Arima Onsen Motoyu Ryuusenkaku

If you are seeking a traditional and affordable onsen hotel experience, Motoyu Ryuusenkaku was your choice. Decor is old school and everything is explained in English for visitors with various posts and signs throughout the hotel. There were many unique rules and for English speakers, please spend time reading through it. The service was relatively good and the staffs, despite being overwhelmed, were friendly. We were assigned to a few Mandarin/Chinese speaking staffs, which helped to improve our impression of the hotel. There was really little around the hotel, other than a small downtown area that you could find in various Japanese onsen towns. There were some eateries, coffee shops and souvenir shops that most people occupy their time between lunch and dinner. While the food was rather unimpressive, I would still recommend you to book one of those packages because of limited food options. However I will recommend you to pay extra for additional meat or dishes or premium items. I will also stop by a convenience stores and stock up on snacks and drinks too. There were fridges in the room for you to use. Breakfast was no longer semi-buffet style as advertised. You get a traditional cold bento box with unlimited rice and soup refills. Both quality and quantity are poor. The room itself is fine, but it was very dated. The highlight of the hotel are the various indoor and outdoor saunas, and I advice you to try it all. You can rent a private onsen for a minimum charge especially small families and mixed-sex couples want to experience onsen together. Onsen is single sex only in Japan because you are not allowed to wear any clothes. They also have a lovely heated swimming pool too. I am not sure if I will recommend it highly but if you want an authentic onsen experience with a limited budget, Motoyu is not a bad choice. However if you have a larger budget, I will seek out another more luxurious onsen hotel.

The room was big, and had a beautiful view of the mountains with autumn foliage beginning to show. The lobby is quite nice, with a little gift shop. The staff speak English well and are quite friendly. We loved the DINNER! Kobe beef was incredible, as was the rest of the courses. We enjoyed the private onsen as well as the public outdoor onsens. The downside was the breakfast experience… the restaurant felt more like a cafeteria at a childcare faciity than I higher end hotel. We were sat right in the middle of the room (not a table by a window), with each of the other tables surrounding us had several kids and/or babies. There were also toys all over the restaurant… and all of the empty tables were very messy… I do think this hotel m is really catering to families, but… it really cheapened the experience for us, and we wish we had had our breakfast in our room instead. Other than that it was a great experience. I think we probably over paid for what it was, and perhaps next time we would search for an adults-only Ryokan… but we still loved it!

Wonderful experience!!! Service is excellent and the place is nice. We got the family suite room, which is good for kids to play with. Kobe beef is unbeatable, YUMMY YUMMY!!! The price is not cheap but worth it. We drove and it's free parking.