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Where to Stay in Hakone

Hakone is not one town but a string of hot-spring villages spread across a volcanic caldera, joined by a mountain railway, a funicular, a ropeway and a boat. Where you sleep decides how much of that loop you do before breakfast and how much you do carrying a bag. It also decides your dinner, because in most of Hakone dinner comes with the room and is served at a fixed hour.

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By Emma8 min readPublished
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The red torii of Hakone Shrine standing in Lake Ashi with Mount Fuji behind
Photo: Charlie fong · CC BY-SA 4.0

In Brief

Where should you stay in Hakone?

Stay in Hakone-Yumoto for a first visit. It is the gateway station, the direct train from Tokyo ends there, and it has the widest range of accommodation and the easiest access to everything else. Gora sits higher up the mountain railway and has the best ryokan. Motohakone is the place to wake up to Lake Ashi and, on a clear morning, Mount Fuji. Sengokuhara is the quiet, art-gallery end.

Key takeaways

  • First visit: Hakone-Yumoto, easiest to reach and easiest to leave.
  • Most ryokan include dinner and breakfast and serve dinner at a set time, often around six. Plan your sightseeing around it.
  • Get the Hakone Free Pass. It covers the train, funicular, ropeway and boat, and pays for itself in a day.
  • Fuji from Lake Ashi is a winter-morning thing. In summer it is usually behind cloud.

Hakone areas at a glance

The best areas to stay in Hakone, compared for vibe, price and who each suits.

AreaBest forPriceIn a word
Hakone-Yumotofirst timers, budget$$The gateway town, and the easiest place to base
Tonosawaromance, budget$$One stop up, half the noise, riverside baths
Goraluxury, romance$$$The best ryokan, halfway up, and the funicular starts here
Miyanoshitaromance, sightseeing$$$Old-fashioned mountain resort with a long history
Motohakone and Hakone-machisightseeing, families$$Lake Ashi, the torii in the water, and Fuji on a clear day
Sengokuharaluxury, romance$$High, open and quiet, with the best small museums
Owakudani and Ubakosightseeing, budget$$Above the treeline, beside the steam vents
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Best areas to stay in Hakone

Ranked best-first, with the vibe, who it suits and an honest catch for each. Tap a filter to match an area to your trip.

Find your area - what matters most?

All 7 areas in Hakone, best first.

  • Hakone-Yumoto in Hakone

    Hakone-Yumoto

    $$ · Mid-range

    The gateway town, and the easiest place to base

    Best for:First-timersBudgetFood & wine

    The valley town where the direct train from Shinjuku terminates and the mountain railway begins. A single busy street of hot-spring shops, sweet stalls and soba restaurants follows the river, with hotels and ryokan on the slopes above at every price from simple to serious.

    Good to know
    The most convenient base by a distance, and the only one where you can arrive late and leave early without planning. The trade-off is that it is the lowest, busiest and least scenic part of Hakone, and the main street is crowded with day trippers until the last train out.
    See Hakone-Yumoto hotelsLive prices for your dates
  • Tonosawa in Hakone

    Tonosawa

    $$ · Mid-range

    One stop up, half the noise, riverside baths

    Best for:RomanceBudgetFirst-timers

    A small cluster of old ryokan a single stop up the mountain railway from Yumoto, tucked into the gorge with the river running below. Several of the inns here have baths built out over the water, and the whole place is a few minutes and a world away from the Yumoto crowds.

    Good to know
    Almost nothing here but the ryokan themselves, so plan on eating where you sleep. That is normal in Hakone and usually a good thing. The station is tiny and the walk from it can be steep, so ask about a pickup if you have luggage.
    See Tonosawa hotelsLive prices for your dates
  • Gora in Hakone

    Gora

    $$$ · High-end

    The best ryokan, halfway up, and the funicular starts here

    Best for:LuxuryRomanceSightseeing

    Where the switchback mountain railway ends and the funicular up to the ropeway begins, which makes Gora the hinge of the whole Hakone loop. It is also where the finest ryokan and the private-onsen hotels cluster, on wooded slopes with views back down the valley.

