Hakone Suishoen Hotel
Since we were only staying the one night in Hakone we thought we would splurge a little on the hotel. We wanted a hotel where we could have our own private onsen so I googled ones in the area and read reviews. I looked kind of late and some of the best ones were already full. We ended up deciding on the Hakone Suishoen. Our room was called the Luxury Suite Maisonette Twin. They have options for Japanese or Western accommodations and we chose to go with the Western to get a normal bed. We booked it through the Chase portal using points. It was 65,542 URs but the cash value was $983 so it wasn’t cheap but we thought it was worth it for one night.
We showed up to the hotel a little after 2 pm and the check in time was 3. They went through the check in procedure with us and had us pick times for our dinner and breakfast that was included. They told us we could sit in the lobby until 3 but we asked if we could get an early check in. We had to pay for it but they were able to get us in the room then. Ds was so tired and really struggling by this time so we didn’t mind paying.
This hotel was much fancier than we’re used to so I felt bad at times when ds was a little loud or too silly but no one seemed to mind. It’s different from most hotels in that it’s separate buildings and there aren’t very many rooms in each building so you really don’t see other people while you’re staying there except for at meals or if you choose to use the public onsen.
Our room had an upstairs and a downstairs. On the bottom floor there was a living room, dining table, mini bar area, toilet, and a deck outside that looked out over a waterfall. The upstairs had two beds pushed together to make one big bed, a traditional Japanese room with a table and pillows, and a bathroom with a shower, toilet, and deep whirlpool tub. The biggest draw was outside the bedroom: an outside deck with a lounger chair and private onsen. This was amazing and we went in it many times even though we were only there one night. We used it before dinner and again the next morning. The water was extremely hot but you can control how much comes out and there’s also a spigot with cold water so we just messed with it until the temperature was comfortable.
In our room we were given yukatas for each of us and sandals. They told us we could wear them all over the property and to meals. This was so much fun and we all loved dressing up in them. I wasn’t sure ds would wear it because he’s kind of picky about clothes but he loved it and asked if we could take the pants home lol.
We originally scheduled our dinner for 6 pm but I went to the lobby and asked if it could be changed to 7 pm because ds ended up napping until 6. The dinner was the thing I was most worried about. I was able to find videos on YouTube ahead of time and knew it wasn’t going to be something I’d like but dh really wanted to try it. I don’t eat seafood and almost everything they served was seafood lol. We actually ended up leaving early because it was sooo slow. We were only halfway through their courses by 8 pm and I had to get ds back to the room. The menu showed like 8 different courses they planned to serve us. They brought ds a bowl of white rice and miso soup at the beginning and that was all he got so he ended up sitting there waiting for a really long time while dh and I got each course. I’m going to be honest and say I didn’t try the majority of things they offered. I wanted dh to have the experience but I was not at all interested in the food lol. We were given jellyfish, octopus, duck, eel, tuna, all kinds of things and served in various ways.
We all slept pretty well in the big bed and the next morning they called a taxi for us to get to the Hakone Yumoto station. We were supposed to be at breakfast at 8 am but we didn’t want to chance it because our train was leaving at 9:30 so we told them we would have to skip breakfast.
I really enjoyed our room with the onsen and dressing in the yukatas. I wouldn’t go to dinner again lol. For the one night it was really fun and we enjoyed it.