ANA Crowne Plaza Okayama by IHG

The lobby has a particular Japanese calm: unhurried, staff attentive without hovering and a calming décor of beige, cream and dark timber. The real draw is up on the 20th floor where three restaurants enjoy sweeping views across the city. Kuriya-Sen handles seasonal kaiseki focused on Seto Inland Sea seafood and Okayama's famous fruit harvest; Osafune adds teppanyaki theatre to the mix; and the Sky Bar & Lounge-Sen keeps things going well into the evening. Ground-floor Urbano is also there for casual all-day bites.

Rooms are cool, calm and quiet, decked out in soothing beige tones with plenty of dark wooden furnishings. They're not especially dazzling, but they are clean, well-organised and comfortable. The beds are wide and properly supportive - and a pillow menu is a great touch for jet-lagged arrivals - whilst bathrooms include deep bathtubs. The Standard rooms are fine, but the Premium rooms offer more breathing room and much better views. Higher floors look out over the station and city lights but the lower, inward-facing rooms are a little less rewarding, so it's worth specifying when you book.

Korakuen Garden, one of Japan's three great landscape gardens, is a tram or taxi ride east, its tea houses, pond and maple-lined paths best enjoyed on a slow, ambling wander. Across the river, Okayama Castle's striking black walls have earned it the local nickname 'Crow Castle'. Slightly further afield, a 20-minute train brings you to Kurashiki's willow-shaded canal quarter and the excellent Ohara Museum of Art. For something more ambitious, cycle the ancient Kibi Plain past burial mounds and pagodas, catch a boat to Naoshima's contemporary art museums, or push on to Shikoku via the Seto Ohashi Bridge.