Takayama Ouan

An amazing onsen-hotel in central Takayama with a rooftop onsen that has an astonishing view of the town and surrounding area (in addition of being a pretty decent onsen in its own right, both indoor and outdoor, plus private alternatives to the main public facility). The view from the upper floor rooms is also exceptional, and as mentioned at the start, location almost cannot get any better. The room itself it pretty decent (with a minor caveat, see below), and with a bed that feels like a modern take on the traditional futon. Can also recommend the breakfast option. While I would not say there is no room for improvement, in this price category, and in this location, it deserves a 10/10!

We can’t recommend this place enough! Fantastic location, only 4 mins away from Takayama Station, 30 mins walk to Hida no sato (the folk village). There are no shoes allowed inside the hotel, you take them off when you enter and put them in a locker. The interior design of the hotel is so beautiful, looks very traditional, with tatami floors throughout and japanese style rooms with huge futon beds. Our room was really big, and only cost us €50 per night - crazy value for money. They have a public onsen and 3 private ones on the 13th floor, the private onsens are on a first come first served basis, with a 30 mins time limit. On the same floor they offer free icecream. Every night for 1 hour they give out free bowls of ramen, it’s not fancy ramen but it’s a very nice gesture and it’s free so what more could you ask for. There’s even a free to use foot bath, just outside the main entrance, with hot spring water, which anyone can use, whether they are a guest at the hotel or not. All in all we had a fantastic stay and would happily come back anytime. Hotel Ouan, おつかれさまでした.

The location is conveient, about 7 mins walk from from the Takayama Train Station and the Takayama Niho Bus Center (they are both next to each other). They serve breakfast with the same selection everyday and offer supper, ramen at 9.30pm to 10.10pm. There is complementary coffee and tea, afternoon ice shavings with sweet sauce. They don't have any lunch or dinner. The room is good size and adequate. The onsen is good and well equipped. It is probably the highlight of the night because all restaurants and cafes close between 5pm to 7pm They have private onsen rooms for use for 30mins each. it is a busy place with many guests from Europe and Japanese, Spain being the highest followed by Germans. It is a baby and kids friendly place. I see bikers and there is a carwash facilities. Take note that you cannot war shoes after the hotel lobby so bring more socks. The entire flooring is super clean. Shoe cabinets are provided and lots of the seats to wear your shoes. The hotel has an outside public foot onsen for tired feet but bring your own towels.

The onsens (natural hot spring baths) both public and private were awesome being on the upper floor. The ice cream bars in the afternoon were a great bonus. Takayama was a great place to visit. Hint: The non-reserved bus tickets for Shirakawa-go work just fine because Nohi provides as many busses as there are customers. For both going to and coming from. The lineup starts earlier than 20 minutes before the bus is scheduled to leave but if you show up earlier, they'll take a bus load as soon as a bus load are standing in line. Since we had to check out at 10, we walked over, got in line, and within a few minutes were being loaded onto a bus. So we got to Shirakawa-go about 30 minutes earlier than planned.

The 3 private onsen here were absolutely incredible, with breathtaking views of the city and mountains. I only wish the public onsens were tattoo friendly - I would have loved to be able to use them as most of the hotel guests wanted to use the private ones and as it was the busy Autumn festival, this created a lot of queues for the private baths and apparently the women's public bath was often empty. Otherwise a wonderful stay - the breakfast was worth the extra fee and the free late night ramen was a great bonus - as were the free ice block after the spa!