Southern Beach Hotel & Resort Okinawa — Hotel in Itoman

||Oceanfront view from the room and literally it stands in front of the beach (artificial public beach called "Bibi beach"). It's only 20 min drive from the Naha airport. We could choose breakfast from usual buffet style, Japanese Pre fixed style, Western Pre fixed style, breakfast box delivery to our room (you need to book before the day for the pre fixed breakfast and box delivery) . There's several Okinawan foods at the buffet. Nice opportunity to give a shot. Prices at vending machines for drinks could be very expensive at hotels in Japan but they offer same price as outside. Free wifi provided. Our room and anywhere in the hotel was all very clean. They kindly let us use a card to access shortcut to the Bibi beach after we check out the hotel. If you just wish to walk around the beach and dip your legs without swimming after checkout, there's towels and showers at hotel outdoor swimming pool area so we could use them so you do not have to pay anything at the beach after you check out. Or, you could just pay for the Bibi beach facility. I guess it will be very crowded during summer and the area you are allowed to swim is so tiny. We visited Gangala valley and it was reasonably close by taxi. It was one of our highlights this time. You can use local buses and hire bicycles to visit restaurants and supermarkets. Due to some limitations, we gave up Double Tree Chatan and chose this hotel. I believe we made a right choice. However, we should have rented a car to stay here.||||||Location; We knew people warned it's middle of nowhere but we did not expect THAT far. Unfortunately, it was only a weekend visit to Okinawa for us and we did not want to drive. There's even a single street light from the local restaurant (糸満漁民食堂/Itoman Gyomin Shokudo, highly recommend) and supermarket at night and it was raining. So it made us harder to walk. Basically, apart from the beach, all you see around the hotel is massive empty land and abandoned fishing boats at the port. Room; We could spend hours there to enjoy the view (and watch airplanes) at the balcony but there's a wall between us and right side of our room but NOTHING between the left side of our room. So, we had to choose timing to avoid bumping into the neighbours. I think the people diagonally upstair could see us at the balcony, too. Fridge was small so you cannot put many stuff you bought from the market there. Breakfast buffet; Others reviews how it could be busy. It was busy but OK level in late May but I wonder how busy it could be in proper holiday season. Due to the location problem, I don't think there's much choice of breakfast around the hotel. ||||||To be fair, It's not the hotel's problem, it's just the weather problem. We could not swim anywhere (in the pools or at the beach) during our stay. So, overall, it's a very kind comfy hotel but the rain at night and heavy fog in the morning made us difficult to say it's a...

Disappointed in Okinawa, probably because of this hotel.

The saddest thing is the ocean. There is a fantastic beach but it is forbidden to swim. Instead they have an isolated place on the right side of the beach with a view to the wall. Moreover, it is too small, maybe it is ok for kids, but adult person cannot swim normally, water lever is around waist. I tried to swim on forbidden beach and got notified immediately by the lifesaver, like there are jellyfish. I have swam in 20 different countries, this is the first time I see rules like this. If you are afraid that someone will be injured - put the sign that it is personal responsibility of the person - if he gets harmed by the jellyfish. Or clean the area on the left side and make the swimming part bigger. Normal people cannot swim in a waist water level. I flew 3 hours from Tokyo to enjoy the beach and transparent blue water, not for walking in a pee lake which is 20 meters long.

Now breakfast. It is not extremely bad, but majority of the dishes are tasteless. Hire a normal cook so it can be improved, reduce the number of dishes and make it tasty. Price will be the same, but customers will be happier. Milk is made of powder. Scrambled eggs are made of something else but not eggs. It is disgusting. All of the dishes except meatballs are COLD. I think lids were invented many centuries ago. Put the lids on dishes to make it warm. Eating cold morning steak doesn’t give a good feeling. Coffee is something I don’t understand. I see beans but I don’t get how it can make it so bad. In one of the meatballs we found hair. Ice cream and yoghurt is nice.

Now room. It is heavily used, hotel is old. There are small ants in the room. Cleaning was ok, however slippers and pyjamas are the cheapest. Even in Daiso the slippers are way better quality. It doesn’t need to be replaced daily, buy it once per visit, customers will have better feeling. We lived on 4th floor, there are no chairs on the balcony. There are chairs on higher floors. What is the point on having balcony with ocean view with no chairs? It is also cheap, but at least I don’t need to bring sofa from the room to the balcony. As a plus in the room, there are good quality shampoo and body soap, room itself is big, they bring water daily.

There is nothing to do without car in this hotel. Nothing around, hotel is boring itself. Everyone sleeps at 8pm already. Bar near the pool opens around noon. The closest restaurants are 20+ minutes walking from the hotel. Parking is free first 2 days, then it is 550 yen per day.

Overall summary -...

We booked a 7 night Stay in a Premium Club room with breakfast included. First, let’s talk about the good: Staff was friendly and were ready for us as soon as we arrived. They escorted us straight to the Premium lounge and we got checked in through the concierge. The lounge refreshments were very nice: chocolates, nuts, cheeses, champagne, other drinks and coffee. The room was spacious and the harbor view was nice. We got a sweets plate for staying 7 nights. Water pressure in the shower was good. The room was quiet which was nice.

Now for the not as good: The bed was very very hard. No cushion or spring at all. The hotel does not have King or Queen beds. So our room had 2 double beds which was not very comfortable for 2 adults. The staff in the lounge are very strict with their policies (which were not written anywhere) No outside food or drink can come in to the lounge You can not take any food or drink from the lounge out of the lounge Must be in normal attire. I came in on my way to the pool wearing my robe and swim suit and was told it was not allowed. The breakfast buffet restaurant was just fine. Nothing great...and definitely Japanese style. The other restaurant serves breakfast and you choose a set style: Western or Japanese. Both are fine (better quality than buffet but not by much) and quantity was small. But it’s quiet and preferable over the bustle of the buffet. Communication barrier was a bit challenging with the staff knowing very minimal English. They are friendly but unyielding. The pool was also somewhat disappointing. It was consistently 22°C for our stay but the outdoor pool was closed. The indoor pool is merely a lap pool and the jacuzzi is not heated very high. So for us it wasn't worth the trouble. The location of the hotel was not the greatest for being close to points of interest, but it was not difficult to get to the freeway. About 15 to 20 minutes to Naha from the Hotel. We went to the aquarium and it took us about 2 hours with some traffic. PS do not travel North on a Sunday...wish we were given that advice. Would I book this hotel again in the future? Probably not. I would probably stay closer to Naha or nearer to American Village. The amenities did not outweigh the cons for me. The rigidity of the policies were also a bit...