Sakaeya

We were pampered by this hotel the moment we checked in! Glad to have stayed in Sakaeya and the inhouse Onsen is superb!

What an amazing experience! Although TripAdvisor refers to this with a different name, our in-country travel agent (and other sites) refer to it by Sakaeya Ryokan. If you are wondering about staying here, stop, and just do it. We had a wonderful two days. We were greeted warmly and shown to our room, the Yoimachi Suite, which had two twin beds, and in the evenings had two additional futons brought in for the kids (12 and 15). It had a private outside onsen, and private bathroom and shower. In broken, but understandable, English, our host explained how to wear the special slippers (one pair for the room, one pair for the inn, and geta - wooden sandals for outside), the yukata (a type of informal kimono for wearing at the inn and when visiting the onsen), and the over jackets (if it was cold). He also explained (and there were English cheat sheets as well) how the local onsen (hot spring fueled baths) worked. You are given a key, which unlocks nine baths throughout the village. Each has different healing properties. If you visit all nine, you will have long life. (There is a special towel you can purchase for a minimal fee, and stamp at each onsen as a souvenir.). He also told us about the onsen at the inn, which includes both inside and outside pools, and is beautiful. He asked what time we wanted to have dinner. The meals were amazing. We were served in a private dining room each night by our host, who was gracious as always. The Kaiseki (Japanese multi-course meal) was incredible, with too many dishes to count. Although out of the ordinary for folks from the US, I enjoyed everything, my husband enjoyed most, and even the kids expanded their horizons and had enough to fill them up. This is equally true for the vast Japanese breakfast every morning. It was humbling to see how much time and thought they put into preparing and serving the dishes. I feel like we didn’t deserve it. The ryokan is near Snow Monkey Park, and, for a small charge (5000 yen round trip for our whole family), they will arrange a microbus to take you there and bring you back, based on a schedule you choose. Our bus driver was very pleasant and punctual. The inn also has a free shuttle to and from Yudanaka train station. For some reason, our travel agent wasn’t able to arrange the shuttle to pick us up from the station, and advised us to take a taxi. Unfortunately, no taxis were available. We were able to take a public bus the short drive to Shibu Onsen stop. It’s about 250 yen per person, cash only and no change given. You can pay for multiple people at one time. We couldn’t figure out if they took PASMO. Just be prepared for that. Again, if you are thinking about visiting Yudanaka, look no further. I can’t imagine an experience better than this.

This is my 3rd time in Nagano and this is the best place I’ve stayed! Staff are super friendly and really accommodating. The monkey park is so close and you can take a shuttle from the hotel to the park, if reservations are full they even call you a taxi. 10/10 stay