Best ryokan in Izu: 8 inns compared on onsen, food and price

Asaba (luxury), founded in 1484 and now run by the tenth generation, gives every room its own bath marked source-fed on the official room pages; one booking site's FAQ notes that some water is added to the 100% spring water. It is a Relais & Châteaux member, holds three Michelin Keys and scores 4.76 across 53 recent reviews on one major site. The catch is service: one detailed review describes staff sighing at a request for an extension cord, another found a previous guest's trash in the room and noise from next door, and three recent reviewers note that the okami never greeted them or saw them off.

Yagyu no Sho (premium) has 15 sukiya rooms in a bamboo grove: six with an open-air bath, including two detached villas, six with a semi-open-air bath and three with a cypress tub. The official site says every room bath is free-flowing spring water, though one booking site marks the in-room open-air baths as not free-flowing, so the sources disagree. It scores 5.00 across 36 reviews on one site, with baths at 4.86 on another. The catch: worn plumbing and old washbasins in several 2025 reviews, mould in a room bath in 2026, a doorway about 150cm high in Jōgen, and smoking permitted in every room.

At Sanyoso (premium) all 22 rooms have their own bath of Izu-Nagaoka's alkaline spring, described by the official site as free-flowing, which matters because its public baths refuse guests with tattoos. Ochiairo (luxury) gives every room a bath, but only three — Aominawa, Kōbai and Sawarabi — use 100% spring water; in the others water is added and reheated, so ask for one of those three by name.

Yagyu no Sho is the food inn: about 13–15 Kyoto-style kaiseki courses served in your room, changing monthly under head chef Kanda Naoya, from sesame tofu with raw sea urchin to kuroge wagyu fillet steak and giant Izu strawberries. Dinner rates 4.7 in our report. The complaints are too much food, courses arriving too fast and few non-alcoholic drinks, and the inn cannot cater for vegan or vegetarian diets. Asaba's dinner (4.5) is built on specific Izu ingredients — matsuba crab, conger-eel black-rice sushi and fried tiger blowfish — and breakfast brings rice with bonito flakes shaved at the table; premium extras such as spiny lobster and abalone, and all drinks, cost extra.

Yukairo Kikuya's monthly kaiseki is served at tables, never in the room, and almost every guest singles out the inn's beef stew, which you can choose as your main dish; breakfast scores higher still, 4.6 on one major site. Several long-time repeat guests felt in 2026 that the food had slipped, and dinner runs in two fixed sittings, 17:30 or 19:45. Inatori Ginsuiso's kaiseki centres on kinmedai simmered in a broth kept going year after year, with spiny-lobster sashimi and abalone on higher plans, and breakfast is a buffet with dried horse mackerel grilled in front of you; dinner service in 2025–2026 was rushed for some and slow for others.

Asaba is one of the older continuously operating ryokan in Japan, and its centrepiece is Gekkeiden, a working Noh stage across the garden pond, relocated here in the late Meiji era. Guests describe watching it from the room as the most memorable part of the stay, but performances are a ticketed seasonal programme, not nightly. A detailed review found the second-floor rooms, such as the 152m² Moegi suite, look onto the stage better than the ground floor.

Arai Ryokan (classic) opened in 1872, and fifteen of its buildings, linked by bridges and corridors around a carp pond, are registered Tangible Cultural Properties. Its all-hinoki Tenpyo bathhall of 1934, designed by the painter Yasuda Yukihiko, is why most people come, and baths score 4.6–4.75 across three booking sites. Recent guests paid about ¥23,000–30,000+ per person with two meals. The catch: steps everywhere and no lift, outdoor corridors and bathrooms that are cold in winter, food some find ordinary or lukewarm, and two scathing 2026 reviews about rude staff.

