This page contains promotions (affiliate links) (Editorial & ad policy)
Lake Akan, Kawayu and Kushiro onsen ryokan: 5 picked from 40
Approximate, at the rate on 2026-10-02. You pay in yen.
- Five ryokan around Lake Akan and eastern Hokkaido, all with an open-air bath
- Yuyado Daiichi rates highest (4.73); Akan Yuku no Sato Tsuruga has most reviews (1,921)
- Green Park Tsurui is cheapest; Tinkle has four rooms; La Vista checks in until midnight
The five
| Best for | Where to book | Score | Weeknight (per person) | Saturday |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In Tsurui, the crane village, with a moor-water onsen — if you can’t decide | Hotel Green Park Tsurui Check price |
85/100 | ¥14,000 | ¥15,000 |
| Top-rated of the eight, many baths by a forest stream | Yuyado Daiichi Check price |
79/100 | ¥22,000 | ¥25,000–27,000 |
| Four-room auberge, open-air-bath rooms and course dinners | Chiisana Auberge Tinkuru Check price |
78/100 | ¥20,000 | ¥21,000 |
| Akanko Onsen ryokan with 1,921 reviews and room dinners | Akan Yuku no Sato Tsuruga Check price |
73/100 | ¥20,000–22,000 | ¥24,000–30,000 |
| A forest inn on the Akan River, check-in until midnight | La Vista Akangawa Check price |
69/100 | ¥23,000–25,000 | ¥24,000–29,000 |
Prices are the cheapest per person found on Rakuten Travel for Wednesdays and Saturdays between 2026-10-31 – 2026-12-23, for 2 adults in one room (checked 2026-10-24). They move daily — the link shows live prices.
The booking links go to Agoda, which shows today’s price and lets you pay in your own currency. Its price can differ from the Rakuten Travel figures above.
In Tsurui, the crane village, with a moor-water onsen
Reviews: Rakuten Travel 4.61/5 (85)
- Tsurui is the village where Hokkaido’s red-crowned cranes live
- Says its moor-water (mōru) hot spring leaves skin smooth
Why it made the five
- About ¥14,000 per person with two meals on a weeknight, ¥15,000 on a Saturday — the cheapest of the five.
- Moor-water hot spring with a large bath, open-air bath and sauna.
- Dinner in a private room or the restaurant; the ¥150 bathing tax is included.
- 4.61 across 85 reviews; only 22 rooms.
Getting there: 50 minutes by car from JR Kushiro station. Rakuten lists a shuttle bus among its facilities but gives no conditions or times, so ask when you book. Free parking for 50 cars.
Language and payment: Per Rakuten, a few staff understand a little English. Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express, Diners Club and several Japanese cards are listed. Tattoo rules are not published, so ask before using the shared baths. There are barrier-free rooms, rooms for wheelchair users and wheelchairs to borrow.
-
Right for: Staying in the crane village in a small, quiet hotel, at the lowest price of the five.
-
Not for: Night owls — the doors close at 22:00.
-
Worth knowing: Curfew at 22:00. Call ahead if you will check in after 20:00.
Score breakdown — 85/100
| Criterion | Stars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ★★★☆☆ | Room, bath and dinner average 4.60 on Rakuten Travel |
| Value for money | ★★★★★ | ¥14,000 per person on a weeknight (Rakuten, dinner and breakfast) — 70% of the median of everything we compared |
| Easy to stay | ★★★★★ | A shuttle bus (no conditions listed); private-room dining; 50 minutes by car from JR Kushiro station; in Tsurui, the village where red-crowned cranes live; a moor-water hot spring it says is renowned for the skin, with a large bath, open-air bath and sauna; dinner in a private room or the restaurant; the ¥150 bathing tax is included in the price; a few staff understand a little English; curfew 22:00. |
| Trust | ★★★★☆ | 4.61 across 85 reviews (Rakuten Travel 85) |
| Only here | ★★★★☆ | In Tsurui, home of the red-crowned cranes, with a moor-water hot spring known for the skin — and its 4.61 average is the second-highest of the eight. |
Top-rated of the eight, many baths by a forest stream
Reviews: Rakuten Travel 4.73/5 (276) · Agoda 9.4/10 (43) · 319 in total
- In Yoroushi, beside a wild-bird forest and a mountain stream
- Says you hear the water when you open the window
Why it made the five
- 4.73 across 276 reviews — the highest average of the eight.
