Japan is a country that embraces both technological and economic advancement as well as pride in preserving its rich culture, tradition, and history. This makes it home to a multitude of unique and fascinating experiences, which has attracted people from all over the world eager to get a taste of their unparalleled hospitality and experiences. One of the things we wanted to do in Japan was to stay at a ryokan – a traditional Japanese inn. Unlike a typical hotel or even a resort, ryokan allows its visitors to really immerse themselves in the heart of Japanese tradition in every respect, be it through dining, activities, traditional dress, and atmosphere.

Still, an experience like this can come with quite a price tag. All the work involved in running a ryokan can make a one-night stay in the same realms of a resort, which is why we believe it best that if you’re going to be paying for the experience, it may as well be best suited to what you’re looking for. While there’s nothing wrong with consulting the countless listicles online of the best ryokan in Japan, a little bit of planning may find you a more appropriate place to stay for your wants, budget, and itinerary, meaning you don’t have to fork up for amenities you’re not using or miss out on things you want to do.

This is a guide based on our own experiences in searching for a ryokan. It contains information that we felt would have been useful to know before we’d begun looking for one to stay at, so it may not be 100% accurate, but we have done our best to be as comprehensive as possible.

Features of a Ryokan

The first step in choosing a ryokan is to understand how a ryokan works, which means breaking down each of the experiences that a typical ryokan might offer. These are:

• Meals
• Rooms
• Onsen hot springs
• Location
• Dates
• Extras (eg. upgrades)

Nowadays, there are ryokan with more modern facilities, and some that cater to foreign tourists better than others, so each stay can vary immensely. More important still is that every factor can affect the price, meaning that for one night per person, you could be paying anywhere between 2-10 times more for a premium experience compared to a basic room, so let’s go over each one. We’ll cover what is a standard or mid-priced option ($$), and what can make an experience cheaper ($), as compared to what can make it more expensive ($$$). Some ryokan may offer a number of options, whereas in others you may not be able to choose.

MEALS

Ryokan are famous for traditional Japanese cuisine, and more specifically kaiseki, a style of haute cuisine which involves multiple courses that showcase a collection of skills, cooking styles, and local ingredients such as regional wagyu beef or fresh seafood. Each kaiseki will differ by ryokan, but it is very high-class dining. Kaiseki is one of the experiences that many people go to a ryokan for.

Kaiseki is the common dinner option when staying at a ryokan, and this is what you can usually expect to receive if dinner is included in the booking.

• $ It is cheaper to opt out of kaiseki dinner meal.
• $$ A standard kaiseki dinner meal, which offers local and seasonal Japanese dishes.
• $$$ There are sometimes options such as premium kaiseki. There may also be options to add extra specialty dishes such as wagyu beef or sea bream dishes, but this depends on the ryokan, the season, and the region.

Breakfast can also vary, and often a ryokan will not have options, but rather it will only serve one style of breakfast.

• $ Omit breakfast at the ryokan.
• $$ Breakfast buffets in the lobby, which can include Japanese offerings such as rice or western dishes like bread, egg dishes, and pastries, are often the standard option for cheaper ryokan.
• $$$ Japanese-style breakfasts, which is like kaiseki but simpler and lighter, can mean a more expensive experience. This is especially the case if breakfast is served in your room (see below).

The way that meals are served can also affect the price. Ryokan may offer multiple options for dining, or some may only have one option.

• $ If meals are served in a dining hall (お食事処), this is usually a cheaper experience as it is not as labour-intensive as the other option. Dining halls can also either be open halls like restaurants, separated by screens for privacy, or in private dining rooms ($$).
• $$$ Meals are traditionally brought up to your room, much like room service (お部屋食) but a lot more controlled. There are multiple courses so the staff are required to come in and out to change plates and dishes, which involves a lot of time, labour, and planning.

ROOMS

Many ryokan nowadays have options for western-style (和室) and Japanese-style rooms (和室). The different room styles may or may not affect the price.

• Western-style (和室) This usually means a western-style bed. The décor may also be “western-style”, and can resemble a standard hotel.
• Japanese-style (和室) This usually means that you use futon bedding, which consist of mattresses that are spread onto the floor. The floor is often tatami mats, which are softer flooring material to accommodate for sleeping on the floor.
• Japanese-Western (和洋室) These rooms have aspects of both, including futon bedding on mattresses and bed frames, so as to provide a more comfortable experience.

Room sizes can also affect the price. Like any hotel, bigger rooms, better views, or available facilities can affect the price.

ONSEN HOT SPRINGS

Of course, much of a ryokan experience is the onsen hot springs. Typically speaking, onsen water is geothermally heated and may contain mineral oils or salts. Onsen towns are common as Japan is a volcanic country. Onsen water is supposed to have medical benefits such as improving circulation and relieving rheumatism, but the obvious reason that many people go is for shiny, gleaming skin.

