Best ryokan in Gero Onsen: 5 inns compared on onsen, food and price
Five Gero Onsen ryokan compared: onsen baths in the room, Hida beef dinners, history, families and value — with the catch at each inn.
Updated Oct 29, 2026
Gero Onsen, in Gifu, is a hot-spring town on the Hida River served by JR Gero Station, and almost every inn here pipes the same silky alkaline simple spring from the town's central supply. Our five reviewed inns sit in and around the town: Gero Onsen Suimeikan is three minutes' walk from the station and Gero Onsen Ogawaya about seven, in the middle of town, both on the river; Gero Onsen Bosenkan is on the river bank beside the JR Takayama Line bridge, about 10 minutes on foot from the centre; Gero Onsen Sasara sits on a small hill on the station side of the river, looking across at the town; and Yunoshimakan is on the wooded hillside above the town. All five are classic-tier inns, and two-meal prices run from about ¥14,400 per person at Ogawaya to ¥56,000–80,000 in Sasara's two special suites.
Three of the five are big houses — Suimeikan has 264 rooms and Ogawaya 120 — so the room you book matters more than the inn's name: whether it has its own onsen bath, whether dinner comes to your room, and how far you walk to the baths. Every inn builds dinner around Hida beef, and every one restricts tattoos in its large baths. Below, the five are sorted by what you're travelling for, each with its scores, prices and main catch, taken from our full report on each ryokan.
Best for a private onsen in your room
Gero Onsen Suimeikan's Rinsenkaku wing is the surest bet: every room there has an onsen bath, and the 83㎡ open-air-bath rooms (from ¥40,700 per person) and the four 12th-floor special rooms renewed in May 2024 (from ¥55,000) are officially fed straight from the source — hot enough that guests add cold water. It is also the only wing with in-room dinner. The restored 1953 sukiya annex, Seiransō, has five rooms with onsen in kōyamaki tubs, two with private open-air baths, from about ¥66,000 per person. The catch is the rest of the inn: the budget Hisenkaku and Sansuikaku rooms mostly have ordinary bathrooms and draw 2026 complaints about age and a tobacco smell.
Gero Onsen Sasara gives 20 of its 44 rooms an open-air bath of hinoki, ceramic, rock or a hollowed log, and every Sasara-kan room looks over the town and the Hida River; two-meal rates for two in an open-air-bath room start at ¥35,420–38,720 per person on weekdays. You run the source water yourself, at about 50°C, so you wait or add tap water. Gero Onsen Ogawaya has onsen-bath rooms over the river — the inn describes Kasuga's as free-flowing — but a July 2026 guest in Koboku found a gap in the wooden screen to the next room's bath at eye level. Gero Onsen Bosenkan has just five Shikisai rooms with their own open-air bath, facing the railway bridge, from about ¥26,400 per person; the tub is for soaking only.
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Gero Onsen, Gifu — a 264-room ryokan on the Hida river, three minutes' walk from JR Gero Station
9 sources
Gero Onsen Suimeikan
下呂温泉 水明館
Gero's grand ryokan since 1932: four wings, three big baths of silky alkaline water and Hida beef everywhere — choose the Rinsenkaku wing for onsen in your room, and expect crowds and tired rooms elsewhere
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Mori, Gero, Gifu — on a small hill on the station side of the Hida River, looking across at the onsen town; free taxi transfer from JR Gero Station, and a 5–6-minute walk from the town's municipal car park
9 sources
Gero Onsen Sasara
下呂温泉 紗々羅
Gero's self-styled 'art inn' on the hill: antique-crammed lobbies, 20 of 44 rooms with their own open-air onsen, in-room Hida-beef dinners and a top-floor bath over the town lights — but breakfast underwhelms, the Moriyama wing is a long walk from the baths, and renovation noise runs until the end of 2026
- Design-Led
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Gero Onsen, Gifu — a 120-room inn on the Hida river in the middle of the hot-spring town, about seven minutes' walk from JR Gero Station
11 sources
Gero Onsen Ogawaya
下呂温泉 小川屋
Gero's big bath-hopping inn: a 100-tatami 'tatami bath', five shared baths, nine private ones and a menu of Hida-beef dinners in the middle of town — but it's a 120-room maze, the private baths cost extra, and 2026 reviews complain of queues and uneven service
Read the ConsensusArea photoGero OnsenClassic
Yunoshima, Gero, Gifu — on the Hida River beside the JR Takayama Line bridge, about 15 minutes' walk from Gero Station (free shuttle) and about 10 minutes on foot from the centre of the onsen town
10 sources
Gero Onsen Bosenkan
下呂温泉 望川館
