Kutsuroginoya Yuu — Hotel in Takayama

Stayed here for a night after spending two days at Takayama en-routing to Shin-Hotaka. I must say Kutsuroginoya Yuu is one of my most favorite ryokan experience. The location is about an hour bus ride from Takayama and the bus stopped right in front of the ryokan. Upon arrival, a staff came out to greet us and asked if we could speak Japanese. It turned out that he could speak some English and we had no trouble communicating (we were a bit worried in the beginning as neither one of us could speak Japanese). When he took us to our room, we were told that we were the only guests staying there that night, and as a result, they had opened up their onsen for us to use (instead of seperating the men/women onsen). In addition, they gave us an upgrade to a two-level room that comes with a private outdoor onsen! We were so excited as we did not expect any of this and were delighted for the offer.||||The room was huge and beautiful. There is a living room and a huge bathroom on the first floor. Bathroom was clean with all the amenities you could think of. There was a seperate sleeping section on the second floor that was big enough for a whole family. Room was super clean and nicely decorated. The outdoor onsen was tiny but it is really nice if you prefer to bath in privacy in your own room.||||Dinner was excellent. The hita beef sushi and hita beef steak were delicioius and I wished I could order another round. We had a very nice chat with their staff throughout dinner and we really appreciated that he spent a lot of time entertaining/explaining things to us. I took another onsen bath after dinner and I was so relaxed that I actually fell asleep early in the evening (never happen to me before).||||Next morning, we had a nice Japanese breakfast before heading off to Shin-Hokata. If you are planning to travel around the area, do not miss taking the cable car to the peak of Nishi Hotaka-dake! The panorama view is breath-taking and it was a truly wonderful experince. ||||We really enjoyed our stay at Kutsuroginoya Yuu and would recommend this rokyan to anyone who is looking for a quiet and relax stay in the Takayama area. I cannot wait to visit again...

We spent one night there. It was just amazing, there are no other words to describe it.||Since the Ryokan was pretty empty they upgraded our room to one of their finest, that was obviously a great start. The ryokan has a very nice touch to it, it feels both luxurious and comfortable at once. ||The service was of course excellent, you won't expect anything else in Japan.||The food - really good, the meat is incredible, I've never had meat so good in my life. A great variety of traditional dishes in a lovely presentation. ||The onsen is very intimate and nicely desgined, and since the ryokan was quite empty we had it to ourselves most the time.||The area around the ryokan doesn't have any houses or anything, it's just a bunch of ryokans in the middle of the woods. The view is amazing.||||Access was easy - they offer free pick up and drop off from Hirayu Onsen bus stop, which is quite a central place. There is a bus from Takayama, 1` hour ride.||The entire staff was extremely friendly but as I speak Japanese I couldn't judge the level of English. ||My only problem was that the blanket was a bit too short and I found my legs popping out all the time. Beware that the area gets very very cold at night (we were there in the end of september). I think if you take out the blanket from its covers it will be long enough, so perhaps bring your own or just put a good...

We spent one night there. It was just amazing, there are no other words to describe it.||Since the Ryokan was pretty empty they upgraded our room to one of their finest, that was obviously a great start. The ryokan has a very nice touch to it, it feels both luxurious and comfortable at once. ||The service was of course excellent, you won't expect anything else in Japan.||The food - really good, the meat is incredible, I've never had meat so good in my life. A great variety of traditional dishes in a lovely presentation. ||The onsen is very intimate and nicely desgined, and since the ryokan was quite empty we had it to ourselves most the time.||The area around the ryokan doesn't have any houses or anything, it's just a bunch of ryokans in the middle of the woods. The view is amazing.||||Access was easy - they offer free pick up and drop off from Hirayu Onsen bus stop, which is quite a central place. There is a bus from Takayama, 1` hour ride.||The entire staff was extremely friendly but as I speak Japanese I couldn't judge the level of English. ||My only problem was that the blanket was a bit too short and I found my legs popping out all the time. Beware that the area gets very very cold at night (we were there in the end of september). I think if you take out the blanket from its covers it will be long enough, so perhaps bring your own or just put a good...