Kanazawa or Takayama for three nights

I have three nights to spend between Osaka and Tokyo in mid-April. Both Kanazawa and Takayama sound interesting, but I am not sure I want to split the time between them - I don't much like having a new place to stay every night, or every other night. So, between the two, which would be better? And are there any interesting day trips out of these towns?
Thanks for any responses.

From both places you can go to Shirakawa-go for a day trip.
Kanazawa has a castle and one of the most beautiful Japanese castles.
Takayama has old gassho-style houses, but you can see those in Shirakawa-go as well.
In Takayama there's also a huge limestone cave.

In the end, it depends on what you're interested in.

I think the previous post was intending to say one of the most beautiful gardens (at Kanazawa). The castle itself isn't much chop. Kanazawa also has quite a nice old section, and great shopping if you are into that. It is known for gold leaf and crab. We saw plenty of gold leaf, not so much crab. We stayed at Hakuchoro which I'd recommend highly.
All that said, Takayama is one of our favourite places in Japan. The old town is great to relax in for a few days. There is a squirrel park which is a lot of fun. The beef is brilliant and pretty cheap. The park is worth it if you don't mind hiking, the ruins of the castle are at the top (just mounds of dirt, really) but it is a great walk there, in fact I enjoyed it more than the Magome-Tsumago walk. We've stayed at Hotel Associa (great onsen) and Tanabe ryokan (very nice) there, and would stay again at both.

Being the Devil�fs Advocate, we much prefer Kanazawa (Lazy Pious: you need to stop being a guest: would really LOVE to get together one day...lol)
We absolutely LOVE Kanazawa: Kenrokuen needs to be seen in both morning and late afternoon light; the Samurai and Geisha districts are fascinating; the Sakuda gold workshop is fabulous; the shopping, especially in the Kanazawa station, is great for souvenirs, gifts and exploring food: Omichyo market has great sushi and interesting food....
We did a wonderful day trip on Hokutetsu Bus to the Noto Penisnsula: one of the best days we have had in 5 trips to Japan
We also did a fabulous day trip to Shirakawago from Kanazawa on Hokutetsu Bus (equivalent to Nohi Bus on the timetable)
We found Takayama had a little less to occupy us...we saw quite enough in a long day trip from Nagoya.
However, the train trip from Nagoya to Takayama, especially in the front green car, is still the best traintrip we have done in Japan.
Have fun!!!!

They are both lovely places.

Kanazawa is a proper city. I love it because it has many of the things you can find in Tokyo, as well as some great old areas, great local crafts, and great food, but it's much smaller than Tokyo and gets relatively few tourists. It also has a fantastic contemporary art museum.

Takayama is a small town, and is charming because of that. It has plenty to do for a day or two (possibly not for three days - although I know Lazy Pious is really fond of the place and has spent several days there and enjoyed it - so this may just be my opinion), and you can take a side trip into the neighbouring coutryside and spend a night in one of the great onsen ryokans which are dotted around (there are also ski resorts, and the Shin-Hokata ropeway).

?Perhaps your choice will be led by the balance of urban/rural places that you're planning to visit on the rest of your trip?

The relevant pages on the main japan-guide site are excellent places to start gathering more info....

Haha! I'm always a guest because I never remember my password! Yes, I'm a little biased for Takayama, though lately I've had a yearning to go back to Kanazawa. Hopefully at a time when it isnt raining. I really liked Kanazawa, though I thought that if you went there after seeing Kyoto in the same trip, it might diminish the experience, given that everything in Kyoto is so spectacular. Actually, if I was to plan a trip today, it would be 2 nights at Takayama, one at Kanazawa, unless I was wanting to go to the Noto peninsula (on the to do list) in which case it would be the other way around.

We had 3 nights in Kyoto, one in Takayama, one in a fantastic ryokan near Takayama, one in Shirakawa, and two in Kanazawa on our last trip.

All of those experiences were excellent; I thought the balance of places was really good, and I'd repeat that itinerary again.

For info, we'd been to Kyoto and Kanazawa on previous trips and were very happy to revisit both of them.

But we've all got different tastes...

Thanks everyone for chiming in. I decided to spend the time in Kanazawa. I am really looking forward to it, although Takayama is on my list for another trip.