Guides & stories
How to choose a stay that fits your trip — grounded in the official information we verify for every listing.
Raita Futo / CC BY 2.0Staying on an Island: The Ones with a Bridge, and the Ones Only Boats Reach
An island you drive to and an island only a ferry reaches make completely different trips. Tsunoshima, Ogi on Sado, Kumejima, Sakate on Shodoshima: island stays seen through how you get there.
Noah Wulf / CC BY-SA 4.0Sleeping on the Farm: The Shortest Distance from Picking to Grilling
How many metres does your dinner travel from field to table? Two cabins inside a Gunma apple orchard, one group a night at a 150-year-old orchard in Nara, shiitake grown on logs in Hiroshima.
Basile Morin / CC BY-SA 4.0More Guests, Same One Bathroom: Counting Baths in a Whole-House Rental
Put eight people through the bath in sequence and the last one finishes after midnight. Only 50 of 654 listings state a bathroom count, and the median is 6.0 guests per bathroom.
苗場山 / CC BY-SA 3.0Check First Whether They Open in Winter: Choosing a Stay for the Snow Season
Private stays and glamping do not all run year-round. Winter closures, snow tyres, menus that change with the season: how to check before you book a stay in the snow.
JosephCoston / CC BY-SA 4.0Sleeping in a Kominka: Renting a Restored Japanese House Whole
A restored Japanese house keeps a different kind of time from a new villa: a black-water onsen kominka in Isumi, a restored hamlet in Sayo, a seaside kominka villa in Izu.
W.carter / CC BY-SA 4.0Choosing by the Shape You Sleep In: Sleeper Cars, School Buildings, Storehouses, Trailers
Some stays are the building itself. A blue-train sleeper car in Iwate, a whole primary school in Shizuoka, a Meiji-era storehouse and a treehouse in Matsumoto, boats moored in Nichinan.
Yuya Tamai / CC BY 2.0The Night You Don't Cook: Choosing a Whole-House Stay with Meals Included
Private rentals are assumed to mean self-catering. Of 654 listings, 82 mention a half-board plan and 24 an all-inclusive stay. Chefs, drinks included, and the choice between cooking and not.
Danielle MacInnes / CC0Three Generations Should Not Try to Keep the Same Hours: Choosing a Whole-House Stay by Steps and Bedrooms
Three-generation trips get tiring because people who wake at different hours are asked to sit down to dinner together. Steps, bedroom counts, baths that are not communal: four houses to consider.
OKJaguar / CC BY-SA 4.0An Autumn Kitchen: Buy It, Then Just Grill It
Autumn produce asks little of a cook. Market vegetables, the local beef and fish, salt and fire. Three stays in Kawaguchiko, Echizen Miyama and Shimanami, and the 311 listings with a kitchen.
0x010C / CC BY-SA 4.0Autumn Cooldowns: Sauna Is Probably at Its Best Right Now
In summer the cooldown turns back into sweat; in winter the cold chases you indoors. Autumn, dry and well below body temperature, is when outdoor cooling works best. Three stays for it.
Drew Coffman / CC0Autumn Belongs to Dogs: Travelling Once the Asphalt Has Cooled
Summer walks are a fight against road temperature, and dogs do the enduring. Autumn changes that: a 2,500 sqm dog run in Yatsugatake, pear picking by Lake Togo, forest in Chichibu.
Guillaume Nargeot / CC BY 3.0Autumn Leaves, Framed by a Window: The Luxury of Borrowed Scenery
The real enemy of leaf-viewing may be traffic and crowds. Rather than going to see the colours, watch them from your stay: a gorge in Shima Onsen, Korankei, a stream in Chichibu.