Nishiizu Auto Camping Ground

Nishiizu Auto Camping Ground (西伊豆オートキャンプ場) is where we spent our second night on our 3-day Izu roadtrip.

After heading down along the eastern coast to the town of Shimoda, we then cut across west through the Izu Peninsula out to the town of Matsuzaki. Google puts this Nishiizu campsite as a 15-minute drive inland from Matsuzaki, but realistically unless you are comfortable speeding down narrow and windy roads, it is probably more like 20 - 25 minutes.

There is a MaxValu supermarket in Matsuzaki, so I’d recommend stocking up before making the drive in. The highlight of this campground is that they had a tiny onsen on-site for an extra 500 yen per person (although only provides soap, so bring your own shampoo) which felt quite luxurious - usually you have to drive somewhere else.

The onsen was split by gender, but was quite small - it can only comfortably fit 2 - 3 people at a time. The campground had come up with this rather novel system with the shoeboxes at the entrance to the onsen. You put your shoes in, and a sensor in the shoebox registers you as being in the onsen.

And then there is a light outside that signals to other people at the campsite how crowded the onsen is right now (green light = no people, red light = 3 people).

As for the campgrounds itself each section is marked out, and you can park your car right next to your tent site.

There were a couple of motorcycle touring groups, and the group next to us were a little loud, but quietened down by a little after 9pm so it wasn’t too bad.

If you want to pay a little extra, there’s also a more forested section where you are more spaced out from the other campers.

We also realised that we probably need to buy a table for camping. When we’re on grass, it doesn’t feel as bad to use the ground but there’s something sad about making coffee on gravel.

Finding a campsite in West Izu

So I picked this campsite as it was one of the cheaper options in the Nishi or “west” Izu area. I’d also researched what other campsite options were available in the area so I’m putting that info here in case it’s useful to anyone else.

The Nishiizu Auto Camping Ground cost us 5720 yen for 2 people, and I chose it because it was 1000 - 2000 yen cheaper than alternatives on the coastline. I also get suspicious that coastline campgrounds tend to attract more of a “party” vibe (at least, from what I occasionally see written on Google reviews) which also influenced me in picking this one.

In retrospect though I would recommend paying the extra cash to use one of those coastal campsites. This Nishiizu one did feel like a bit of a hassle, especially since we didn’t actually have any plans to do anything inland (basically we drove inland to the campsite, and then back out to the coast the following day).

Two options I saw were Izukare (7700 yen) or Marine Base (6600 yen). Since you’re on the western side, you may as well make the most of a sunset (we missed out this time - you cannot see much from the campsite).

I did find the camping costs in Izu to be surprisingly high (you’d think camping would be really cheap) but I suppose they cater to “auto-campers” i.e. camper vans where you want to hook up your car to electricity. It seems like 6000 yen is the going rate generally in Izu.

Alternatively there was one slightly dodgier looking campsite on the coast called Sazanami, if you don’t mind needing to make a telephone booking in Japanese. It was under 4000 yen and was the most affordable I could find. I think if I were to do this same trip again, I might give that one a go.

Also another option that is a bit further away is Darumayakogen Camping ground. It’s in the mountains next to Mt Daruma, if you want to get a quick hike in, and you can also see Mt Fuji. For anime fans, the characters of Yuru Camp stop here in season 2 episode 12. This one is also quite cheap (only 3500 yen) as it is owned by the city. Alas, they only answer the phone between Friday and Sunday to make your booking, so I wasn’t able to book this one due to our last-minute planning.