Collection
At these properties you can book a room that is a building of its own rather than a door in a corridor, often with a private bath or pool. At some every room is detached; at others only certain room types are, so book the villa or detached room by name. How far apart the buildings are, and how much you share paths or facilities with other guests, differs from place to place, so check the room page of the property you choose.
Whether every room is a separate building, where you eat and how you get to your room also differ. The table below shows what each official site says for the properties we have checked.
What each property’s official site says. Not a ranking. “Not stated” means the hotel does not say, not that something is missing.
Official siteSource 2checked 9 October 2026
Official sitechecked 9 October 2026
Official siteSource 2checked 8 October 2026
Official siteSource 2checked 9 October 2026
From each property’s official website. “Not confirmed” means we have not checked it yet — not that it is unavailable.
| Property | Baths | Dining | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|
| HOSHINOYA Fuji | Not confirmed | Booked separately; the tasting course cannot be adapted for allergiesOfficial site, checked 8 October 2026 | No shuttle — taxi or local bus from Kawaguchiko StationOfficial site, checked 8 October 2026 |
| Yufuin Rikka | Six detached cottages, each with its own bathOfficial site, checked 29 September 2026 | Dinner 18:00–21:00, breakfast 8:00–9:30Official site, checked 29 September 2026 | Not confirmed |
| Sekitei | A weak radioactive spring, with a bath in every roomOfficial site, checked 30 September 2026 | Dinner in the room, breakfast in the hallOfficial site, checked 30 September 2026 | Not confirmed |
| Yufuin Bettei ITSUKI | A foot bath in the garden, a fire in the lobbyOfficial site, checked 30 September 2026 | A set start at 18:00 or 19:00, by reservation onlyOfficial site, checked 30 September 2026 | Not confirmed |
| The Pool & Sauna villa MOTOBU | Not confirmed | No restaurant on site, so order in advanceOfficial site, checked 29 September 2026 | Not confirmed |
| GORA KADAN FUJI | The communal baths run 15:00 to 11:00, with the sides swapped partwayOfficial site, checked 26 September 2026 | A choice of five restaurantsOfficial site, checked 26 September 2026 | Call for the car once you reach the stationOfficial site, checked 26 September 2026 |
Ordered by how many stay reports we have linked. We do not rank or score hotels.
ザ・リッツ・カールトン日光
On the shore of Lake Chuzenji, looking out at the lake on one side and Mount Nantai on the other. It was the brand's first resort in Japan built with a hot spring, and has a communal bath in the building.
アマン京都
In a private forest at the foot of Takagamine, north of Kinkaku-ji. It sits away from the city, and the grounds are covered in moss and cedar. The buildings are kept low and scattered, so that walking the garden becomes part of the stay.
アマネム
A hot spring resort inside Ise-Shima National Park, on high ground looking down over Ago Bay. Low buildings are spread across the slope, and every room has its own indoor hot spring bath.
星のや富士
Concrete cabins stepped down a slope above Lake Kawaguchi. It opened as the first glamping resort in Japan, and the terrace of each cabin is the centre of the stay. How you spend your time here is designed around being outdoors.
THE HIRAMATSU 軽井沢 御代田
A grand auberge in the woods at Miyota, next door to Karuizawa. The rooms face the forest and each has its own hot spring bath. Being away from the centre of Karuizawa, there is little built up around it.
星のや軽井沢
A resort laid out like a village, with the rooms scattered along the water in the fold of a valley. Terraced channels run through the grounds, and you walk between the buildings to get anywhere. It has its own hot spring, called the Meditation Bath.
星のや竹富島
Built to the rules of the village on Taketomi Island: single-storey rooms behind gukku stone walls, along lanes of white sand, with the rooflines held down to match the island. There is no traffic light on Taketomi, and no convenience store.
天空の森
A resort near the top of a hill in Kirishima, Kagoshima, where only five villas with their own hot-spring baths stand far apart from one another. Three are for overnight stays: Tenku, the largest on the property; Akanesasu Oka, built to face the sunset; and Rinu no Mori, wrapped in forest. The other two are for day use only. Every villa has an open-air bath looking out over the landscape. It was opened in 2004 by Tateo Tajima, who founded Gajoen at Myoken Onsen.
