After traveling through the island for more than a week, I decided to come back to Naha to spend my last days in Okinawa before moving on to Tokyo. This time I stayed at the Route-Inn Naha Tomariko.
The hotel has a perfect location; it is just a 1-minute walk from Tomari port, only a 5-minute walk from Miebashi station on the Okinawa Monorail and about a 15-minute walk from Kokusai Street. Naha airport can be reached within 10 minutes by car. It's the brilliant location that makes this hotel suitable for business as well as sightseeing. The main attractions nearby include Tomari Port, Peace Street, Makishi Public Market, the Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum and the Tsushima-maru Memorial Museum.
Right next to the hotel there is a Family Mart convenience store and not far from there you can find a Hotto Motto restaurant. Hotto Motto is a Japanese fast food chain specializing in take-out bento, freshly prepared meal sets at inexpensive prices. Hotto Motto is take-out only, but if you follow the river to Kokusai Street, you can explore plenty of izakayas and restaurants where you can have a seat and enjoy the traditional Okinawan dishes.
Okinawa has traditional folk songs called shima-uta and the places to experience live folk songs while having a drink are known as “Folk Song Barroom”, and there are a few of them in Naha city. I can recommend the House of Nakada Sachiko Performing Arts, just a 10-minute walk from the hotel. You can have an awesome time in this kind of traditional music pubs; at a certain point, when the atmosphere heats up, simply everybody starts singing and dancing.
The guestrooms of the Route-Inn Naha Tomariko are quite large, very clean and cozy. They feature a comfortable bed, a nice workstation and a seating area. Free internet connection via wired LAN is available in all rooms, and there is a complimentary buffet-style breakfast every morning from 6:30 am to 9:30 am.
One of my favorite places in the hotel is, with no doubt, the 14th floor, where you can just relax in the large public bath or check out the relaxation room equipped with a couple of full-body massage sofas. Both spots have amazing views over Naha city.
The entire staff was very kind and friendly and they made me feel so welcome, and it was another great stay in Naha city.