- Bath 4.79 and service 4.82, both the best of the eight.
- Large bath, open-air bath, family bath, sauna and bedrock bath.
- About 30 minutes by car from Nakashibetsu airport.
Getting there: About 30 minutes by car from Nakashibetsu airport; about 90 minutes by car from Kushiro. Rakuten gives no train or bus directions. Free parking for 50 cars, no reservation needed.
Language and payment: Per Rakuten, a few staff understand a little English. Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express, Diners Club and several Japanese cards are listed. Tattoo rules are not published; the family bath may let your own party bathe alone, so ask about it when you book. Wheelchairs to borrow and handrails in the large bath.
-
Right for: Wanting the surest reviews here, and a different bath for every soak.
-
Not for: Travelling without a car — Rakuten gives only drive times.
-
Worth knowing: Call ahead if you will check in after 18:00. A ¥150 bathing tax per person and Hokkaido’s accommodation tax are charged on top.
Score breakdown — 79/100
| Criterion | Stars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ★★★★☆ | Room, bath and dinner average 4.71 on Rakuten Travel |
| Value for money | ★★☆☆☆ | ¥22,000 per person on a weeknight (Rakuten, dinner and breakfast) — 112% of the median of everything we compared |
| Easy to stay | ★★★★★ | Check-out 11:00; about 30 minutes by car from Nakashibetsu airport and about 90 from Kushiro; beside a wild-bird forest and a mountain stream, with many kinds of bath; large bath, open-air bath, family bath, sauna and bedrock bath; breakfast buffet, dinner in the dining room; a few staff understand a little English; call ahead if checking in after 18:00. |
| Trust | ★★★★☆ | 4.73 across 276 reviews (Rakuten Travel 276) |
| Only here | ★★★★★ | Its 4.73 average is the highest of the eight that qualified, and so are its bath (4.79) and service (4.82) scores. |
Four-room auberge, open-air-bath rooms and course dinners
Reviews: Rakuten Travel 4.56/5 (58)
- In the countryside near Lake Kussharo
- No large bath, shop or vending machine, and no television in the rooms
Why it made the five
- Only four rooms; rooms with their own open-air bath.
- A course dinner; breakfast and dinner both rated 4.67.
- About ¥20,000 per person with two meals on a weeknight, ¥21,000 on a Saturday.
- About 50 minutes by car from Memanbetsu airport.
Getting there: About 50 minutes by car from Memanbetsu airport; about 90 minutes by car from Kushiro. The listing names JR Mashu and Kawayu Onsen as the nearest stations but gives no pick-up or onward route. Free parking for eight cars.
Language and payment: The inn’s own notes on Rakuten say ‘Japanese Only’ and that it cannot handle foreign languages, even though Rakuten’s language field says a few staff understand a little English — go by the notes. Visa, Mastercard, JCB and American Express are listed. Tattoo rules are not published; book a room with its own open-air bath if you want to bathe alone.
-
Right for: Two adults who read Japanese, wanting their own open-air bath and a proper dinner.
-
Not for: Anyone needing English, families with children, or arriving late.
-
Worth knowing: The notes say ‘Japanese Only’. No children or pets. Check-in is from 15:30 and must be by 17:30 for the 18:00 dinner; the car park cannot be used before check-in. The fridge is empty, so bring your own drinks.
