Hakone Yuryo — Restaurant in Hakone

The winning onsen for me after trying three famous onsen for my three days in hakone. If you have to choose just one onsen for hakone, I would pick this one. I get there by the tozan bus with the freepass which require me to climb up the hill to the onsen from where the bus drop me off but there is a bus stop right in front of the onsen I am sure there is another way to get there. I think the tozan train can get there too, but the tozan bus was just more convenient for me since I came from the hakone lake direction. You can buy your ticket at the counter, you get a discount with the hakone freepass. They didn't have enough direction. It's like an escape room game where you just use common sense to figure out what to do and where to go. They give you a shoes locker key at the counter, look at the number on the key to find your shoes locker. From the entree counter, you see the courtyard head to the right, pass the restaurant, pass a walkway with messages service, you see a walkway with flower hanging down and the front door to the onsen. After getting in, the left is the shoe lockers area. You put your shoe in lock it and go down the stairs on the right for the changing rooms and lockers for your clothes. The entrance right side wooden shoes is for you to wear after you take a shower and want to stroll outside not wearing your own NOT for you to wear indoors. The left side inward from the shoe lockers area is resting area after you go through the onsen. The onsen here is the best I have experienced so far. It's just prettier, nicer surroundings, the way it's layout, the rocks sittings, the tarrancing layers and flower within reach while you are sitting on rocker inside the onsen made you feel closer to nature. You can really feel the beauty of hakone onsen here. They have good shower products and lotion products for you to use to. Definitely...

Absolutely beautiful experience.

We booked a private onsen experience before our visit, it was easy to book and we were so happy when they replied with a reservation. On the reservation they also state which room you will be getting.

We were really pleased with the room we had booked.

You pay at the onsen, it worked out around £68 which was for the whole room and for 2 hours which we thought was a really amazing price.

The robes were really nice to wear and made the experience even better especially with the shoes.

To look out in to the woods was really beautiful, we went for this time in the hope to see the sunset but instead we got to experience the daylight and night time.

We also heard monkeys and saw an outline of a small one in the tree! Super awesome!

There is a net next to the pool to fish out any leaves that fall in to the onsen

It was all super clean, with clear instructions on how to use everything.

As we booked the private onsen we got the robes and towels included in our price which was much appreciated as we hadn't brought a towel with us.

As the water is just over 40 degrees it does get overwhelming so we stayed in for 5 minutes and then a 15-20 minutes sit down on the cushions inside. There is also vending machines outside which helped us cool down.

We also got complimentary tofu cake bars which were lovely.

There is a gift shop as well which was nice to look at.

There is a free shuttle bus between Hakone Yuryo and the train station.

A fantastic experience which I would recommend to anyone.

The staff are also...

A beautiful onsen experience, sadly spoilt by being refused entry to the restaurant 45 minutes before closing… I was very keen to have an onsen experience while in Japan, and having missed our transfer stop on the bus, we ended up near to Hakone Yuruo by chance and took it as a sign that we should pop in. The onsen experience was perfect - natural stone pools surrounded by beautiful forest scenery and super clean and well managed / maintained. Heavenly! The only thing that sadly spoilt our experience was that on the way in I’d read on the information sheet that the restaurant closed at 8, so having arrived at 6pm, I thought we’d head to the restaurant as close to 7 as possible to allow enough time to have a quick bite before heading back to Gora (a 45 minute journey on the train plus transfer time on the shuttle from Yuryo to Hakone-Yumoto). It was only on leaving the onsen area that I spotted the small print note saying last admission to the restaurant was at 7pm. By that time, we were drying off and needing to collect our shoes from the locker and use the restroom. It was 7:15 by the time we arrived near the restaurant and even though I was with my 8 year old daughter and explained we had a long and late journey ahead of us to Gora, I was told in no uncertain terms that the restaurant was “closed”. So after a truly relaxing experience in the onsen, we headed home starving, knowing that all restaurants would be shut by the time we arrived...