ACCOMMODATIONS Yuraku

Fantastic experience at Yuraku. From the moment walked up to when we walked out on our last day the service was exceptional. The hotel attendants were all so friendly and helpful and while Japanese isn’t our first language they tried their best to communicate with us. The rooms were spacious and lovely, we loved the tea and coffee in the room as well as the beautiful view overlooking the courtyard.
Dinner was beyond amazing and I’d like to give a special shout out to Ayumi. She was an excellent waitress. I hope I find my way back to kinosaki onsen and back to Yuraku in the future.

The dinner here is 2-3 Michelin stars experience.

Highly recommended.

Just the food alone is more than enough. They serve you a Crab & Tajima beef course. Can change to purely beef if you allergic to seafood like my girlfriend.

The room is very nice and clean, have every ryokan facilities you can think of.

The staff are warm welcome (but all staffs in most of hotels in Kinosaki are at this level of hospitality or beyond)

There are private Onsen for you.

There are nice garden view in the center of the hotel.

The hotel placed deep in the city for someone who love quiet place like me.

The price, perhaps, expensive. But thinking of special opportunity to enjoy your pre-honeymoon, or year end trip with your couple.

Really good experience, it's a shame we only stayed one night. 100% recommended if you're looking for a authentic Ryokan!

Only visited for the private baths, but they were great. Cozy and relaxing atmosphere, and just amazing to have your own private onsen, even just for 40 minutes.

A beautifully curated experience. The staff made our stay especially special; they are attentive, kind, and thoughtful. Each dining and room detail was thought out for each guest. Beyond breakfast, a dinner should be experienced at Yuraku, our favorite during our stay in Kinosaki! The rooms were spacious and peaceful, with plenty of private bathing opportunities in addition to the public baths in town.

This was an amazing experience. The staff was lovely and very welcoming. There is a shuttle bus from the train station to the hotel and back. The hotel has 5 private baths. We really enjoyed the flower and citrus bath. By staying there, you have as well free entrance to most of the public bath around Kinosaki. You can even check how busy is each bath, thanks to a qr code.
We had the colorfull yukata experience and th staff helped us to dress up and explain to us why she was doing it this way. The food was amazing and fresh.
We were on our honeymoon and they were very thoughtful about it during our stay.
Thank you for making our stay special.

Service is exceptional, the ryokan was immaculate. The service is exceptional from the moment you approach the ryokan. The baths are quite the experience.

The location is beautiful and quaint. Staff is very professional, we are in Japan so use Google translate or something similar. They speak Japanese so if you’re a foreigner like me don’t get upset if you don’t understand.

Go for the experience. The town is small and many historical land marks to go find. Get the pass and try all the different baths around Kinosaki.

My cons are about preference but at the price I do think it was enough to drop a star. I honestly wish I could rate the restaurant separately.
Restaurant = 4 star everything else is 5 star.
(My wife on the other hand thought it was great, so like I said preference.)

My only complaint would be the food. In their defense I have a lot of sensitives in my gut. For example I can’t eat beef, so the soup I had was very bland and in the words of Uncle Roger “the vegetables taste like sadness.” The fried course was not salted after being pulled so it just tasted like oil.

- fried food not salted properly
- soup very bland
- Also I’m not a big fan of crab so trying to get crab meat out of the shell was frustrating and the messy experience of the crab course felt out of place. But the dip of vinegar was amazing.
- I enjoyed most of the other courses quite a bit.

Other things to know that didn’t affect rating:
I was unprepared so come prepared. They do offer private baths. It is a ryokan so there are no showers in the room. It is a quiet relaxing town so if you are like me up early and restless and don’t do relaxing well. Find all the hikes you can or something, plan ahead this is quite the enjoyable little town.

A truly unforgettable stay, heartfelt hospitality at Yuraku!

