Sandeep1

Going to Japan in February and thinking about extending the trip a couple days so I can experience the hot springs. Would you recommend Hakone? And if so, do you have any personal recommendations for staying somewhere?

LapLap

I love Hakone but I personally wouldn’t go there in February, not unless I was there for a specific purpose, such as photography.

Sandeep1

Really? Why is that? Winter is the best time for hot springs.

LapLap

Onsen is a very minor part of why I go to Hakone.
If I wanted a rotemburo experience surrounded by snow, Hakone is not the place I would count on finding it.

What is it you are expecting to do in Hakone?

Sandeep1

As I said in my OP, looking for an excellent hot spring experience.

LapLap

I don’t actually know what that means - but good luck to you!

MSPeconomist

If you go, I would go for at least two nights in order to have a full day there.

Sandeep1

Thanks!

evergrn

I love Hakone, and I go there primarily for the hot springs.
I do agree that winter is the best time to go for onsen, esp in places like Hakone where it gets pretty hot in the summer.
Hakone's got some amazing hot spring places, but some mediocre places as well.

I've probably gone to more onsens in Hakone Yumoto than anywhere else in Hakone, simply because I mostly do day-use onsen visits in Hakone and Yumoto is the easiest part of Hakone to get to from Tokyo.
Ones I've been to range from mediocre to average in terms of onsen quality.

Some of the best onsens are in Gora, Ubako, Sengokuhara areas.
Many of the hotels in that area tend to have their own onsen supply ('gensen'), and I particularly love the milky-white kind ('nigoriyu') that's unique to that area of Hakone and especially if it's purely from the source without being circulated ('kakenagashi').
It's been >2 years since I've actually stayed overnight at a hotel in that area. With so many changes in the area, I can no longer say I'm up to date on which places are good.
Gora Hanaougi is great, but it's also expensive. Hakone Green Plaza at Ubako Onsen has room type called Asian Room (or something like that) with its own en-suite onsen that has nigoriyu. Their communal bath is neither nigoriyu nor kakenagashi, but the Asian Room's is.
Again I haven't stayed overnight at these places in a few years now, so I may be giving you outdated info.

If you love onsen and think you'd enjoy a lot of R&R time, then I think 2 nights is fine. Otherwise 1 night would be totally fine. It does get expensive staying 2 nights. You can do Hakone sightseeing both before and after checkout. When I'm spending a lot of money at an onsen ryokan, I generally stay put from check-in to check-out and thoroughly enjoy the property, onsen and meals.

Sandeep1

Great post, thanks. Gora Hanaougi looks fantastic although it'd be $670 on the nights I'm thinking about. I checked Hakone Green Plaza though I didn't see any "Asian Rooms." I saw a room with an open air bath but couldn't tell if that was nigoriyu or not. I may reach out to them as the price is significantly less than Gora.

evergrn

I guess things have changed since I last stayed there a few yrs ago. The Asian Twin Room no longer has real Onsen serving its Outdoor bath, but rather just heated water. That’s not good. They have other room types though with ensuite baths with real Onsen. I’m sure other other room types will Still be cheaper than Gora Hanaougi. Keep in mind that Green Plaza is a hotel, not a traditional ryokan. And their meals and common area are rather pedestrian. I just really liked their Asian room. If you can afford Hanaougi, I’m sure you’ll find it a superior experience. Fri and Sat nights are always more expensive.

Sandeep1

Question: In addition to Hakone, do you have any other suggestions for nigoriyu onsens that are easily reachable from Kyoto or Tokyo?

evergrn

I'm sure there're many places in central Honshu with nigoriyu, but the places I can think of for that (besides Sengokuhara area of Hakone) are Shirahone Onsen and Manza. Both are pretty out of the way from the Tokyo-Kyoto corridor. Zao Onsen's got some of that, too, but that's up north in Tohoku region.

Keep in mind, though, that you can have very high-quality silky-texture onsen that's completely transparent in color.

GeezerCouple

We stayed at Gora Hanaougi for two nights about 2.5 years ago, and it was phenomenal.

i'm a fussy eater, so we were a bit worried about the elaborate and in some cases "unusual" (for someone from the USA) foods. But it turned out that not only were the meal presentations absolutely beautiful, but almost all of it tasted very good. The (very) few items that didn't appeal usually did not go to waste due to DH
Having the private hot springs tub on our balcony was special, with a gorgeous view across a huge valley.

Whenever possible, we try to stay at least two nights at each locale, unless the stop is truly "only for a stopover", in transit/etc. That "middle day" - at a minimum - makes such a difference in terms of not feeling rushed, and also having time to relax and/or explore.
We did the same thing - two nights - when we stayed at a Buddhist Monastery.

We were at Gora in late May, and it was a bit warm, given the "hot" springs bathing. We'd have preferred it in cooler times, but we still loved our time there.
Note: We requested dining with "western style chairs", and at our ages, that was a good choice. We also had requested Japanese style mats for bedding, and that was a bit more of a challenge (same thing occurred at the the Monastery, but there was no choice there). Gora Hanaougi also offers higher style regular mattresses, but be sure to reserve in advance if that is what you prefer.
But we are very glad we did it, and that we did it the way we did it. That was all part of the experience.

Oh, one nice touch about the dining and some of the unusual food items at Gora Hanaougi was that when our server noticed that DH and I had swapped something, or I just left something on my plate (tried or not), she always gave me/us a really friendly smile, and said, "Thank you for trying!" It was just a very nice little touch.

Yes, it was expensive, especially in closer to peak tourist season, but this was "THE Trip Of A Lifetime" for us, so we just "went for it", and also for the only time, used a tour organizer to make many of our arrangements, although entirely customized for us, including some unusual excursions and lessons.
We had a private guide much of the time, and even so, when we were on our own, outside of major cities, 2 or 3 times we did have a fair bit of trouble given the language/alphabet issues. But that, too, ended up being part of our special memories, albeit not necessarily right at the moment...!

We do not regret one thing, other than that we did not stay longer

GC

evergrn

GeezerCouple Thanks a lot for the nice comments on Gora Hanaougi and your experience with kaiseki meals. It's also been a few years for me since I last stayed, but yes that place is amazing and I agree that it is definitely worth it if you can afford it.