Oita · Hotel
YUFUIN TAMANOYU
由布院 玉の湯
- From
- ¥70,240+ / 2 guests, 1 night
- Stay reports
- 7
- Videos
- 5
Photos: Rakuten Travel
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About this hotel
A ryokan standing in about 10,000 square metres of coppice woodland in the Kawakami area of Yufuin. It began in 1953 as a retreat for a Zen temple and became an inn while keeping those buildings. There are 16 rooms, each with its own garden and a cypress indoor bath fed by the same spring as the public bath. The water is a simple hot spring, weakly alkaline at pH 8.2 and clear. The public bath has both an indoor and an open-air bath on the men’s and the women’s side, and Mount Yufu is in view from the open-air one. About three minutes by car from JR Yufuin Station, and within walking distance of Lake Kinrin and the Yunotsubo shopping street. One Key in the 2026 Michelin selection.
Who it suits
A quiet stay, for the buildings and the gardens. Eleven of the 16 rooms are detached cottages scattered through the woodland; the other five are on the ground or first floor of a building. The rooms are named after plants from the Manyoshu and after dyes used for colouring cloth, and each garden is planted differently. The Yunotsubo street and Lake Kinrin are walkable, so the day works well as a walk through town and a return in the late afternoon. Five rooms — Kihada, Suhau, Hiwa, Kuwa and Kuhina — ask guests not to bring pre-school children, so there are limits on which room you can take if you are travelling with small children.
Basic information
- Address
- 2731-1 Kawakami, Yufuin-cho, Yufu, Oita
- Rooms
- 16
- Check-in
- 14:00
- Check-out
- 12:00
- Nearest station
- Yufuin Station (0.8 km as the crow flies)
大分県由布市湯布院町川上2731-1
Features
- Hot spring
What this place is like
Checked against the hotel’s own site. Anything we could not confirm is left out — that does not mean it is not there.
Rooms: 16 in all, 11 of them detached
There are 16 rooms. Eleven — Kihada, Akane, Asagi, Kuchinashi, Suhau, Yamabuki, Sakura, Koji, Mihanada, Hiwa and Murasaki — are detached cottages scattered through the woodland. Yuzu, Touka and Hanyu are on the ground floor of a building, and Kuwa and Kuhina are on the floor above. Each is laid out as a Japanese room and a Western room in sequence, with a sitting room added in some of them. Every room has its own garden and a cypress indoor bath fed by the same spring as the public bath, and both the futons and the beds use Airweave mattresses. The names come from plants in the Manyoshu and from dyes used for colouring cloth. Five rooms — Kihada, Suhau, Hiwa, Kuwa and Kuhina — ask guests not to bring pre-school children.
From the editors
If a detached cottage is the point, check by room name: not all 16 are detached, and five are inside a building. Travelling with pre-school children means choosing from outside the five rooms that ask you not to.
Source: tamanoyu.co.jp (checked 29 September 2026)
Hot spring: a pH 8.2 simple spring, in the public bath and in the room
The water is a simple hot spring, weakly alkaline at pH 8.2, and clear. The public bath has an indoor and an open-air bath on each of the men’s and women’s sides, and Mount Yufu is in view from the open-air bath. It is open 6:00–10:00 and 15:00–23:00, and guests may use it as often as they like. The cypress bath in each room runs continuously from the same spring, and is available from check-in until the 12:00 check-out. Every one of them looks out onto a garden.
Source: tamanoyu.co.jp (checked 29 September 2026)
Dining: Budouya for dinner, and the Nicol’s lounge
Dinner is served at Budouya, the restaurant on the grounds, from 17:30 to 19:30. A reservation is required, and the kitchen works with beef and vegetables from Yufuin. The lounge, Nicol’s, runs as a tea room on weekdays from 11:00 to 13:00 (closed Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays) and as a bar from 17:30 to 22:00, serving its own blend of coffee, tea, and house-made ice cream and cakes. Meals during a stay are laid out either in the dining room or in a private dining room.
Source: tamanoyu.co.jp (checked 29 September 2026)
Ratings
Collected by the booking sites and by Google. We do not rate hotels ourselves.
