APA Hotel Nishimaizuru-Ekimae

The breakfast staff member with untidy hair seemed in a bad mood, which put me off first thing in the morning. The rest of the hotel staff were generally polite. Nishi-Maizuru itself felt run-down. I’d expected it to be busier with inbound tourism, but it wasn’t, and despite being right by the station, there weren’t any decent restaurants.

For 5,900 yen with breakfast, it was a perfectly fine stay, though I felt the price was about 500 to 1,000 yen too high for such a plain budget hotel. Breakfast tasted good, but the serving was tiny: a little sausage, two slices of bread, a very small salad, one scoop of potato salad, and coffee.

A supermarket is about a 10-minute walk away, across from the other side of the JR station, and the main road has plenty of restaurants and izakaya, including a 24-hour Yoshinoya. The hotel itself is a classic Japanese budget place, around a five-minute walk from the station if you’re traveling by JR, with lots of parking. It’s clean, and the staff are really friendly. They’ll hold your key at the front desk while you’re out in case you lose it.

It’s been renovated and made comfortable, like the other APA hotels. A good place to stay, though still quite basic.