Hakone is a valley, not a town, and almost every bed in it is a ryokan with dinner included. Pick the hamlet first. The ryokan follows.
Last checked September 3, 2026
Hakone-Yumoto for one night and an early train out: it's where the Romancecar arrives and everything is on foot, while Gora and Sengokuhara are for a private bath, at the cost of one more connection up the valley. Expect half board almost everywhere, and a price quoted per person.
The valley runs on the ryokan. It is the standard product here, not the upmarket option, and four things about it catch out almost everyone comparing it with a hotel.
Our own rough estimate, not a price feed. Dollars at this month's rate.
A ryokan quotes its price per person, with dinner and breakfast included. Two travelers pay close to double, not the same amount split. A room-only rate barely exists in Hakone: the valley runs on half board, from the simplest house to the most expensive one.
You choose your dinner slot when you book, usually between 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and check-in is expected before it: arrive late and you lose a dinner you have already paid for. The valley's small trains and buses stop early in the evening: aim to be at the ryokan by mid-afternoon, not at dusk.
Every ryokan here has hot-spring water. What changes is who you share it with. The shared bath is the norm and the cheaper way in. A private open-air bath, either in the room or booked by the slot, is what most people searching for Hakone are after, and it books out first, so if a private bath is the point of the trip, look at Gora and Sengokuhara: that's where most of them are, one connection further up than Yumoto.
Hamlets are strung up the valley along a mountain railway, a funicular and buses, and “staying in Hakone” means nothing until you have picked one. Yumoto is the arrival station, all on foot. The busiest, and the least spectacular. Miyanoshita, two stops up, has the oldest houses and the historic baths. Gora is the end of the mountain line and the start of the funicular, with ryokan clinging to the slope and a lot of stairs. Sengokuhara and Lake Ashi are the open plateau, bus only, and the side where Mount Fuji shows when the sky allows.
We never recommend an address. Four questions do most of the work: shared or private bath; which hamlet fits your arrival time; a dinner slot you can actually make; and whether the price you are looking at is per person or per room. Then filter the listing by those, and let the photos do the rest.
See ryokan in Hakone on Trip.comFiltered on ryokan only. Prices there are per room; divide by two to compare with the per-person figures above.
Three kinds of bed, and the ryokan is the only one with any depth of supply.
Dinner at a chosen time, shared or private bath. Half the price is the dinner. Covered in full above.
See ryokan in Hakone on Trip.com
Converted old houses that rent by the night, where you can sometimes eat elsewhere. Useful if you don't want to be at the table at 6 p.m.
See hotels in Hakone on Booking
A handful of simple places around Yumoto, no meals, at prices that have nothing to do with the rest of the valley.
See guesthouses in Hakone on BookingThe nightly price in Yumoto and Tonosawa, at the bottom of the valley, for a three-night stay that includes a weekend, mid-month.
Our monthly price survey does not cover Hakone yet. This part fills in as soon as it does.
Checked once a month against the public prices of the big booking sites, without the accommodation tax, and shown in dollars at this month's rate, so a figure can move with the exchange rate as well as with demand.
The valley has few rooms. Tokyo is an hour and a half away, so weekends go early, especially in autumn.
| Stay | Ryokan | Trains |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | Mar 29 · open | Sep 1 · open |
| Nov 2026 | Apr 29 · open | Oct 1 · open |
| Dec 2026 | May 29 · open | Nov 1 · closed |
| Jan 2027 | Jun 29 · open | Dec 1 · closed |
| Feb 2027 | Jul 30 · open | Jan 1 · closed |
| Mar 2027 | Aug 27 · open | Feb 1 · closed |
| Apr 2027 | Sep 27 · open | Mar 1 · closed |
| May 2027 | Oct 27 · closed | Apr 1 · closed |
Last checked August 6, 2026. No guarantees: a single property can open a little earlier or later.
How the opening calendar works, and why an empty calendar is not a full one: inns here open their rooms about 6 months ahead, train seats go on sale exactly 1 month ahead, and nothing at all exists before those two dates. Search earlier and the page comes back blank.
The Romancecar leaves from Shinjuku. Where you sleep in Tokyo decides what time you get to Hakone.
Where to stay in Tokyo.Say you're after the cherry blossoms in April 2027: ryokan inns open around October. On the day, you get an email, you book, and it's done.
Tanuki Trip never books and never takes payment on your behalf, and the links to booking platforms on
this page are plain search links rather than partner links, so nothing here changes what you end up
paying or what we write about it.
You book it yourself, wherever you want.
