Plaza Hotel Sakae — Hotel in Nakatsugawa

We booked this hotel for a stay in early January, when most hotels and other accommodation along the Nakasendo Way was closed. Most hotels and ryokans were not accepting bookings until the 4th or 5th January. ||||I booked via an email to the hotel, and they were very helpful and prompt in arranging the booking (2 rooms, 5 people) making the whole process very easy. ||||The hotel itself is very easy to find, as Nakatsugawa is not a big city. Within a few minutes walk from the train station along a flat back-street. ||||The welcome was very friendly, and check-in process was very smooth, with a good amount of English spoken by the gentleman at the front desk who was always happy to help with any enquiries we had. ||||We had 2 twin rooms, and as we have 3 children there is an option for a 3rd bed in one of the rooms if needed, but 2 of our children are small enough to share a bed so the extra cost wasn't necessary. The rooms were spotlessly clean, and exactly as we expected from a business-like hotel in Japan. Not as small as some we've stayed in previously, but also not a "big" twin room by Western standards. Our rooms were on a high floor, with one overlooking the train station area, and the other across the hall looking out onto the picturesque mountains. ||||The hotel is within 2 minutes walk of a very large 7-Eleven convenience store, and there is a reasonable sized shopping mall within walking distance containing a supermarket, a range of shops, and some restaurants and fast food outlets. ||||I'd absolutely recommend staying here. It worked out well for our walk from Magome to Tsumago as we were able to get the bus from Nakatsugawa station to Magome, then a train back to our hotel from Nagiso station once our walk was complete. It was an excellent place to base ourselves for a few nights for us to explore this amazing...

We booked this hotel for a stay in early January, when most hotels and other accommodation along the Nakasendo Way was closed. Most hotels and ryokans were not accepting bookings until the 4th or 5th January. ||||I booked via an email to the hotel, and they were very helpful and prompt in arranging the booking (2 rooms, 5 people) making the whole process very easy. ||||The hotel itself is very easy to find, as Nakatsugawa is not a big city. Within a few minutes walk from the train station along a flat back-street. ||||The welcome was very friendly, and check-in process was very smooth, with a good amount of English spoken by the gentleman at the front desk who was always happy to help with any enquiries we had. ||||We had 2 twin rooms, and as we have 3 children there is an option for a 3rd bed in one of the rooms if needed, but 2 of our children are small enough to share a bed so the extra cost wasn't necessary. The rooms were spotlessly clean, and exactly as we expected from a business-like hotel in Japan. Not as small as some we've stayed in previously, but also not a "big" twin room by Western standards. Our rooms were on a high floor, with one overlooking the train station area, and the other across the hall looking out onto the picturesque mountains. ||||The hotel is within 2 minutes walk of a very large 7-Eleven convenience store, and there is a reasonable sized shopping mall within walking distance containing a supermarket, a range of shops, and some restaurants and fast food outlets. ||||I'd absolutely recommend staying here. It worked out well for our walk from Magome to Tsumago as we were able to get the bus from Nakatsugawa station to Magome, then a train back to our hotel from Nagiso station once our walk was complete. It was an excellent place to base ourselves for a few nights for us to explore this amazing...

I stayed here for a night before walking on the Nakasendo. It was perfectly fine for a night on my own. The gentleman at reception spoke excellent English, and I didn't have any problems accessing my reservation (which was a bit harder to make on the only Japanese website). They also had no issues holding my luggage after check out until that evening. ||||The room was compact, but clean. The bathroom was the single unit type that you often see in Japanese hotels, but did everything it had to. Bed was comfortable, and there was a TV (a few free channels, plus an...interesting variety of pay-per-view) and free wi-fi. ||||The hotel was very close to the train station and a few restaurants and bars. There's also a large Valor supermarket just out of town, along the main road that ends at...