    Good to know
    The most expensive part of Hakone and the best place to spend money if you are here for one great onsen night. Streets are steep and spread out, so it is less walkable than it looks on a map. The Open-Air Museum is one stop back down the line.
    See Gora hotelsLive prices for your dates
  • Miyanoshita in Hakone

    Miyanoshita

    $$$ · High-end

    Old-fashioned mountain resort with a long history

    Best for:RomanceSightseeingFamilies

    A small station between Yumoto and Gora that has been receiving visitors since Japan first opened to foreign travellers, and still has the slightly formal, wood-panelled feel of that era. Quiet, leafy, with antique shops and a handful of cafes along the road.

    Good to know
    More atmosphere than activity. There is very little to do in the immediate area beyond walk and bathe, which suits some trips exactly. Well placed on the railway for reaching both ends of the loop.
    See Miyanoshita hotelsLive prices for your dates
  • Motohakone and Hakone-machi in Hakone

    Motohakone and Hakone-machi

    $$ · Mid-range

    Lake Ashi, the torii in the water, and Fuji on a clear day

    Best for:SightseeingFamiliesRomance

    The two lakeside settlements at the southern end of Lake Ashi, where the sightseeing boats dock and the red torii of Hakone Shrine stands in the shallows. The old cedar avenue of the Tokaido highway starts here, and on a clear morning Fuji sits directly across the water.

    Good to know
    The reason to stay is the early morning, before the coaches arrive and while the light is on the lake. It is the far end of the loop from Yumoto, roughly forty minutes by bus, so it is the least convenient base for arriving and leaving. Buses back run less often than you expect after dark.
    See Motohakone and Hakone-machi hotelsLive prices for your dates
  • Sengokuhara in Hakone

    Sengokuhara

    $$ · Mid-range

    High, open and quiet, with the best small museums

    Best for:LuxuryRomanceBudget

    A broad highland plateau in the north of the caldera, known for a hillside of pampas grass that turns silver in autumn and for a cluster of good art museums. It is more spread out and much quieter than the railway villages, with guesthouses and design-led small hotels rather than grand ryokan.

    Good to know
    You need the buses here, and they are the part of the Hakone transport network that people find fiddly. Cooler than the valley, which is welcome in August. The best choice if what you want from Hakone is quiet and cold air rather than the full loop.
    See Sengokuhara hotelsLive prices for your dates
  • Owakudani and Ubako in Hakone

    Owakudani and Ubako

    $$ · Mid-range

    Above the treeline, beside the steam vents

    Best for:SightseeingBudget

    The high volcanic shoulder of the caldera, where the ropeway crosses a valley of sulphur vents and steaming ground and a few hotels sit near the top station. The views over the crater and down to the lake are the best in Hakone.

    Good to know
    Thin on options and dependent on the ropeway, which closes in high wind and occasionally for volcanic activity, in which case buses replace it. Worth it for the setting, but check the ropeway status before committing, and do not base a family here.
    See Owakudani and Ubako hotelsLive prices for your dates

Where not to stay in Hakone

Nowhere in Hakone is unsafe, so the mistakes are practical. The biggest is treating it like a city and booking the cheapest room without checking what comes with it, because most Hakone accommodation is ryokan with dinner and breakfast included at fixed times, and a six o'clock dinner reshapes your whole afternoon. The second is basing at the far end of the loop, in Motohakone or up at Owakudani, when you only have one night, since you will spend a large part of it in transit with a bag. The third is arriving on a Saturday in autumn without a booking made weeks earlier, when the leaves bring the whole of Tokyo up here. Also worth knowing before you book: many traditional onsen still refuse guests with visible tattoos, so if that applies to you, look for a ryokan with private or in-room baths and confirm it in writing rather than turning up and hoping.

