Aso Farm Land — Attraction in Minamiaso

Aso Farm Land! I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

TLDR; Good for kids, great onsen, grounds needs maintenance.

I stayed two nights in December 2024, arriving the first night with just enough time to navigate the underground passage and labyrinth to check in, get dinner, and to enjoy the hot springs. I left the last day with just enough time to pack up and get breakfast. So really, one full day on the grounds. IMPORTANT: I was also traveling with a preschooler, a middle school kid, and my wife. We all live in Japan.

If you do not live in Japan and are just visiting, you have no business visiting Aso Farm Land. If you are not traveling with kids, you have no business visiting Aso Farm Land. If you’re looking for a resort like something in Thailand or Bali, turn back now.

The best thing about Aso Farm Land is the extensive hot springs facility. It’s large, not crowded, and varied. You’ve got your usual indoor and outdoor options, plus wacky stuff like wine and olive baths.

The worst thing about Aso Farm Land is that the main outdoor attraction for kids, Genki No Mori, is the most run down facility that requires a payment to enter that I have ever seen. It’s a bunch of creative outdoor obstacle courses that involve climbing, sliding and pushing, more than 50, but the paint is faded and peeling, the signage is outdated and broken, and perhaps most surprisingly there were no staff making the rounds to ensure visitors were safe. None! Truly a free-range-parenting hipster’s dream.

As others have commented the small petting zoo does have a few unique animals like capybara that hang out in hot springs and flamingoes that are so used to humans they let you walk right up to them. Beavers are the main attraction. Yes, the animals are standing on the pavement, not grass, probably not the most humane.

The food is good at the main restaurant. You can grab fresh ingredients and boil your own nabe (Japanese hot pot that is not spicy) right at your table. Everything is fresh and healthy.

The entire complex has a health bent that borders on the religious. The stores sell everything from magma clay face packs to walking shoes and drinkable vinegar. The attractions are multiple iterations of the same, admittedly fun, “age testing circuits,” that are variations of a machine that has you slapping or stepping on colored buttons when they light up as fast as you can. You can get your results printed and marvel at how you mashed the button more accurately and more quickly than your family members.

We stayed in the Royal Zone and it was fine. The Wifi was in and out. We never used the shower because the hot springs are so great. The facilities were probably at 10% capacity so there was no noise. The rooms were big enough but we live in Japan and are used to Japanese sizes.

Most of the other customers were groups of Japanese young kids, Japanese families, Korean tour groups, and some Chinese-speaking tourists.

Our kids loved the place. Parents were...

We spent a night at the Dream Zone with our little boy. ||I would say overall, we loved it!||The stay includes half board and entrance ticket to one of their activities (zoo, indoor activities or outdoor activities) plus onsen (in and outdoor). As we arrived late at 4pm, we picked the indoor activities (because most of them had last entrance around 4/5pm) and most close by 5/6pm||In addition, they provided free photo shooting before 8pm so we asked the hotel desk to take photos of their igloo and us. It was a good memorable gift for the trip. ||All the hotel staff are very friendly and helpful. ||There are many types of room in the dream zone you can choose ranging from Kumamon, dinosaur, space, soccer ball, fruits. The room is very well presented with its theme. ||There are also good kids amenities provided as well as potty support, steps, clothes, slippers, hanger all of there size. My boy loved it so much. ||If you like seeing the sky and early sunlight, then you will like the window on the roof which can be see through. For us, it was ok at night but as the sun rose around 5am ish, we got woke by the sun very early in the morning. ||Due to the earthquake in 2016, a lot of the facilities were closed and some rooms are still close (e.g. 8/26 rooms are close in dream zone), there were only 2-3 restaurants in the area and both halfboard requires you to go to its buffet. So though there is a variety but it gets bored if you stay in the same place for longer and eating similar food. ||There is a big variety of the onsen and we tried a lot of their indoor and outdoor pools (I think there are about 8 of them)||The downside is, if you live in village room and royal room, and travel to the activities, they are still fixing the pathway and the restaurants there. It's being presented nicely but you may not like it. ||Also, the parking is quite far from the checkin area and we tow our luggages for a long time. We found out that we can drive our car to the closest stop near dream zone so it was ok at the end. But if there are more notice on this arrangement or carrier provided then it makes it easier for moving luggage. ||Re activities : The indoor entrance ticket allow us to do their indoor activities which was mainly for kids of 6 and older. However, our 2 year old also enjoyed it and had fun playing together with us. ||We also paid extra to go to another indoor area with younger kids and they just love playing there. I would recommend the kids...

We spent a night at the Dream Zone with our little boy. ||I would say overall, we loved it!||The stay includes half board and entrance ticket to one of their activities (zoo, indoor activities or outdoor activities) plus onsen (in and outdoor). As we arrived late at 4pm, we picked the indoor activities (because most of them had last entrance around 4/5pm) and most close by 5/6pm||In addition, they provided free photo shooting before 8pm so we asked the hotel desk to take photos of their igloo and us. It was a good memorable gift for the trip. ||All the hotel staff are very friendly and helpful. ||There are many types of room in the dream zone you can choose ranging from Kumamon, dinosaur, space, soccer ball, fruits. The room is very well presented with its theme. ||There are also good kids amenities provided as well as potty support, steps, clothes, slippers, hanger all of there size. My boy loved it so much. ||If you like seeing the sky and early sunlight, then you will like the window on the roof which can be see through. For us, it was ok at night but as the sun rose around 5am ish, we got woke by the sun very early in the morning. ||Due to the earthquake in 2016, a lot of the facilities were closed and some rooms are still close (e.g. 8/26 rooms are close in dream zone), there were only 2-3 restaurants in the area and both halfboard requires you to go to its buffet. So though there is a variety but it gets bored if you stay in the same place for longer and eating similar food. ||There is a big variety of the onsen and we tried a lot of their indoor and outdoor pools (I think there are about 8 of them)||The downside is, if you live in village room and royal room, and travel to the activities, they are still fixing the pathway and the restaurants there. It's being presented nicely but you may not like it. ||Also, the parking is quite far from the checkin area and we tow our luggages for a long time. We found out that we can drive our car to the closest stop near dream zone so it was ok at the end. But if there are more notice on this arrangement or carrier provided then it makes it easier for moving luggage. ||Re activities : The indoor entrance ticket allow us to do their indoor activities which was mainly for kids of 6 and older. However, our 2 year old also enjoyed it and had fun playing together with us. ||We also paid extra to go to another indoor area with younger kids and they just love playing there. I would recommend the kids...