Ryokan and hotels in Japan with a private onsen

Amanemu

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.

ATAMI Sekaie

ATAMI せかいえ

On high ground at Izusan in Atami, with every room facing the sea. Each has an open-air hot spring bath turned towards the water, and the view runs out towards Hatsushima. It keeps the number of rooms low.

THE HIRAMATSU Karuizawa Miyota

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.

FUFU Hakone

ふふ 箱根

A mountain resort ringed by the Hakone range. Every room has a hot-spring bath in a bathroom whose windows open wide — not a separate outdoor bath. The rooms use Gora onsen and the communal baths Owakudani onsen, two different springs. The buildings are kept low along the slope, so what fills the windows is green.

Gora Kadan

強羅花壇

A long-established ryokan at Gora, on the site of a former imperial family villa. The buildings step down the slope, and the long corridors and the windows keep the mountain green in view. Some rooms have their own open-air bath.

Suiran, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Kyoto

翠嵐 ラグジュアリーコレクションホテル 京都

On the bank of the Oi river, east of Tenryu-ji in Arashiyama. Wings kept from a Meiji-era villa stand alongside modern ones, so the building your room is in changes what the room is like. The garden makes use of the riverside setting.

Hakone Suishoen

箱根・翠松園

An all-suite ryokan on the high ground at Gora, with a wing that carries over the design of an early Showa villa. The rooms run to around 100 square metres, large for Hakone, and each has a hot spring bath.

Hakone Gora Karaku

箱根・強羅 佳ら久

An east and a west wing on high ground at Gora, every room with its own open-air hot spring bath. The view runs across the Hakone range and, on a good day, out to Sagami Bay. There is a bath with a view on the top floor.

Hotel Hatsuhana

はつはな

A hotel on the Sukumo river, beyond Hakone-Yumoto. Every room has an open-air hot spring bath on its terrace, fed by the hotel’s own source. Inside are two communal bathhouses and four private baths, each done differently.

TENKU

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.

FUFU Nara

ふふ 奈良

Beside Nara Park, near the old Daijo-in garden. A low building that Kengo Kuma had a hand in designing, with a hot spring bath in every room. One of the few places of this kind in Nara.

FUFU Karuizawa

ふふ 軽井沢 陽光の風

A FUFU house in the woods at Karuizawa, every room with a hot spring bath. It is a separate property from FUFU Kyu-Karuizawa in the same town, and differs in both setting and how the rooms are arranged.

Zaborin

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.

FUFU Kyoto

ふふ 京都

The FUFU house in Kyoto, on the approach to Nanzen-ji, with a hot spring bath in every room. Temples and old villa grounds surround it, and it sounds nothing like the middle of the city.

Yufuin Rikka

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.

FUFU Nikko

ふふ 日光

Next to the Nikko Tamozawa Imperial Villa Memorial Park, with a hot spring bath in every room and the greenery of the Daiya river in front of it. Toshogu is a few minutes away by car.

FUFU Kawaguchiko

ふふ 河口湖

A FUFU house in the woods by Lake Kawaguchi, every room with its own hot spring bath. On the right day Mount Fuji shows itself from the rooms and the public areas, but that is entirely down to the weather.

FUFU Kyu-Karuizawa

ふふ 旧軽井沢 静養の森

A house in the woods of Kyu-Karuizawa with a hot spring bath in every room. The stand of trees on the site was left as it was, so what a room looks onto is forest rather than the next building. A separate property from FUFU Karuizawa in the same town.

FUFU Atami

ふふ 熱海

A FUFU house on the high ground in Atami, every room with an open-air hot spring bath. What you see depends on whether you face the sea or the hills. The building is given over to rest; it takes no day visitors.

Sekitaitei Ishida

昼神温泉 石苔亭いしだ

A single-storey ryokan of 17 rooms at Hirugami Onsen, about seven minutes from the Iida-Yamamoto interchange of the Chuo Expressway and about 25 minutes by free transfer (by reservation) from JR Iida Station. It has a Noh stage with regular performances, rooms with open-air baths and a spa. Hirugami Onsen is in Achi village, known for stargazing, with night tours by ropeway.

Omuro no Mori Gyokusui

大室の杜 玉翠

A hot-spring inn of just nine rooms on a rise at Yawatano in Izu Kogen, about eight minutes by car from Izukogen Station (with a transfer). Every room has an open-air bath with hot-spring water flowing straight from the source, and the inn looks down on the Sagami Sea. Mount Omuro and the Jogasaki coast are close. Dinners are kaiseki centred on Izu seafood, and the rooms are built almost like separate cottages.