Our stay at Yuraku was nothing short of magical. From the moment we arrived, we were greeted with warm smiles and incredible hospitality that made us feel right at home. This ryokan stands out as the best we have ever stayed in, not just for its beautiful facilities and scenery, but also because of the genuinely kind and thoughtful staff.

The room was spacious, peaceful, and beautifully designed, it made our trip feel even more special and comfortable.

Everything - from the delicious meals to the soothing baths and serene atmosphere, was perfect! The care and attention to detail by the staff truly elevated the entire experience. It’s clear that everyone at Yuraku puts their heart into enduring guests have a memorable stay.

We will definitely come back, and we wholeheartedly recommend Yuraku to anyone looking for an authentic and heartfelt Japanese ryokan experience!

We loved our stay at Yuraku. The breakfast was excellent, and our traditional Japanese room was charming. The private onsen was beautiful and romantic. Service was good, with staff making an effort to communicate in English.

On the other hand, what really stood out was the dinner ... it was fantastic. Their kaiseki allowed us to sample the best of what Kinosaki has to offer, and I loved every single dish they served.

The only downside was that some rooms don’t have a shower. If that’s a dealbreaker for you, be sure to check with your booking site to confirm availability.

Additionally, its location is quite far from the city center. The upside, however, is that you get to enjoy the town’s scenery on the way to the hotel, and once more before you leave.

A peaceful and relaxing getaway! The staff at Yuraku are amazing, they made our stay unforgettable. We requested in advance a vegan meal and it was super tasty! Thank you

The dinner here is 2-3 Michelin stars experience.

Highly recommended.

Just the food alone is more than enough. They serve you a Crab & Tajima beef course. Can change to purely beef if you allergic to seafood like my girlfriend.

The room is very nice and clean, have every ryokan facilities you can think of.

The staff are warm welcome (but all staffs in most of hotels in Kinosaki are at this level of hospitality or beyond)

There are private Onsen for you.

There are nice garden view in the center of the hotel.

The hotel placed deep in the city for someone who love quiet place like me.

The price, perhaps, expensive. But thinking of special opportunity to enjoy your pre-honeymoon, or year end trip with your couple.

Absolutely wonderful place! I brought some friends from overseas to enjoy traditional Japan hospitality and I am so glad this hotel was their first experience with ryokan. From the food to the staff to the rooms Yuraku delivered. Sometimes professional Japanese polietness can come across as stiffness to some forgieners, but that is not the case here. This is a warm, inviting atmosphere. There was staff holdong umbrellas for people loading up there cars, the staff remember preferences, someone always welcomes you with a smile when you return, and when you leave you get a wonderful send off. I in particular want to give the restaurant staff a shout out. Fukuda-san and Keita-san were amazing. They always had a smile, even when not directly serving costumers. They were kind and patient to someone who is not very good at Japanese but wants to use it to get better. If you wanting the best ryokan experience, I can't recommend Yuraku enough

Japanese quality service. Polite, considerate for everything! And people are also very friendly here.
Very peaceful and comfortable house, I like walk in it when I having hot spring and meal.
The room is also very beautiful, clean and full of Japanese atmosphere, even fresh flowers in it.
Perhaps my best hotel experience ever ! No wonder it is award-winning hotel !

It was our first time visiting 城崎温泉 and we had a wonderful stay in 湯楽. As we arrived at the hotel by car, the staff came to us proactively and helped with unloading our luggage and parking. We received a warm welcome from 女将さん and a detailed room introduction from the staff even though we were not good at Japanese. She tried her best and we could feel her hospitality. We scheduled our dinner at 6:15 pm and enjoyed the great crab cuisine contentedly. During the dinner, the enthusiastic and professional service from 内山Rikuさん really impressed us. He was glad to respond to our requests and questions about the cuisine, and kindly talked to us about Japanese culture, etc. It was such a plus for us to have the chance to communicate with local people pleasantly.
I will definitely recommend 湯楽 to everyone and also be looking forward to visiting again.