Rausu Daiichi Hotel

In this small town, just before the winter road closures, the choice to build a hotel here is intriguing. While the old and new buildings have different door designs, even the older Japanese-style rooms are well maintained. The onsen, though not large, is in excellent condition. Prices are reasonable. During the winter it seems to run with minimal staff, as they were rarely seen. The atmosphere is that of a cosy public lodge.

Great location & clean room. The dinner was ok but the service was a bit disappointing. Also, from 1-8pm they allow 日帰り入浴 (not saying it’s bad) and so if you happen to be joined by a big group of them, it could be a bit noisy and difficult to relax. Generally it’s a good hotel though.

The sulphur onsen was the best. It may not look as spick and span as just the purely hot water springs as the sulphur has attained the baths considerably.||There is an attached open air bath which was warm but very nice for cooling down after soaking in one of the two very hot indoor pools. Forget the colour of the tiles that have been stained from the sulphur waters and scrub down and have a soak.||Dinner was in a very casual style restaurant but the meal was massive. I could not finish all the courses provided.||Pickles and side dishes (5 of those) then a sashimi dish or salmon, prawn and some sort of clam meat, snow crab and salt smoked salmon, a Nabi of miso salmon, eggplant, mushroom, carrot on a little brazier which cooked as you started your meal, then a miso soup, rice, baked egg custard over seafood and mushroom, and a final fish of beef curry with potato and carrot. Phew quite a lot of food.||Room very comfortable. Warmth provided by a hot water heater - which we turned off as it made the room too hot as the quilts are more than enough to sleep with. ||It was a one night stop over to try and see the fish eating owl but waiting for it until almost 21.00 we left it to the die-hard photographers. We chose to arrive at 7.45 but the owl made an appearance at 18.00 and may not reappear until 24.00 or into the early hours of the morning. But we had a morning cruise for the Stellar Sea Eagles and others, so to bed we went.||Maybe should have had two nights.

The Rausu Daiichi hotel is one of those places that is a bit of a mixture of styles. It's certainly been around quite a few years, and in some respects it's dated. But it's been well maintained and cared for although some of the items around the place could do with updating and replacing provided you're not precious about such things it's all perfectly serviceable. ||||We had checked in for a single night stay in a traditional Japanese style room and had both dinner and breakfast included in our room rate - we were not disappointed with the food which we rated VERY highly and would STRONGLY RECOMMEND to others that they they take dinner at the hotel - however you need to prebook this before you arrive. Food was served in private dining rooms in a traditional style and just enough engagement from the staff with sign language to explain what to do to get the most out of the food service. Drinks other than japanese tea were an additional cost to any food that had been prepaid, the drinks menu card as well as our dinner and breakfast is available to see in my photos.||||As others have explained, the hotel also has its own natural onsen, and although the washing room and its indoor pool looked quite stark and industrial, the outdoor pool was something quite special and web both enjoyed the outdoor bathing. I sneeked a picture of the onsen in the morning when it wasn't being used.||||There is also a little gift shop in the reception area that had a good range of local gifts and souvenirs at sensible prices. ||||I seem to recall that the internet connection via the hotels Wifi was quite slow but I think that was more to do with the local telecoms infrastructure and it being a little distance from the town centre rather than the hotel itself.||||We were not disappointed by our choice to stay at Rausu Daiichi and would return if we had the opportunity to return to this wonderful corner of Japan. We gave it a rating of Excellent mainly based upon the quality of the food which really should not be overlooked.

I chose this location due to the special rates including half board. It is half an hour away from Shiretoko area and therefore the location could be a concern. But as Shiretoko Pass was also a must to visit and Rausu offers whale watching cruises, staying in this hotel which was only 5 minutes from Rausu port was in effect quite suitable for our itinerary. Room was clean and tidy and of good size. I stayed two nights and all meals were merely fair and nothing outstanding. But you don't have reasonable dining options elsewhere. Onsen is good and the outdoor one is big. Not a bad stay.

Located a 5 minutes drive from the harbour and close to the national park visitor centre, this is a good, clean traditional hotel / ryokan with private facilities and good onsen.|Very tasty Japanese dinner and breakfast, with friendly staff who we managed to communicate with through Google translate!|A shop sells snacks and a few souvenirs if you fancy them.|If you don’t have your own car / rental then please note this is a one taxi town!! So getting to the sunrise boat cruise could be a challenge. Otherwise very good place to stay.

Nice bright reception area to sit around in .. though very draughty when doors open. Had washing and drying machines as well as a little shop. Rooms were comfortable with en-suite facilities. Heating very effective and a tad too warm. Although staff spoke little English we communicated by way of google translate very effectively. Dinner and breakfast we’re beautifully presented ..fusion of a Western/Japanese. 5 minute drive to harbour area or good 20 min walk.

Nice, clean Japanese style hotel. If you are not Japanese, beware of the rice pillows. We had a family of four in a room with 4 futons. Everyone slept comfortably! Unfortunately, we did not have the opportunity to experience a meal. I would stay here again!