Best ryokan in Misasa Onsen: 4 inns compared on onsen, food and price

Misasa Onsen Izanro Iwasaki has the most choice: 13 rooms have their own open-air bath, and the inn says every one is free-flowing spring water — the Tozankaku open-air rooms 301, 401 and 501 (57㎡, a hinoki tub and a river view), the Futaba semi-open-air rooms (35.2㎡), the junior suites Sasabune and Tsukifune (60㎡) and the suites Kawanami and Kawagiri (84㎡, finished in 2023). A December 2021 blogger in room 501 could adjust the flow to control the temperature, a September 2026 reviewer called a Tozankaku bath room 'a very reasonable price', and a February 2025 family chose a Futaba semi-open-air room for an older parent, for its handrails and a window that closes against the snow. The catch: the separate indoor baths and showers in the rooms use ordinary heated water, and the rooms are on central air conditioning — an August 2026 repeat guest loved the bath but couldn't cool the room down afterwards. Its barrier-free private bath, Dokuzan-no-yu (indoor and open-air, free-flowing), costs ¥1,100 for 45 minutes, for overnight guests only; book it by phone, since slots can be gone on the day.

Misasa Onsen Misasakan's five concept rooms, Mone, Sarasa, Oto, Uru and Soso (45–50㎡, opened 2021), have two semi-double beds and a terrace open-air bath (an indoor view bath in Soso) that the inn says is free-flowing from its own spring, plus dinner in a private room; a December 2025 blogger called the room spotless and the water silky, though an August 2026 guest in a 45㎡ room thought it felt heavily diluted. The one-a-day Mizuki suite (90㎡) has an open-air bath facing the river, but the inn lists the terrace onsen baths of its four 120㎡ Bettei Rin maisonettes as recirculated, and its one private open-air bath, Tamayura, costs ¥2,200 for 45 minutes, first come, first served from 10:00 on the day. Ryokan Ohashi has a few rooms with their own free-flowing onsen — Nanten, Ume, Yuri and Gotō; Yuri is a maisonette with a semi-open cypress bath down a staircase, and the special room Gotō has beds and private-room meals — but in July 2026 Ume couldn't be cooled even with the air conditioner at 17°C, winter guests found the open-air-bath rooms cold, standard rooms have no onsen bath and there are no bookable private baths. Misasa Onsen Kiya Ryokan doesn't say whether any room bath uses spring water, and most rooms have a toilet but no bath, but its two private baths are free, open 24 hours and locked from inside when free: Rakusen-no-yu, where the spring bubbles up through the stone floor, and the smaller, hand-dug Yakushi-no-yu from the Taishō era. They're often taken (April 2026).

Misasa Onsen Misasakan has the strongest table: dinner scores 4.7 on one major site, and its breakfast buffet of about 50 dishes across six stations — rolled omelette made from local eggs, grilled Sakaiminato fish, tempura and rice balls made to order — is widely praised; go early, though, since an August 2026 guest who came at 8:20 found dishes gone or running low, and it may switch to a set breakfast when the inn is quiet. Dinner is kaiseki built on Tottori wagyu, Japan Sea fish and, from November to March, snow crab: a January 2026 blogger's crab plan (¥33,550 per person) ran from crab sashimi and tempura to crab sukiyaki, and the head chef was named a crab-cuisine master in 2025. Standard plans are served at tables in a large hall (one guest found it cold in December 2025); private dining rooms come with some room types or cost ¥1,100 extra per person. Complaints include a tiny abalone (September 2026), a disappointing spiny lobster hotpot and one guest who believed the crab was the cheaper red snow crab.

Misasa Onsen Izanro Iwasaki is the one for private dining: its Hanano kaiseki comes course by course in small private rooms named after wildflowers, with table seating, while the basic Iwasaki kaiseki is served in the Taishintei dining rooms (some plans use a large hall with no partitions) and a cheaper bento plan in your room. Menus centre on Tottori wagyu (soy-milk shabu-shabu or steak), nodoguro, local mosa shrimp and, from 7 November to March, matsuba snow crab; reviewers praise fresh tempura and food served hot, but critics in 2025–2026 mention a nodoguro only about 15 cm long, crab a blogger took to be frozen in the standard plan and pricey drinks. Ryokan Ohashi's dinners in the Kameheitei dining room are mostly rated highly in recent reviews — the seasonal Wa-no-Kiwami kaiseki and, from November, Matsuba crab as sashimi, shabu-shabu, grilled and tempura; order a live crab (¥33,000) at least five days ahead, and book a private dining room (¥2,200) if you'd rather not eat in the large hall. But a 2022 couple got the wrong course and cold crab on an expensive live-crab plan, 2025–2026 reviewers mention small portions for the price, and some found breakfast unremarkable. Misasa Onsen Kiya Ryokan serves a monthly creative Japanese menu in your room or a private room, never a shared hall, with a signature 'bread pot', a beef or tongue stew baked inside bread; critics found it homely, a May 2026 reviewer found the menu unchanged across visits months apart, and allergies are handled but no other dietary requests.