A friendly, family-minded Gero inn founded in 1818, with a 1,100-tsubo garden, a big riverside open-air bath, Hida beef hoba-miso dinners in private rooms and trains rumbling over the bridge outside — but the building is old, the baths are partly recirculated and down a steep flight of stairs
- Historic Ryokan
Best food
Yunoshimakan is the food inn: dinner scores 4.8 across 1,460 reviews on one major site, a seasonal kaiseki built around Hida beef — shabu-shabu or steak depending on the plan, and on one plan a tasting of fillet, sirloin and rump — with hoba-wrapped grilled sushi and grilled ayu, served in private dining rooms or, on some plans, in your room. A lighter-portion course is available; A5 Hida sirloin (120g) is ¥5,500 extra. Breakfast's salmon grilled in hoba miso was 'by far the best', one guest said.
Gero Onsen Sasara puts Hida beef in every plan and serves dinner in your room or a private dining room, with Ryū no Hitomi rice cooked in a clay pot; breakfast is its weak point, a make-your-own tofu tray with no grilled fish that many 2026 reviewers found plain. Gero Onsen Bosenkan serves about ten dishes around A5 Hida beef grilled on a magnolia leaf with the head chef's own miso, in one of 18 private dining rooms or a restaurant — book a dinner plan from the start, as a September 2026 guest couldn't add one later. Gero Onsen Ogawaya ranges from the 'Triple Choice' kaiseki, where each person picks three dishes, to the seven-beef-dish Kiwami, but some 2026 guests found courses slow or the meat overcooked, and its breakfast buffet scores 3.8. Gero Onsen Suimeikan offers five restaurants, and its Hida beef steak is the dinner everyone remembers.
Gero OnsenClassic
Gero Onsen, Gifu — on the wooded hillside above the town, with a free shuttle from JR Gero Station
13 sources
Yunoshimakan
下呂温泉 湯之島館
A 1931 wooden resort inn that hosted two emperors — red-carpeted corridors, a Showa-era bar and Hida beef at 4.9 — but also a maze of stairs and a persistent musty smell
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Mori, Gero, Gifu — on a small hill on the station side of the Hida River, looking across at the onsen town; free taxi transfer from JR Gero Station, and a 5–6-minute walk from the town's municipal car park
9 sources
Gero Onsen Sasara
下呂温泉 紗々羅
Gero's self-styled 'art inn' on the hill: antique-crammed lobbies, 20 of 44 rooms with their own open-air onsen, in-room Hida-beef dinners and a top-floor bath over the town lights — but breakfast underwhelms, the Moriyama wing is a long walk from the baths, and renovation noise runs until the end of 2026
- Design-Led
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Yunoshima, Gero, Gifu — on the Hida River beside the JR Takayama Line bridge, about 15 minutes' walk from Gero Station (free shuttle) and about 10 minutes on foot from the centre of the onsen town
10 sources
Gero Onsen Bosenkan
下呂温泉 望川館
A friendly, family-minded Gero inn founded in 1818, with a 1,100-tsubo garden, a big riverside open-air bath, Hida beef hoba-miso dinners in private rooms and trains rumbling over the bridge outside — but the building is old, the baths are partly recirculated and down a steep flight of stairs
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Gero Onsen, Gifu — a 120-room inn on the Hida river in the middle of the hot-spring town, about seven minutes' walk from JR Gero Station
11 sources
Gero Onsen Ogawaya
下呂温泉 小川屋
Gero's big bath-hopping inn: a 100-tatami 'tatami bath', five shared baths, nine private ones and a menu of Hida-beef dinners in the middle of town — but it's a 120-room maze, the private baths cost extra, and 2026 reviews complain of queues and uneven service
Read the ConsensusArea photoGero OnsenClassic
Gero Onsen, Gifu — a 264-room ryokan on the Hida river, three minutes' walk from JR Gero Station
9 sources
Gero Onsen Suimeikan
下呂温泉 水明館
Gero's grand ryokan since 1932: four wings, three big baths of silky alkaline water and Hida beef everywhere — choose the Rinsenkaku wing for onsen in your room, and expect crowds and tired rooms elsewhere
- Historic Ryokan
Best for history and character
Yunoshimakan opened in 1931 as a grand resort with billiards, a dance hall and tennis courts, and its wooden main building, entrance and connecting corridor have been registered cultural properties since 2010; Emperor Showa stayed in 1958 and the present Emperor Emeritus in 1976. Guests love the red-carpeted corridors, the spiral staircase, a self-guided building tour with a stamp rally and the old Club Moonlight bar. The catch is age: several 2026 reviewers complained of a strong musty or mouldy smell (the inn says it is consulting specialists), draughty original windows, thin walls in the main building and a maze of stairs. Main-building standard rooms have no bath of their own.
