Garden Terrace Nagasaki Hotel & Resort Review

We (a party of three) stayed at this hotel for one night during the first week of January 2022. This was our first stay at this hotel, which has the reputation for being the most luxurious and expensive hotel (excluding ryokan) in Nagasaki City. It was designed by the renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and has received awards and accolades for its design. The unique design though I found mainly limited to the hotel’s exterior with the interior being more mundane.

http://languages.gt-nagasaki.jp/?lang=en (hotel website)

Building in which our room was located

We arrived by car and after parking in the large parking lot next to the hotel, we walked into what we thought was the main hotel entrance. Not seeing any check-in counter, I asked a person where to check-in and she asked us to sit down and wait. A golf cart soon appeared and took us to the next-door building to check-in. Here we were served tea and asked to fill out a covid-related questionnaire about our travels. Check-in staff volunteered almost no information about the hotel’s facilities other than telling us where we would be eating breakfast and dinner, so I asked about their public hot bath and was told that it was closed due to Covid. They also have a club lounge (though I’m not sure our room qualified for access), which was also closed. This stood in sharp contrast to the Hilton Nagasaki, where we stayed the second night, whose public hot bath and club lounge were both open. After check-in, we were taken by golf cart back to the building we first entered and where our room was located.

Check-in area

There are only 36 rooms in the entire hotel, yet there are four restaurants. I booked a Terrace Suite, the lowest cost room for $392 (or 45,200 yen) on Agoda.com, where I found the best prices. The Terrace Suite rooms (of which there are six) range from 575 - 635 sqf (53.47 - 59.04 sqm) and are very spacious. We were driven to the building entrance by golf cart and the driver guided us to our room but explained very little about its features and amenities. You really had to ask to extract any information. The room is bright with light-colored wood construction and has a balcony with chairs and a table that overlooks Nagasaki Bay. The bathing room is modern, attractive, and luxurious with gray stone paneled walls, a large tub with a window bay view, and a spacious rain shower area. In contrast, the room furniture, though modern, appears more like something out of Ikea, Tokyu Hands, or even generic product shops and lacks a luxurious feel, and seems out of whack with the room itself. The bed, though comfortable, was a problem. Every time I sat up in bed against the headboard with the pillows to my back, the bed would slowly slide forward, and the pillows would drop to the floor between the gap thus created. I had to push the bed back against the wall each time, but finally gave up and avoided the headboard. You’d think a problem like this would have been solved by now.

The bay view was the highlight of our stay and if it were summer, we would have spent much time on the balcony drinking wine and admiring the view.  The hallway outside the room was much less attractive with its dark wall color and fading well-soiled red carpet, which could use a refresh and upgrade. 

The hallway outside our room

My interaction with service staff was mainly limited to the front desk staff, golf cart drivers, and restaurant staff. I found the front desk staff to be rather detached, reticent, and curt with a slightly haughty but not cold air, perhaps the air that some might expect at a traditional high-class hotel such as the Waldorf Astoria. Since the golf cart drivers appeared to work at the front desk most of the time, they were polite but had a similar air and offered little information unless asked. The restaurant staff, on the other hand, were warmer, friendlier, and more inviting. 

There are four restaurants, Forest (French), Akizuki (Kaiseki & Tempura), Tenku (Sushi), and Chikusai (Teppanyaki). There is also a wine bar, which we did not try. We ate dinner at Akizuki, which was next door to our room building. I made a reservation there a few weeks before our arrival but was apparently unnecessary as several tables were available. We were given a window seat with an excellent bay view. The Kaiseki courses ranged in price from around 7,700 to 14,000 yen. I normally associate Kaiseki with small portions and feeling hungry afterward, but that was not the case here. Below are photos of each item I received as part of my dinner course (8,800 yen). I found the food mostly delicious and attractively presented, though a few vegetables were a little undercooked. The restaurant also had private tatami rooms with some of the most attractive sliding paper screen doors that I’ve seen. We were all full afterward and retreated to our room satisfied and ready for a nightcap. 

Kaiseki & Tmepura restaurant Akizuki

Breakfast was in the same restaurant with the same bay view. Two of us ordered the western breakfast while the other ordered the Japanese one. 

W

At breakfast, we were presented with a bottle of sparkling wine (which turned out to be quite good) from Spain as a gift for our stay.

The Garden Terrace is located on the side of Mount Inasa (Inasayama) where some other hotels are also located. Given its location, the road to the hotel is narrow and curvy and not easy driving for those not used to it. It’s also located on the opposite side of the bay from most sightseeing spots, the train station, and business and shopping districts. The hotel does provide a shuttle bus to the train station, and I noted an ad in our room for a taxi service for sightseeing at a rate of one hour for about 5,800 yen. Although distances are not that great, if sightseeing is your main activity, a hotel on the opposite side of the bay is far more convenient but without the excellent bay views.

Inasayama also has some sightseeing spots including an observatory at its peak, as well as a tram car and ropeway you can take to its peak. There are also onsen along the side of Inasayama with great outdoor views from their outdoor baths (rotenburo).  

https://www.inasayama.com/ (Inasamayama website)

Although we enjoyed the view from the hotel and our restaurant meal, we were unanimous that we preferred our stay at the Nagasaki Hilton. Undoubtedly, this was partly due to the closure of the public hot bath and the club lounge, which were both open at the Hilton. With so much of it closed, I don’t think the stay was worth the price we paid. I would prefer to stay in the summertime when the outdoor pool is open, and the facilities (including the balcony) are easier to access. Also, I don’t feel that the hotel offered a real luxury experience, especially considering the rooms. Since I live in the area, I don’t often stay at local hotels, but for tourists, a stay for a night or two to enjoy the view, good restaurants, and visit Inasayama combined with a couple of night stay on the opposite side of the bay would give you a nearly complete experience of Nagasaki.

That said, you do not need to stay at the Garden Terrace to eat at their restaurants, so a less expensive alternative would be to stay on the opposite side of the bay and take one day to visit Inasayama Park and then eat at a Garden Terrace restaurant in the evening and be done with it.

Overall, I do not recommend staying at this hotel at the present time with its Covid restrictions, but I would consider another visit during the summertime to enjoy all of its facilities once the restrictions are lifted, though I'm not a fan of the rooms and beds, I would like to experience it when it's at full operation.