Tanabe Hotels with Parvekkeita

I was about to give bad reviews due to some poor check-in experience, but everything after check in is so good that compensates this journey. First, the check-in process that brings me with bad experience: it is self-served and there is no any staff. By rights you should receive an instruction email with check-in PIN in advance, which I heard from other guests. However, I didn’t receive anything but Trip’s confirmation letter and I was unable to check in. And my sim card in Japan is just an internet card unable to make phone calls, which means I have no way to contact the hotel directly. My partner and I were desperately locked out of the hotel in the evening, after 7h hiking, with no other available hotel in the mountain. After waiting for over 1 hour, other guests helped us to enter the admin room where there is an ipad to call the hotel (why not make it available to guests without checking in?), and with the help of Trip’s agency, we finally checked in successfully. Then here is the staying experience: so good that makes me almost forgive the poor check-in experience. Each room is a spacious individual house and ours has a garden for BBQ. The food is also self-served, with the cooking stuffs and ingredients in the fridge. It was unexpected that you need to cook yourself (I don’t think it was listed on room info when I booked it), but it’s not bad that Wagyu, chicken, and vegetables are served. The rooms are big and cozy, and you can do the laundry after hiking. Everything is good about the hotel itself, just be aware of the self-checkin process and make sure you get the instructions before that.

This hotel is perfect for a relaxing one day stay. It’s right beside a sapphire-blue river in the middle of the mountains. The in-room onsen is more than big enough for two people and they also have communal baths. They also offer a free shuttle to the start of a stretch of the Kumano Kodo if you want to hike the next day.