Gero Onsen Bosenkan opened in 1818 as one of Gero's first inns, around a 1,100-tsubo garden, with a lobby floored in tiles an earlier owner imported from Spain. Gero Onsen Suimeikan opened in 1932, two years after the railway reached Gero, and has a noh stage on more than 10,000 tsubo of grounds. Gero Onsen Sasara, opened in 1986, calls itself an 'art inn': lobbies hung with paintings and stained glass, an indoor waterfall, a jazz bar, and a Yurari annex built by Hida temple carpenters from old timber the owner spent eight years collecting.
Gero OnsenClassic
Gero Onsen, Gifu — on the wooded hillside above the town, with a free shuttle from JR Gero Station
13 sources
Yunoshimakan
下呂温泉 湯之島館
A 1931 wooden resort inn that hosted two emperors — red-carpeted corridors, a Showa-era bar and Hida beef at 4.9 — but also a maze of stairs and a persistent musty smell
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Yunoshima, Gero, Gifu — on the Hida River beside the JR Takayama Line bridge, about 15 minutes' walk from Gero Station (free shuttle) and about 10 minutes on foot from the centre of the onsen town
10 sources
Gero Onsen Bosenkan
下呂温泉 望川館
A friendly, family-minded Gero inn founded in 1818, with a 1,100-tsubo garden, a big riverside open-air bath, Hida beef hoba-miso dinners in private rooms and trains rumbling over the bridge outside — but the building is old, the baths are partly recirculated and down a steep flight of stairs
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Gero Onsen, Gifu — a 264-room ryokan on the Hida river, three minutes' walk from JR Gero Station
9 sources
Gero Onsen Suimeikan
下呂温泉 水明館
Gero's grand ryokan since 1932: four wings, three big baths of silky alkaline water and Hida beef everywhere — choose the Rinsenkaku wing for onsen in your room, and expect crowds and tired rooms elsewhere
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Mori, Gero, Gifu — on a small hill on the station side of the Hida River, looking across at the onsen town; free taxi transfer from JR Gero Station, and a 5–6-minute walk from the town's municipal car park
9 sources
Gero Onsen Sasara
下呂温泉 紗々羅
Gero's self-styled 'art inn' on the hill: antique-crammed lobbies, 20 of 44 rooms with their own open-air onsen, in-room Hida-beef dinners and a top-floor bath over the town lights — but breakfast underwhelms, the Moriyama wing is a long walk from the baths, and renovation noise runs until the end of 2026
- Design-Led
Best for families and easy access
Gero Onsen Suimeikan is the easiest to reach: three minutes' walk from JR Gero Station, about 90 minutes by limited express from Nagoya, with a free shuttle meeting limited-express trains, wheelchair loans, handrails in the large baths and some step-free rooms. Expect tour groups, two breakfast sittings and long walks. Gero Onsen Ogawaya, about seven minutes' walk away in the middle of town, has a baby plan with nappies, a bottle-sterilising set, a private dining room and no cancellation fee if the baby falls ill — but 2026 guests report check-in queues of 30 minutes or more and getting lost between its linked buildings.