Gora Hanaogi Madoka no Mori

強羅花扇 円かの杜

A hot-spring inn at Gora in Hakone, with an open-air hot-spring bath in every room. There is a free transfer from Gora or Sounzan Station, and the Hakone Tozan Railway and cable car reach the surrounding sights. The Hakone Open-Air Museum and Gora Park are close. The building uses timber from Hida, and dinners feature Hida beef. There is also a large communal bath.

FUFU Jogashima

ふふ 城ヶ島 海風のしらべ

A FUFU house on Jogashima, at the tip of the Miura Peninsula, facing the Pacific. Every room looks at the sea. For somewhere this close to Tokyo, a place of this kind on the open coast is rare.

Bettei Senjuan

別邸 仙寿庵

A ryokan at Tanigawa Onsen in Minakami, with an open-air bath fed directly from the hot spring in every room. It is about 25 minutes by bus from Jomo-Kogen Station on the Joetsu shinkansen, about eight minutes by car from Minakami Station on the Joetsu line and about ten minutes from the Minakami interchange. It sits at the foot of Mount Tanigawa and holds one Michelin Key in the 2026 selection, with a large bath and a dining room.

Atami Club Geihinkan

熱海倶楽部 迎賓館

A hot-spring inn on the heights of Izusan in Atami, about eight minutes by car from Atami Station and next to Atami Golf Club. Every room has a semi-open-air bath with hot-spring water flowing straight from the source. It looks down on Sagami Bay, a little away from the town centre. On the night of Atami’s fireworks, they can sometimes be seen from the sea-facing rooms.

GORA KADAN FUJI

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.

Yufuin Luxury Villa Zakuro

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.

La Belle Equipe

伊豆高原オーベルジュ ベルエキップ La Belle Equipe

An auberge in the Ike district of Izu Kogen, about five minutes by car from Izukogen Station on the Izu Kyuko line. Every room has an open-air bath, French cuisine is served, dogs are welcome, and there is a garden. Mount Omuro and the Jogasaki coast are an easy drive. It keeps its room count small.

1 videos

Fuji Kawaguchiko Onsen Konanso

富士河口湖温泉 湖南荘

A hot-spring inn at Funatsu on Lake Kawaguchi, close to Kawaguchiko Station on the Fujikyu line and about 4 km from the Kawaguchiko interchange of the Chuo Expressway. It has a large bath and an observation foot bath with views of Mount Fuji, and rooms face either the mountain or the lake. Meals are served in your room, and the lakeside path is a short walk away.

Sakura Rikyu

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.

1 videos

D+KIRISHIMA

愛犬と泊まれる宿 D＋KIRISHIMA

A hot-spring inn in the Kirishima onsen area where you can stay with your dog, one minute on foot from the Shioyu Onsen bus stop (about 30 minutes by bus from Kagoshima Airport) and about 15 minutes by car from Kirishima Shrine. The rooms have open-air baths fed directly from the source, and there is a dog run. It sits at the foot of the Kirishima mountains and keeps its room count small.

5 videos

THE HIRAMATSU Atami

THE HIRAMATSU 熱海

A hotel built around its food, on the high ground in Atami. Every room has a bath fed by the hot spring, and the view is over Sagami Bay. The brand began as a restaurant business, and dinner sits at the centre of the stay.

Centurion Hakone Bettei

全室露天風呂付客室 仙石原温泉 センチュリオン箱根別邸

A 13-room hot-spring inn at Sengokuhara in Hakone, with an open-air bath in every room. It is about 25 minutes by car from Hakone-Yumoto Station and about 25 minutes from the Gotemba interchange of the Tomei Expressway. Sengokuhara is a high plateau of pampas grass and museums, and Owakudani and the Pola Museum are easy to reach by car.

Kinsuikan

宮島潮湯温泉 錦水館

A ryokan on Miyajima, the island of Itsukushima Shrine, beside the Omotesando shopping street. It is about ten minutes by ferry from Miyajimaguchi Station and about five minutes on foot from the Miyajima pier. It has rooms with semi-open-air baths and a rooftop terrace, and added suites with hot-spring baths in 2025. Guests can use the Miyajima Shioyu hot spring.

