Yufuin Ryokan Gettouan

All the rooms at this inn are detached, but I don't think they're particularly good. Inexperienced travelers and foreign tourists visiting Japan may be attracted by the location and scenery of the inn, but experienced travelers will feel that it's just a formality. The standard main building detached rooms are very cramped, and the voices and sounds of people in the open-air bath can be heard in the corridor outside, so privacy is not guaranteed. I was surprised to see that there were even rooms surrounded by corridors on all sides. The special rooms in the annex are quiet and peaceful, but the open-air bath attached to the room is as small as a dog washing area. What's the point of neglecting your favorite hot spring when you're in a great hot spring resort?

The inn's selling point is that it has a total of 18 detached guest rooms on a vast site of 10,000 tsubo (approx. 33,000 m2). All of the rooms have an open-air bath, but for better or worse, it was more of a "we just made the detached open-air baths for the sake of appearance." People who are not used to traveling or foreign tourists visiting Japan may be attracted by the location and atmosphere of the inn, but for those who are a little more experienced, I got the strong impression that it was a half-baked inn, contrary to the selling point. Despite the large site and good location, most of the standard detached buildings are built tightly together in one place, surrounded on all sides by wooden fences, plants, and walkways, with a layout like a row of single-story detached houses. The distance between the detached buildings is narrow, and the walkways and detached buildings are built in a small space close to each other, so when you walk down the walkway in front of the detached buildings, you can hear the voices of people bathing in the open-air baths attached to their rooms. Surprisingly, there was even a detached building that was surrounded by walkways on all four sides, and the layout lacked consideration for privacy. The open-air bath attached to the special room was also terrible. The open-air bath attached to the room was only in name; it was built under the eaves, with no decent plants, pebbles rolling around in front of it, and was surprisingly small. It was only the size of a unit bath that could fit one adult, so it was not even possible for the whole family to soak in the bath together. There was no place to pour yourself over yourself or wash, so if you wanted to wash, you had to go back into the indoor bath first. I have stayed in many rooms with open-air baths before, but I have never seen such a low-quality open-air bath attached to the room at a hotel in this price range.

My family of four planned a trip to Fukuoka and decided to visit Yufuin to experience outdoor onsen. I came across Yufuin Gettouan during my research, and its beauty and tranquility really spoke to me. We only stayed one night because of the lack of availability (and also because it's really expensive), but we really wish we would have stayed longer. There was a "once in a decade" snowstorm (which seems to occur more frequently than once a decade) when we took the Yufuin no Mori from Fukuoka to Yufuin. As always, fresh white snow makes everything more beautiful (at least in my opinion), and despite my high expectations, I was absolutely blown away by the beauty and serenity of this ryokan. We stayed in a main villa because the annex villas didn't allow kids, but it still has its own private outdoor onsen. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that there was no indoor shower/bathtub in the villa. Since we were not brave enough to take a shower outdoor in snowy conditions, we ended up going to the public bath to take a shower before heading back to the villa and hopping into the private outdoor onsen. It's an unbelievable experience watching the snow falls while being submerged in a cozy onsen! Service and meals were both exceptional, and I would have gone into more details if not for the 1500-character limit on TripAdvisor. If you are looking for a traditional onsen ryokan experience, you really can't go wrong with Yufuin Gettouan. My only regret was only staying for one night.