Gero Onsen Bosenkan is the most family-minded: shallow children's baths, a play space with a slide, 1,000 manga, a loft room that delighted children in 2026 and trains passing the window. The catch is that its large baths are reached from the lift by steep stairs, awkward with toddlers. Gero Onsen Sasara runs a free taxi from the station and charges preschoolers ¥1,100 without meals or bedding, but its Moriyama wing is a long walk with stairs from the baths, and renovation noise runs until 31 December 2026. Yunoshimakan welcomes children, with children's kaiseki at 50–70% of the adult rate, but it sits up a steep slope from the town and several special rooms need stairs.
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Gero Onsen, Gifu — a 264-room ryokan on the Hida river, three minutes' walk from JR Gero Station
9 sources
Gero Onsen Suimeikan
下呂温泉 水明館
Gero's grand ryokan since 1932: four wings, three big baths of silky alkaline water and Hida beef everywhere — choose the Rinsenkaku wing for onsen in your room, and expect crowds and tired rooms elsewhere
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Gero Onsen, Gifu — a 120-room inn on the Hida river in the middle of the hot-spring town, about seven minutes' walk from JR Gero Station
11 sources
Gero Onsen Ogawaya
下呂温泉 小川屋
Gero's big bath-hopping inn: a 100-tatami 'tatami bath', five shared baths, nine private ones and a menu of Hida-beef dinners in the middle of town — but it's a 120-room maze, the private baths cost extra, and 2026 reviews complain of queues and uneven service
Read the ConsensusArea photoGero OnsenClassic
Yunoshima, Gero, Gifu — on the Hida River beside the JR Takayama Line bridge, about 15 minutes' walk from Gero Station (free shuttle) and about 10 minutes on foot from the centre of the onsen town
10 sources
Gero Onsen Bosenkan
下呂温泉 望川館
A friendly, family-minded Gero inn founded in 1818, with a 1,100-tsubo garden, a big riverside open-air bath, Hida beef hoba-miso dinners in private rooms and trains rumbling over the bridge outside — but the building is old, the baths are partly recirculated and down a steep flight of stairs
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Mori, Gero, Gifu — on a small hill on the station side of the Hida River, looking across at the onsen town; free taxi transfer from JR Gero Station, and a 5–6-minute walk from the town's municipal car park
9 sources
Gero Onsen Sasara
下呂温泉 紗々羅
Gero's self-styled 'art inn' on the hill: antique-crammed lobbies, 20 of 44 rooms with their own open-air onsen, in-room Hida-beef dinners and a top-floor bath over the town lights — but breakfast underwhelms, the Moriyama wing is a long walk from the baths, and renovation noise runs until the end of 2026
- Design-Led
Gero OnsenClassic
Gero Onsen, Gifu — on the wooded hillside above the town, with a free shuttle from JR Gero Station
13 sources
Yunoshimakan
下呂温泉 湯之島館
A 1931 wooden resort inn that hosted two emperors — red-carpeted corridors, a Showa-era bar and Hida beef at 4.9 — but also a maze of stairs and a persistent musty smell
- Historic Ryokan
Best value and big baths
Gero Onsen Ogawaya, from about ¥14,400 per person with two meals, gives the most bathing for the money: the roughly 100-tatami Shirasagi no Yu bath has a soft, non-slip tatami floor, and there are four more shared baths. It scores 4.3 across 6,614 reviews on one major site (baths 4.6). Its nine private baths cost extra, and the shared baths close to guests at 10:00, an hour before check-out. Gero Onsen Bosenkan, from about ¥14,600 per person, has a large stone open-air bath over the river and three bookable private open-air baths (¥2,200 for 45 minutes); it scores 4.2 across 1,991 reviews on one major site, with facilities lowest at 3.87 on another.
Gero Onsen Suimeikan's weekday rates start around ¥16,500–20,350 per person with two meals, and every guest can use three large baths, including a ninth-floor view bath open 24 hours — but the cheapest rooms are the ones reviewers called 'old and disappointing'.
