Hikyou Shirakawagensen Sansou Takefue

I love this traditional Onsen Ryokan. The staff was super nice and the breakfast and dinner was super generous. We had to ask them to stop bringing food.

There was not a lof of space for my luggages. and not a lot of drawer space for my clothes. But I didn't go out much and only needed 1 pair of clothes during my stay.

The location is perfect for a short getaway! The room is beautiful and comfortable. Staff are helpful and cheerful.The half board meals were delicious and very filling. They also gave us plenty of goodies for the road!

The rooms, albeit nice, were showing signs of age. Found old towels and a used swimsuit lying around in rental onsen, which kind of dampened the mood to relax.

I liked the location of the hotel and attention the staff gave to us. Every room has a private onsen which was also a major plus and ours was very large. Food was excellent.

I wished the staff explained a bit more of the property to us. While discovering was nice, there were something they could do better such as explaining the onsen bookings and how to get to them.

Great location (lots of nearby towns, hikes and vistas that are breathtaking). Incredible greeting from the staff as you arrive. Privacy due to the small number of guests. Excellent food of very high standards in overwhelming quantities, including a very memorable meal of bbq in the garden while it rained. Lovely wardrobe of clothes including warmer wear for evenings and chilly weather. Beautiful and special private onsens in the room.

It felt like something that must have been really special historically had been made formulaic and perfunctory. I left feeling management had commercialised what used to be an out of the world experience and not allowed for anything beyond designated components. Our butler was amazingly warm and polite, but he was stretched across multiple guests which meant he wasn’t available as often as we would expect, was sometimes late to our meal start times, did not help us sit down or get something to drink the first time we went to the garden to listen to the flute player. A daily itinerary was given to us on day 1 but never again. The citrus fruits used in our room’s onsen were taken away after use on day two and never replaced. The booking we made for one of the onsens at the hotel was forgotten; we arrived at the lobby at the appointed time, they took 10 minutes to find the booking and then rather than extending the booking to compensate still asked us to be done within 35 minutes (rather than the full hour). At small luxury hotels elsewhere, the GM would make an effort to stop by and check on guests but we didn’t experience that here and in fact were met with coldness. Similarly, if we asked about things to do near the hotel, there would be a plethora of options and an offer to help arrange things — but we struggled with that here. We asked about using the indoor dining areas within the hotel that were often empty and were told this wouldn’t be an option — without explanation. The flute player’s performances were the same every night which feels strange considering the price point. I would not visit again sadly.