Wakayama · Japan
Kii Travel is an independent guide to the Kii Peninsula — temple lodgings on Koyasan, the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trails, the hot-spring coast at Shirahama, and Nachi Falls.
713,562
Foreign guest nights in Wakayama, 2025 — up 39.8% on the year
1,200
Years since Kūkai founded the monastery on Koyasan
133 m
Nachi Falls — Japan's tallest single-drop waterfall
Start here
Almost everyone who flies into Kansai goes north to Kyoto. The Kii Peninsula lies in the other direction, and it is the reason Japan has a thousand-year-old pilgrimage tradition at all. See where it sits on the map, and the history behind it →
This site covers five places: the castle town of Wakayama City near the airport, the temple town of Koyasan, the forest trails of the Kumano Kodo, the hot-spring bay of Shirahama, and Nachi Falls on the eastern coast. You can see one of them in a weekend, or link them into a single unhurried journey.
Five places
Mountains and coast, within a few hours of each other. Each one works as a standalone trip, and they connect cleanly into one route.
和歌山市 The prefectural capital, and the closest of these five places to Kansai Airport. Wakayama Castle, the seaside temple Kimiidera, and the tuna-market island of Marina City all sit within a short bus ride of the station.
Castle, temples & Marina City→
高野山 Kūkai founded this monastic town in 816. Around fifty temples still take overnight guests, serve shōjin ryōri, and open their morning prayers to anyone staying the night.
Temple stays & how to book→
熊野古道 Pilgrims have walked these cedar-lined stone paths to the three Kumano grand shrines for more than a thousand years. The Nakahechi is the route most first-time walkers take.
Routes, stages & logistics→
白浜 Shirahama pairs a white-sand bay with one of the oldest hot springs in Japan. It now draws more foreign overnight guests than anywhere else in Wakayama.
Where to stay on the coast→
那智 Nachi Falls drops 133 metres beside a vermilion pagoda — the single image most people picture when they think of Wakayama. TIME named Kumano Nachi Taisha one of the World’s Greatest Places of 2025.
Nachi, Katsuura & the coast→Planning
Koyasan alone fits into a single night. The full Nakahechi walk does not. Here is what each version of the trip actually costs in time and lodging.
| Trip | Nights | Best for | Lodging, 2 people (JPY / approx. USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Koyasan only | 1–2 | A first visit, or a short detour from Osaka | ¥40,000–80,000 ($260–520) |
| Koyasan + Kumano Kodo (Nakahechi) | 5–7 | The classic pilgrimage route | ¥110,000–180,000 ($720–1,180) |
| Kumano Kodo + Nachi + Katsuura | 4–5 | Shrines and the eastern coast | ¥80,000–140,000 ($520–920) |
| Shirahama + the Nachi coast | 3–4 | Hot springs, beaches, travelling with children | ¥60,000–120,000 ($390–780) |
| All four | 8–10 | One unhurried journey, mountains to coast | ¥180,000–280,000 ($1,180–1,830) |
Before you book
This is the single most common way a Kumano Kodo trip goes wrong: travellers search the usual booking sites, find almost nothing, and assume the route is full. It is not — the inventory simply lives somewhere else.
We say so plainly because a guide that only tells you about the bookings it earns from is not a guide. Where we do earn a commission, we say so on the page itself.