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Gero Onsen, Gifu — a 120-room inn on the Hida river in the middle of the hot-spring town, about seven minutes' walk from JR Gero Station
11 sources
Gero Onsen Ogawaya
下呂温泉 小川屋
Gero's big bath-hopping inn: a 100-tatami 'tatami bath', five shared baths, nine private ones and a menu of Hida-beef dinners in the middle of town — but it's a 120-room maze, the private baths cost extra, and 2026 reviews complain of queues and uneven service
Read the ConsensusArea photoGero OnsenClassic
Yunoshima, Gero, Gifu — on the Hida River beside the JR Takayama Line bridge, about 15 minutes' walk from Gero Station (free shuttle) and about 10 minutes on foot from the centre of the onsen town
10 sources
Gero Onsen Bosenkan
下呂温泉 望川館
A friendly, family-minded Gero inn founded in 1818, with a 1,100-tsubo garden, a big riverside open-air bath, Hida beef hoba-miso dinners in private rooms and trains rumbling over the bridge outside — but the building is old, the baths are partly recirculated and down a steep flight of stairs
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Gero Onsen, Gifu — a 264-room ryokan on the Hida river, three minutes' walk from JR Gero Station
9 sources
Gero Onsen Suimeikan
下呂温泉 水明館
Gero's grand ryokan since 1932: four wings, three big baths of silky alkaline water and Hida beef everywhere — choose the Rinsenkaku wing for onsen in your room, and expect crowds and tired rooms elsewhere
- Historic Ryokan
What's in the water
Yunoshimakan is the only inn of the five with its own spring, an alkaline simple spring (pH 8.9) struck in 1928 that supplies every room bath and even the showers; its large baths, though, are partly recirculated, and one stay report felt the aroma was mostly lost. The others draw on Gero's central supply. Gero Onsen Suimeikan's official notice says free-flowing with partial recirculation and filtration, tap water added, no heating and chlorinated as Gifu rules require; its two private baths are 100% spring water. Gero Onsen Bosenkan posts its baths as partly recirculated, with fresh spring water flowing in at 48 L a minute and disinfection.
Be more careful elsewhere. Gero Onsen Sasara says every bath uses source water, but one major booking site lists its spring as diluted, heated and recirculated without saying which baths. Gero Onsen Ogawaya describes its onsen-room baths and the seven private baths in its Yuragi annex as free-flowing, but does not say how its large shared baths are run.
Gero OnsenClassic
Gero Onsen, Gifu — on the wooded hillside above the town, with a free shuttle from JR Gero Station
13 sources
Yunoshimakan
下呂温泉 湯之島館
A 1931 wooden resort inn that hosted two emperors — red-carpeted corridors, a Showa-era bar and Hida beef at 4.9 — but also a maze of stairs and a persistent musty smell
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Gero Onsen, Gifu — a 264-room ryokan on the Hida river, three minutes' walk from JR Gero Station
9 sources
Gero Onsen Suimeikan
下呂温泉 水明館
Gero's grand ryokan since 1932: four wings, three big baths of silky alkaline water and Hida beef everywhere — choose the Rinsenkaku wing for onsen in your room, and expect crowds and tired rooms elsewhere
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Yunoshima, Gero, Gifu — on the Hida River beside the JR Takayama Line bridge, about 15 minutes' walk from Gero Station (free shuttle) and about 10 minutes on foot from the centre of the onsen town
10 sources
Gero Onsen Bosenkan
下呂温泉 望川館
A friendly, family-minded Gero inn founded in 1818, with a 1,100-tsubo garden, a big riverside open-air bath, Hida beef hoba-miso dinners in private rooms and trains rumbling over the bridge outside — but the building is old, the baths are partly recirculated and down a steep flight of stairs
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Mori, Gero, Gifu — on a small hill on the station side of the Hida River, looking across at the onsen town; free taxi transfer from JR Gero Station, and a 5–6-minute walk from the town's municipal car park
9 sources
Gero Onsen Sasara
下呂温泉 紗々羅
