Hotel Yakushima Sanso

I stayed here with my son for two nights. The hotel is very dated, think 50's or 60's. There's no way to sugar coat that reality. But having said that, our room was very large, had a good view and there was a separate tatami room where my son was able to have his own space and rolled out a futon at night to sleep . The room was clean and the best surprise of all was a wooden soaking tub. In true Japanese tradition there was a bench and wooden bucket so you could wash off first before getting into the tub. I spent about 30 minutes in the bathroom between the tub the hand held shower and the stool and bucket. There is also a communal tub which we saw but did not use. The highlight, aside from the tubs, would have to be the food. For dinner we had about eight courses of beautifully prepared food. On the second night I wasn't feeling well so the chef very graciously provided me with an exceptional vegetarian meal. The hotel is quite close to the little town of Ambo. If you are looking for a modern hotel this would not be the place for you. But if you want something very authentic, you would like this place . The staff spoke minimal English but spoke enough to understand we needed to get to the airport for our trip back to Osaka . Rather than call a cab, the owner drove us there himself.

Sometimes it doesn't matter if the hotel is luxurious, 1st class etc, in order to be the best hotel you have ever been to. Yakushima-senso hotel is different! The service is EXCELLENT, the staff is FANTASTIC, the food is LEGENDARY and our stay was more than just pleasant! We stayed there with our karate team and we were treated like kings! The receptionist was speaking perfect English (unlike most hotels in Japan), there is free wi-fi in the reception area (important, I haven't seen this in MANY hotels in Japan) and on top of everything, in the morning, we received breakfast ON BOARD a beautiful boat that took us for a nice excursion on the river. We were treated as special guests and all of that was in the price! UNBELIEVABLE!!! The corridors in the hotel didn't give me a good impression in the beginning (They seem ugly) but this was the last thing I cared, the way we were treated really surpassed EVERY expectation! The price may seem expensive to some, but when you stay there, you will realize after all these things that you are paying WAY LESS than what you get in the end! Maybe the best hotel I have ever been to and I have travelled to more than 100 cities!