Hotels near Nanki–Shirahama Airport - SHM, Shirahama

Beautiful beach, awesome landscapes, and great restaurants. Highly recommend visiting the Sandanbeki cliffs, gorgeous views. Also go to Ashiato if you want delicious American style sandwiches. Look for the "American Sando" banners/signs right by the Shirahama Beach bus stop. There is a small aquarium that is nice and a very interesting fertility shrine called "kanki" that you should visit as well. If you come in August you might be able to catch some phenomenal fireworks. The bus is very easy to use, it basically just goes up and down the coast, where most everything you want to see/do is. There are some theme parks and onsens too but we didn't have time for them, unfortunately.

You will need a few days to visit all the places that Shirahama has to offer. The beach if fabulous, heard that the sand was import from Perth, Australia. is great, white and fine. There is a few spots to eat, but not too family oriented, maybe it was because we went off season. The onsens around the area are ideal to relax and recover energy. Check out the feet onsen over looking Engetsuto Island.

We are Americans so we had really little knowledge of Shirahama as a resort city. It was at the tail end of a 3 week tour of Japan and was very restful. Fortunately, we were there after Golden Week and before the main tourist season, so it was quiet and relaxing. We had fun over two nights at a local Turkish restaurant, Blue Bar. We'd recommend it. Also, the beach seemed quite nice although we had one day or rain so we didn't hang out there. While this wouldn't be a regular stop for Americans, I think it is worthwhile and an easy train ride to the airport in Osaka.