Family-Friendly Hotels near the Great Seto Bridge: Seaside Stays

When you start looking for a family hotel around the Great Seto Bridge, the first thing you run into is whether to stay on the Okayama side or the Kagawa side. The bridge itself is the destination here, so the views are lovely from either shore, but the types of hotels on the two banks are quite different. A resort-style place near a swimming beach, or a city hotel close to a station and the shops? Settling that one question first narrows the list dramatically.

This stretch of coast lies within Setonaikai National Park, and it is known for calm water layered with the silhouettes of islands. The sea rarely gets rough, and although there are tides, you do not get the big open-ocean swells, so simply walking along the shore with a small child is enough to fill an afternoon. On the Okayama side the area runs from Kurashiki through Tamano and Kojima; on the Kagawa side, the towns of Sakaide, Utazu, and Marugame sit right at the foot of the bridge. Within these prefectures you will find areas such as Marugame and Sakaide, Kurashiki and Tamano, and there are 5 hotels to choose from around the Great Seto Bridge.

One thing families will appreciate is that Japanese-style and Japanese-Western rooms are the backbone of the local lineup, with 5 properties offering them. Rooms where you can lay out futon mattresses side by side on the tatami floor are reassuring in the stage when you worry about a child rolling off a bed, and there is floor space left over for kids to move around even after the bags are unpacked. Several hotels also lend out crib beds, humidifiers, and air purifiers, so you can leave home with less in the car even when traveling with a baby.

If you are choosing for sheer play value, the Diamond Setouchi Marine Hotel on Shibukawa Beach is the obvious name. It has a kids' room and a playroom, a water slide, and a shallow children's pool, plus concept rooms fitted with a slide and bunk beds, along with kids' programs and hands-on activities. If mealtimes are your bigger worry, the children's buffet, kids' food corner, and allergy accommodations at Sakaide Grand Hotel, or the toddler meal sets and private and semi-private dining rooms at Setouchi Kojima Hotel, deserve a look.

Ease of getting around is worth weighing too. City-center hotels like Okura Hotel Marugame and Sakaide Plaza Hotel have Japanese-style and Japanese-Western rooms while letting you drop the luggage and head out unencumbered. Some properties also offer late checkout, so if you are traveling with babies or toddlers and mornings tend to run slow, adding that to your search criteria takes a lot of pressure off the final day.