Hakone Yuyado Zen

You feel very welcome and the staff is very polite.

We had a lovely two night stay at Zen! We enjoyed every moment – with our favorites being the Kaiseki dinners and the private onsen with a view. The environment was relaxing and lovely, and the people were top notch! In particular, we greatly appreciated their help with various logistics questions (buses, trains, attraction closures, etc), along with his warm and attentive approach throughout the stay. Because one day of our stay involved torrential rain all day, we opted to hunker down in our pretty room, open the windows, and lazily nap on the uber comfortable bed, watching the gentle rain, hearing the birds still singing throughout, and dipping into our private onsen whenever the mood struck. Zen is located further afoot from the towns (such as Gora, where we first stayed). Our plan worked perfectly: Two nights in Gora first, followed by two nights of luxury in Zen. If the weather had cooperated, we would have been in an excellent position to see the black eggs up in Owakudani, and to walk in the grassy picturesque fields also within a short distance. If you get the Hakone Free Pass, you’ll be able to move around fairly easily between various areas of Hakone from Zen (they will pick you up from the bus stop if you have a phone plan that can call them) – you just need to be mindful of the time so that you can return back in plenty of time for the decadent meals!

There's nothing we didn't like! Only the thought that since it is a tad more remote, it's nice to experience two locations if you're able to split your time.

It’s very serene and tranquil as it is hidden in the middle of the hill. Just perfect for some urban escapee like us. The condition of the facility is very well maintained and the staffs’ quality of service and attentiveness is just marvellous. The omakase dinner and even their daily Japanese style breakfast had never fail to surprise us on the level of detail and how elaborate they could be.

Nothing really that was displeasing. Was only hoping to have a lake view somehow but this location is more on the mountain side of view which is equally fantastic

The staff went out of their way to make us feel like kings. Google classifies this hotel as a 3 star, but the treatment you get here is definitely 5 star. When we arrived in the pouring rain, the staff held an umbrella over us to walk us from the station to the pick up car, then from the car to the hotel. During check in, they gave us welcome drinks and dried our luggages while we waited. Then they took our luggages to our room for us. Food was also amazing, every meal was a luxurious restaurant experience, with over 10 courses for dinner and almost 7 courses for breakfast

If I had to nitpick, the lounge chair on the balcony next to the onsen is a bit uncomfortable, but I was able to remedy that by taking some of the many seat pillows they provide for some cushioning If you want pick up from the stations, make sure you have some way to call them by phone. I had to switch to my US sim card to make the call because we only got the data plan Japanese SIM card