Kawayu-Onsen Fujiya

One of the best onsen stays we have experienced. |The hotel is old, but clean and very spacious. We had a Japanese style room with huge sliding windows that opened up to let in the fresh mountain air.|There are 2 ladies and 2 men's onsen baths to choose from, or you can just cross the road and sit in the river which has hot water bubbling up.|The staff were so helpful and nice. Good English spoken by reception. |But best of all was the food. Best food experience ever! Everything delicious and beautifully presented. I cannot give enough praise.

We stayed here one night as part of our Kumano Kodo trek, and it was one of our favourite stays. As others have said, it's a slightly older hotel, but the amenities and staff were all great! I also think it's on par for the area, if you want a modern hotel you stay in the cities. The hotel accommodated a lovely vegetarian dinner and breakfast for me (pre-organised). Tattoos were fine in the onsen (the outdoor onsen was especially peaceful). A bonus for us was then coin-operated laundry area. The room was large and comfortable, beautiful views of the river, and ours also had a shower. For the remoteness of the area, I don't think you could ask for more.

This place is great. It is an older place but the 70s decor was amazing and still in good condition. Everything was clean and well maintained. They absolutely stuffed us with delicious food and the staff at reception were super helpful with all our requests.

Avoid staying at this hotel if possible, and don’t let the pictures fool you as these are probably more than 20 years old. We had a really bad vibe staying there. Additionally, the male receptionist had dirty nails longer than Kim K, and these were not fake. If this is not enough, they charged us to use the complimentary table tennis table. As they were not cheap enough from before.. However, the onsen outside in the river is beautiful and should be experienced. With that said, there are other hotels close by that surely is a better option.

This place is just lovely. My partner and I spent three nights here while visiting Kumano Kodo, during a long trip to Japan. Having hiked Kumano once before, I had a vision of coming back and NOT doing the pilgrimage version where you schlep all your stuff. Instead, I wanted one fixed home base to come back to between day hikes. This was it! The hotel is charming. Delightfully old fashioned/traditional architecturally. Immaculately clean. The baths are large and beautiful — outdoor was my favorite. Very often I had the onsen to myself. Our room was a Japanese-style room with tatami mats and futon cushions on the floor. We’re westerners—never slept that way before but we found it charming and comfortable. We’re fussy sleepers too, so it’s a testament to the place that we slept well. Everyone was very nice and accommodating. And maybe the best part: the meals! Oh, the meals. Elaborate, visually beautiful, incredibly fresh, variety for days. It was truly exceptional food for breakfast and dinner, and we never had the same meal twice. What a joy to come back from a long hike to a big, delicious spread and a soak. Like much of Japan, it was also a serene, quiet environment in the hotel and the dining room. Never felt crowded. And I am pretty sure all the rooms have beautiful views of the Kawayu river. Last thing I’ll say: we had a rental car. It was easy to park here, and for that matter, easy to get used to driving in the area (we’re from the US). Car isn’t necessary but it made some things possible that I couldn’t do on my previous, bus-based visit. Anyway, I loved this hotel, would gladly come back, can’t imagine finding better food in Wakayama, and I’m frankly surprised that the rating isn’t higher!

The room is quite spacious in comparison to other hotels. The bathroom was separated into three spaces. Everything was clean and a peaceful atmosphere was reigning all around. The views of the river from the room are very beautiful and we had the experience of a traditional Japanese dinner and breakfast wearing yukatas. There’s not much to do close to the hotel after dark falls, or places where you can buy stuff, but if you need fresh drinks you can have them at the vending machines which are inside the hotel. Even if you don’t feel having a bath in the river I recommend at least to soak your feet in it; it is very comfortable after walking long distances….

Stayed at this Ryokan in Mid-December. After checking out various reviews of Kawayu Onsen Fujiya on multiple booking sites, we had swayed back and forth over a span of several months as whether to cancel or stay. Here's my honest review. General Hotel Upkeep 1/5 Food 3/5 (Dinner 4/5, Breakfast 2/5) Room with Open air bath 3.5/5 Public Onsen Facilities 4/5 Overall 3.5/5 Value for money 3/5 average. This hotel has the potential to be so good if the general upkeep is improved. Understandably, the times of COVID probably had a big impact on it finances hence it's barely able to get by even now. In most cases, everything is kind of average without being too knit-picky on every last detail. My only gripe is that they don't clean the filters on their hair dryers so the air flow is weak. I personally cleaned the one in the our room, and magic, good as new. Cleaners should really improve their attention to detail.

If we could give this 0 stars we would. Avoid this hotel like the plague. It is literally falling apart, it’s disgusting and filthy inside. There is mould, strange smells everywhere and we wanted to leave the second we checked in. We booked the western style room which was dusty and full of insects. Stains all over the sofa which we opted out of sitting on. There was a musty dark liquid dripping inside the fridge which clearly hadn’t been cleaned since it was installed. The bath had algae all over it and mould on the surrounding walls. The lobby is reminiscent of a Wes Anderson movie gone wrong. It’s depressing and just plain sad. The food is of a poor standard. We were told they could cater for us vegetarians but the food contained fish stock which should have been made clear. Our food was raw and uncooked and we left most of it. The staff are rude and quite frankly inhospitable. They woke us up with a telephone call we did not ask for and called us again 15 minutes before checkout to tell us to get out of the room. It’s quite clear that this hotel has had no care put into it nor any maintenance in the past couple of decades. A lick of paint and a good clean could go a long way. Maybe it was magical in the past but there was nothing magical about our stay. It’s a beautiful location spoilt by a poorly run miss sold hotel. We just wanted to get out there as soon as we could.