Resort Hotel Olivean Shodoshima — Hotel in Tonosho

The hotel is very interesting. Especially if you are from either North America or Europe.||The hotel is definitely a three star resort. The building and majority of rooms are very dated from the 1990's.||HOWEVER if you book either the 2 suites or the get a room in the newest floor on the far side of the hotel, those were renovated in 2022 and look amazing. ||So when we arrived a wonderful agent greeted us and told everything about the hotel. ||We booked the suite, because I knew it was one of the renovations that was made. When booking here breakfast and dinner are included in the price. Since there was 3 of us, mom dad and kid, we were charged for our son. (The charge was for the food)||It's a buffet for breakfast and dinner, and while the food is fine, it wasn't anything memorable. But what buffet is memorable? When talking about the dinning and stuff with the check in agent, she told us that we had to reserve a time for when we want to eat. So she gave us some cards. Three cards for breakfast at a specific time and three cards for dinner again at a specific time. This we were ok with since the hotel wants to know what time we want to eat, to control the capacity of the restaurant. ||After that we asked about the swimming pool. We were looking forward to using the swimming pool. However, the front desk lady told us that the pool is only open on the weekends. Which I was so confused about but went along with it. (We travelled in July here which I would assume is the middle of the summer)||This property has a lot of other activities that you can do but it seems very seasonal and or only available on the weekends. ||Once we were all checked in she gave us a room key and we walked to the room. When walking to our room the suite we basically saw the entire hotel. It definitely was dated and you could tell that not much maintenance has been put into the majority of the rooms.| (Unless you go to go the suite room X2 or Terrace rooms. This area of the hotel was the one that was recently renovated.)||Once we got into our room it was a total transformation day and night different between the rest of the hotel. ||The room smelled clean and had a high end soap set, welcome amenity drinks, small snacks and some other goodies provided. ||The room was extremely spacious and is about 960 square feet. Our room also came with a giant shower and soaking bath along with an outdoor terrace area for us just to sit back and watch the sunset and stare out at the hills and ocean. There was another room that was separate for dining which was awesome and they gave us a microwave and a good refrigerator. ||While staying at the hotel we tried to find as many things possible to do there however, during our time (since it was in the middle of the week) There was pretty much nothing to do. The only activity we were really able to do was go to the small arcade for kids and also play some ping pong in a back area. ||The property offers other activities but I assume that they were not in season so I couldn't tell you that much more from it. ||I did see a mini golf course along with a tennis court but again that stuff was closed when we went. ||One of the nice benefits of this hotel though is you can rent a car. They have two old cars but they run great and they you can go almost anywhere on the island. We rented one for about 6 hours and it cost us about 6,000 Yen. So it wasn't really a bad price. ||Overall, the hotel's fine but leaves a lot to be desired. Would we come back to this place, probably yes, but only because there's not many more choices in the area. And the room we got was probably the newest room on the entire island...