Ryokan Ohashi is the most striking building: completed in 1932 from rare local timbers, it stretches about 120 metres along the Mitoku river, and nearly the whole inn — main building, two annexes, a 100-mat hall with a kabuki stage and an arched bridge — is a registered tangible cultural property. Rooms are named for the wood they're built from, such as Nanten, whose umbrella-shaped ceiling of nandina draws praise in review after review, and the wavy hand-made window glass survives. The catch is an old building's comfort: rooms hot in summer and cold in winter, thin walls and river noise, and pre-school children aren't accepted because sound carries. Misasa Onsen Kiya Ryokan took the trade name of an Edo-period village headman's house and became a full-time inn in 1868; its Meiji, Taishō and Shōwa wings, joined over the years into a maze of steep stairs, were listed in full as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2010. Hagi, a Taishō-romance Japanese-Western suite, is the only room with beds; staff explain each bath, and booking direct gets a coffee ticket for the inn's café Kigi across the road, where the owner draws portraits for staying guests. Expect stink bugs in some seasons, river or street noise and staff calls over the PA system.

Misasa Onsen Izanro Iwasaki has the grandest guest book: it opened in 1920 and later took the name Izanro, given by the head priest of Kyoto's Shokokuji temple; Emperor Showa stayed in 1947, members of the imperial family have stayed ever since — most recently in October 2026 — and visiting writers such as Shimazaki Toson and Yosano Akiko are remembered in a lobby gallery. Its Isuien garden, with a 1930s pavilion built for imperial guests and a thatched tea house, is a protected scenic site, though the tea house is under restoration until about 2028. The inn itself is a 74-room concrete building of up to eight floors whose service has been simplified — self-service drinks, cars parked by guests in a lot away from the entrance — and in 2025–2026 several reviewers felt corners were being cut, while many others praised warm, attentive staff. Misasa Onsen Misasakan opened in 1938 and grew in the 1970s into a 74-room concrete inn with white walls and tiled roofs around a waterfall garden; a member of the imperial family stayed in September 2025. Its 18 July 2026 reopening brought a new lobby and welcome-drink bar, but many rooms were not redone, and 2025–2026 guests describe standard rooms with a 'Showa atmosphere', dated bathrooms and temperatures they couldn't adjust.

Misasa Onsen Misasakan is the easiest to reach and the most set up for families: its free shuttle from JR Kurayoshi Station takes about 15 minutes, with pick-ups at 14:10, 15:30, 16:20 and 17:30 and morning runs at 8:20, 9:30 and 11:00 (book by phone in advance), and a summer pool, game corner and karaoke room make it popular with multi-generation families — expect a lively house in holidays. Ages 3–5 pay 50% with a children's meal, the renovated twin-bed rooms have a step-free route from the tatami to the toilet and washbasin, and wheelchairs can be borrowed. The catches: primary-school children pay the full adult rate and eat the adult menu, there is no accessible room, and the route to the large baths includes steps and a tatami corridor. Misasa Onsen Izanro Iwasaki's free shuttle takes about 20 minutes (book by the day before; pick-ups 14:20–18:00, return runs at 9:00, 10:00 and 11:00). Children pay about 70% of the adult rate with a slightly smaller kaiseki, or 50% with a children's set, and under-3s stay free; a wheelchair-accessible Silver Room with its own barrier-free bath can be booked by phone only, and under Tottori rules children can use the opposite-sex bath only up to age 7. Expect stairs between the baths, and note that the whole inn closes on 22–24 December 2026 and 5–7 January 2027.

Misasa Onsen Kiya Ryokan welcomes children — lower primary pays 50%, upper primary 70%, with children's meals and tableware for toddlers — but its springs may be too hot for young children, and it's three floors of steep stairs with no lift, where wheelchairs can't be used. Ask for Ran, the only ground-floor room, if stairs are hard; the inn suggests the 10-tatami Shōwa D rooms for families, since they sleep up to five and are among the few with their own bath and toilet. Ask for the free pickup from Kurayoshi the day before; drivers get about 14 first-come parking spaces away from the inn, which several 2026 reviewers found hard to find. Ryokan Ohashi is the least suited: pre-school children aren't accepted, the entrance is on the second floor of a three-storey wooden building with no lift and many stairs, and the uneven rock floor of its cave bath is a repeated warning for older or unsteady guests. Its free shuttle from Kurayoshi runs by reservation (the official site lists 14:15 and 16:15, slightly later in winter), and there's free parking for 20 cars. In winter, drivers should carry snow tyres or chains — Iwasaki suggests the Yonago Expressway and Route 313 when it snows.

