Izu Shuzenji Onsen Hotel Takitei

Very good hotel, hot springs are good, food is good. I was satisfied with it. My friends are going to recommend it. This time I was very satisfied.

This was a mixture of hotel and traditional ryokan. The room was spacious, the onsen (hot spring baths) were fantastic, as were the traditional Japanese breakfasts and banquet dinners. We stayed 2 nights and really enjoyed the experience.

We were the only Westerners here during our 2 night stay. Most of the guests we saw were Chinese tourists. The hotel has an excellent location for walking to the major tourist spots in town, but it required an expensive taxi ride from JR station in Shuzenji. (There is a bus but we felt it would be difficult with luggage). The pleasant staff made check-in easy. The hotel is gigantic, but it does not have that many rooms. The huge lobby had many overstuffed chairs, a souvenir sales area, and a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream freezer, which, being Vermonters, made us feel right at home. The rooms were large and nicely priced for the area, which is why we choose this hotel. We had a large Japanese style corner room with lots of windows. There was a beautiful tokonoma and a balcony with a not very grand view to the commercial town and the hills in the distance. We found the motion detector that turned on the light in the en suite toilet a bit of a problem, since the light didn’t stay on very long and seemed to be on a short timer. Our room and the halls could use a bit of an upgrade - everything looked and felt old and tired, with stained walls and carpets. Dinner on both nights was good and was different each night. The wait staff was a bit overly enthused about Christmas (wearing reindeer and Santa Claus hats), and overly intrusive (something we haven’t run into on our many visits in Japan). The breakfast buffet was the same each day, but there was plenty to choose from. The dining room was noisy and had absolutely no atmosphere - it was just a barren large open space that felt like a cafeteria or one of those huge characterless dining rooms we used to see in China. The hot springs was pleasant and not too busy when we used the facilities. The hotel worked for us, but it does have its drawbacks. I gave it a "Very Good" rating, but that does come with caveats.