Karatsu (唐津) is a city with quite a few tourist attractions, but surprisingly it does not seem to be a city where many tourists stay overnight.
There are not many hotels in central Karatsu. The downtown area also becomes quiet earlier than I expected, which supports that impression.
Most tourists probably stay in Fukuoka and visit Karatsu by JR or rental car.
On this trip, I had no intention of staying in Fukuoka. I wanted to spend the night in Karatsu, so I tried to book a hotel in the city.
Through various hotel booking apps, I looked for hotels in the downtown area, near Karatsu Station and City Hall. But there are only a few hotels in Karatsu to begin with, and the ones available for booking felt too outdated for me to book with confidence.
There is only one reason I prefer staying in a downtown hotel. I like walking back to the hotel after drinking late at night.
But if there is no suitable accommodation, I have to widen the range. Expanding my search to a distance of about 15–20 minutes on foot, essentially a short taxi ride, I found one hotel that looked decent.
It is Karatsu Daiichi Hotel Riviere.
The location of the hotel clearly has pros and cons.
The downside is that it is far from Karatsu Station and downtown. The upside is that it is right next to the Matsuura (松浦) River, so the view is good.
In particular, if you cross Matsuura Bridge (松浦橋), you are directly connected to Nijinomatsubara (虹の松原) which is convenient when planning a walking route or sightseeing course.
On this trip, I started walking from Nijinomatsubara Station, passed through the pine forest, and walked all the way to the hotel.
It took a little over an hour, but it was more than worth it as a walk. I will talk about that in another post. For now, I will continue with the hotel.
Being a bit far from downtown is a disadvantage.
But by taxi it is almost just the base fare, and on foot it takes about 15–20 minutes. If you try, you can walk it. And while walking, you can take your time exploring the alleys of Karatsu.
Because the hotel stands right along the Matsuura River, the view from the room is excellent.
Some people think a hotel is just a place to sleep, and once you close the curtains, the scenery does not matter. For them, this may not be important.
But for me, waking up in the morning and opening the curtains to see such a view felt really good.
At first glance, it looks like a standard business hotel single room.
But after staying for a few days, I found it quite spacious.
The hotel is not very expensive, yet you get this kind of view and a wide room. I felt it offered excellent value for money.
Moreover, there is a large public bath on the first floor.
Karatsu is not a hot spring city, so the bathwater is not natural hot spring water. Still, having a large public bath means the room does not become humid from showering, you do not have to wash in a narrow bathroom, and you can soak in hot water to relieve fatigue.
When traveling in Japan, if the conditions are similar, this is why I choose a hotel with a large public bath.
There is a refrigerator in the room, but complimentary drinking water is not provided. That was a bit disappointing.
Also, since there is no convenience store nearby, you should prepare water, drinks, and snacks in advance. For urgent needs, you can use the vending machines on the first floor.
The lack of convenience stores seems less like a problem with the hotel’s location and more like a characteristic of Karatsu itself.
There are not many convenience stores. And not all of them operate 24 hours. It may be because it is a small city of about 110,000 people.
Aside from being a bit far from downtown, the most troublesome part of this hotel was that room cleaning is not provided for short stays.
The room does not get very dirty, so full cleaning may not be necessary. Many hotels operate this way these days.
But I still think at least emptying the trash and replacing towels should be done. At this hotel, they handle it in a slightly inconvenient way.
You must place the trash bin outside the door, and put used towels in plastic and then into the bag shown in the photo, hanging it on the door.
They empty the trash every day and place fresh towels back into that bag. It is not extremely troublesome, but it does require some attention.
Recently, many hotels seem to be introducing systems to reduce labor costs. This appears to be one of them. Perhaps that is also why the hotel offers good value for money.
This hotel clearly offers good value for money.
Being somewhat far from downtown and having a system that slightly inconveniences guests are disadvantages.
But the good view, clean facilities, and spacious room are major advantages. And you can also use the large public bath.
I would be willing to stay here again.
However, I will first look into Karatsu Daiichi Hotel, another hotel of the same chain located in downtown.
Since it is the same chain, the price and system may be similar. In that case, a downtown location would be more convenient.
Someday in the summer, I would like to come and relax at Karatsu Seaside Hotel.
As I may mention in another post, the wide Higashinohama (東の浜) Beach felt like a place you could almost use entirely as your own.
Ah, I drifted off to another topic again.
Anyway, this post was about finding a hotel in Karatsu. When planning my Karatsu trip, the most difficult part was finding a proper hotel. I was fully satisfied with the hotel I stayed at this time.
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