There are several options for onsen, which can affect the price.

• $ Public onsen. Typically, every ryokan has a public onsen, which is separated by gender. Some ryokan offer a couple of smaller onsen rooms that can be privately reserved for a period of time such as for 60 or 90 minutes.
• $$ Room onsen. These are private bathtubs filled with the hot spring water in your rooms.
• $$$ Private semi-open air (半露天風呂) or open-air baths (露天風呂). Open-air baths generally means baths in your room that are outdoors. Semi-open-air baths have some coverage, usually a roof overhead, or it may be an indoor bathtub with a window or door to crack open, for the open-air feel. As these are much more laborious to upkeep, they are unsurprisingly the most expensive options.

Please remember onsen etiquette, especially if you are using public baths. There are sometimes signs in the bathrooms that tell you how to use onsen, which usually involves undressing at the changing areas, taking a shower at the cubicles, and then soaking in the hot spring baths. It is recommended that you avoid using the baths if you have open sores or cuts, or if you are on your period, due to hygiene reasons. It is also recommended that you do not submerge your head in a hot spring bath.

Remember that these rules are in place to maintain a shared space, and also for your own health.

LOCATION

Japan has many onsen regions such as Beppu or Hakone. Hakone is also famous because of its proximity to Mt. Fuji, with many ryokan charging a premium if its rooms or baths feature a view of the mountain. Location is therefore an unexpectedly large consideration in picking a ryokan.

• $ Ryokan which don’t feature stunning nature views, such as in the middle of nowhere or on the outskirts of the city, are often a little bit cheaper.
• $$ As ryokan boast a full healing experience, we’ve found that many are located so that you can see a nice view of nature or a body of water from your room or from the onsen.
• $$$ If you have a view of the mountains, the sea, or any famous natural landmark, you can expect to shell up.

It is also important to note that those places with nicer views can sometimes be a little out of the way for many people. It may pay to search for ryokan in nature-heavy areas nearby to places you are already visiting, so as to not find yourself travelling for hours just to reach a perfect ryokan.

Some ryokan offer services which pick up guests at the nearest train station, which is handy for travelers especially in more rural areas.

DATES

As expected, Fridays and weekends can mean a more expensive stay. If you are visiting in high-travel periods such as during Golden Week, which is a week in Japan with consecutive public holidays, the price of a room will go up, just like any standard hotel around the world.

Some ryokan offer earlybird discounts for those who book the accommodation in advance.

ROOM UPGRADES

In addition to all the above, which can affect the price of a room, you can also add to your booking which can heavily affect the price. This includes upgrades to meal plans as stated before, but can also be beauty and health packages such as for massages, and gifts such as flower arrangements, or even cake, if you’re visiting for celebration. Each ryokan will vary.

Basic Steps in Choosing a Ryokan

Now that we’ve covered most of the things that you can take into consideration when choosing a ryokan and how each can affect the price, we’ll run through how you can go about choosing one for yourself.

1. Know What You Want

Prioritise what you want out of your ryokan experience. As facilities vary wildly, and so do the preferences of each traveller, it’s the reason why choosing a ryokan based purely on experience may not be the best for everyone. We wanted the following:

• Meals: A kaiseki dinner and Japanese-style breakfast
• Room: Japanese-style rooms with futon and tatami
• Onsen Hot Spring: Room onsen or onsen that we could reserve, again so we could film privately
• Location: A nice view, either from the private or public onsen
• Date: Relatively flexible, early to mid June
• Upgrades: Meals to be served in private dining rooms or brought to our rooms, so we could film without disturbing other guests

2. Set a Budget

As expected, ryokan can get exceptionally expensive. For a night in a ryokan with a standard kaiseki meal, you can expect to pay at least ¥15,000 (US$145) per person, and that may come with the barest minimum of amenities.

We knew that with our criteria, ¥10,000 (US$95) per person for a night would be impossible. A little bit of research showed that ¥30,000 (US$285) per person would be more reasonable. We ended up paying ¥59,700 (US$790) for the both of us and we were hugely happy with our stay. For a once-in-a-lifetime stay, we were satisfied with the price. It’s important to have a ballpark figure in mind, even if it’s flexible.

3. Know Where You’re Going

Going to a ryokan is not a cheap experience, especially if you’re travelling on a budget like we were. This means that for many people, they’ll stay in a ryokan only for a night or two just for the experience before continuing with the rest of their travels. This makes the location of the ryokan much more important. There’s no point searching for a ryokan in southern Kyushu if you’re staying mostly in the central Kanto or Kansai regions.

