Best time to visit Kanazawa
Japan · East Asia
All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.
The year in Kanazawa
Tap a month for its page
- JanJKanazawa in January: avoid
- FebFKanazawa in February: avoid
- MarMKanazawa in March: ok
- AprAKanazawa in April: good
- MayMKanazawa in May: good
- JunJKanazawa in June: sweet spot
- JulJKanazawa in July: ok
- AugAKanazawa in August: ok
- SepSKanazawa in September: good
- OctOKanazawa in October: ok
- NovNKanazawa in November: ok, busy
- DecDKanazawa in December: avoid
- Sweet spot
- Good
- OK
- Avoid
- Busy
Plan this trip
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Flights from
Flights
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Where to stay
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Luxury
Things to do
Car hire
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Travel insurance
Check whether your bank card or home insurance already covers this trip.
If the trip needs a visa, the travel agent or visa centre usually sells the cover it asks for.
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Things to do in Kanazawa
- Kanazawa Castle At the center of Kanazawa is the former site of Kanazawa Castle.
- Kenroku-en Garden The most famous sight in Kanazawa, the Garden of Six Attributes is considered one of Japan's Top 3 gardens.
- 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Located across from Kenroku-en, this modern marvel offers a fascinating juxtaposition to the traditional splendour of Kanazawa.
- Ninja Temple The tour guides insist there is no connection between the 'Ninja Temple' and actual ninja assassins.
- D.T. Suzuki Museum Building in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan
- Oyama Shrine Built in the early Meiji period to honor the founding father of the Kaga Domain, Maeda Toshiie.
- Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art This is a pleasant museum showcasing works by local artists hailing from Isihikawa prefecture.
Tours and tickets in Kanazawa
Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank
Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (Kanazawa), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.
Month by month
No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.
| Month | Max °C | Rain days | Humidity | Sun h/day | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 6° | 23d | 76% | 6.2h | avoid | monsoon: 23 rainy days, 211mm |
| Feb | 7° | 17d | 73% | 6.8h | avoid | 7C max, 17 rainy days |
| Mar | 12° | 14d | 71% | 8.1h | ok | 12C max, 14 rainy days |
| Apr | 16° | 12d | 72% | 8.7h | good | 16C max, 12 rainy days |
| May | 21° | 11d | 73% | 9.5h | good | 21C max, 11 rainy days |
| Jun | 25° | 9d | 78% | 9.6h | sweet spot | 25C max, 9 rainy days |
| Jul | 29° | 11d | 81% | 10.1h | ok | 29C max, 11 rainy days |
| Aug | 31° | 9d | 78% | 10.3h | ok | 31C max, 9 rainy days |
| Sep | 27° | 12d | 80% | 8.4h | good | 27C max, 12 rainy days |
| Oct | 21° | 13d | 77% | 7.3h | ok | 21C max, 13 rainy days |
| Nov | 15° | 14d | 74% | 7.0h | okbusy | busier than usual |
| Dec | 9° | 23d | 76% | 5.7h | avoid | monsoon: 23 rainy days, 229mm |
Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.
Weather read at the centre (Kenroku-en), 29 km from the airport (KMQ): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.
A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.
How busy it gets
Then and now
Kanazawa's February days now average 7.3°C, 2.9°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 8 of 12 months are clearly warmer.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981–90 | 4.2° | 4.4° | 8.9° | 16.1° | 20.7° | 24.3° | 27.6° | 29.8° | 25.0° | 19.1° | 13.4° | 8.1° |
| 2017–26 | 6.4° | 7.3° | 11.7° | 16.4° | 21.3° | 24.8° | 29.2° | 30.6° | 26.9° | 20.5° | 15.5° | 9.4° |
| Change | +2.2° | +2.9° | +2.8° | +0.3° | +0.5° | +0.5° | +1.6° | +0.8° | +1.9° | +1.4° | +2.1° | +1.3° |
The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.
Getting there
How far Kanazawa is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.
- from Tokyo
- from Seoul
- from Taipei
- from Hong Kong
- from Manila
- from Ho Chi Minh City
- from Bangkok
- from Kolkata
Open in Rome2rio for every way from to Kanazawa, flying or not.
Before you go
Type A and B plugs at 100 V. Drives on the left. The currency is the Yen. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Global Affairs Canada: Exercise normal security precautions. US State Department: Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions. Everything for Japan: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.
