Arima Onsen worth it?

Hi,
Just booked flights for a 4 week trip from 25.10-22.11, flying to Osaka, leaving from Fukuoka.
7th time in Japan, idea is mostly Shikoku (never been) + parts of Kyushu we missed (Oita) with hopefully our 2nd attendance at the Sumo tournament in Fukuoka before we leave.

Anyway, flying from Zurich, flights are sadly now longer due to the horrors of the war in Ukraine so I was thinking of starting our trip in a relaxed fashion to get over jet lag, recover and was ourselves into the trip.
I initially thought that we should hop on the ferry from the airport to Kobe for a few days but now wonder if we should go straight to Arima Onsen for a night or so and then spend a few days in Kobe.

Arima Onsen is clearly well known for it's great water but in photos, it doesn't look the prettiest.
What do you guys think of it?
Worth doing as I planned or would you have a better recommendation?

Personal opinion is there is much better onsen towns in Kyushu.

there is much better onsen towns in Kyushu.

I think many Japanese agree with this opinion.

However Arima has several high-end ryokan so if they are in your price range it will be nice. These high end ryokan are for just enjoy foods and ryokan experience by itself. But they are still less expensive than high end hotels in Tokyo or big cities in the first world.

I've visited Arima Onsen and it's pretty enough without being spectacular.

Like most onsen towns, there is not much to do apart from a short walk around and the actual onsens

As such, see the Ryokan as the destination, not the town itself

I was thinking of starting our trip in a relaxed fashion to get over jet lag,

Relaxing upon arrival in Arima onsen is a good idea . It is a small onsen town, easy to navigate, and a few beautiful ryokans to choose from. Also the end of Oct could just be perfect timing for autumn colour.

Hi
Fellow European here. My only thought on why it might be a bad idea is that if you�fre likely to be suffering from jet lag then ryokan living might not be good

I am still to meet anyone that has a good reason to spend one day/night in Kobe let alone several. Relaxing at an onsen sounds a nice option as a start to a four week trip.

Personal opinion is there is much better onsen towns in Kyushu.

@H I am aware of this, I have been spoilt previous in places like Kurokawa Onsen, Unzen Onsen and Kinosaki Onsen. However, I won't be in Kyushu till probably the final week of the trip.
This was just an idea of a pleasant easy way to start off after a long journey.

------------------------------

@frog1954 Any particular Ryokan recommendations?

------------------------------

As such, see the Ryokan as the destination, not the town itself
@mfedley - This does seem good advice.

------------------------------

@Winter Visitor I don't quite understand, why would you say Ryokan wouldn't be suitable if suffering from jet lag ?

------------------------------
I am still to meet anyone that has a good reason to spend one day/night in Kobe let alone several. Relaxing at an onsen sounds a nice option as a start to a four week trip.

@JapanCustomTours I'm surprised to read such a low opinion on Kobe, I obviously haven't yet been but on this site https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2159.html there seems to be plenty.
We generally enjoy medium-sized Japanese cities and the idea of having an easy couple of days enjoying the nice ropeway views, exploring the harbour, Sake breweries, museums and great food seem appealing.
I had the impression from others that Kobe was a very pleasant city.


Does anyone have a better suggestion of how to start the trip?

Any particular Ryokan recommendations?

I have not been to Arima onsen though I lived in Kansai area until 28 (now 69), but as far as I searched, Nakanobo Zuien seems to be nice. However their English website is quite tricky.

Tosen Goshobo seems to be also nice.

Re jetlag and ryokans: I was thinking that the regimented aspect of ryokans (meal timings, futons being put away in the daytime, etc) wouldn't fit with my experience of jetlag, and that I'd be wasting my money.

in defense of Kobe i want to add some comment:
i didnt expect anything nice at all from kobe. but a friend wanted to visit it (mainly because of the chinese town and the museum by Tadao Ando) so i joined.

turns out, it is a really cool town with lots of nice vibes. especially the prominade on the sea (harbour area). to me, it feels like the japanese version of the city of Amsterdam in some way: lively, buzzy. also somehow modern (especially if interested in modern architecture).

defiantly worth a day trip. - to my own surprise.

so @JapanCustomTours i report as the one you are searching for. :-)

