Hotels in Kobe

Kobe is Japan's great cosmopolitan port, a city of roughly one and a half million squeezed into a narrow strip between the Rokko mountains and Osaka Bay. It opened to foreign trade in the 1860s, and that history still shows in the Western merchants' houses of Kitano, the compact Nankinmachi Chinatown and a café-and-bakery culture that locals take seriously. It is, of course, famous for Kobe beef, which deserves the hype but is a splurge, not an everyday meal.

The city rebuilt thoroughly after the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake, and the waterfront at Meriken Park and Harborland is pleasant for an evening stroll, while the ropeway up Mount Rokko and the old hot-spring town of Arima, technically within city limits, make easy escapes. Many visitors treat Kobe as a day trip from Osaka or Kyoto, and it has fewer headline sights than either. Kobe Airport handles mainly domestic flights. Stay around Sannomiya, the main rail hub, which puts you within walking distance of Kitano, Chinatown and the harbour, with fast trains to Osaka.