坐忘林
A ryokan of detached villas in the birch woods at Hanazono in Niseko. Each villa has both an indoor and an open-air hot spring bath, and they are placed so that no villa sees another.
由布院 六花
A small inn in the Kawakami area of Yufuin, where the farmland still remains. It opened in September 2018 and has just six rooms, each a detached cottage with its own open-air bath fed continuously from the spring. It stands where Mount Yufu is in view, and guests are shown from the lobby through a courtyard to their cottage. Dinner is 18:00–21:00 and breakfast 8:00–9:30. It took the Jalan Award 2021 for inns of 50 rooms or fewer in Kyushu, in the overall, dinner, breakfast and service categories.
庭園の宿 石亭
A ryokan of 12 rooms at Miyahama Onsen, across the water from Miyajima. The rooms are spread through a garden of about 1,500 tsubo and fall into three kinds: rooms in the main house, detached rooms and separate pavilions. Every room has its own bath, open-air or semi-open-air among them. Dinner is served in your room and breakfast in the dining hall. It holds two Michelin Keys in the Michelin Guide 2026.
ジ・ウザテラス ビーチクラブヴィラズ
Villas along the shore at Uza in Yomitan, each with its own pool. Every villa stands on its own, and you step from the room straight out to the water. A different proposition from The Busena Terrace, which belongs to the same group.
由布院別邸 樹
An inn of detached cottages on a country lane at Kawakami in Yufuin. There are 14 rooms in 13 buildings, every one of them detached, and each has its own hot spring bath — an indoor one and a half-open-air one. The cottages differ in character and are named after plants: Karin mixes Japanese and Western, Sazanka is a Western room in dark tones, Yamamomo runs a tatami room, a living room and a bedroom together. The lobby is finished in plaster and stone with layered beams and a fireplace, and there is a foot bath among the trees in the garden. Dinner is a creative kaiseki served in the dining room at 18:00 or 19:00, by reservation only. Five minutes on foot from the Yunotsubo shopping street.
NOT A HOTEL AOSHIMA
Villas on the seafront at Aoshima, Miyazaki, designed by Shin Ohori of General Design. MASTERPIECE (two bedrooms, up to 8 guests) treats a terrace of more than 560 sqm as an outdoor living room, while SURF is a house for waiting on waves by the pool, a few seconds from the water.
NOT A HOTEL ISHIGAKI
EARTH is a single villa on a 3,000-tsubo plot on Ishigaki Island, designed by Sou Fujimoto. The round building has a bowl-shaped roof, so it reads as a low hill. It has four bedrooms for up to 10 guests, an infinity pool facing the sea, and a sauna lit by light falling through the water of the pool above.
GAKUTO VILLAS ガクト・ヴィラ
Villas in the Wadano forest area of Hakuba, each two-storey terrace house rented as a whole, about ten minutes by taxi from Hakuba Station or about 15 minutes on foot from the Happo bus stop. The gondola of the Happo-one ski area is close, making it a base for skiing in winter and climbing in summer.
NOT A HOTEL KITAKARUIZAWA
Villas scattered through a large forest in Kitakaruizawa. IRORI (three bedrooms, up to 8 guests) is a glass-walled house built around a sunken hearth; BASE, directed by Yosuke Aizawa, has a rock bath filled with hot-spring water. One of the two IRORI houses has a dog run, so you can bring a dog.
NOT A HOTEL MINAKAMI
TOJI is a group of five villas on a hilltop in Minakami, near the source of the Tone River. SUPPOSE DESIGN OFFICE planned it as a modern hot-spring village under copper roofs laid in the traditional ichimonji style. A 15-metre infinity pool wraps around the living room, with a natural hot-spring bath, sauna and cold plunge alongside.
THE HIRAMATSU 宜野座
A resort built around its food, on high ground at Ginoza on the east coast of Okinawa's main island — the opposite side from where the resorts cluster on the west coast, with little built up around it. Every room has a pool.