Kobe was ironically my first location I visited in Japan (for work). It does not have heaps to do - but it is easy to travel around and is well contained. My trip info (including Arima Onsen) is below:

https://www.japan-guide.com/community/mfedley/report-3373
https://www.japan-guide.com/community/mfedley/report-3374
https://www.japan-guide.com/community/mfedley/report-3375

For Arima Onsen - I also think that visiting a really nice onsen ryokan when you are jet lagged might not be great as you can't enjoy it as much as you should. There are a couple of large onsen hotel chains (think 10,000 yen with a room and 2 meals) which would be great for this. The food is not as good as a nice ryokan though. I'd also not visit Arima onsen if you were not going to visit the onsen itself.

After 2020 we stayed Kobe three times, twice for Hanshin Tigers (most Japanese are big fan of this great team) games. Beside Hanshin Tigers we loved Nunobiki Herb garden. In the past Kobe was famous for Kitano residences of early foreign settlers, but the boom is gone so the Kitano seems rather vacant as compared to the past.

We stayed Hotel Okura Kobe twice and once Hotel La Suite Kobe Harborland.

Hotel Okura Kobe: Nice view of Kobe port if you book harvour view room.
Hotel La Suite Kobe Harborland: Spacious room with jacuzzi.

Thanks a lot for all the useful info, this forum rarely disappoints.
Will investigate further and try to piece together my itinerary more, might be that it makes sense to try and go straight towards Takamatsu where the "main" part of the trip starts as a few days in Hyogo might mean having to ditch Oita.
In any case, this thread has convinced me that I would enjoy a few days in Kobe with a soak in Arima Onsen but the points about maybe not being the best moment to enjoy a "nice" ryokan make some sense.

Kobe is definitely not worth missing Oita over. Oita has a lot of great sites and better onsen. I've been to Kobe many times, and it's not a place to get excited about. It wouldn't even make the top 500 for places I'd ever recommend visiting in Japan. It has some sites, and I guess you are committed to visiting Kobe but it feels like a pity for anyone to come from abroad to spend limited travel days in Kobe.

As for Arima Onsen, it's unnecessarily annoying to get there and expensive, but it's not bad. It's historically famous, so there is that appeal, and it has some good water. I went a month ago and it was very crowded. You had to wait in line to enter the onsen.
If I were doing a Kobe/Arima Onsen overnight, I'd just do 1 night in Arima Onsen with one day in Arima Onsen and one day in Kobe but move on to spend the night elsewhere so that you can start the following day someplace interesting without losing time.

If I had to choose between Kobe and Oita - then Oita Prefecture (not so much the city) has a lot more going for it. I personally see Kobe as a place to visit when you've visited all of the other locations around it - which is what I did when I re-visited it in 2019.

Some ideas for Oita

Usuki - small pretty town with very unique stone buddhas.

https://www.japan-guide.com/community/mfedley/report-2893

Yufuin - ok onsen town with really good water

https://www.japan-guide.com/community/mfedley/report-2890

Hita - a place you won't visit unless you have a car

https://www.japan-guide.com/community/mfedley/report-2892

Beppu - it's tacky but that's half of the fun. Potentially second best choice of onsen waters in Japan (I personally prefer Noboribetsu in Hokkaido)

https://www.japan-guide.com/community/mfedley/report-2892

Oita City - I'd give this place a miss

https://www.japan-guide.com/community/mfedley/report-2887

Kitsuki - a rather impressive Samurai town which is severely under visited by tourists

https://www.japan-guide.com/community/mfedley/report-2886

Hiji - small rather unknown town near Beppu.

https://www.japan-guide.com/community/mfedley/report-2884

Kunisaki Hanto - a very unique set of mountain worship temples that are impressive but are difficult driving. As a person who has visited Japan a bit too much - this place felt special

https://www.japan-guide.com/community/mfedley/report-2883

The best thing with Oita is many of the towns above have onsen hotels and are often a fraction of the price of Arima Onsen.

Thanks very much, Arima Onsen firmly ruled out for this trip.
Thanks for the Oita links, Kitsuki is a place I'm considering, I fancy some hiking on the Kunisaki Peninsula and/or Kiki mountains.