Name: Watarase Onsen Hotel
Address: 45-1 Hongucho Wataze, Tanabe, Tanabe, Tanabe, 647-1733, Japan
Rating: 9

Shopping on site

Air conditioning

Smoking areas

Smoke-free property

Heating

Newspapers

Gift shop

Garden

Television in lobby

Reception desk

Electric car charging

General

Fridge

Hairdryer

Alarm clock

Rooms

Accessibility features

Wheelchair Accessible

Wheelchair access to restaurant

Accessibility

Safe-deposit box

Wake-up service

Telephone

Services and amenities

Breakfast

Restaurant

Vending machine

Kitchen

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Transfer services

Transfer

Bike rental

Hiking

Recreation

Free parking

Parking nearby

Parking

Conference Hall

Business

Massage

Sauna

Beauty and wellness

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

At the hotel

Room amenities

Nanki–Shirahama Airport

Watarase Onsen Hotel

Tanabe

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

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king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

park access

Lovely and friendly staff.  The property is an old school onsen hotel.  The furnishing is a bit dated, but everything is very clean.  The private onsen is a bonus and the large public onsen area was beautiful and relaxing.  Dinner was nicely presented and delicious.

Lovely Relaxing Onsen Hotel

The hotel is quite secluded so you will need a car to go there. From my limited Japanese knowledge, they seem to have one pick up and drop off time to train station (might be Hongu). The staff did not speak lots of English so do download a Japanese English translation app before you go, I think that would be useful. There is no free wifi there so google translate won't work.

The room was very tidy, staff were friendly and the food was amazing. The public bath was very nice with all the nice lotions, shampoo and shower gel etc. The onsen was perfect, if you go at night time, you can see the star and moon. There were 4 private onsen bath available but you do have to get there early! We went at 6:30am in the morning and it was the most peaceful place on earth.

Good food, nice bath and great service

We took the latest bus from Shingu to Watarase Onsen, when we arrive, it was so dark, we had to call hotel to pick up us from the bus stop. The hotel has very big outdoor onsen, it was so nice. but the room had no shower and aslo too cold inside. The breakfast was only so so to compare with other Onsen hotel. Anyway, we like the onsen so much!

Good Onsen, but very normal hotel

Situated along the historic Kumamo Kodo pilgrimage route, the Watarase Onsen complex comprises 3 hotels catering to different budgets. Sasayuri is targeted at the high end, with very large rooms, good service, great meals, and access to one of the largest open air hot spring baths (rotenburo) in Japan. They will pick up and drop off at Shirahama station for free if you make advance arrangements, which makes it easy to access this hotel, which is nestled in the mountains.
This hotel also offers free access to family (private) baths, as well as free use of massage chairs in the lobby.
A wonderful mountain retreat that is more accessible than you think. 

Great baths, peaceful atmosphere

This is one of the onsen hotels of the same group in Watarase onsen - used to be one of three, now it’s one of two since they closed the third one. Sasayuri is the nicer one and it’s a classic onsen hotel with large rooms and the usual public bath amenities. You have to call the hotel in advance to book the free shuttle pick up (15 min away) from Hongu Taisha mae bus stop which is convenient for those walking the Kumano Kodo and/touring the Hongu Taisha. 

Excellent service from reception staff to restaurant staff to driver.  We organised luggage shuttle delivery (another company called Torii) and the hotel reception were great in making sure our bag was rightly labelled. They also helped us with getting small change for our bus fare. 

Food was good - not outstanding if I’m being picky as compared to other onsen hotels; but plentiful and delicious. The only area of improvement for dinner serving staff to serve up the dishes in a better order - eg let us finish the sashimi first before serving the hot dishes. 

The hotel has a public indoor bath. For outdoor onsen baths you can use the ones in the neighbouring (same chain) hotel which is a short 5 min walk via a connecting suspension footbridge. 

Rooms are very spacious, slightly dated but that’s the vibe of most onsen hotels in Japan anyway. Free coffee in the lobby. WiFi was good. 

Overall great location to stay for those doing the Kumano Kodo hike. 

I would give this a 3.5 out of 5, but TripAdvisor doesn’t allow half points.

Great service at a standard onsen hotel. Great outdoor onsens.

Tried to check out and could not as they did not have staff to take payment. Had to leave to make it to bus in order to catch my train and flight. Has to go to extraordinary lengths to pay them after. Also extremely overpriced for this hotel, would never come back.

Watarase Onsen Hotel

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