Where to stay in Ishikawa

Three kinds of nightWhere to stay in Ishikawa

The choice is really about what kind of night you want. A hot-spring inn feeds you twice and stops you moving. A city hotel is the right answer if you are arriving late or leaving early.

A ryokan or hot-spring inn旅館・温泉宿

Dinner and breakfast brought to you, a bath, and floor bedding laid out while you eat. The price is per person and includes both meals.

Includes 2 meals Book ahead

See ryokan and onsen inns › How an onsen works

A city hotelホテル

Clean, small, reliable and priced per room. Right for early trains, late arrivals and anyone travelling with a large suitcase.

Per roomNear the station

See hotels in Ishikawa › Getting around

A guesthouse or minshuku民宿・ゲストハウス

Family-run, cheaper, and often the only option in the countryside.

Ask about cashRural areas

See guesthouses and minshuku ›

Our first choice in Ishikawa is named below.

Looking for a room in Ishikawa tonight?

MAP How an onsen works

BookingSix things worth asking before you pay

Ask about these

Meals: Whether dinner and breakfast are included, and what time dinner is served. Inns often serve at a fixed time and will not wait
Tattoos: Ask whether the bath admits them, and ask about a private bath
Private bath: Kashikiri. Many inns have one, and it removes the question of bathing with strangers entirely
Payment: Card or cash. Rural inns are often cash only
Arrival time: Tell them. Inns lock up earlier than hotels
Luggage: They will hold it before check-in and after check-out. Just ask

What a night at an inn is like

Shoes: Off at the entrance. Slippers inside; nothing on the straw matting
The robe: A cotton yukata is provided and is worn to dinner and to the bath. Left side over right
Dinner: Many small dishes, often in your room or a dining room at a set time
Bedding: Laid out on the floor, usually while you are eating
Bathing: Before dinner and again before bed is normal here
Breakfast: Rice, fish, egg, pickles. Ask the night before if you need it early

How an onsen works

Our first choice hereThe one we would book

Kagaya加賀屋 — Ka-ga-ya

This is the one to aim for in Ishikawa. It opened in 1906 and stands on the shore of Nanao bay with the water directly below the rooms. It was voted first in the country in the trade’s own annual ranking of Japanese inns for decades on end — not by guests, but by the people who run the industry. Four buildings, 232 rooms, and one attendant who looks after your room for the whole stay.

The bay is the view from the room, not from a lounge. The building is on the water line, so you wake up with the sea below the window and the far shore across it.
One person is assigned to your room. She meets you, serves both meals, lays the bedding and sees you out. This is what the inn is actually about — not the building, and not the food.
The food is the Noto peninsula: fish from the bay in front of you, and in winter the crab that this coast is known for.
Wakura is not Kanazawa. It is about an hour further north by limited express. Treat this as its own night, not as a base for Kenrokuen — and see the getting-around page before you plan the day.

Where: Wakura Onsen, on the Noto peninsula — built at the water’s edge on Nanao bay. Wakura is about an hour north of Kanazawa by limited express.
Address: 80 Yo, Wakura-machi, Nanao, Ishikawa 926-0192
Telephone: 0767-62-1111
Booking: Through the official site, or the booking services below

Worth knowing

This inn is closed while it is rebuilt. A new guest building designed by the architect Kengo Kuma is going up on the site. It is due to open from the winter of 2026, and the group’s other two houses are due back through 2026 and 2027. It is worth planning a trip around when it reopens.

Checked 2026-08-17

MAP Call Official site

Where to stay & onsen