Misasa Onsen Kiya Ryokan gives the most bathing for the money: basic plans start at ¥18,700–24,200 per person on weekdays, people paid about ¥19,000–29,000 in 2026, every bath is free-flowing and both private baths are free; only the radon steam room, Anagura-no-yu, costs extra (¥2,200 for 25 minutes, booked at the front desk on the day). It scores 4.8 across 400 reviews on one major site, 4.32 across 244 on another (baths 4.64) and 4.56 on a third (baths 4.92). The catch: simple, home-style food, steep stairs, stink bugs in February–March 2026 and bottled beer at ¥1,000 (2023). Misasa Onsen Izanro Iwasaki has the lowest starting price: two-meal plans from around ¥16,000–21,500 per person, with live snow-crab menus up to ¥51,150, and a September 2026 reviewer called a Tozankaku room with its own open-air bath 'a very reasonable price'. It scores 4.43 across 2,246 reviews on one major site (baths 4.59), 4.5 across 1,984 on another (baths 4.7) and 4.10 across 71 on a smaller luxury site, but expect a ¥100 charge to take lobby drinks away, no towels at the baths and no coffee in the room.

Misasa Onsen Misasakan runs about ¥17,000–25,000 per person with two meals, and crab or seasonal menus cost ¥30,000 or more; it scores 4.47 across 2,272 reviews on one major site (baths 4.60) and 4.5 across 1,346 on another (dinner 4.7). The catch for families is that primary-school children pay the full adult rate, and most rooms are ageing standard rooms without spring water. Ryokan Ohashi is the priciest to start: weekday rates begin around ¥28,600 per person with two meals, standard rooms have no onsen bath, and since 2022 reviewers have met extra charges for fresh yukata or towels and a wrong price on the drinks menu. It scores 4.5 across 694 reviews on one major site and 4.41 across 279 on another, with baths and dinner scoring highest.

Misasa Onsen Kiya Ryokan's own sources give a weakly radioactive sodium chloride spring — radon-rich 'radium' water, pH 7.2, at 56–80°C — used free-flowing in every bath, with no recirculation; it's so hot that you cool it with tap water, and a 2023 blogger found the unmatted floor too hot to walk on. There's a drinking fountain too (the inn suggests up to 500 ml a day). The men's Kawase-no-yu (half open-air) and the women's Kajika-no-yu (indoor) are open 24 hours and never swap, a shared warm-floor 'ondol' room lets you lie down fully clothed, and the men's bath is overlooked by a large inn across the river. Ryokan Ohashi draws a weakly radioactive sodium chloride spring at about 62°C from five sources it owns, three of them rising naturally; its baths are described as free-flowing, though one booking site says water is added to cool it. The star is the Gankutsu-no-yu, a half-underground cave bath of three rock tubs, chest-deep in places, where the water wells up through the old riverbed with no spouts — two radium springs and a thorium spring the inn says is unique in Misasa. It swaps with the Seseragi-no-yu (indoor, semi-open cypress and riverside open-air baths), so women can use the cave bath only 14:00–21:00 and men 21:30–24:30 and 5:00–10:00.

Misasa Onsen Izanro Iwasaki uses Misasa's radioactive (radon) sodium chloride–bicarbonate spring; a 2021 sign listed the inn's mixed source at 52.1°C and pH 7.2. Its Yama-no-yu is 12 baths and a radon steam room laid out as a walk through the garden, in two zones that swap between men and women overnight: the left, renovated in July 2025, with a cave bath modelled on Mitokusan's cliffside Nageiredo hall, a walking bath and jacuzzi beds, and the retro right, renovated in 2019. Each zone has a radon steam room with a 30°C cool tub, and guests can bathe from check-in to 24:00 and 5:00–10:00. The inn says most tubs mix free-flowing and recirculated water; the Nageiredo cave bath, the Chisha rock open-air bath and the marble Rakusui indoor bath are marked free-flowing, while a 2025 blogger saw the hinoki Ozan bath posted as recirculated with added water. Guests love the variety but mention stairs between tubs, cold walkways in winter and dirty stools and buckets (October 2026). Misasa Onsen Misasakan has three sources on the property feeding twelve baths in two zones in a 1,000-tsubo garden — Niwa-no-yu, with a large open-air bath, ceramic pot tubs and a waterfall shower, and Taki-no-yu, with an open-air bath under a waterfall of spring water and, since 2026, a 90°C dry sauna and plunge pool — which swap overnight (15:00–24:00, 5:30–9:00). Only the open-air baths and the private bath are free-flowing; the big indoor baths mix in filtered, recirculated water. Guests often have the big baths almost to themselves, but the sauna is open to women only 6:00–9:00 (men 15:00–21:00).

For the most memorable bath and a 1932 riverside building of rare woods, Ryokan Ohashi — if an uneven rock floor, set hours for the cave bath, no lift, no pre-schoolers and uneven service won't bother you. For the most bathing for the money, with every bath free-flowing and two free private baths open 24 hours, Kiya Ryokan, accepting steep stairs, scalding water and simple, home-style food. For many baths, a big breakfast buffet and crab dinners in a house set up for families, Misasakan — if recirculated water in the big indoor baths, ageing standard rooms and full adult rates for primary-school children are acceptable. For imperial history, a garden of 12 baths and a free-flowing open-air bath of your own at a fair price, Iwasaki — if central air conditioning, towels you carry to the bath yourself and service some find cut back won't spoil it. Whichever you pick, book the free shuttle from Kurayoshi in advance, order live crab ahead in winter, and carry snow tyres or chains if you drive.