和鹿彩別邸

This review is for a room in the annex. Good: - Spacious tatami room with comfortable futons and delicious tea - Private wooden bathtub in the room, albeit with a bit of black mold on the shower curtain - Rooftop terrace with 360 views of Nara city and the surrounding mountains - Public baths in both the main building and the annex - Helpful, friendly service Great: - Large private bath on the roof of the main building, reservable for a reasonable fee. Sunset is highly recommended - Location out of the tourist madness but only 15 min walk to the station and the deer park

Great place to experience Ryokan style. The staff is so friendly and helpful and the building is very beautiful you can tell they keep everything very clean and comfortable. The Japanese style breakfast is very different to western style and I recommend you to try it.

Pros:||- Warm welcome with yuzu tea and red bean cookies, staff gave us tour of the hotel and showed us a map of the nearby attractions.||- Very close to Nara park, about a 10 minute walk to lots of attractions.||- I enjoyed our open air bath on the balcony, although a bit small if you're trying to fit two! ;)||- Lovely room, best sleep I got on my trip was on these futons on the tatami mats. View was not as great but I appreciated the nearby mountains at least.||- The kaiseki dinner was a fun experience and ours came with a magic show, I liked about 90% of what was served but keep in mind that it's very traditional so there were a few things that weren't quite to our tastes. The hospitality was lovely, though.||||Cons:||- Breakfast was kind of not great, if I'm being honest. My husband enjoyed the Western option well enough but the Japanese breakfast was kind of not to my liking unfortunately.||- Definitely expensive, although the stay did include 2 meals and the in room bath I don't know if I would pay that price again.

We absolutely loved it here! After three trips to Japan, this is definitely my favorite hotel. As mentioned in other posts, this property is the "annex" of the main Wakasa hotel. It's very new, very clean, and very nicely appointed. The room was really stunning. Everything you could hope for in a ryokan and more. We also loved our balcony tub and the onsen facilities upstairs were perfect. The staff were extremely generous, providing great suggestions and going out of their to help us in every way. The location of this hotel couldn't be better. It's right across the street from the park, just a short walk to Todai-ji and the gardens, temples, and friendly deer! Nara is a magical place and this was the perfect hotel for our trip. Wish we could have stayed much longer.

Wakasa Bettei was an absolute joy and we have vowed to return here at our next opportunity, hopefully during the fall's change of seasons. There are nice conveniences, such as WIFI, flat screen TV, fridge, hot water pot, many electrical outlets for charging phones and cameras, split system air conditioning, washlets, digitally controlled furo, and double sink vanity.||Yet the traditional ryokan with shoji doors, tatami mats, floor seating, and futon beds provide comforts and serenity not found in most western hotels. The room was spacious and clean, with all of the tea sets and cups decorated with deer figures, which are supposed to be messengers of the gods. ||The ryokan is located just a short block from the main thoroughfare Hwy 169 through Nara, and within walking distance to the deer park and temples. We also ventured to the older business district on foot, a leisurely stroll of about 2 hours to shop along a covered alley off Hwy 369 located just east of the Kintetsu Nara train station. We found a shop called Akiyama that sold a variety of pickled vegetables, like narazuke, that we especially liked. There are also many other shops selling local goods and foods unique to this area.||The best breakfast and dinner was at our ryokan, where a fabulous spread was prepared with fish, meat, and vegetables. If you plan to stay here, add the meals! No regrets! As an added bonus you can enjoy their onsen too after a nice day of sightseeing and shopping! The staff is very polite and helpful, several are able to speak enough english to communicate with us. Excellent location, facilities, food, and staff! Highly recommended!

Short review.||Room: 4/5, Onsen: 4/5, Staff: 4/5, Location: 4/5, Breakfast: 3/5||||Long review:||First a disclaimer: this was our first stay at a ryokan, so we didn't have anything to measure against. That said, it Wakasa Bettei had been a great introduction to the Japanese ryonkan experience.||||Our room (303) was very spacious and clean. It has a small bathroom and outdoor hot tub, which we didn't use as we preferred the larger public onsen. There are 2 of those - one in the main wing (New Wakasa Hotel), which opens during the day; and another on the 4th floor of where we were at. In fact, we just needed to climb a flight of stairs to access it.||||The hotel appears to have aged a little, and the decor is a strange combination of faux-Art Noveau and modern Japanese styles. But that is quickly overlooked by the room we got and of course, the staff on hand, who were courteous and helpful without being intrusive. ||||The breakfast, while hearty and artfully arranged, was so-so at best. We did not take the dinner option, as there are plenty of restaurants to check out.||||Location-wise, it is about a 10 to 12 minute walk from major attractions. There is a walking map provided and we spent an entire day doing just that, and coming back to a hot soak after a great dinner will just about cap our experience in Nara.

We stayed here for two nights in Nara and it was perfect. We originally had a room that was loud due to construction but the staff was very accommodating and moved us to a new room that was quiet and perfect. It is a short walk to Todoji temple, the food is interesting and good and the staff was great. We also tried the onset and had a massage.

I really didn't enjoy this hotel so much. It is well located and while smallish the room was decent and clean, in a nice "modern ryokan" style. However, I had two gripes. The first was that, having tired a little of Japanese breakfasts, we chose for the Western option one morning to be presented with food that was truly horrible - a cold omelette smeared in ketchup and a plate of grilled vegetables swimming in oil. The second is that I found the service almost aggressively obsequious. I could do just as I liked as long as it was what the hotel wanted me to do. This is partly a cultural issue I know but jot wholly, sincerity is something you can feel or not feel, I believe. It is the only hotel I have ever stayed in where I was telephoned at 07:30 a.m. to confirm the time I was having breakfast and then again at 22:45 on the same day to be told that some of my bill had to be paid in cash. Both of these times are rather outside the window of what I consider to be wholly considerate.