Being there
On arrival
- Paying — Cards are widely taken in cities, but carry cash for small restaurants, inns and rural areas. Suica and PASMO also pay in many shops, and PayPay QR codes are common.
- UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
- Tipping — Not done in restaurants or taxis; some hotels and restaurants add a 10% service charge.
Getting around Kanazawa
- Apps — Rides: GO, DiDi, S.RIDE, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: LINE. Ride apps here hail ordinary licensed taxis; private-car rideshare is limited to small trials.
Kanazawa has a decent bus system to help you get where you need to go. There are three types of buses: city buses, a tourist bus, and community buses (Furatto-Bus). More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Kanazawa, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Help
- Emergency — police 110 · ambulance and fire 119.
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.
Your embassy — : how to reach your embassy or consulate abroad. A guess from your city, : a city is not a passport.
Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.
Sources (21)
- gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/japan/getting-help
- japan.travel/en/plan/getting-around/taxis
- japan.travel/en/plan/cashless-payments-in-japan
- japan.travel/en/plan/credit-cards
- japan.travel/en/plan/tipping-in-japan
- japan.travel/en/guide/how-to-travel-by-train-and-bus-in-japan
- japan-guide.com/e/e2359_credit_card_tap.html
- visa.co.jp/pay-with-visa/featured-technologies/contactless/merchants-transit.html
- apps.apple.com/us/app/go-taxi-app-for-japan-visit/id1254341709
- uber.com/global/en/cities/tokyo
- developers.google.com/maps/coverage
- apple.com/ios/feature-availability
- en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Japan
- www2.city.kyoto.lg.jp/kotsu/webguide/en/bus/howtoride_bus.html
- www2.city.kyoto.lg.jp/kotsu/webguide/en/ticket/ic_card.html
- www2.city.kyoto.lg.jp/kotsu/webguide/en/ticket/regular_1day_card_comm.html
- city.kyoto.lg.jp/kotsu/page/0000240757.html
- city.kyoto.lg.jp/kotsu/page/0000334479.html
- westjr.co.jp/travel-information/en/tickets-passes/oneway/haruka
- pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2286608
- nipl.com/uploads/NPCI_International_signs_Mo_U_with_NTT_DATA_Japan_to_enable_UPI_acceptance_at_merchant_locations_in_Japan_14_Oct_002_a292d8d769.pdf
Kanazawa in pictures
What Kanazawa is like
Kanazawa (金沢) is a historic city in Ishikawa prefecture, Japan. For travelers who want to see one of the best-preserved major Edo-period cities in the country, it's hard to beat. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth seeing
- Many of the links below are only available in Japanese. However almost all major tourist sites in Japan have English pamphlets, and Kanazawa is no exception. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth doing
- Asanogawa Riverside Garden Party (Along the Asano River banks. 7 minutes by Hokutetsu bus for Nishiki-Machi from Kanazawa Station's west exit. Get off at Hashiba-Cho bus stop and follow the crowd.). More on Wikivoyage
- Getting in
- The nearest airport serving Kanazawa is in the city of Komatsu (KMQ IATA). JAL offers flights into Komatsu Airport from Tokyo Haneda Airport and Okinawa, while ANA flies from Tokyo Haneda and Sapporo. More on Wikivoyage
- Staying safe
- As with most if not all cities in Japan, Kanazawa is a very safe place to visit. The central crossing in Kanazawa's Katamachi area (known locally as the Scramble) can get a bit rowdy on the weekends. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Kanazawa, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.
Around Kanazawa
Also in Japan
- Fukuoka best Apr, May, Jun
- Hiroshima best Apr, Jun, Sep
- Kobe best Apr, Jun, Sep
- Kyoto best May, Jun, Sep
- Mount Fuji best Apr, May, Oct
- Nagasaki best Apr, Jun, Oct
- Nagoya best Apr, May, Jun
- Niseko best Mar, Jun, Jul
- Okayama best May, Jun, Sep
- Okinawa best Feb, Apr, Oct
- Osaka best Apr, May, Jun
- Sapporo best Jun, Jul, Sep
- Sendai best Apr, May, Jun
- Tokyo best May, Jun, Nov
Nearby
- Gyeongju South Korea · 672 km
- Busan South Korea · 693 km
- Seoul South Korea · 866 km
- Jeju South Korea · 982 km
Kind of place
Kanazawa is in Japan, East Asia. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.
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