Kamenoi Besso

The resort is one of the top 3 onsen resorts in Yufuin and its best advantage is it is right next to Kinrin Lake, and a short walk from the Main Street of Yufuin. The resort is nicely built of old fashioned Japanese villas and the rooms are all traditional style with big spacious areas. There is a big public onsen which is nicely designed. Our room has 2 private onsens, one inside and one outside. The staff are nice. The food however is good but not excellent

Outstanding and genuinely classic Japanese style Ryokan with superb meals, spacious room, and exceptional onsen in the room. The property is enormous as a Ryokan while there are only 20 rooms. A lot of privacy and the annex has a gift shop, restaurant and a bar and they are all high quality. A coffee room has an antique gramophone and guests can listen to SP vinyl (not LP) at night for an hour. You will feel as if it is in early 1900.

My wife and I had a lovely getaway here during the first few days of November. We got lucky to score a reservation, and even luckier catch the changing leaves at their peak. The western-style room is spacious and beautifully designed with mostly wood and stone materials. Having the private onsen in the room is so nice, and also the shared rotenburo is beautiful. The food and service were outstanding - on par with an elite hotel. All of the staff went above and beyond to make us feel welcome and taken care of. We had no negative staff interactions. One interesting thing is that right outside the entrance, there are loads of tourists hanging around all day long taking photos of the gardens around the river and visiting the shops. So while inside the gates it's totally quiet, it's pretty crowded and vibrant just outside. One of our highlights was visiting the Yamaneko bar downstairs after dinner!

The island of Kyushu is out of the way for the typical tourist in Japan. The island does have a number of nature hikes/vistas/rivers that are well worth seeing, as well as having excellent sea food and their unique variations on yoshoku dishes that are delicious. One of the attractions are the many hot springs around the cities of Beppu and Yufuin. Luckily, we were treated to a two night stay at the Kamenoi Besso. It’s a truly remarkable collection of cottages that have had a lot of Japanese craftsmanship put into the room interiors. Its quite pricy (the cost listed is per person) but bear in mind that the price includes an excellent dinner and breakfast. We shared the western and Japanese style breakfast and I believe that the breakfast was the best I’ve ever had. Service was top-notch. Listening to the gramophone in their old library was an unexpected treat that is difficult to put into words…Right outside the hotel there is a lovely lake and when we were there in late November steam would rise off the warm lake water in the cold early morning light making quite a beautiful scene. Otherwise, the immediate area surrounding the hotel is very touristy (its on the Chinese/Korean bus tour stops). If you can get there and want to delight your eyes and taste buds, and relax, I recommend staying here.

This is a wonderful place to stay. Our room included a bedroom, dining room and fabulous onsen style bathroom.|We chose Japanese bedding, and it was incredibly comfortable.|We had a private dinner party for 4 in our dining room, the meal was exceptional and the service excellent.|The bath was amazing, steaming hot mineral water.|We wish we had stayed longer!

This was our first stay at a ryokan where all our meals were served to us in the room which was magical!||Our Japanese travel agent booked us into this ryokan. It is located near the lake and within walking distance of some small cafes and shops. The lake is very popular with Korean tourist bus groups!||We arrived mid afternoon and were able to check in and go to the room. The front office staff didn’t speak much English but a very lovely lady who spoke some English was able to show us around our room and also served our dinner to us. ||Our room was very large with a separate bedroom area from the lounge although older. It was apparently one of the older ryokans in the area. We didn’t see a lot of other guests (although we didn’t go to the public bath). It has a private bath in the room which was lovely!||The dinner we had was a keiseki and was exceptional - one of the best we have had. We could also choose from sake and wine options to go with the meal. ||The ryokan also had a lounge area where you could listen to old albums and a bar. ||We had a great breakfast in our room the next morning. We had the option of either a western or Japanese breakfast. I had the western breakfast with soup (?), yogurt,|Omelette with sausage and ham, as well as toast. It was very well done!||Check out was at 1100. ||Yufuin and Kamenoi Besso was definitely one of the highlights of our trip!

Kamenoi Besso is a great experience for children as well as adults. The traditional style Japanese houses and library was a cozy relaxing place to stay and the houses were very private and tranquil. The staff were very helpful, speaking a little English when possible. Even though we only stayed one night the food we got to eat was great, serving food not only appetizing to adults but to children as well. You could chose whether you wanted a western or Japanese style dinner and breakfast.||The rooms were very roomy and the baths were great. Not only was there a shower but there was an indoor as well as an outdoor onsen with adjustable temperature. The living room could be transformed into a bedroom if you asked your Nakai-San (staff member) to lay out the Futon (traditional Japanese bed).||If you wanted there was a library near to your room with a antique gramophone and records covering the walls. There was even a fireplace and free coffee or tea if you wanted to have a drink.||This is definitely a 5 star Ryokan!!||

This ryokan is supposedly one of the best in Yufuin, so on our trip there we decided to stop by and have lunch at its restaurant Yunotake and it turned out to be a huge disappointment. We didn't have a reservation and were made to wait over half an hour while groups and groups of guests left and there were empty tables everywhere in the restaurant. We asked the reception why they kept us waiting while there were so many empty tables, the old man at the reception was cold and simply told us to keep waiting. We left in the end without lunch. Maybe they don't care because we were not in house guests but they completely forgot that walk in guests could someday become in house guests and their attitude just made sure that we will never set foot in this ryokan again. A truly great place would make sure their service is always up to standard to any type of guests and this place just proved that it is not such a place.