The Pool & Sauna Villa MOTOBU
A villa property at Shinzato in Motobu, in the north of Okinawa’s main island. There are seven separate units, each with its own private pool and a barrel sauna beside it (the saunas were completed across all seven in February 2026). Each unit is 160 square metres, with two bedrooms holding four semi-double beds and a Japanese-style room; with futons added, up to eight people can stay. Kitchen appliances and a full set of cookware, a washer and dryer, two toilets, a bathroom and a shower room are provided. There is no restaurant on site, so meals are ordered in — a breakfast box, a barbecue set and so on. About an hour and 40 minutes by car from Naha Airport, and well placed for the Churaumi Aquarium and the Bise fukugi tree lane.
強羅花壇 富士
Opened by Gora Kadan on 20 July 2025 at Subashiri in Oyama, on the eastern foot of Mount Fuji. All 42 rooms are suites, three of them detached villas. The communal baths, fed by a natural alkaline spring from below the grounds, have both indoor and open-air pools, and the heated swimming pool is set so that the window runs out towards Fuji. There is a golf course on the grounds.
旅亭 半水盧
An inn of separate villas at Unzen Onsen, with 14 sukiya-style villas on about 5,000 tsubo, each with its own garden. It is about 90 minutes by bus or 55 minutes by taxi from JR Isahaya Station. Unzen was the first area in Japan to be designated a national park and is known for its steaming jigoku. It holds one Michelin Key in the 2026 selection and has a hot-spring bath; Unzen’s walking trails are a short walk away.
NOT A HOTEL NASU
A group of private villas on the Nasu highlands, designed by Makoto Tanijiri's SUPPOSE DESIGN OFFICE. Each house is built around a different idea: MASTERPIECE (three bedrooms, up to 10 guests) has a pool cantilevered out over the plateau, CAVE sets its cold plunge in a dim, cave-like room, and THINK adds a detached study. Every house has its own sauna and fireplace.
Yufuin Luxury Villa -zakuro-
An inn of separate villas in the Kawaminami district of Yufuin Onsen, taking just three groups a day, about five minutes by car from JR Yufuin Station. Every room is a suite with an open-air hot-spring bath, designed for two. The villas stand apart, so your path rarely crosses other guests’. Yufuin is a hot-spring town in a basin in central Oita, facing Mount Yufu.
別府温泉 べっぷ昭和園
A traditional Japanese ryokan in the Otobaru district of Beppu Onsen, founded in 1926, with eleven detached cottages on about 6,000 tsubo, each with its own hot-spring bath. It is about five minutes by car from Beppu Station and about 15 minutes from the Beppu interchange of the Higashi-Kyushu Expressway, with a transfer by reservation. Beppu is one of Japan’s great hot-spring towns, with eight onsen areas known as Beppu Hatto.
仙台 秋保温泉 迎賓館 櫻離宮
An inn of separate buildings on the Natori River at Akiu Onsen, about 15 minutes by car from the Sendai-minami interchange of the Tohoku Expressway and about 40 minutes from central Sendai, with a shuttle bus from the east exit of JR Sendai Station by reservation. The rooms combine Japanese and Western styles, some with open-air baths, and it faces the gorge.
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天からの贈り物 Villa Montpetre（ヴィラ モンペトル）
A villa-style inn at the foot of the Kirishima mountains, about five minutes by car from Kirishima Shrine and about 40 minutes from Kagoshima Airport. The rooms are separate buildings with hot-spring baths, and French cuisine is served. It is surrounded by forest within the national park.
おやど 開花亭
An inn of separate cottages in the Kawakami district of Yufuin Onsen, about five minutes by car from JR Yufuin Station. Each cottage has two rooms of eight and seven tatami mats and its own open-air bath. The buildings stand apart, so you rarely meet other guests. Yufuin is a hot-spring town in a basin in central Oita, with many small inns built around separate cottages.
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源泉掛け流し露天風呂付全室離れの宿 旅籠 彩くら
An inn of separate cottages in Kokonoe, Oita, about five minutes by car from Bungo-Nakamura Station on the JR Kyudai line. Every room is a separate cottage with a free-flowing open-air hot-spring bath. Kokonoe is an area of the Kuju mountains and the Handa highlands, and the Kokonoe ‘Yume’ Suspension Bridge is an easy drive. It keeps its room count small and serves local food.
