local community - hotels would support the businesses in the area. And locals would have access to the onsen as a public bath/ onsen.

I suspect now that Accor have taken over, the price for access to the onsen is now very high. Again, representative of the lack of community care that used to be part of Japanese hotels.

I was disappointed by the entitled Western tourists who let their children run wild in the lobby. Hotel is family-friendly.

But if they were home in Europe/US/Aust, I doubt they would let their children run and scream and touch the food counters at the bar area without supervision. Kids are kids. But strangers had to show the kids "how" to get the snacks. The parents did not "parent", it felt like the rest of us guests were looked upon by them as babysitters. It was uncomfortable.

Other families with kids same age did not do this.

I highly doubt this Western family would let their kids behave this way back home. And I can guarantee you if it was an Asian tourist family behaving like that in a Western Mercure-Accor hotel, the Western hotel staff would absolutely tell their parents (politely) to "parent" their children. I hope Mercure-Accor management will support their Japanese staff to speak up.

The customer is not always right.

Happy with the stay & recommend hotel based on the existing rooms, staff and bathhouse amenities. But soul is missing. If you haven't been to a Japanese onsen hotel in the past, you won't see what's missing.

Many foreign tourists like Western-style, but then why come to Japan?

I do hope the Mercure-Accor management consider how they may respect, learn from the community & support the businesses and culture in this location. Join the community. Your hotel will succeed if...

I chose Daiwa because of its location is by the lake location and not too far away from Kurokabe distance. Daiwa is famous for good price performance ratio, meaning not expensive room rate yet providing quality room and service.||The hotel lobby is grand, and you pick up the bathroom amenities at lobby yourselves. Check in was smooth but you have to bring your own luggage to your room. The hotel charge you Yen 500 for parking per night but give you Yen 500 voucher in return which you can spend in the hotel, not a bad deal. The hotel also provides a shuttle bus service to the Nagahama station for hotel guests if you are not driving. Even taking a taxi from the station to hotel is not more than 5 minutes. The station is just a few minutes walks to the famous Kurokabe Plaza and its surrounding waling streets.||Yukata is available on each floor lobby where you pick your selection and size. We were allocated at the corner room which is very spacious, overlooking the lake and the pier, with windows on two sides, and therefore, very bright when the weather is sunny.||We reserved a dinner in the booking with the hotel. The dinner is served in the function. It was a multi course dinner with various cooking method of Omi beef, including stew, hot pot and grill, plus a variety of other dishes such as sashimi. Server is very good and the staff are trying hard to communicate with us in English.||The onsen on the ground floor is not very big, but the two nights we stayed are Friday and Saturday, so there were extremely many people. There is a souvenir shop which opens until 9pm, a bit early.||After we checked out the hotel, we walked around the Nagahama Castle Park which is five minutes walk away from hotel. The castle was built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the sixteen century but the current castle is a re-built. We dined at the hotel lobby tea lounge for lunch. But the meal was probably the worst meal I have ever had in Japan over the years. I think a tea should be fine with a good view of the lake.||The location of the hotel, and the service quality makes an ideal choice when staying...