Akebi Onsen — Hotel in Nikko

Very relaxing!

While out of the way from Central Nikko, this onsen offers private open air bathing at great price!

For about 6,000 yen ($52) you can stay for 2 hours. Though the longer you stay the cheaper it gets. I believe 7 hours was around 11,000 yen ($100)

Your money stretches pretty far here, your private onsen gets you two baths. One stone one that under the sunshine and one wooden one that's covered by a roof.

Food is not included here, but your welcome to bring anything you'd like and there is a mini fridge in each room.

The only real issue is that it's not entirely clear where you are supposed to go after parking. Just follow the dim lights (very charming and romantic) lighting the path. And after about 3 minutes of walking you will find...

We had such a relaxing stay during our time at Akebi. Our time slot was for 19:00, which meant that we got to enjoy an evening hour in the baths with some of the trees illuminated overhead. Both baths were clean and very warm; the wooden rectangular bath felt slighter cooler and was were we spent most of our time. Although we didn't spend much time in the room itself, it was well situated with a sink, towels, mini fridge, hair dryer, and two rattan style seats to enjoy. The grounds around the private cabins were well kept and the staff were welcoming. As travelers with very limited Japanese, there was one staff person who spoke English who was kind to help us check in and find our cabin. Would love to come back again the next time we are...

Really glad we found Akebi Onsen, it’s a beautiful private hot spring and they have no problems with tattoos. We brought in our own food and drink too. You need to make a reservation online which takes a bit of time as you need to register and it’s all in Japanese, but easily translated. We went on a week day and had no problem reserving. We loved it so much we wanted to go back on Saturday but the reservations kept getting cancelled. Saturday and Sunday are marked in blue and red - I’m not sure if this means it’s walk in only or that it’s very booked up. So I’d recommend booking a week day! Only reason I’m not giving 5 stars is just down to the reservation system being a...