Private Onsen in Hakone Pricey?

Hi there,,

My family of 3 would like to spend a night in Hakone an extended trip from Tokyo, we would love to have a private onsen in our room but from what we gather, most are pricey. Cheapest per room is averaging 20,000Yen, are they always so pricey?

Is there something suited for family?

Rooms with private onsen are extremely pricey as that is a luxury generally reserved for top level rooms. Add in that Hakone is generally more expensive than normal, and you're looking at some pretty pricey rooms.
In fact a room with a private bath for 20,000 yen per person actually sounds quite good.

But if that is outside your budget then look for places that offer private family baths (kashikiri). They are not in the room, but are still private baths that you can rent out for a period of time (typically 45-60 minutes for roughly 2000-5000 yen).

Hello yllwsmrf,

Thank you for your prompt reply. Appreciate your recommendation, this is an area which we didn't know possible - rental of the family onsen for few hours.

And from the current situation, we might have some alternative options

If not too much to ask, would you know of any hotels or ryokan you can recommend? I using Tripadvisor to navigate but usually the individual booking engines don't really indicate the private onsen for rental.

Sorry to trouble you. But I appreciate your feedback.

Many thanks

To be honest (and I've stayed in 4 or 5 places over the years where we ended up being given a room with in-room onsen bath), I wouldn't look for in-room bath.

In-room baths are only really found in top-notch ryokan. In those type of ryokan, they will typically have invested a lot of resource into making the public baths and the kashikiri baths REALLY special (i.e. they might be large, be made out of aromatic cedar wood, have great views, etc), and while the in-room bathes will be nice, they are generally nowhere near as good as the public baths or kashikiri baths.

I realise that you're wanting an in-room bath so that you can bathe with your family, and of course it's lovely to all have a bath together, and that compensates for the quality (and size) of the bath not being absolutely the best. Ideally (assuming you're not bothered about being naked in front of other people), you could find a mixed bathing place.

Otherwise, if it were me, I'd rather find a ryokan with several kashikiri baths as well as a lovely public rotemburo. Typically, I'd have three or four baths over the course of an overnight stay. If I was able to have two kashikiri baths with my family, and then go twice in the rotemburo, that would be the perfect balance for me.

Also note that Y20,000 per person per night for a ryokan room with in-room onsen bath isn't hugely expensive (in terms of how much it costs to stay in a ryokan generally).

Actually it's quite cheap (assuming you're not getting the price for a room with an in-room onsen mixed up with a room that simply has a toilet and sink. Sometimes the terminology is confusing, and you may find that "in-room bath" or a similar phrase is used to distinguish room that have toilet and simple washing facilities from rooms where you have to share communal toilets/bathrooms).

In the first place, you're getting kaiseki dinner and an amazing breakfast (which would cost you a lot of money, and which are pretty unique. There's certainly nowhere in my country that serves such ornate food - well, there are a couple of places that try to come close, but a meal there would cost you the equivalent of Y20000 without drinks.

In the second place, a room in a Toyoko Inn can cost you Y10,000.

Staying in an onsen ryokan is a unique experience. It's not a budget option, but it can often be very good value for money.