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フォレストヴィラ 南総の丘
Villas at Shirahama in Minami-Boso, about 25 minutes by car from JR Tateyama Station and about five minutes from the Awa-Shirahama highway bus stop. Each villa stands on its own with a terrace and a dog run, built for staying with dogs. It is at the southern tip of the Boso Peninsula, mild all year, on the Boso Flower Line, with the Nojimazaki Lighthouse and the coast an easy drive.
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伊豆高原 離れ御宿 夢のや
An inn of six separate cottages at Futo in Izu Kogen, about five minutes by taxi from Izukogen or Jogasaki-Kaigan Station (transfer available). Each room has a semi-open-air bath with doors that open and close. The Jogasaki suspension bridge and Mount Omuro are an easy drive. Meals are served in the room, and the inn is surrounded by woods.
十勝まきばの家 Winery&Villas
Villas at Ikeda in Tokachi, about seven minutes by car from JR Ikeda Station and about 40 minutes from Obihiro Station. There is a winery on site, and food and drink during the stay are included. Ikeda is known for its town-run winery, in the east of the Tokachi plain. Each villa stands on its own, and meals use Tokachi produce.
旅籠Hatago 香乃蔵 （旧名：湯亭 香乃蔵）
An inn of separate cottages in the Kawanishi district of Yufuin Onsen, about ten minutes by car from JR Yufuin Station. Each cottage stands on its own with an open-air bath, and meals use seasonal ingredients. It is away from the centre of Yufuin, surrounded by farmland.
河口湖温泉寺 露天風呂の宿 夢殿
An inn of separate buildings at Kawaguchiko Onsen, every room with an open-air bath, about five minutes by car from Kawaguchiko Station on the Fujikyu line. It is on the south shore of Lake Kawaguchi, an area looking across the lake to Mount Fuji. The Fuji Five Lakes and Fuji-Q Highland are easy to reach by car, as are the lake cruise and ropeway.
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由布院温泉 おやど 二本の葦束
An inn of separate cottages in the Kawakita district of Yufuin Onsen, with 13 cottages on about 4,500 square metres, about seven minutes by car from JR Yufuin Station. All the baths, including the open-air ones, are used privately. The grounds are wooded, with the cottages spaced well apart.
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町家ホテル 町の踊場
A hotel in a machiya townhouse at Hyotan-machi in Kanazawa, about twelve minutes on foot from JR Kanazawa Station, with the Kazuemachi teahouse district and Omicho Market within walking distance. The rooms face a garden and have private hot-spring baths. It is in central Kanazawa but set back from the street in a quiet spot.
逆さ富士を望む湖畔の絶景宿 湖楽おんやど富士吟景
An inn on the shore of Lake Kawaguchi in the Asakawa district, about five minutes from Kawaguchiko Station by transfer (at set times). It looks across the lake to Mount Fuji, and on clear days you can see the mountain reflected in the water. The rooms include separate cottages, and there is a hot-spring bath. The lakeside path is a short walk away.
SIMOSE ART GARDEN VILLA
A museum and villas in one, on the coast at Otake, Hiroshima, about ten minutes by car from JR Kuba Station, with a transfer by reservation. The villas, designed by the architect Shigeru Ban, line the Seto Inland Sea, each with a different design. Guests can use the museum. Miyajima is reached by car and ferry. It holds one Michelin Key in the 2026 selection.
UMITO ATAMI HONTEI（旧：UMITO VOYAGE ATAMI）
An inn on the coast at Kami-Taga in Atami, every room with its own ocean-view hot-spring bath. It is about 13 minutes by taxi from Atami Station, or three minutes on foot from the Akao Forest stop on the Tokai bus to Ajiro. It stands on a slope facing Sagami Bay, away from the town centre, keeps its room count small and looks out on the bay and Hatsushima. Meals use Izu ingredients.
黒川温泉 源流の宿 帆山亭＜離れ宿＞
An inn of separate buildings at the very top of Kurokawa Onsen, along the source of the Chikugo River, with rooms spread over about 5,000 tsubo. It is about 50 minutes by car from the Hita interchange of the Oita Expressway, with a transfer from the Kurokawa Onsen bus stop by reservation. Guests can use the Kurokawa water, and dinner is kaiseki.
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