Because Japan is a volcanic country, you’ll find many geothermal areas and onsen towns that fly mostly under the radar of foreign tourists. There are ryokan virtually everywhere throughout the country, so focus on the areas around the cities that you’re looking to be, or en route between two destinations.

We already had the JR West Sanyo-San’in Pass, starting in Hakata, Fukuoka, and allowing us train access all the way up to the central Shiga Prefecture. While our initial hopes had been to stay on Hakone for a view of Mt Fuji, we decided to make use of the unlimited JR Pass and not pay another yen for transport out of the way to a remote ryokan. We opted to look for a ryokan near Lake Biwa, the largest freshwater lake in Japan. That way, we could also get a stunning view, while maximising the JR Pass, which was a huge win-win.

4. Searching for the Perfect Ryokan

There are several websites which allow you to search for ryokan by area or facility. One surprisingly easy way of searching for ryokan is our typical method of finding any good location in general: Google Maps! Simply zoom into the region you’re interested in and enter “ryokan” or (旅館) into the search bar. This isn’t 100% sensitive, so you may need to zoom in to specific areas for more results. You can then visit the ryokan’s website for more information. Alternatively, third-party travel booking sites such as booking.com will have a range of options.

There are a number of difficulties that you may find during your search. Ryokan are very traditional, so some smaller ryokan may have very poor websites, or none at all. We had to disregard these, as we thought that they may not be able to accommodate foreign visitors very well. The second is that third-party booking sites usually have very limited options that may not showcase the full range of facilities or features that a ryokan may be able to provide. Finally, many ryokan have Japanese-only sites, or their non-Japanese websites are far less informative or comprehensive compared to their Japanese sites.

In most cases, we consistently found it best to use the Japanese website, and to rely on the browser translator to help us through. If you have the patience, we recommend you do the same, especially if you have specific goals as to what kind of ryokan you would like. For example, below are some screenshots of booking options available for the same ryokan (Ryokan Beniayu 旅館紅鮎) on booking.com, the ryokan’s English site, and the ryokan’s Japanese site. Of the three sites, there are 3, 6, and 42 options respectively, for the same dates (25/02/2021). This goes to show how many differences there are.

Japan Hotel & Ryokan Search (English)
Japan Ryokan & Hotel Association Kansai (English)
Japanese Guest Houses (English)
JTB (Japanese)

5. Plan Options

Booking on third-party sites is the same as booking any other accomodation. However, if you’re like us and want to use a ryokan’s site (Japanese or not) because there are more options, it can be confusing. In our experience there are three methods of searching, of course with some variation between each site.

Searching by Plan

There are often different “themes” that you can choose for a ryokan stay, depending on what kind of stay you’re looking for. You might be looking for a standard plan of dinner, breakfast, onsen use and a sleep, for which an English or third-party website is perfectly fine. However, if you want to tap into the 41 other options that may be available, then you will need to use the Japanese site. This can include anything like upgraded kaiseki meal plans, couples’ retreats, open-air bath options, or festive and holiday packages.

Using Ryokan Beniayu as an example, their other plans include seasonal eel kaiseki courses or luxury duck hotpot dishes, and earlybird plans with discounted prices for those who book at least 30 days in advance. Not all ryokan will feature plans such as these, and you can expect to pay extra for these. Once you select the plan you want, you can then choose a room and date for which that plan is available.

Searching by Room

Those who don’t care so much about the schmancy upgrades can also search by room. Some ryokan have vastly differing rooms to suit different themes and styles, and if you’ve got your eye on one of them, or if you have something specific in mind in terms of the room and bath style, this is a good way to filter results. One example is Mibunoshou (水生の庄) in Shizuoka, who has rooms with different bath and bed styles, located on either the ground floor or upper floors.

Searching by Availability

If you’re not too fussed about the plan or the room, you can also search by date and the number of visitors. This feature of searching is the most similar to typical third-party booking sites, and needs no explanation. Once you have the date, you can then check to see which rooms and plans are available.

6. Making a Booking

Once you’ve chosen all of the above, you can then make your booking. We recommend using the browser translation app to fill in the necessary fields. If you are required to enter a Japanese phone number, you can enter 00-0000-0000, and make a note for the staff that you have a foreign number with which they can contact you. This is probably only for emergencies, as we found that they mostly contacted us through e-mail a couple of days in advance to confirm the booking.

7. Enjoy your Stay

And that’s it! Once all the details are confirmed it should be smooth sailing. Congratulations on making it this far, and all the best for your ryokan experience. Don’t forget to follow the etiquette, and enjoy your stay.

If you’re thinking of visiting Japan we highly recommend getting a Japan Rail Pass and pocket WiFi for stress-free travel! You can check out our post on choosing the best JR Pass for you, or click here to purchase a pass on the JRPass.com website. Purchases made using our affiliate link won’t cost extra, but we earn commissions which help to support us as small creators.