Budget
Ryokan Matsumae
The owners profess to be familiar with Buddha statue carving and calligraphy.
Ryokan SeikansÅ
In the Naramachi section of the town, among the tangle of narrow lanes and old houses. Tatami mats, classical architecture, and a well-kept inner garden feature in this traditional ryokan. The rooms are showing their age, but each features a samovar for tea and a small room with a table overlooking the garden. The shared bathrooms have been recently remodeled. Japanese/Western breakfast for ¥700/450 is served in the tatami dining room. Curfew 11PM. The manager speaks very passable English, can lend you a variety of guidebooks in several languages and puts out his own laptop in the common room in the mornings and evenings for guests to catch up on e-mail.
Midrange
Nara Washington Hotel Plaza
Nationwide western-style hotel chain. Rooms have internet at no extra charge.
TempyÅ Ryokan
Japanese and western style rooms available.
Top end
Hotel Nikko Nara
A JAL Japan Airlines group chain hotel.
KikusuirÅ
Deluxe Japanese-style ryokan inn.
Nara Hotel
Classic westernized style hotel of deluxe class, since 1909.
As usual throughout Japan, make your reservation as early as possible for August the time of yearly vacations and Bon festivals, when it is customary for the Japanese to travel to their and their ancestors' birthplaces and around Christmas/New Year, and also in early November, when Shosoin treasures are on display at the National Museum. Cheaper accomodations may sell out and/or raise prices.