There are a few ways to get to Kanazawa from Korea — from Seoul, I mean. You could take the train from Tokyo, Osaka, or Nagoya, which apparently takes around two and a half hours. But that’s a long haul, and not cheap either.
Fortunately, Korean Air flies into Komatsu Airport, which is in the same Ishikawa Prefecture as Kanazawa. From Komatsu, it’s about 45 minutes by bus — well under an hour. That’s what made this trip possible.
There’s a catch, though. Komatsu is a small airport that mainly handles domestic flights. International routes number only four or five a day. Korean Air’s daily round trip between Incheon and Komatsu is genuinely lucky to have.
The problem is timing. The flight departs Incheon at 7:30 a.m. That means getting to the airport by 5:30, two hours before departure. The first airport bus from my stop gets there just in time.
Lucky, I suppose.
The airport was quiet at that hour. Duty-free shops were still dark. Security ran on only two lanes before 6 a.m., so the line stretched pretty far. Once 6 o’clock hit, more lanes opened up and things moved faster.
Either way, I made it to the gate 40 minutes before boarding.
Pre-dawn airports are no joke.
The flight from Incheon to Komatsu took about an hour and forty minutes. The airport was tiny — baggage came out fast, and immigration was quick.
From there, the options for getting to Kanazawa are pretty simple.
The easiest is the airport limousine bus straight to Kanazawa Station. About 45 minutes, as I mentioned.
Here’s the tricky part, though. Since Komatsu is a domestic-focused airport, the bus schedule runs on the domestic arrival timetable — departing 15 minutes after each domestic flight lands. That means international arrivals end up waiting quite a while for the next bus.
The other option is to take a bus to Komatsu Station and catch a train to Kanazawa from there. The bus to Komatsu Station is listed on the website as also departing 15 minutes after domestic arrivals — but in practice, it showed up about 30 minutes earlier.
The Kanazawa-bound bus left at 10:45, and the Komatsu Station bus was around 10:00. I thought about it. Train or stand and wait for an hour?
Turns out the train option only saves about 10 minutes. So I went with the 10:45 bus and called it a day.
Finally at Kanazawa Station.
The airport bus drops you at the west exit, so you don’t get to see the famous Tsuzumi-mon Gate right away. To get into the city, you have to cross through the station and head out the east exit. The west side is for intercity buses; city buses run from the east exit stop.
Now I needed a bus to the hotel. I’d been wondering whether Kanazawa buses accept IC cards like ICOCA — I’d checked before the trip. The answer: some do, some don’t.
Regular city buses run on cash or credit card only — no national IC cards. But there are two types of Kanazawa Loop Bus that do accept them. I just tapped my iPhone and got on.
The hotel I’d booked was APA Hotel Kanazawa Chuo. There’s also an APA Hotel Kanazawa Katamachi EXCELLENT right across the street, which was briefly confusing. Almost walked into the wrong one.
A few reasons I chose this place. First, I wanted something in the Katamachi area.
My number one rule for picking a hotel location: stay near the nightlife. Being able to walk back after a long night of drinking is a huge plus. Katamachi is Kanazawa’s bar district — that’s where the action is.
The other reason: hot springs. There’s even an open-air bath on the roof. For a business hotel running around 50,000 won a night, that’s a serious selling point.
To be honest, the place is a bit dated. The staff weren’t particularly warm, and don’t expect any concierge service — restaurant reservations are entirely on you.
Still, the hot spring makes up for a lot. After showering in a small hotel room, everything feels damp and cramped. A proper bath facility changes that entirely. That’s why I always look for hotels with a separate bath. Same reason I picked the Daiichi Hotel Liberte in Karatsu, and the Shiroyama Hotel in Kagoshima.
The open-air bath on the roof of APA Hotel Kanazawa Chuo has a great view over the city. Soaking in hot water while looking up at the night sky is hard to beat.
It covers all the hotel’s shortcomings, easily.
Checking in right away wasn’t an option, though. The flight arrived too early — I was at the hotel by noon, but check-in didn’t start until 3. So I left my bags and headed out to explore.
And just like that, the trip had really begun.
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