Kinosaki Maruyamagawa Onsen Ginka — Hotel in Toyooka

This is my 6th onsen holiday in Japan and I have visited around 20 ryokans since 2015. So I have a bit of context for my review, and I am normally fairly hard to please.

Ginka has been a 5-star experience for me. The Ryokan is quite nice (albeit not the best looking I have seen). The key highlight for me is the en-suite cypress wood tub with onsen water, which definitely isn't common to see in the mid-range price point. Service has been very, very good. Seika at the front desk, Harumi at the restaurant have been especially great. But overall there is a very high attention to detail and a tendency to personalize the experience (adjusting Kaiseki dinner items, shuttle times, etc.), which is also quite rare. The onsen has a very nice outside area with views on the river.

Some people that might not be into a pure onsen holiday like me might have a problem with the location as it's a roughly 10-minute drive from the Kinosaki Onsen station. Which means you won't be able to spontaneously walk out and enjoy Kinosaki night lights. However, the hotel will drive you there and pick you up at max. 22:00.

The dinner and breakfast were very good and abundant, and I eat a LOT. Never stood up still hungry. The only point I would suggest chef Hamade Takeo to improve might be to offer some cooked desserts as he normally always serves fruit (I have done 3 dinners with him). A cooked dessert shows more Kaiseki mastery in my opinion. Otherwise dinners have been 4/5 in quality and 5/5 in...

This location was the gem of my first Japanese trips and I will always think of this place so fondly. My husband and I booked this hotel for 2 nights as we wanted a break in between our trip from the hustle and bustle. It was worth every penny and we wished we would have stayed longer. Despite the rain, it was such a cozy time being there and I rarely wanted to leave. We had the most spectacular views from our room and our own personal bath. In the room, the offered coffee beans with a grinder, a tea set, onsen baskets, and daily beverages. They had this really cool shell pillow too that we used often for relaxation. The onsens were beautiful and amazing. The best one was the outdoor one near the river. Watching the sunset was truly magical. The staff were so welcoming and incredibly kind. We had many requests with different things and they were so helpful and attempted to help us in any way they could. The kindness from everyone was just something I will never forget. From receiving a package with valuables to helping fix obi into a perfect bow. The breakfast was also the best meal of the trip. Please do not skip. They also offered free udon noodles at night to the room and were also amazing. Thank you again Ginka for creating one of the most beautiful...

We spent two nights at Ginka and it was the most friendly, relaxing experience. The staff picked us up at the train station and brought us to an understated building, well kept up and impeccably clean. Our room, with tatami mats on the floor, faced the river and it was wonderfully peaceful to sit and watch the water and the activity on the other shore. The staff were friendly and they assigned us a hostess who spoke English very well. When we needed rides to and from town they provided them.||||We had breakfast and dinner there, both delicious. One person in our party was vegetarian and the chef did an excellent job of coming up with creative, delicious vegetarian alternatives to the set menu. The non-vegetarian food was superb: one night our multi-course dinner featured local crab prepared in all sorts of ways, and the other night we had a variety of dishes, including the best beef I've ever tasted.||||Then there are the baths. The private bath was wonderful, but the public baths were even better, especially the outdoor one. Everything one would need was provided in the changing rooms.||||I highly...