About Nikko Tickets & Stays

Nikko is two trips in one place. Down in the town are Toshogu Shrine, Rinnoji and Futarasan in their cedar forest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site two hours from Tokyo. Up the 48 bends of the Irohazaka road are Kegon Falls, Lake Chuzenji and the marshes of Senjogahara, and at the end of the valley the sulphur springs of Yumoto. Kinugawa Onsen, to the east, is the area’s big hot-spring resort. This guide covers all of it: the tours that make a day from Tokyo work, the tickets worth buying ahead, and the hotels and ryokan we would book.

The hotel list is curated: a Western-style hotel that opened in 1873, ryokan where every room has its own open-air bath, simple inns a short walk from the shrines and big onsen hotels on the Kinugawa river. Each page says what the place is like, what the baths are, who it suits and, where a primary source supports it, the catch. The order of a list is never a ranking.

Nikko Tickets & Stays is not connected with Nikko City, Tobu Railway, the shrines and temples, any tour operator or hotel. Nobody can pay to be included or to change what is said about them.

Tours and tickets link to GetYourGuide, and hotel booking buttons to Expedia. Both pay this site a commission on completed bookings. The price you pay is theirs and is not changed by the link.