Best Onsen Ryokan and Hotels in Izu and Atami: 10 Editors’ Picks

Editors' comment

Kidachi-no-Yu at Yugashima Onsen is a simple spring with 800 years of history, gentle on the skin. At this inn, water from that source flows into every bath, from the main bathhouse to the private baths and the open-air baths in the rooms, fed straight from the source, never recirculated. Besides a spacious indoor bath, the main bathhouse has a cave bath enclosed by rock walls and an open-air bath looking over the mountain streams of Seko Gorge and the Nekko River. Each room’s terrace has a Shigaraki-ware open-air bath where you can soak in the same source water as long as you like, night or morning. Day visitors are welcome, but the tubs in the rooms are for overnight guests only. The men’s bath also has a sauna with a Harvia stove and löyly you pour yourself.

Editors' comment

The four private baths dotted around the inn are all fed straight from the source, never recirculated. Each is built differently: a round tub fragrant with hinoki, an open-air bath facing the forest, a tub with a reclining bath, and a hotter tub where you can adjust the temperature yourself. No booking or fee is needed; just check the sign on the door and go in. Because they are open 24 hours, you can soak with only your own party in the middle of the night or at dawn. In the grand bath hall, you can listen to the river at Kiku-buro, the indoor bath facing the Katsura River, and at Suzaku-no-Yu, the garden open-air bath, look up at the garden’s greenery by day and the moon and stars by night. The water is a smooth alkaline simple spring.

Editors' comment

Every room has its own open-air bath of natural onsen water fed straight from the source, never recirculated. The tubs are hinoki or Shigaraki ceramic, with Sagami Bay and the city of Atami spread out before them. Because the bath is in your room, you can soak while gazing at the sea late at night or early in the morning without minding other guests. The main bathhouse has a panoramic open-air bath swept by sea breezes, and the water is a sodium-calcium chloride-sulfate spring. There is also a carbonated bath. After the Finnish-style sauna and the cold plunge, you can cool off in the open air in the sea breeze. This is an inn where you can move between the bath in your room and the main bathhouse to suit the hour.

Editors' comment

Yoshina Onsen, discovered in the Nara period, is the oldest onsen in Izu and has long been known as a bath for those hoping to conceive. The water is clear, colorless and alkaline, with a smoothness that seems to glide over the skin. Gyoki-no-Yu, the open-air bath, is a roofless rock bath with the Yoshina River flowing right beside it. You can soak under dappled sunlight by day and under the stars by night. It alternates between men and women with Kajika-no-Yu, which pairs an Izu-stone tub with a hinoki rim, so staying the night lets you compare the two. There is also Kodakara-no-Yu, a private open-air bath for overnight guests only. On grounds of some 36,000 tsubo (about 12 hectares, or 29 acres), you can spend a whole day with this land’s ancient onsen.

Editors' comment

The inn’s natural chloride-sulfate onsen water is fed straight from the source, never recirculated, and supplies every bath: the main bathhouse, the private baths and the Shigaraki-ware open-air baths in some rooms. The main bathhouse has an indoor bath and an open-air bath looking out over the Sagami Sea and greenery. With an open-air bath attached to your room, you can soak whenever you like and as often as you like, late at night or early in the morning. The inn’s strength is that in these hours reserved for overnight guests, you can have the same source water and the sea view all to yourself. The water is said to hold its warmth well. There is also a sauna with a Harvia stove for löyly, with the cold plunge right beside it.

Editors' comment

This inn stands on a hill in the Atagawa Highlands, and its main bathhouse consists of nothing but an open-air bath 125 cm (4 ft) deep. Sit on the bench in the tub and the water comes up to your shoulders; stand and it reaches about your chest, the water pressure making your body feel lighter. Ahead, the Pacific and the Izu Islands stretch out with nothing in the way. All 26 rooms have a terrace and their own open-air onsen bath. You can take in the starry night sky and the sea at sunrise whenever you like, without leaving your room. Little is published about the spring’s composition or how the source is handled. What sets this inn apart is less what is in the water than how its depth and view have been designed.

Editors' comment

This inn in Inatori Onsen faces the Pacific from every room. The water is a sodium-calcium chloride spring said to hold its warmth well, keeping the body from cooling even after you get out. At Sora, the infinity open-air bath on the top floor, the horizon carries on past the rim of the tub. From Umi and Kamome, the panoramic main bathhouses, you can watch the sun rise out of the sea. Yukkura, a building given over entirely to the onsen, can be used through the night. Starlit nights and the sea at dawn are hours that belong only to overnight guests, and you can spend both in the water. Some rooms also come with an open-air bath fed straight from the source, never recirculated.

Editors' comment

The inn has its own source on the grounds. The open-air baths in the rooms and the three private baths scattered around the grounds are all fed straight from the source, never recirculated. The private baths cost nothing, need no booking, and can be used as often as you like whenever they are vacant. Each of the three looks different: one tub hollowed out of a huge boulder, one with bamboo-trimmed walls, one enclosed by rocks. There is no washing area, so they are places purely for soaking. The water is an alkaline calcium-sodium sulfate spring said to feel silky and soft. In your room’s open-air bath, you can return to the water again and again in your loungewear, with insect song and starlight at night and morning light falling on the wooded hills.

Editors' comment

In the seventh-floor panoramic main bathhouse, beyond the glass-walled indoor bath, lies an infinity open-air bath whose surface seems to run straight into Sagami Bay. The water contains sulfate and chloride and feels silky and soft. It is said to keep you from cooling down, leaving you warm long after you get out. Every room also has its own open-air onsen bath on the balcony. Light rising from the horizon in the morning, moonlight on the sea at night: you can watch it all from your room without keeping an eye on the clock. The main bathhouse has a smoke sauna and the cold plunge in both the men’s and women’s baths, and outdoors you can let the heat drain from your body in the breeze off Sagami Bay.