- Breakfast
- 4.00
- Cleanliness
- 4.00
Traditional onsen inn in the Yufuin area. This inn is one of the best onsen inn ever visited. Service is attentive and very caring . Each room has its own private bath and there is a boutique public bath , outdoor and indoor. Water quality of the onsen is very good. Feeling so relaxed after dipping into the hot bath while listening birds chirping from time to time. Especially love the heritage environmental being enclosed by trees and other beautifully maintained greenery. We love the traditional Japanese meals served here too! Will definitely visit again ❤️
Read the full review on Google MapsThis hotel is quite the cozy nook and can accommodate a small family into the peace and quiet of nature. The dinner was definitely a highlight as well as the private onsen; a shout out to Sato Miyo (I hope I spelt that right!). She was our waitress for dinner within the two nights that we stayed here and was warm and kind towards our needs. Her smile and conversation with us really made our dinner more special. The hotel location is close to the lake nearby. Taking a walk in the morning is quite relaxing, you can see some steam rising from the lake. Overall, the stay was very comfy and service was spectacular (Thank you Sato Miyo!). We would love to come back soon.
Read the full review on Google MapsThe quiet atmosphere, calm and refined service, the operation of a small number of independent ryokan studios, and the beautiful and delicious meals were all very satisfying and memorable.
Read the full review on Google Maps
The ratings and reviews were posted to the services named above. They are not our assessment, and we do not rate hotels ourselves. We show the three most recent reviews from Google Maps; read the rest there.
Room tours and stay videos
These videos are in Japanese. We embed them as published and do not translate them.
最大22時間ステイ！【由布院 玉の湯】由布院御三家を比較★
れおたびにっき（reotabinikki） · February 2023 · 12:54 · 28K views
【由布院玉の湯】由布院御三家！ テラス付き離れ宿泊記 OITA/JAPAN
けんゆきトラベル · April 2022 · 8:28 · 18K views
More videos3
【大分】湯布院の老舗旅館「由布院玉の湯」が作った新しい湯治宿「STAY玉の湯」に泊まってみた
すみのお気に入り · October 2025 · 20:15 · 7K views
【由布院 玉の湯】庭と温泉と静かな時間｜名宿「玉の湯」の一泊
大人の遠足 · August 2026 · 8:56 · 2K views
22時間ステイ『由布院 玉の湯』温泉と美食とアップルパイの旅
ハートフル・ライフ · March 2025 · 7:59 · 2K views
What guests wrote
One of these is written in English and listed first. The rest are in Japanese. We link to the originals and do not translate or reproduce them.
- Yufuin Tamanoyu: #25 Anniversary Ryokan 2026 | HFK
Hotels for Kings · 25 December 2025
- 由布院 玉の湯に泊まる (湯布院・由布院温泉) - 旅行のクチコミサイト フォートラベル
旅行のクチコミサイト フォートラベル
- 「由布院玉の湯」(九州／由布院温泉) : いい旅館訪問記 旅館マニアによる高級旅館のおすすめブログ
いい旅館訪問記 旅館マニアによる高級旅館のおすすめブログ
- 【大分】由布院 玉の湯 ④ ： 朝食とお宿の感想
オババのトラベルジャーナル · 14 August 2026
- 【大分】由布院 玉の湯 ③ ：「山里料理 葡萄屋」の夕食
オババのトラベルジャーナル · 12 August 2026
- 由布院玉の湯に泊まってきた。宿泊前に知りたかった情報｜旅行記ブログ
転勤族のバイブル · 2 December 2025
- 『由布院 玉の湯 部屋編』
えのころりんのお気楽日記 · 16 September 2020
Before you book
Only questions we could answer from the hotel’s own site.
- What are the hours for the public bath?
- 6:00–10:00 and 15:00–23:00. Both the men’s and the women’s side have an indoor and an open-air bath, and guests may use them as often as they like during their stay.(source, checked 29 September 2026)
- Is there a hot spring bath in the room?
- All 16 rooms have a cypress indoor bath fed by the same spring as the public bath. It is available from check-in until the 12:00 check-out.(source, checked 29 September 2026)
- Can we stay with pre-school children?
- Five rooms — Kihada, Suhau, Hiwa, Kuwa and Kuhina — ask guests not to bring pre-school children. The other 11 rooms are available.(source, checked 29 September 2026)
- What time is dinner?
- From 17:30 to 19:30 at Budouya, the restaurant on the grounds. A reservation is required.(source, checked 29 September 2026)
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Rates shown are reference rates in Japanese yen, retrieved from each service as of 23 September 2026. The actual rate depends on your dates, party size and plan. Links marked “Ad” are affiliate links, and we may earn a commission if you book after following one. The order they appear in is not affected by that.
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