Yama No Chaya — Hotel in Hakone

Impeccable service in a breathtaking setting! My partner and I stayed at Yama No Chaya for one night last week. We wanted to find an onsen ryokan that allows guests with tattoos (most don’t) and were so thrilled we ended up staying here!

Getting to Yama no Chaya from Tokyo is very simple—after taking the Romancecar train from Shinjuku Station to Hakone-Yamamoto Station, you can transfer to the Hakone Tozan line and take it one stop to Tonosawa Station. From there it’s a ~12min walk to Yama No Chaya. The walking path is a little steep, so I recommend packing lightly / not using a roller bag.

We stayed in the Sakura (standard) room (29,920 JPY per person per night), which is fairly spacious and has a beautiful view of the valley hillside. The finishings in the room and throughout the resort are all beautifully chosen—very traditional and tasteful ryokan decor (no shoes throughout the premises, shoji screen doors, wood paneling, etc). We loved the tatami mats in the room and found the Japanese futon beds to be very comfortable. We also enjoyed wearing the provided yukata throughout our stay.

The Sakura room does not have an in-room onsen (or bath/shower, period). But this wasn’t an issue at all—we were able to book the private onsen for 45m (there are only 8 booking slots per night and they are first come first served, so be sure to check-in right at 3pm), and we didn’t run into a single other guest while using the 3 other communal onsens. I assume most guests with in-room onsens stick to those, so the Sakura room ends up being a great deal—it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves!

The food at Yama No Chaya is spectacular. Meals are all served in-room, which feels very private and romantic. We opted for the upgraded meal plan (additional 3,360 JPY per person per night) which I highly recommend. Dinner took about 2h and consisted of ten courses, which were all stunningly prepared using seasonal Japanese ingredients, with many of the components being prepared in-house (tofu, soba, inari, etc). The presentation of each course was also immaculate with intricate attention to detail. We loved virtually everything we were served and enjoyed the opportunity to try a number of new foods, but less adventurous eaters may not be comfortable with everything on the menu. Breakfast was similarly elaborate, with ~15 dishes served over 45m. Needless to say we were stuffed! There is also an in-room minibar, on-site bar with happy hour deals, and a snack bar with cold drinks and frozen desserts.

But the real highlight of our stay was the service. From the moment we were greeted upon arriving at the resort to saying goodbye to the staff the next morning, the quality of service and care we received was truly special. Our in-room attendant, Hoshino-san, was absolutely wonderful! She went above and beyond throughout our stay to make us feel comfortable, from singing us happy birthday and offering a complimentary bottle of champagne to sharing information about the ingredients used in the meals to providing helpful recommendations on the best way to eat each course (note: get the fresh wasabi to eat with your wagyu) to chatting and trading stories. Hoshino-san made us feel so welcome, which we particularly appreciated as a gay couple, and we are so grateful to have met her. The other touches of service we received (e.g., tea and amazake service upon arriving, cold water for after the onsen, a midnight snack, a departing gift and hand warmers for exploring Hakone) were all superb and made our stay feel extremely luxurious.

Overall, for the quality of service you receive, the refined and traditional beauty of the resort, the stunning meal services, and the breathtaking setting, Yama No Chaya is an incredible value and we couldn’t recommend it...