Getting around Hakone

From Tokyo the simplest route is the Odakyu line from Shinjuku to Hakone-Yumoto, about ninety minutes on the direct limited express and a little longer with a change. By shinkansen you go to Odawara, roughly thirty-five minutes from Tokyo Station, then fifteen more on the Hakone Tozan line. Haneda is the more convenient airport of the two. Once you are here, the Hakone Free Pass is the thing to buy: it covers the mountain railway with its switchbacks, the funicular up to Sounzan, the ropeway over the sulphur vents, the boats on Lake Ashi and most of the buses, and it is cheaper than paying separately if you do even part of the loop. The classic circuit runs Yumoto to Gora to Sounzan to Owakudani to Togendai, then by boat down the lake to Motohakone and back by bus, and it takes most of a day. A car is more trouble than help here, since parking at the sights is limited and the roads are narrow and slow.

Where to stay in Hakone: FAQ

The questions travelers ask most when choosing an area.

Hakone-Yumoto. The direct train from Shinjuku ends there, the mountain railway to everywhere else starts there, and it has by far the widest choice of accommodation, from simple business hotels to serious ryokan on the slopes above the river. It also has actual restaurants, which much of Hakone does not. It is the busiest and least scenic part of the area, but for a first visit the convenience of arriving and leaving easily outweighs that. Tonosawa, one stop up, is the quieter version of the same idea.

Motohakone or Hakone-machi, at the southern end of Lake Ashi, where the mountain sits directly across the water behind the red torii of Hakone Shrine. Early morning is when it is most likely to be clear, which is the real argument for sleeping there rather than visiting on the loop. Be realistic about the odds: Fuji is often hidden, and winter mornings from about November to February are far more reliable than summer, when it is usually behind haze or cloud. The high hotels near Owakudani also look out over it on a good day.

One night works if you accept it is a taste rather than a visit. Arrive in the morning, do part of the loop with your luggage forwarded or left at the station, check in mid-afternoon, take the bath before dinner, and complete the loop the next morning. Two nights is much better, because it lets you do the full circuit unhurried on the middle day and take a second bath without watching the clock. Stay in Yumoto or Gora if you only have one night, so that arriving and leaving costs you as little time as possible.

Gora, without much argument. It sits halfway up the mountain railway where the funicular begins, and it holds the highest concentration of the good ryokan, including most of the ones with private open-air baths attached to the room. Miyanoshita has a smaller number with more of an old-resort character, and Tonosawa has riverside inns at gentler prices. If you have visible tattoos, a room with its own bath solves a problem that a shared onsen may not, so book that specifically rather than assuming.

No, and it usually makes things worse. The Hakone Free Pass covers the mountain railway, the funicular, the ropeway, the lake boats and most buses, so the entire loop runs on public transport by design. Roads through the caldera are narrow and slow, parking at the popular stops is limited, and if you are drinking at dinner the car sits unused anyway. The one case for driving is staying somewhere remote in Sengokuhara with a lot of luggage, and even then the buses will do it.

It is one of the pricier places to sleep in Japan, mainly because the standard product is a ryokan with a kaiseki dinner and breakfast included rather than a plain room. Gora and the private-onsen inns sit at the top, Miyanoshita and the lakeside hotels below them, and Hakone-Yumoto, Tonosawa and the Sengokuhara guesthouses are where the affordable options are. Weekends, public holidays and the autumn leaf season carry a real premium, and midweek in winter is the cheapest time to go, when the Fuji views are also at their best.

Stay, if the onsen is any part of why you are going. A day trip from Tokyo is perfectly possible at about ninety minutes each way, and you can complete the sightseeing loop in a long day, but you will do it alongside everyone else who had the same idea and you will not bathe properly. The point of Hakone is the evening: the day visitors leave, the villages go quiet, you sit in hot water, and dinner arrives. That is the part a day trip cannot give you.

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