Swissotel Nankai Osaka

The location is the best feature about this hotel. You take an elevator down and you are LITERALLY at all of the shopping. Of course you are literally on top of the Osaka Namba train station so it makes it super easy to get around. The rooms are decent for sure: There is a nespresso coffee maker, water bottles in the little fridge, plenty of outlets and the shower has great water pressure. I wish the towels were softer and larger, however. The hotel buffet breakfast is fairly decent, but definitely not the best we had in Japan. Note: They do have gluten free rolls for breakfast if you ASK them - they're not put out, but that's a great item for folks who are gluten free. We found that most of the items on the buffet were lukewarm at best, but we've read that this might be more of a Japan thing. The concierge staff at the hotel is GREAT - USE THEM for ideas on where to eat. Pro tip: Go to the basement of the Takashimaya department store which is right down that elevator. They have a TON of food options you can grab and go and eat in your room, or eat outside in the large patio/park area outside of the hotel (not sure what to call it). Note that you are on the hook for finding trash cans in Japan - it's a challenge! There are also small 'shops' in that basement area with incredible pastry treats! This is a do not miss! We had a LOT of luggage (because of all the shopping) and we needed to head to Kyoto. There are several ways to do this. We decided to take a taxi to Shin Osaka, and catch the Shinkansen to Kyoto. Yes it's more expensive this way and overall probably takes longer, but the Shinkansen has great options to manage lots of luggage. Of course you can do the cheaper option of taking a local train to Kyoto from Osaka Namba (and also transferring if my memory serves me correctly), but we chose the other route and it worked out great.

Jennifer