Sightseeing
Kitakaruizawa Area Guide
Here are recommended spots around the facilities, Naka-Karuizawa, Naganohara, and Kusatsu Onsen. Please use this guide for planning BBQ shopping, breakfast, hot springs, souvenirs, and short trips before or after your stay.
Recommended Spots
Within about 15 minutes by car. Useful stops for BBQ shopping, hot springs, waterfalls, farms, and places to visit before or after check-in.
Recommended spots around Kitakaruizawa, Google Maps
BBQ meat, charcoal, fire starters
A direct store run by a meat wholesaler that supplies hotels, inns, and restaurants. It is one of the best places nearby for BBQ meat, with good variety and reasonable prices. Domestic beef offal, sirloin, horse sashimi, and bone-in ribs are popular choices.
Vegetables, pickles, charcoal
A farm shop selling fresh local lettuce, cabbage, corn, and other vegetables. You can also buy pickles, meat, alcohol, seasonings, and charcoal. Fresh corn from summer to around October is especially recommended.
Food, firewood, charcoal, fire starters
A supermarket where you can buy food and many things needed for your stay, including fire starters, charcoal, and firewood. The nearby Komeri hardware store in Tsumagoi is also useful for firewood, charcoal, and fire starters.
Farm, soft serve ice cream, views
The view from the lookout spot on the hill at the back is spectacular. The farm soft serve ice cream sold at the two shops is delicious, and comparing the two is part of the fun. If you are lucky, you may also see grazing scenery around the cow-marked area on the map in front of the shops.
Waterfall, nature walk
The largest waterfall in Kitakaruizawa. Asama Otaki is about 2 meters wide and 10 meters high, with a powerful presence. Uodome Falls is also nearby, and you can enjoy a free nature walk in the area. The road is narrow, and the wet stones around the waterfall can be especially slippery, so please watch your step.
Day-use hot spring
A hot spring attached to a campsite. The open-air bath is surrounded by trees, and you can relax while feeling the river nearby. Recommended when you want a quiet bath in nature.
Portuguese wine, scenic rice fields
A Portuguese wine shop located among rice fields with a peaceful view. You can buy carefully selected Portuguese wines that the owner personally sourced by visiting Portugal. Opening days may change irregularly, so checking before visiting is recommended.
Soba, terrace seating, soft serve ice cream
A soba restaurant where you can enjoy delicious soba noodles. The terrace seats are highly recommended, with a quiet setting surrounded by trees where you can feel close to nature. The soft serve ice cream is also recommended.
Pizza, wooden deck, nature
A restaurant where you can enjoy delicious pizza. The wooden deck area is especially pleasant, letting you relax with pizza and other dishes while surrounded by nature. It is usually open about three days a week and may close irregularly, so please check before visiting.
Recommended Spots
About 30 minutes by car from the facilities. Good for breakfast, hot springs, shopping, and souvenirs toward Karuizawa.
Recommended spots around Karuizawa, Google Maps
Bakery and breakfast
A well-known bakery with shops near Karuizawa Station. The breakfast plate with homemade yeast bread, served until 11:00 a.m., is recommended. Good for bread and jam souvenirs too.
Natural hot spring
A hot spring operated by Hoshino Resorts since 1915. The spring water flows directly from the source, with indoor baths, open-air baths, and a sauna.
Breakfast and lunch
A restaurant known for rice cooked in a traditional kamado stove and set meals with grated yam soup. The natural scenery and old-house atmosphere are also pleasant.
Souvenirs and vegetables
A large market-style shop with many Karuizawa souvenirs, local sweets, vegetables, soba, and cheese soft serve ice cream.
Supermarket
A famous supermarket in Karuizawa with vegetables, meat, prepared foods, drinks, and many original products. The jam and bakery items are especially popular.
Meat, processed foods, wine
A long-established Karuizawa butcher shop with nearly 100 years of history. You can buy meat, sausages, cheese, and wine. Useful when shopping on the Karuizawa side.
Recommended Spots
About 20 to 30 minutes by car, toward Kusatsu Onsen. Convenient for a sightseeing center, soba, and kamameshi on the way back.
Recommended spots around Kusatsu and Naganohara, Google Maps
Sake, souvenirs, meals
A tourist center operated by Asama Sake Brewery. You can shop for sake, snacks, and souvenirs, and enjoy local menu items such as funka ramen and sake-kasu soft serve ice cream.
100 percent buckwheat soba
A soba restaurant where you can compare different styles of soba made with local buckwheat. Freshly grated wasabi is also a highlight.
Kamameshi and set meals
A restaurant where each kamameshi rice dish is cooked in a small individual pot. Prices are reasonable, and there are many set meals.
Recommended Spots
A little over 30 minutes by car. Enjoy the Yubatake hot spring field, open-air baths, kamameshi, soba, sake shops, and butcher shops while walking around the hot spring town.
Recommended spots around Kusatsu and Naganohara, Google Maps
Center of Kusatsu Onsen
The famous symbol of Kusatsu Onsen. About 4,000 liters of hot spring water flows out every minute. A good starting point for walking and eating around town.
Large open-air bath
One of Kusatsu's three famous baths and one of the largest open-air baths in the area. Enjoy bathing in a spacious natural setting.
Kamameshi
A well-known kamameshi restaurant in Kusatsu Onsen. The rice is cooked after ordering, with many choices such as local maitake mushrooms and hana-ingen beans.
Soba lunch
A soba restaurant serving freshly made soba from buckwheat milled every morning. Soba with grated yam is recommended.
Long-established liquor shop
A 100-year-old liquor shop in Kusatsu. It offers local Gunma sake, wine, whisky, tastings, and paid sake comparison sets.
BBQ meat by weight
A useful butcher shop for buying BBQ meat in Kusatsu. You can buy authentic BBQ meat by weight, as well as vegetables, yakiniku sauce, and spicy miso.
Combine shopping, hot springs, food, and sightseeing with your private cottage trip.
