The Best Places to Stay and Do in Nikko

Each room comes with its own Zen rock garden, which feels about right for a hotel sitting on the shores of Lake Chuzenji inside Nikko National Park. This Ritz-Carlton is a long way from the brand's usual neoclassical grandeur, trading marble columns for spare contemporary architecture that reads as genuinely Japanese. Onsen baths, an expansive spa, and a picture window framing Mount Nantai keep you from ever feeling obligated to leave. It holds a Forbes Five Star and two Michelin Keys.

Every room comes with its own private hot-spring bath, which makes a strong opening argument for not leaving. Fufu Nikko is a luxury boutique hotel near the temples and shrines of Nikko, close enough to Tokyo to feel like an easy escape. Rooms are modern and spare, the forest presses right up against the public baths, and the restaurant, Setchu, moves between Japanese and European cooking. The Michelin Guide awarded it 2 Keys.

A ten-room luxury stay on the banks of the Kinugawa river, built in the modern-ryokan idiom: clean lines and organic warmth, with each room opening onto a sunroom and a balcony full of greenery. Hot spring baths come as standard, both private and communal. The concept restaurant leans into wood-fired cooking that refuses to stay in a single genre. Nikko draws crowds for the shrines; this is where you sleep when you'd rather not rush back.