Grand Mercure Lake Biwa Resort & Spa

The room is spacious and has a great view overlooking the lake and the castle. It's autumn and can see a lot of red maple trees in the park before the castle. Comfort bed too!

What we love: The onsen, the nightly free happy hour, and the amazing breakfast Location is pretty good. Nice lakeside views, near the old town, and quiet. If you drive, there is ample parking but it does get quite full when we were there mid Dec 2024, this means more locals visit than tourists. We used it as a base for visiting nearby ski resorts such as GranSnow and Biwako (roughly 60-90mins drive). It's about a 10-15min drive to the city centre where you can find an abundance of food and shopping! The room is quite spacious, has a great view of Lake Biwa, and generally comfortable and cosy. The breakfast is fantastic, quite a spread although I wished they changed some of the items more frequently. The onsen is big, and we enjoyed it every single night. The best was the homemade barley drink they served-simply Oishi! Not to mention a nightly nightcap of free booze, soft drinks and snacks available at the lobby from 7pm till 10/11pm. Nice way to wind down. This hotel has a old-style, somewhat luxe, chillout, laid-back vibe, where you can really hang out if you like, at your own pace. Highly recommended.

Very nice and spacious rooms, had a corner room with two windows to admire the lake. Negative note is the carpet was very old, and dirty from stains. Will stay again