Hirayu Prince Hotel

“Nice short stay after hiking the Japan Alps”

Hotel has quite, clean rooms with 3 private outdoor onsen pools for hotel guests. The meals are excellent and plentiful. The hotel is not far from bus station (within easy walking distance). Highly recommended!

“Go for the onsen ... and just soak!”

Hirayu Onsen is a little off the beaten track, so if you want to try somewhere a little less popular & over-crowded, this place is good. The hotel itself is rather old and a wee bit run-down ... but, most places are nowadays. Some of the showcases located throughout the hotel are fairly dusty insid… more

Hirayu Onsen is a little off the beaten track, so if you want to try somewhere a little less popular & over-crowded, this place is good. The hotel itself is rather old and a wee bit run-down ... but, most places are nowadays. Some of the showcases located throughout the hotel are fairly dusty inside but, certainly adds authenticity to the place. However, the rooms are very clean and provide the bare essentials. It's reasonably priced. For the price range, the food is good ... with a fairly large variety of things (esp. mountain veggies) to try but, not such a big volume. Big eaters will go hungry. For breakfast, I would have liked to have had a leaf of houba miso each, but we had to share one (I guess not everyone loves it), so that's life. Best of all, are the 3 private outside baths ... we tried each one & each one is different. There is really no place to wash there, but they do have an inside bath, for that. The spring water is silky & great! Some rather shy or nervous types of bathers might not like them, as you can see part of the hotel from the far end of the bath. If you're under the covered areas, there's nothing to worry about, though. Even though it was full occupancy we weren't bothered by any noise or crowdedness. We had no trouble getting the private baths outside (no waiting, each time). We will undoubtedly go again, one day.

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“Reasonable budget choice, but...”

We were here as part of an organised tour so had no choice over accommodation or meal. No connection with "Prince" hotels in other cities. Having checked online, this is at the budget end of the Kamikochi hotels. The hotel is past its best and needs some money spent to bring it up to average or bet… more

We were here as part of an organised tour so had no choice over accommodation or meal. No connection with "Prince" hotels in other cities. Having checked online, this is at the budget end of the Kamikochi hotels. The hotel is past its best and needs some money spent to bring it up to average or better. The good points: (A) 3 individual rotemburo available, good if they meet your needs, washing area poor but our pool was big, enjoyable, easy to relax (B) rooms are big and bed linen is clean. We were 2 but the room could sleep 5 or 6 easily (C) we didn't see this till the following morning in daylight, but a great Japanese garden visible from the lounge/front area (D) generally quite traditional and old fashioned. But the countering bad points are: (A) the main ofuro was grim, possibly amongst the poorest I've seen in Japan. Slippery floors (gasp) added to the general run-down air. (B) In general the rooms were tatty, wall panels well worn, furniture somewhat distressed, paper screens in group dining areas very, very stained, mainly in yellow but also torn in several places (B2) smoking policy is generally from the 1980s, ashtrays everywhere, contributed to the yellowing of the decor (C) our Hida beef meal was very fatty, you could hardly spot the meat bits; the rest of it was ok. So in CONCLUSION, a bit of a mixed bag. You'll get the old-Japan feel but you'll miss the quality available elsewhere. On a captive tour you may have no choice and you'll get a taste, but only a small one, of what there is; but if travelling independently and with room in the budget, you might want to consider spending another couple of thousand yen per person and improving the meal and/or choice of hotel. Obviously you're in the middle of some jaw-dropping scenery and the hiking, relaxation,photography etc will be the reason you came. This might do for you if you want a simple place to stay, without the frills.

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