Miyama Ouan — Hotel in Takayama

Room 808. OMG !!! I don't know which room we had initially booked, a cheaper one for sure, but at check-in we were offered this room for an additional 10k yen and we decided 'why not'. The room, or shall I say apartment, was fantastic. Huge. There's an indoor sitting area with zaisu chairs and heated blanket/table and floor to ceiling windows opening onto your private patio. I can only imagine how amazing this would be in winter with snow. The patio has its own hot onsen bathtub; as well as a hot foot bath. The entire apartment was beautifully made out of wood, was brand new, and smelled wonderful. The hotel also has public onsen and sauna. Gender separated. And there are also two (four?) private outdoor stone-basin hot onsens that are free to use for 45 minutes when available. (No bookings.) The entire hotel is shoes-free. You lock your shoes at the entrance and wear slippers in the hotel. They also give you some yakutas to change into and wear. More clothes and pj's available in the room. The whole day there are free non-alcoholic drinks and snacks. In the afternoon there is free hot sake with grilled fishtail. Interesting, not bad, but not something I would drink often. In the evening there is free-flow whiskey/etc for a very reasonable 1,100 yen. Dinner is served at two times. We chose the late one. My wife is allergic to shellfish, so she got a customized menu. I just took the regular sushi menu. I don't really like sushi, but this was quite excellent. The 'yellow tail' was fantastic. The presentation and detail were amazing. Also, at this point, a heartfelt thank you !!! to Ms.Miho who served our dinner and was most pleasant and helpful in explaining. At dinner, the booking time for breakfast is made. Breakfast was very good, if you enjoy a traditional Japanese breakfast. I did. A lot. But TBH, I still would have preferred a Western version. (Or maybe just been offered a coffee.) Here my only complaint: when booking breakfast, why weren't we offered a table with a view? We were not !!! happy being seated in a booth when many tables right at the window, with great views, were available. Insisting politely, we asked to be moved to a window table. (And, yes, many other tables at the window were available while we ate, so we didn't steal anyone's table.) Very quick and efficient pick-up at the bus terminal and then drop-off. Check-in was the most detailed and lengthy process ever. (Not complaining.) The staff use Japanese-English translation devices for every sentence. It makes things very easy to understand. There is also a hot foot bath in front of the hotel. (Public? Semi-public? For the driver who doesn't stay here? I'm not sure.) I also had to post a picture of the hairdryer. It is by far the best I ever used. Later I found them for sale at BicCamera for well over 30k yen. (Or was it over 60k yen? I can't remember.) More expensive than Dyson. Not a cheap hotel to stay. But I am confident that we will come back. Looking at the hotel layout, there is an overwhelming variety of rooms to choose from. I think the 302 and 401 series rooms would be a cheaper but still very nice alternative. They have indoor onsen baths with large windows, as the...

This is the best hotel we have stayed at!! We loved everything about it.

The staff were friendly and accommodating. They helped us with our bags and showed us to our room. The restaurant staff were also fantastic.

Our room was beautiful and peaceful. The private bath was like nothing I have seen before. So cool! Overlooking the quiet forest. The beds were comfortable, cozy and the sliding doors hardly let any light in.

The womens public outdoor bath is exactly like the pictures, overlooking trees with an amazing red autumn colour tree at the front. It was just so beautiful. There is also a sauna and cold plunge in the women's bath as well as ice cold water to drink after the hot bath. I even had the public bath to myself on the second day which was so cool!

The hotel provides great amenities in the lobby and the room. Water, local sweets and shampoo/ soap in the room as well as additional toiletries as you check in. At night there are local snacks, ice water and sake in the lobby. In the lounge they had beer, wine and local apple juice at night. Tea and coffee available in the daytime. There was also ice lollies and milk for after the public bath.

The outdoor private baths which are on a first come first served basis were also beautiful. We were able to use them often on our stay which I was glad about as I initially worried they would be too busy. They open til late too.

The outdoor deck has a fire pit at night overlooking the trees it was so peaceful.

We had the hida beef at dinner which we cooked ourselves on the grill, a great experience. It may be better to book this hotel direct as we didn't realise we hadn't booked breakfast and dinner. Luckily they had space for us when we checked in.

There is a free shuttle from the bus station although it is a short walk if you don't have heavy bags. We did so called them via pay phone upon arrival and they were there...

First off, once we got off the bus my wife and I decided to walk and it was heavy snow. Upon arrival one of the employees literally came running down the driveway from ththe shuttle area to grab our luggage. Once entering the hotel we werroom greeted kindly with towels and politely asked to remove our shoes as we were given slippers. We were led to a table to check in and our baggage’s were wiped off and we were given clean towels to wipe the snow off. While checking in we were given a map, rules of the hotel (all in written in English) and explained by a very kind employee the areas of the hotel, how to Onsen, where all the FREE stuff was (free coffee machine, milk coffees and milk, and free RAMEN late night dinner) and how to wear the free kimonos provided during our stay ALL IN VERBAL ENGLISH. I say this in cap because I have read a decent amount of reviews complaining about this when they shouldn’t even have to accommodate the way they do. As for our room I can’t begin to explain how happy we were, we booked the two bed with a private onsen and it was AMAZING. Yes the private onsen is small however my wife and I both were able to fit comfortably and enjoy the amazing view. On top of it they have outdoor onsen a you are able to reserve free of charge. The breakfast we had was at the restaurant and it was a traditional Japanese breakfast consisting of fresh fish, miso soup, rice and small plates of traditional Japanese veggies. We were incredibly intimidated at first however, the staff explained the food to us in ENGLISH and we were pleasantly surprised on how delicious it was.||||The most important thing I wanna stress on this review is debunking all the negative reviews this establishment was given. Follow their customs and rules, enjoy the cultures and don’t expect to be catered too even if it is a tad pricy. You pay for what THEY provide and me and my wife will...