Nagano, Japan

Hotel de l'Alpage

Hotel de l'Alpage Photos

Style

Château in rising mists

Setting

Snow-dusted highlands

Explore

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The Japanese are known for their obsessive detail, and owner Hirosuke Tobe of Alpine-inspired Hotel de l’Alpage has translated this into a European château, set amid the highland plateaus and forested peaks of Nagano. This labour of love reimagines refined French living through the lens of Japanese hospitality. Expect a cellar with over 2,500 wines, rooms with old-world proportions, and a brasserie recreating Gallic cuisine with exquisite local ingredients.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A 200ml bottle each of the hotel's original champagne, Pommery Pop

Facilities

Photos Hotel de l'Alpage facilities

Need to know

Rooms

12, including five suites.

Check–Out

11am. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

Hotel closed

Hotel de l’Alpage is closed every Tuesday and Wednesday throughout the year, and for all of February.

At the hotel

Grand piano, cigar room, manicured lawns, patio and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: HD TV, wireless speaker, coffee machine, tea-making kit, minibar, bathrobe, slippers and Sothys bath products.

Our favourite rooms

At Hotel de l’Alpage, rooms on the third floor have the added character of slanted walls and ceilings, as well as far-reaching views across the highlands. Suites have large floor-set bath tubs by windows that overlook the scenery. But whichever room you choose, you’ll be looked after exceedingly well across the hotel.

Packing tips

If there’s snow, which there often is here, you’ll need layers of suitable outdoor clothing.

Children

Over-13s are welcome, but this highland retreat is better suited to grown-ups.

Food and Drink

Photos Hotel de l'Alpage food and drink

Top Table

You’re in luck: every table at light-filled Le Jardin benefits from its airy atmosphere and elegant surroundings.

Dress Code

Smart, well-tailored threads — leave shorts, hiking boots and anything casual to your outdoor forays.

Hotel restaurant

Under the guidance of Chef Keiji Azuma, trained in Michelin-starred kitchens across France and formerly head chef at acclaimed restaurants in Tokyo, the menu at Le Jardin celebrates classic French cuisine made with carefully sourced local ingredients: rabbit terrine with Shinshu apple purée, rockfish poêlé with butter sauce and red wine, and Hokkaido veal and wild mushroom cream stew. The wine cellar is a destination in its own right, housing 2,500 bottles imported from France and kept in optimal conditions until their moment arrives, the hotel's sommelier brings expertise (and recommendations) to the table. 

Hotel bar

Bar Le Rêve is equally suited to a pre-dinner apéritif or a slow nightcap that stretches long after dessert. The drinks list leans very French, with a wide-range selection of spirits, champagnes and classic pours. Beyond the bar, a discreet cigar room invites guests to linger over a fine Havana paired with cognac, while the adjoining library offers a curated collection of art and photography books reflecting the owner’s Francophilia. 

Last orders

At Le Jardin, breakfast is served between 7:30am and 10:30am; lunch is 11:30am to 3pm, and for dinner, it’s 5pm to 10pm. Bar Le Rêve opens from 5pm until 10:30pm.

Room service

As well as dishes from Le Jardin’s menu, cakes for birthdays and anniversaries, sommelier-picked wines and flowers can be delivered to your door.

Location

Photos Hotel de l'Alpage location
Address
Hotel de l'Alpage
1820 4035 Kitayama Chino-shi
Nagano
391-0301
Japan

Hotel de L’Alpage is surrounded by quiet forest in the Tateshina Highlands, at the eastern edge of the city of Chino in the heart of Nagano prefecture.

Planes

You’ll likely fly into Tokyo’s Narita or Haneda airports, from which it’s a two-and-a-half-hour drive each to the hotel. There’s a regional airport an hour’s drive away at Matsumoto with connecting flights from destinations such as Sapporo, Kobe and Fukuoka.

Trains

Hokuriku shinkansen from Tokyo or Ueno stations go direct to Nagano station in just over 90 minutes; it’s then a two-hour drive to the hotel. Alternatively, take the slightly longer JR express train from Tokyo to Chino station, a 30-minute drive from Hotel de l’Alpage.

Automobiles

Should you choose to drive, the hotel lies just off a scenic route that weaves through lakes and forests towards the Tateshina Highlands. It takes about two and a half hours from Tokyo and closer to three from Nagoya, plus there’s ample free parking on site.

Worth getting out of bed for

The highland plateaus of Nagano Prefecture around Hotel de l’Alpage offer outdoorsy activities and gorgeous views to the Yatsugatake Mountains. In summer, you can hike and cycle through forests, canoe across lakes and paraglide over alpine meadows. Come winter, ski and snowboard on gentle, uncrowded slopes — the hotel has gear storage and dry facilities on site, and lifts are just a short drive away. Onsen (hot spring) culture is rich here, too. We recommend the one at Otonashi, a 10-minute drive away in a neighbouring valley.

Springtime’s fleeting cherry blossoms are abundant — in the forests, nearby city of Chino and its neighbour, the lake-encircling Suwa. Francophiles flock here to acquire dairy products otherwise rare to Japan, such as butter and cheese, as well as mushrooms, berries and mountain vegetables. As such, there are flower festivals, harvest events and local markets to explore. French art and culture are the focus of several galleries here, such as the Kitazawa Museum of Art.

Local restaurants

There are plenty of options in the towns and cities not far from Hotel de l’Alpage. In Chino, Mumyo serves beautifully presented, seasonal Japanese plates with a focus on locally foraged ingredients, while Ca’enne has a contemporary European tasting menu with dishes cooked over wood fire showcasing the flavours of the Yatsugatake region. Further afield in Nagano, La Recontre presents French-inspired seasonal cuisine with inventive twists on regional produce. 

Reviews

Photos Hotel de l'Alpage reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this alpine-inspired hideaway in Nagano and unpacked their linen tablecloth and bottle of wine, a full account of their mountain break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Hotel de l’Alpage in Japan…

Hotel de l’Alpage is an homage to a French château, transplanted into the serene, mountain-ringed highlands of Nagano. Its name, the French for ‘alpine pasture’, is a fitting marker of this cultural collaboration. Every corner has a Gallic twist, from the art adorning the walls to the wine cellar of over 2,500 European vintages. There are just 12 rooms, each tall and airy, with balconies framing quiet views of forested peaks and rolling highland plateaus. The hotel is a two-hour escape from Tokyo (reachable along the scenic Venus Line roadway) with all the polish and refinement you could wish for. Owner Hirosuke Tobe drew on childhood memories of travelling through France — his father a businessman and passionate Francophile, his mother a French literature scholar — to recreate the intimacy and luxury of a typical country house. The attention to detail is to be admired, even by Japan’s famously exacting standards.

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