This was the worst hospitality experience of my life. My boyfriend and I stayed at Yama No Chaya for 2 nights. We had the kaiseki dinner and the food was not good. Most of the fish tasted stale and the ingredients overall did not seem fresh. They served us wheat gluten with cream cheese that was disgusting and soggy. None of the hot dishes were hot; the fish was room temperature and had clearly been sitting out for a long time. We’ve had wonderful Kaiseki in the past and understand it can be challenging and very different to the western palate. However, the meals consisted of way too many dishes with strange combinations of ingredients, endless bland dashi’s and ponzu “jellies”, and off-tasting seafood.||||While we were not thrilled with the meal, we tried to stay positive. The next morning our breakfast was similarly disappointing. We also noticed there was mold on the ceiling of our room which was causing an unpleasant smell. After breakfast, we decided to venture out into Hakone. The main road is extremely windy with very little shoulder for walking. The staff told us we could walk to the bus stop but we said this seemed dangerous and they essentially said tough luck. There was actually a footpath nearby the road so we were annoyed they didn’t bother to point this out. It seemed careless of them to not have any consideration for guest safety getting to and from their property. We took a bus and were planning on going further away but the road caused me so much motion sickness that we got off early and went to the Hakone Open Air Museum. I started feeling sick first but attributed it to motion sickness. Then my boyfriend also started feeling sick and we realized something was wrong. We both developed extreme nausea and sat in the museum cafe for literally hours, feeling trapped because we felt too sick to move. We called Yama No Chaya to ask if they could call a cab. They did not help. We also told them we had food poisoning and we needed to cancel the upcoming dinner. They did not seem concerned that their meal made us extremely sick, they just told us we could not be refunded for cancelling the upcoming dinner.||||It took us a long time to find a cab and the drive back was a nightmare on the single winding road of Hakone. I spent the entire time taking deep breaths focusing all of my energy on not passing out from pain or throwing up in the cab.||I was bedridden for the next 18 hours, unable to move from the crippling agony of food poisoning. The pain was truly debilitating. ||||Yama No Chaya did not refund us for the meals that literally poisoned us and they charged us for checking out late. We had to check out late because we were genuinely too unwell to move and pack up our luggage. April is a very popular travel time and this ryokan (with meals included) cost around $1000 a night. This was supposed to be our splurge and we were hoping this would be a relaxing portion of the trip. Obviously this was a massive disappointment and I’m extremely upset that Yama No Chaya did not apologize or refund us. I do not recommend staying here. ||||We called after we left to again ask for a refund and the manager took 0 responsibility. He tried to gaslight us by saying we didn’t have poisoning. He was extremely rude and took zero accountability. He also yelled at us for posting on Reddit. Do not stay here! Terrible hospitality and...

After researching forever for the perfect ryokan in Hakone for my family to stay at, I landed at Yama No Chaya! It was my family of 4 (including 9 and 11 year boys). We stayed in the Ajisai room, which was beautiful and had a private onsen. My husband and I both have tattoos and the public onsens here are tattoo friendly (although we were never brave enough to go during the public hours, instead we booked one of them to have privately for like an hour one evening).||You have to realize it's a bit tricky to get to and from this ryokan. However, we were able to navigate it just fine. It's near one of the bus routes that are part of the Hakone Loop. Since we were staying 2 nights here, we had forwarded our luggage to our next hotel in Kyoto so that we didnt have to lug it here! ||We came here after Tokyo. We took the Shinkansen to Odawara Station. We picked up our Hakone free pass @ Odakyu Sightseeing Service Center which is inside the station  - the free maps there very good!! Then we took the train from Odawara Station to Hakone-Yumoto (w/our hakone free pass). Outside of the Hakone-Yumoto station, we found the bus stations - which were labeled with time tables and stuff. You take the T bus to the Kami-Tonosawa stop. That stop is across the street from Yama No Chaya but you have to cross a foot bridge and go up a steep hill! When we arrived, the staff from Yama No Chaya came running down the hill for us and took our bags and carried them up! ||We were then basically taken care of and pampered from then on out! Our room host was able to give us some tips for our next day which we planned to dedicate to doing the Hakone Loop and she helped us reserve a private slot at one of the public onsens.||They serve the Kaseki dinners and breakfasts in your room. Not gonna lie, this was my family's least favorite part of the stay! We are not fancy eaters. And the foods were all very different and weird haha! But we did expect this going in and we went with an open mind and tried to eat what we could, knowing it was part of the experience! Our room host and server was amazing! We loved her, she did a great job. But lets just say, we were were happy to find a 7/11 the next day to get some food! We did not get sick from the food and we tried almost everything!||Also, my oldest son lost his phone while on the Hakone Loop. After explaining what happened to the front desk person the following morning, she showed true concern and went above and beyond calling the ropeway station at Owakudani! And his phone was there! The staff at Yama No Chaya helped arrange a taxi fast to go up and get it so that we could also make it to our shinkansen in time! ||Overall, we felt it was a great place to have our first ryokan experience! We really wanted to have that cultural experience and are glad we stayed there. However, it's probably not something we'd splurge on again and some cons to be aware of: it was very expensive for a family of 4 in April, it's a little off the beaten path to get to and the food is different and would be difficult for picky eaters.||It was my kids least favorite stay in Japan because of the food - but they said they'd still give it 5/5 stars due to the private onsen and how great the...