Hi, everyone! I’m dreaming of my next Japan trip in the next few years and looking to forgo my shoestring travel ways and splurge on a nice, traditional ryokan for 1-2 nights. The catch is that, due to an old injury, onsens and submerging in hot water hurts a lot; I learned that the hard way at my last onsen trip.
Perhaps there are bargains to be had in onsen-less ryokans? Can anyone recommend ryokans that are really unique or a great value, that would be worth it for me? Bonus points if they serve amazing meals and can be accessed by public transit.
Location doesn’t really matter–the plan is to take the train all the way up the country for a few months to see scenery and small towns. (I imagine being in a small town in the mountains is a better value than in Tokyo.)
Edit: It would be for my husband and me, so 2 people. It seems that most ryokans cost around $150-250 per person, so $300-500/night; is that right?)
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When I do my research on japanican, it’s easy to see which ryokan have baths and which don’t, there’s usually a little icon and it’s listed as an amenity. But so far I haven’t seen that much of a price difference between them, it always looked like location, room size, and type/quality of kaiseki has more to do with the price than the baths. For example, a Kyoto ryokan in Gion with larger rooms and a higher-rated kaiseki cost more than one not directly in the district but near-ish with smaller rooms. Neither had onsen baths.
Nothing says you have to use the bath at a ryokan. It’s included in the price but no one’s forcing anyone to use it. If there isn’t a significant price difference between the two, you should be fine booking whatever ryokan fits your budget and just…not going to the bath. HOWEVER…if you end up booking one with baths, make sure that your room also has an in-room shower. Some of the older places just rely on the bath for washing and the room only has a toilet, no shower. You can also cross-reference on tabelog for the ones that have the highest-rated kaiseki dinners.
I do not have a recommendation for a specific place (unless you can speak some Japanese for countryside/no English speaker), but just advice in general.
The onsen part does not really matter, you do not really pay more for it, unless there is a private onsen in the room. Ryokan do not always have bath/shower for the room, some if not all the ryokan where I stayed did not had their own for each room. For the one that had a onsen, you would shower in the onsen, so there is a possibility that other people shower at the same time (also if you have tattoo, you have to be sure it’s ok). For other ryokan (or minshuku) that I went to, you would have to share the shower room, but you are the only person in the shower room. The bath might already be filled with hot water (in case you are using it).
Note; minshuku is family run inn, more in the style of a bead and breakfast.
Question of price here is what I personally paid and would consider normal. Cheap ryokan without meal, start at 4000. Minshuku with 2 meal (good but not kaiseki level in quantity) start at 9000 (one was 13000 but literally had 1 and a half crab in the meal). Ryokan with kaiseki meal, 12000 to 16000 is a basic price and from there it can only go up with quality and luxury.
One thing to consider is that if you travel solo, some ryokan with meal take reservations for minimum 2 (or some you have to pay for 2 if you travel alone) or have an extra fee, for example 5000 if you book for one, other are fine for 1 person, but you might have to search a bit more.
Also, there is ryokan/minshuku that I did not find on booking websites. If I knew where I want to stay, I check accommodation using Google Maps and click on everything in the area and do further research from there and would book on their webpage. In any case, I would always compare booking direct as they can be more detailed on the meal options on their own websites compared to general booking websites.
On your edit, I would say from 12000 yen and up with 2 meal, so it depend on the exchange rate, but from 110$ by person, so yes, at least 220$ a night.
Price will be different depending on the area, season, day of the week, the quality of the meal and the luxury of the room, it can go up to 50000 and probably more.
So not sure where you draw the line between splurge and great value, my personal limit would be around 18000 by person, unless there is something really unique about the place.
[Senjukaku around Nagano](http://www.senjukaku.com/en/)
I stayed here earlier in the year (Feb 2020) – although it has an onsen, it was a bonus but not the highlight. We booked it because of it’s proximity to the Snow Monkey park (literally entrance to the beginning of the park is 5 min walk up the road). They had a pool and a garden as well (but we didn’t use the pool / go far into the garden since it was snowing at the time).
This place had an awesome multi course dinner and breakfast, had excellent service plus it was really comfy. Probably the best place I stayed at during the whole trip. Cost around $350 – $400 USD per room (2 people per room with breakfast and dinner included). Tea and a traditional Japanese snack was provided upon arrival, they provide a tea set in the room and the room was quite large (could’ve easily fit 4-6 people), which is rare in Japan.
Only downside (not really) is that it was a little less traditional and leaning more towards luxury hotel.
To get there, it was a shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagano, followed by a local express train from Nagano to Yudanaka station. You can call the hotel and tell them what time you’ll arrive and they’ll send a free shuttle to come pick you up. Same deal on the way back, tell them which train you want to catch and they will shuttle you to the station.
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I also noticed that weekday stays are cheaper than weekends so if you’re not that pushed for time, pick to stay on a weekday. We booked through Booking.com
Eliminating ryokans with onsen is more troublesome than it’s worth and doesn’t help with scoring a great value or be really unique.
Ryokans without onsen at all on the premises usually are low budget ryokans that are outdated (and not in the good way) or in a location geographically where onsen are not commonly found (city ryokan vs mountain ryokan).
Most onsenless ryokans are really low on the bells and whistles. For more unique experience and “value” you’re better off staying at a ryokan that has onsen but choosing a room that doesn’t have an en-suite onsen. En-suite onsen increase the cost of a room by a lot. Most ryokans will have a mix between regular and onsen rooms. All you have to do is book a regular room and not use any public onsen facilities if you do not wish to bathe in an onsen. You’ll be saving quite a bit of money by choosing the cheaper room-type and enjoying what the rest of the ryokan has to offer rather than choosing a cheap room AND cheap ryokan that doesn’t offer much of anything but a place to stay.
For a better experience book a normal room at an ryokan regardless of if the ryokan has onsen or not unless you really want to go the super budget route by only booking ryokans that have no onsen at all which really limits the type of experience you’ll get if you ONLY search for those types.
Just use the shower and don’t go into the tub? There is no rule that you have to go into the water.
Not a Ryokan, but if you are on a budget there is a beautiful traditional guesthouse in Hida-Osaka about 20 minutes walk from the railway station. We paid around €55 for the room per night, a short walk from there is an good value for money restaurant were we paid about $35 per person. For both the guesthouse as well as the restaurant knowledge of Japanese is recommended though.
The place is ideal if you are planning to hike in the surroundings, or simply as stopower on your way to places like Takayama or Shiragawa-go. [short impression](https://imgur.com/a/y1VZPQI)