Gero's self-styled 'art inn' on the hill: antique-crammed lobbies, 20 of 44 rooms with their own open-air onsen, in-room Hida-beef dinners and a top-floor bath over the town lights — but breakfast underwhelms, the Moriyama wing is a long walk from the baths, and renovation noise runs until the end of 2026
- Design-Led
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Gero Onsen, Gifu — a 120-room inn on the Hida river in the middle of the hot-spring town, about seven minutes' walk from JR Gero Station
11 sources
Gero Onsen Ogawaya
下呂温泉 小川屋
Gero's big bath-hopping inn: a 100-tatami 'tatami bath', five shared baths, nine private ones and a menu of Hida-beef dinners in the middle of town — but it's a 120-room maze, the private baths cost extra, and 2026 reviews complain of queues and uneven service
Read the ConsensusHow to choose
For an onsen bath in your room and dinner served there, book Suimeikan's Rinsenkaku wing, or a Sasara-kan room with an open-air bath and a view over the town. For the best food and a 1931 building with imperial history, Yunoshimakan, if a maze of stairs and a possible musty smell won't bother you. For families with young children, Bosenkan's children's baths and loft room, or Ogawaya's baby plan in the middle of town. On a budget, Ogawaya for its tatami bath or Bosenkan for its riverside open-air bath. Whichever you pick, check the exact room type: in Gero's big inns, the onsen bath, in-room dinner and an easy walk to the baths often come only with certain wings.
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Gero Onsen, Gifu — a 264-room ryokan on the Hida river, three minutes' walk from JR Gero Station
9 sources
Gero Onsen Suimeikan
下呂温泉 水明館
Gero's grand ryokan since 1932: four wings, three big baths of silky alkaline water and Hida beef everywhere — choose the Rinsenkaku wing for onsen in your room, and expect crowds and tired rooms elsewhere
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Mori, Gero, Gifu — on a small hill on the station side of the Hida River, looking across at the onsen town; free taxi transfer from JR Gero Station, and a 5–6-minute walk from the town's municipal car park
9 sources
Gero Onsen Sasara
下呂温泉 紗々羅
Gero's self-styled 'art inn' on the hill: antique-crammed lobbies, 20 of 44 rooms with their own open-air onsen, in-room Hida-beef dinners and a top-floor bath over the town lights — but breakfast underwhelms, the Moriyama wing is a long walk from the baths, and renovation noise runs until the end of 2026
- Design-Led
Gero OnsenClassic
Gero Onsen, Gifu — on the wooded hillside above the town, with a free shuttle from JR Gero Station
13 sources
Yunoshimakan
下呂温泉 湯之島館
A 1931 wooden resort inn that hosted two emperors — red-carpeted corridors, a Showa-era bar and Hida beef at 4.9 — but also a maze of stairs and a persistent musty smell
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Yunoshima, Gero, Gifu — on the Hida River beside the JR Takayama Line bridge, about 15 minutes' walk from Gero Station (free shuttle) and about 10 minutes on foot from the centre of the onsen town
10 sources
Gero Onsen Bosenkan
下呂温泉 望川館
A friendly, family-minded Gero inn founded in 1818, with a 1,100-tsubo garden, a big riverside open-air bath, Hida beef hoba-miso dinners in private rooms and trains rumbling over the bridge outside — but the building is old, the baths are partly recirculated and down a steep flight of stairs
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoGero OnsenClassic
Gero Onsen, Gifu — a 120-room inn on the Hida river in the middle of the hot-spring town, about seven minutes' walk from JR Gero Station
11 sources
Gero Onsen Ogawaya
下呂温泉 小川屋
Gero's big bath-hopping inn: a 100-tatami 'tatami bath', five shared baths, nine private ones and a menu of Hida-beef dinners in the middle of town — but it's a 120-room maze, the private baths cost extra, and 2026 reviews complain of queues and uneven service
Read the ConsensusWe may earn a commission if you book through these links, at no extra cost to you. Affiliate disclosure
Photo credits
- Gero Onsen and the Hida River, Gifu · Asturio Cantabrio / CC BY-SA 4.0
- Yunoshimakan — the registered-heritage main building, Gero · 大野 一将 / CC BY-SA 4.0