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Adam Nebbs
Adam Nebbs

Travellers' Checks | Marriott opens first international luxury hotel on Japan’s remote Miyako Islands, go before everybody else does

  • Plus, Silverseas to offer 167-day Antarctic to Artic cruise for 2021
  • New book Pan Am at War details carrier’s role in second world war

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The Iraph Sui, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Miyako Okinawa, the first international luxury resort on Japan’s remote Irabu Island, in Okinawa prefecture.
Adam Nebbs

A remote corner of Japan that welcomes relatively few foreign visitors has just seen the opening of its first international luxury resort – Marriott’s mouthfully named Iraph Sui, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Miyako Okinawa.

The resort is located on the small island of Irabu, which, with its near neighbour Miyako, is part of the Miyakojima group of islands – known for clean, white beaches and some of the best diving in Japan. The only commercial airport is on Miyako, and it serves only domestic Japanese flights – hence the lack of overseas tourists. It is, however, possible to get there from Hong Kong quite quickly and easily if you fly first to the nearby island of Ishigaki, then take a 30-minute connecting flight to Miyako.

Currently there are only two flights a week from Chek Lap Kok to Ishigaki (both operated by HK Express), but that will increase to a seasonal six from the end of next month. Flights arrive in Ishigaki at 10.45am, leaving plenty of time to connect with the short-hop Japan Transocean Air flight to Miyako at 2.35pm. Return schedules mean you’ll need to overnight at Ishigaki, but that island is a pleasant place in which to spend an afternoon and evening, or even a few days.

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Located about 20 minutes’ from Miyako Airport (with a drive across a spectacular new 3.5km bridge connecting Miyako and Irabu) the 58-room Iraph Sui resort is anticipating the opening of what it calls “the new Shimojishima Airport” much closer by, on the adjacent island of Shimoji. That airport actually opened in the 1970s but hasn’t seen scheduled commercial traffic for many years, being apparently used only for military and airline-training operations since the 1990s.

A low-cost carrier terminal is, however, expected to open later this year, and the resort hopes that the airport will then provide “a convenient gateway for international guests travelling to the island”. So now might be a good time to go, if you want to beat the rush.

Silversea’s Uncharted World Tour sails from Antarctic to Arctic

The Silver Cloud will embark on a 167-day round-the-world cruise, calling at lesser-known ports of call on its voyage from South America to the Norwegian Atlantic.
The Silver Cloud will embark on a 167-day round-the-world cruise, calling at lesser-known ports of call on its voyage from South America to the Norwegian Atlantic.
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