Nakaya Ryokan

Very traditional Ryokan with amazing food and staff. The baths were very relaxing

Staff were exceptional, food was excellent, and the onsens were amazing!

The staff are fantastic, super welcoming and the onsen is geared for families with kids/babies - even having two (cooler) private family baths where your baby/toddler can join you in a special shallow area, which was a real highlight. Breakfast was tasty and varied too

Despite booking specifically for the kaiseki ryori, which is mentioned as a highlight in a number of other booking.com reviews, we were served a bento meal. This was disappointing but we initially assumed that was what everyone got - until we left our room and saw literally every other room (who all had babies)was receiving kaiseki. Sadly missing out rather ruined our stay which we'd been looking forward to as a highlight of the holiday. On mentioning this to staff in the morning we were told the booking.com package only comes with a bento meal (despite plenty of reviews apparently to the contrary) - so be warned (especially if Western and travelling with a small child), you may be served a burger instead of the elaborate cuisine everyone else gets! It also made it a rather expensive stay at almost twice the price of other local options.

Breakfast was authentic and the staff were friendly in general except for one young chap, who was tasked to show us to our room but didn’t help with any of our luggages seeing our hands and backs were full.

We need to make our own bed (futon) for both nights. It was quite an experience but something unexpected for the amount we paid.