Nagano

This Nagano travel guide brings our guides for the region into one place. Nagano is where Japan goes quiet and turns to the mountains. You can stand in fresh snow before the first lift runs. You can soak in an open-air onsen by the afternoon. Then you sit down to soba made from grain grown a valley away.

The prefecture sits in the centre of Honshu, about an hour from Tokyo by fast train. Most of it is mountains, so the season decides the trip more than anything. Winter brings deep powder and steam rising off hot springs. Summer opens the high valleys for walking. Autumn turns the forests gold, then the snow returns and the cycle starts again.

We have gathered our Nagano guides by area so you can find your part of it fast. The north holds the ski fields and the snow monkeys near Yamanouchi. The centre gives you Matsumoto and its black castle, with the old Nakasendo post towns further south. More areas go up as we publish them, each with guides for hikes, onsen, food and where to stay.

Every guide here is built from time actually spent in the region. We focus on where to stay, which season suits you, and the quieter details most itineraries miss. Use this Nagano travel guide as your starting point. When you want to research the area itself, the official Go Nagano tourism site is a good place to begin.