Watarase Onsen Hotel Sasayuri

Nice hotel with good baths. Friendly staff and cool/different rooms.

This is one of the onsen hotels of the same group in Watarase onsen - used to be one of three, now it’s one of two since they closed the third one. Sasayuri is the nicer one and it’s a classic onsen hotel with large rooms and the usual public bath amenities. You have to call the hotel in advance to book the free shuttle pick up (15 min away) from Hongu Taisha mae bus stop which is convenient for those walking the Kumano Kodo and/touring the Hongu Taisha. Excellent service from reception staff to restaurant staff to driver. We organised luggage shuttle delivery (another company called Torii) and the hotel reception were great in making sure our bag was rightly labelled. They also helped us with getting small change for our bus fare. Food was good - not outstanding if I’m being picky as compared to other onsen hotels; but plentiful and delicious. The only area of improvement for dinner serving staff to serve up the dishes in a better order - eg let us finish the sashimi first before serving the hot dishes. The hotel has a public indoor bath. For outdoor onsen baths you can use the ones in the neighbouring (same chain) hotel which is a short 5 min walk via a connecting suspension footbridge. Rooms are very spacious, slightly dated but that’s the vibe of most onsen hotels in Japan anyway. Free coffee in the lobby. WiFi was good. Overall great location to stay for those doing the Kumano Kodo hike. I would give this a 3.5 out of 5, but TripAdvisor doesn’t allow half points.

Tried to check out and could not as they did not have staff to take payment. Had to leave to make it to bus in order to catch my train and flight. Has to go to extraordinary lengths to pay them after. Also extremely overpriced for this hotel, would never come back.