The hotel is very interesting. Especially if you are from either North America or Europe.||The hotel is definitely a three star resort. The building and majority of rooms are very dated from the 1990's.||HOWEVER if you book either the 2 suites or the get a room in the newest floor on the far side of the hotel, those were renovated in 2022 and look amazing. ||So when we arrived a wonderful agent greeted us and told everything about the hotel. ||We booked the suite, because I knew it was one of the renovations that was made. When booking here breakfast and dinner are included in the price. Since there was 3 of us, mom dad and kid, we were charged for our son. (The charge was for the food)||It's a buffet for breakfast and dinner, and while the food is fine, it wasn't anything memorable. But what buffet is memorable? When talking about the dinning and stuff with the check in agent, she told us that we had to reserve a time for when we want to eat. So she gave us some cards. Three cards for breakfast at a specific time and three cards for dinner again at a specific time. This we were ok with since the hotel wants to know what time we want to eat, to control the capacity of the restaurant. ||After that we asked about the swimming pool. We were looking forward to using the swimming pool. However, the front desk lady told us that the pool is only open on the weekends. Which I was so confused about but went along with it. (We travelled in July here which I would assume is the middle of the summer)||This property has a lot of other activities that you can do but it seems very seasonal and or only available on the weekends. ||Once we were all checked in she gave us a room key and we walked to the room. When walking to our room the suite we basically saw the entire hotel. It definitely was dated and you could tell that not much maintenance has been put into the majority of the rooms.| (Unless you go to go the suite room X2 or Terrace rooms. This area of the hotel was the one that was recently renovated.)||Once we got into our room it was a total transformation day and night different between the rest of the hotel. ||The room smelled clean and had a high end soap set, welcome amenity drinks, small snacks and some other goodies provided. ||The room was extremely spacious and is about 960 square feet. Our room also came with a giant shower and soaking bath along with an outdoor terrace area for us just to sit back and watch the sunset and stare out at the hills and ocean. There was another room that was separate for dining which was awesome and they gave us a microwave and a good refrigerator. ||While staying at the hotel we tried to find as many things possible to do there however, during our time (since it was in the middle of the week) There was pretty much nothing to do. The only activity we were really able to do was go to the small arcade for kids and also play some ping pong in a back area. ||The property offers other activities but I assume that they were not in season so I couldn't tell you that much more from it. ||I did see a mini golf course along with a tennis court but again that stuff was closed when we went. ||One of the nice benefits of this hotel though is you can rent a car. They have two old cars but they run great and they you can go almost anywhere on the island. We rented one for about 6 hours and it cost us about 6,000 Yen. So it wasn't really a bad price. ||Overall, the hotel's fine but leaves a lot to be desired. Would we come back to this place, probably yes, but only because there's not many more choices in the area. And the room we got was probably the newest room on the entire island...

My family and I spent a relaxing three days and two nights at this accommodating family-friendly resort. Perched high on a hill, the view of the sea is magnificent from almost anywhere you find yourself in the resort (note--the hotel also has rooms with a view of the hillside at the back of the resort--so it might be good to be specific about the kind of room that you want). The sports facilities are impressive--enough to keep serious tennis players and casual golfers occupied for hours. My less-sporty family had fun exploring the extensive, flowery grounds and playing around on the miniature golf course. Temple #77 on the Shodoshima Pilgrimage course is located at back corner of the resort and is worth a visit. The caretaker is friendly--serving tea and locally grown oranges to visitors. ||||Our Japanese style room was spacious and comfortable. The view from the first floor was wonderful--but I imagine that the upper floors command an even more excellent view. The resort also has dedicated triple rooms in a Western style. The TV was dual language so we could watch NHK news broadcasts.||||The hotel helped to arrange a car rental that made island exploration easy. (Note: We booked the car rental well in advance of our stay.) ||||The resort is located at the foot of a wide winding (with some breathtaking hairpin curves) mountain road leading to some of the amazing viewing spots on the island. The hotel staff also allowed us to extend our car rental, print out (free of charge) English guide materials on their computer, and were excellent about giving us directions to sites like Angel Road. ||||Buffet-style meals were high quality, plentiful, and the buffets were immaculately presented--in spite of the full dining room. We liked the mix of Japanese and Chinese dishes. The jostling crowd was a little disconcerting on the first night--but we were happy to have a chance to relax and not to worry too much about formalities. The mix of excellent food and a casual atmosphere was perfect for our family. The coffee was freshly ground and the Chinese tea was excellent. Drink prices for beer and wine were really reasonable.||||The onsen is spacious and the pleasingly hot outdoor bath has a wonderful view of the sea. (To escape the bus tour crowds, visit the onsen between noon and five pm.) ||||I really have to commend the service staff of this hotel. They were taxed with managing crowds of tour buses and juggling the demands of several nationalities and languages. Occasionally, I saw them handle difficult cultural situations with extreme graciousness. The resort hotel is very busy even mid-week in the pre-season (they must have an excellent marketing manager)--so late check out was not available. On our last day, the hotel very kindly allowed us to check out at the appointed time but to still have full access to the resort facilities--like the onsen.||||One final note, the restaurant (Bras de Mer) serves a beautiful lunch with excellent prices and a glorious view. ||||We would stay at this resort again the next time we have an opportunity to travel to this lovely and surprisingly absorbing island.||||If you go, a surprising number of English maps and guides to Shodo-shima are...