Ochiairo, founded in 1874 and named by Yamaoka Tesshū, hosted writers from Kawabata Yasunari to Kajii Motojirō; its 1930s wooden main building and six other structures are registered cultural properties, and it holds one Michelin Key, with drinks included. Its 2025–2026 reviews are mostly about value: food fine but not luxurious, forgotten drink orders and service that felt polite only on the surface. Sanyoso is the 1929 villa of Mitsubishi's Iwasaki Hisaya, with a 3,000-tsubo garden by Ogawa Jihei and a 1988 wing by Togo Murano; long walks to the baths and dining room and food that is its lowest score (4.0) are the recurring complaints. Yukairo Kikuya claims about 400 years and keeps the room where Natsume Sōseki convalesced, though most of the old main building has been closed for repairs since early 2026.

Katsuragawa (value), a Kyoritsu Resort inn opened in October 2020, is the cheapest stay here at about ¥15,000–24,000 per person with two meals. Its 116 rooms are shoes-off throughout, and the draw is seven free private baths with no booking — if the light is on, walk in and lock the door. Buffet meals, free soft drinks, ice lollies and late-night ramen are included, there are game corners, karaoke and a kids' play area, and wheelchairs can be borrowed. It scores 4.34 across 1,980 reviews on one major site. The catch: the spring water is diluted, heated and recirculated and some smell chlorine, the private baths have queues on busy nights, dinner sittings are fixed, and the open-air tubs in its eight bath-equipped rooms are not onsen at all.

Yukairo Kikuya, also Kyoritsu Resort, is a step up: Jalan listed two-meal rates of ¥57,820–95,040 for two in October 2026, and it scores 4.5 across 3,189 reviews there. Four free private baths are open 24 hours, and beer, highballs, sours, Shizuoka oden and late-night ramen are free. The large indoor and garden baths are diluted, heated and recirculated, and the private baths are often all taken in the evening; the Mizu no Kataribe river-side wing takes no children.

Inatori Ginsuiso (classic) suits families by the sea: children's menus, baby beds and baths, a free all-day lounge and suites with their own free-flowing open-air bath. Standard kaiseki plans start around ¥22,000–30,000 per person, suites from about ¥44,000, and it scores 4.5 across 2,910 reviews on one major site. The catch: many 2025–2026 reviews mention a musty or sewage-like smell in the lobby and some corridors, unrenovated rooms have bathrooms that aren't onsen, and the main bath is part-recirculated, chlorinated and dated.

Shuzenji's water is an alkaline simple spring, and how it reaches the tub varies by inn. Arai Ryokan says its baths are free-flowing without recirculation, with water added when the source runs too hot, though a 2020 blogger saw a posted analysis noting added water and disinfection. At Asaba every room bath is source-fed, with some water added. Yukairo Kikuya's four private baths and the open-air tubs of its Sōan and Kura rooms are 100% source water flowing through, and Ochiairo's shared baths at Yugashima are free-flowing, with a 2024 blogger seeing strong overflow.

Be careful elsewhere. Katsuragawa's water is diluted, heated and recirculated, Kikuya's large baths are recirculated, and Inatori Ginsuiso's main baths combine flow-through and recirculation with chlorine; only its 17 rooms with open-air baths are described as free-flowing. At Sanyoso one booking site lists the public baths as not free-flowing and another as heated with water added, and at Yagyu no Sho the official site and a booking site disagree. At Ochiairo, note that since 13 September 2025 the Tengu-no-yu cave and river bath is a mixed bath worn with swimsuits or bath wear.

For history with your own source-fed bath, Asaba, if you can accept less polished service; for in-room kaiseki and quiet garden baths, Yagyu no Sho; for a Mitsubishi villa garden with an onsen bath in every room, Sanyoso, if you don't mind long corridors. For a heritage inn and its famous hinoki bathhall at a classic price, Arai Ryokan; for an all-inclusive heritage stay with saunas, Ochiairo, booking one of its three pure spring-water rooms. On a budget or with children, Katsuragawa for free private baths, Yukairo Kikuya for free drinks and the beef stew, and Inatori Ginsuiso for the sea and simmered kinmedai. Whichever you pick, check the exact room type: in Izu, whether your room bath is spring water — and whether it flows — often depends on the room.