Ryokan Onsen for 1 person

I will be travelling solo for 1st time, planning to visit Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hakone on mid of March. I want to stay 1 night at a ryokan with open air bath and good kaiseki. My budget is around 13000-15000.

1. Is it too much to stay at ryokan for only 1 person?
2. Any idea where can I find good ryokan near the area I'm visiting, preferrably with private onsen? I was thinking to stay a night at Hakone. Kobe seems to have some good ones too.
3. If no private onsen, any suggestion for places with less crowded onsen and not mixed between man and woman?
4. Any tips on which day is good to visit onsen e.g weekend or weekday ?

If you're looking for a ryokan onsen somewhere near Tokyo that accepts 1-person guest, I'd recommend Kusatsu Onsen Kiyoshigekan. They have private baths (which you can book) and also indoor and outdoor public baths. The price is about 8150 yen per night, or 8650 yen with meal. It's in Gunma prefecture, though. You can book online through their website (just Google). This is an advantage over many ryokan which only has websites in Japanese.

try using sites like www.booking.com or http://travel.rakuten.com/ , there are many ryokan that provide onsen, or private onsen rental for free or a small fee, in room onsen is not possible at your price range, too me many ryokan at hakone are priced quite high, there are cheap one's, cheaper one's are at kusatsu, or atami/ito area.

After finding the right ryokan from booking site, try to search for their official site, the price can be slightly cheaper or offer breakfast and dinner for similar price, to those on booking site without extra's.

Murakami Seirin, I have checked the ryokan and I love it! The price is also reasonable and the website in English is awesome! I don't mind travelling to Gunma for this! Thank you for the recommendation.

Any idea which area I can explore more in Gunma or nearby Gunma? Shall I make a trip back to Tokyo or I can continue to Osaka in between?

kms899, the rakuten website is great! It will be very helpful in doing the booking. Thank you!

Here are some information about kusatsu http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7400.html , it's more of a town, nice place to visit, probably the best onsen is Otakinoyu bath in Kusatsu, it's more of a bath house, but it's rated very high, I don't think there are mix onsen in Kusatsu.

If you can driving, this place is good, although you can get there by bus. But it's a mix onsen, and probably the best looking one with a wonderful surroundings.

http://www.takaragawa.com/

Forgot to mention, majority of the ryokan are available for solo booking, you just need to know where to look.

booking.com and rakuten allows solo bookings as long as the ryokan is available from their site.

I'm very interested visiting Kusatsu. Most likely I'll do it on the trip from Kyoto back to Tokyo.

I've checked rakuten and some website like japanguesthouse. When I search the availability for 1 adult, can I trust that the website's recommended ryokan really accept 1 adult? I saw some feedback that sole travellers got rejected at the ryokan.

I previously tried booking through Japanguesthouse which states that they accept 1 person booking, only to have them emailing back to me later on that they don't. That's just one of them though, so I wouldn't generalize and say that they're completely inaccurate, but the chances are, if they don't, they will most likely tell you so. I'm speaking for Japanguesthouse only, not sure about Rakuten.

If you up your budget, I can totally recommend Hotel Zuiho Akiu Onsen outside Sendai, Sakura ryokan section......each room has its own outdoor Onsen bath overlooking the gorge, amazing Kaiseki cuisine, and access to all the public onsen areas of the hotel. It is sublime. But may be beyond the budget.

You will have a better chance of booking a room for one if you stay on a weekday. Weekends are usually busy, and since they can get four people in the same room that one person would take they are not going to accept a single traveler.

Rakuten, booking.com and hotels.com all have bookings for solo travelers, been using them during my 2 times visit to Japan, and so far my third visit in june, including places like Kusatsu, Atami, Minakami, Yokohama and Tokyo.

No rejection yet.