Hatago Saikura

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.

1 videos

THE HIRAMATSU Sengokuhara

THE HIRAMATSU 仙石原

A hotel built around its food, in the woods at Sengokuhara in Hakone. The hot spring runs straight from the source, and the rooms face the forest. Both the water and the landscape differ from Gora, on the other side of Hakone.

Oyado Uchiyama

お宿うち山 伊豆高原 全室露天風呂付き隠れ宿

An inn in the Ike district of Izu Kogen where every room has an open-air bath, about eight minutes by car from Izukogen Station on the Izu Kyuko line, and about 90 minutes from the Atsugi or Numazu interchanges. The baths look out to the distant sea. Mount Omuro and the Jogasaki coast are close, and Izu Kogen’s museums are an easy drive. Meals are served in your room, and it keeps its room count small.

La Dog Resort Izukogen

ラ・ドッグリゾート 伊豆高原 全室露天付き客室と部屋食の愛犬の宿

A resort at Yawatano in Izu Kogen where you can stay with your dog, with an open-air bath in every room and meals served in your room. It is about ten minutes by taxi from Izukogen Station. The Jogasaki suspension bridge and Mount Omuro are an easy drive. The building and rooms can be used with your dog, and it keeps its room count small.

Lucy Kiki

ルーシーキキ 伊豆高原 ウェルカムベビー ファミリー 全室露天風呂付き客室の宿

An inn at Yawatano in Izu Kogen with an open-air bath in every room, about five minutes by car from Izukogen Station. Meals are served in your room, and it has facilities for families with babies and small children. Mount Omuro and the Jogasaki coast are close. It keeps its room count small and serves kaiseki made with Izu ingredients.

Yumenoya

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.

Hatago Kanokura

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.

Shikinosai Hatago

有馬温泉 四季の彩 旅篭 客前料理と全室金泉露天付の湯籠り宿

An inn of six rooms at Arima Onsen, each with an open-air bath of Kinsen water, renovated in March 2023. It is about nine minutes on foot from Arima-Onsen Station on the Kobe Electric Railway and about ten minutes by car from the Nishinomiya-kita interchange of the Chugoku Expressway. Meals are finished in front of you, and the onsen streets are within walking distance.

Yumedono

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.

1 videos

Kyuan Hakone

箱根料理宿 弓庵

A ten-room inn at Ninotaira in Hakone, with seven rooms in the main building and three in the annex, every one with an open-air bath. There is a transfer from Chokoku-no-Mori Station on the Hakone Tozan Railway or the Kowakien bus stop. The Hakone Open-Air Museum and Kowakudani are close. Dinner is kaiseki served to staying guests, and the house is kept quiet.

Gora Hanaogi

強羅温泉 強羅花扇

A hot-spring inn at Gora in Hakone, where every room has an open-air bath fed from its own source, known for a building made with Hida timber. There is a free transfer from Gora or Sounzan stations. Gora is halfway up the Hakone mountains, close to the Hakone Open-Air Museum and Gora Park. Dinner is Kyoto-style kaiseki, and there is a large communal bath. The Hakone Tozan Railway runs from Gora down to Hakone-Yumoto.

Yumesenkei Bettei Amahara

洲本温泉 夢泉景別荘 天原 ＜淡路島＞

A villa-style inn on the coast at Sumoto Onsen on Awaji Island, every room with its own open-air bath, facing Osaka Bay. It is about 15 minutes by car from the Sumoto interchange; highway buses reach Sumoto Bus Center in about 120 minutes from Osaka and about 80 from Sannomiya. Its name comes from Takamagahara in the Kojiki.

7 videos

Kasaitei

花彩亭 伊豆高原 ウェルカムベビー ファミリー 1日2組全室露天風呂付き客室の宿

An inn taking just two groups a day, in the villa district at the foot of Mount Omuro in Izu Kogen, about ten minutes by taxi from Izukogen Station. Every room has an open-air bath, and it has facilities for families with babies and small children. Mount Omuro and the Jogasaki coast are an easy drive. Meals are served in your room.

Setsugetsuka Bettei Suiun

雪月花別邸 翠雲（共立リゾート）

An inn in Gora, Hakone, with an open-air bath in every room, seven minutes on foot from Gora Station on the Hakone Tozan Railway and one minute from Koen-shimo Station on the cable car. It is run by Kyoritsu Resort. Gora Park is close, and it has a dining room.

9 videos