Name: Yufuin Yumehiroba Bettei
Address: 2635 Kawakami, Yufu, Yufu, Yufu, 879-5102, Japan
Rating: 9

Location

Oita Airport

Yufuin Yumehiroba Bettei

Perfect experience of an outdoor onsen hotel. The owner is an old couple, very nice people, know some english and can communicate. handed me a map once I arrived and showed main tourist points around the city. Breakfast and dinner are both prepared and cooked by the lady owner, real taste of Japan cuisine. Onsen was top class. Private, well equipped, nice and hot! The whole experience couldn't get much better, very satisfied with my stay there.

We've been to Japan many times, but for our first visit to Kyushu we wanted to stay at an onsen hotel. After searching for a while, it seemed Beppu was too big and commercial, so the nearby small town of Yufuin sounded like a better place to base ourselves for 2 nights. It was a bit challenging to find a reasonably priced place in Yufuin, particularly one which had a lot of English reviews. The Yumehiroba Bettei only had 1 English review on Tripadvisor, but it was a very positive one. In then end we decided to take a chance based on that one positive review and the price and availability. We were not disappointed - staying at this ryokan was probably one of the highlights of our 3 week stay in Japan. The only unfortunate thing is at the time of booking, there wasn't any option to choose the room with meals included. We would have liked to enjoy the full ryokan experience here with Japanese-style meals - we later discovered restaurant options in Yufuin were very limited, especially on a Sunday night.

The inn is located farther from the JR Yufuin train station than I would have liked - on the map it looked too far to walk from the station with our luggage so we took a taxi. I read beforehand that the station offers a "Yufuin Chikki" baggage delivery service from station to participating hotels, but upon inquiry we found out the service wasn't available to this hotel. After getting to know the area, we realized the JR station was about a 15 minute walk to the inn. The inn is actually quite conveniently located. A small set of stairs nearby lets you cross a small footpath to the other side of a tiny creek. Turn right and down the street is Lake Kinrin; turn left and you find the start of the town's main shopping street - which eventually leads back towards the station. 

There are only 3 suites to this inn. The room we booked was the "Main Building Twin Room". It was more like a small Japanese house on two levels. Two twin beds were on an upper loft area, above a dining room with a traditional Japanese "kotatsu" low heated table, and a separate living room area. Very spacious. Typical Japanese-style washroom with separate areas for sink, toilet and shower/tub. The shower/tub room looked like it was an add-on to the main building - unheated and therefore cold in the morning when first starting the shower. 

Free wi-fi, but it's limited to 15 minutes per session, 4 times per day. You have to get the SSID and password from the hotel owner. I had trouble connecting to the wifi, but it might have been my problem reading the owner's handwriting. Not a big problem, since I rented a pocket wi-fi for this trip and already had a mobile internet connection.

Our Twin room had it's own patio and small open-air onsen for our private use. There were 2 other onsen that are shared between the 3 units. We reserved one of the two onsen on the first night - it had a large double glass door that opened to a nice view of an enclosed garden but this onsen was basically inside. We also tried the onsen attached to our unit which was smaller/shallower than the others. On the second day, the owner told us the other suites were not occupied so we were allowed to use the 2nd onsen - I believe this 2nd onsen is normally for the exclusive use of the 3rd and largest suite of the inn (Guest House room). Unlike the 1st shared onsen, this bath extended outside to an open-air area surrounded by a fenced-in private garden. Very beautiful and peaceful, we were able to enjoy the onsen bath outside at night with a view of the moon and stars. The owner was very friendly and helpful even though she didn't speak much English. She kindly helped adjust the water temperature when my wife originally found the onsen water to be too hot.

There is also a fish foot spa which is free for hotel guests, but costs ¥500 to anyone else. The foot bath seemed to be popular with people just visiting the area, but we didn't try it.

The husband and wife owners of this inn were very friendly and helpful. They live in the adjoining part of the main building - their living room is the hotel's "front desk". The wife didn't speak much English but seemed to go out of her way to make sure were taken care of. The husband spoke better English and likewise was very friendly. After we checked out, he showed us the Guest House (very nice!) and the new private open-air onsen for that suite that is under construction. He also mentioned plans to convert their large living room section of the house into 2 additional guest suites (eventually 5 suites total instead of 3). During the day, e.g. when we first checked in there was an additional woman employee there who spoke good English. 

Overall, we are glad we stayed in Yufuin instead of Beppu, and we particularly enjoyed our relaxing stay at this inn. Not sure if we'll ever be back this way, but if we were I'd definitely stay here again. Sorry for the lenthy review - since there are very few reviews of this hotel in English, I hope someone finds this information useful.

Yufuin is a lovely town, and is usually considered the smaller cousin of the more popular Beppu. This was our first visit to Kyushu and being from crowded Singapore, we decided to spend a night in small, less touristy Yufuin just to tick the box for having visited the Oita prefecture. Having stayed at many ryokans (fifth time in Japan), Yume Hiroba ranks right up there.
Location - couldn't be better. Just 3mins from Lake Kinrin, and a bridge across to the main walking lane where all the interesting shops are. 
Room - not your usual traditional Japanese or Western. The one we had had two levels. Ground floor was the living room and upstairs was the sleeping area. More than enough space for 2 pax, or even 4 pax for that matter. There was an on-suite toilet, bathroom and also an outdoor balcony. 
Facilities - there are 2 outdoor onsens in the ryokan for 3 rooms. Which means we had more than sufficient opportunities to reserve one of the onsens for our private use. The ryokan also has a fish foot spa which is free of charge for guests to use. Do try it, it's really cute. 
Food - breakfast and dinner were traditional japanese kaiseki. We were given 2 choices for dinner: traditional japanese or beef sukiyaki. On top of that, the owner of the ryokan gave us a pleasant surprise: award winning Oita horse mackerel sashimi... the whole fish!!! And it was amazing. Quality of the food and vegetable dishes were fresh and refined. 
Service - this was the first ryokan we stayed at that made us feel so much at home. Owner and his wife knows basic English and were very friendly. If you meet them do have a chat with them. It certainly made our stay extremely memorable. 
Price - worth every penny spent. 
Overall - loved everything about the ryokan and its lovely town. Would be most happy to visit again next time we're back in Kyushu.

Yufu

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Best stay I've ever had in Japan!

Great Onsen Experience - A Highlight Trip

Excellent in every way

Breakfast included

Free Internet

Transfer

Parking

Suitable for children

Swimming Pool

Fitness centre

Bar or restaurant

For guests with disabilities

Conference hall

Spa Services

Ski slope nearby

Beach nearby

Air-conditioning

Pets allowed

Jacuzzi

Private Bathroom

Kitchen

Balcony

View from the window

Smoking allowed

Electric car charging

Yufuin Yumehiroba Bettei

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For corporate clients