Score breakdown — 78/100
| Criterion | Stars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ★★★★☆ | The categories Rakuten does show (room and others) average 4.67 |
| Value for money | ★★★☆☆ | ¥20,000 per person on a weeknight (Rakuten, dinner and breakfast) — 100% of the median of everything we compared |
| Easy to stay | ★★★★★ | About 50 minutes by car from Memanbetsu airport; an inn built around rooms with their own open-air bath and a course dinner; only four rooms; dinner at 18:00, so check in by 17:30; no large bath, shop or vending machine, and no TV in the rooms; no children or pets. |
| Trust | ★★★☆☆ | 4.56 across 58 reviews (Rakuten Travel 58) |
| Only here | ★★★★☆ | A four-room inn — the only one of the eight that leads with rooms with their own open-air bath and a course dinner. |
Akanko Onsen ryokan with 1,921 reviews and room dinners
Reviews: Rakuten Travel 4.49/5 (1,921) · Agoda 8.9/10 (1,541) · 3,462 in total
- Akanko Onsen is the hot-spring town on Lake Akan
- Weeknights about ¥20,000–22,000 per person with two meals, Saturdays about ¥24,000–30,000
Why it made the five
- 1,921 reviews averaging 4.49 — the most reviewed of the eight.
- In Akanko Onsen, on Lake Akan; about 60 minutes by car from Kushiro airport.
- Large, open-air and family baths, sauna and bedrock bath.
- Dinner in your room or at the buffet restaurant.
Getting there: About 60 minutes by car from Kushiro airport, about 90 from Memanbetsu airport. A paid shuttle bus runs daily from the Sapporo, Chitose and Otofuke areas until 31 March 2027, booked at least five days ahead; the hotel’s own site has times and fares. Free parking for 150 cars, away from the hotel, with a shuttle between them.
Language and payment: Per Rakuten, a few staff understand a little English and a little Chinese. Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express, Diners Club, debit cards and several Japanese cards are listed. Tattoo rules are not published; the family bath may let your party bathe alone, so ask. All rooms are non-smoking, and there are rooms for wheelchair users.
-
Right for: Staying right in the Lake Akan onsen town at a big, well-equipped ryokan.
-
Not for: Wanting a small, quiet inn — this one has 269 rooms.
-
Worth knowing: The car park is away from the hotel, linked by shuttle bus. With one adult and one child, the child pays the adult rate. Call if you will check in after 19:00, or the booking may be cancelled. A ¥300 bathing tax and an accommodation tax of ¥300–700 per person are charged on top.
Score breakdown — 73/100
| Criterion | Stars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ★★★☆☆ | Room, bath and dinner average 4.51 on Rakuten Travel |
| Value for money | ★★★☆☆ | ¥20,000–22,000 per person on a weeknight (Rakuten, dinner and breakfast) — 100% of the median of everything we compared |
| Easy to stay | ★★★★★ | A paid shuttle bus from the Sapporo, Chitose and Otofuke areas (daily, booked at least five days ahead, until 31 March 2027); meals in your room (dinner in your room or at the buffet restaurant); private-room dining; about 60 minutes by car from Kushiro airport and 90 from Memanbetsu; a 269-room ryokan in Akanko Onsen; large bath, open-air bath, family bath, sauna and bedrock bath; a few staff understand a little English and Chinese; all rooms non-smoking. |
| Trust | ★★★☆☆ | 4.49 across 1,921 reviews (Rakuten Travel 1,921) |
| Only here | ★★★★☆ | Its 1,921 reviews are the most of the eight, and it is a 269-room ryokan in Akanko Onsen where dinner can be served in your room. |
A forest inn on the Akan River, check-in until midnight
Reviews: Rakuten Travel 4.42/5 (838) · Agoda 9.1/10 (952) · 1,790 in total
- Sums itself up as ‘just a forest with a river and a hot spring’
- Weeknights about ¥23,000–25,000 per person with two meals, the dearest of the five
Why it made the five
- On the Akan River in the forest; about an hour by car from Kushiro airport.
- Open-air bath, large bath, family bath and sauna.
- Last check-in at midnight, the latest of the eight.
- 4.42 across 838 reviews; room 4.58.
Getting there: About an hour by car from Kushiro airport; about 90 minutes by car from Kushiro station. Free parking for 50 cars, no reservation needed. The inn asks you to tell it how you are travelling on the day.
Language and payment: Per Rakuten, a few staff understand a little English. Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express, Diners Club and several Japanese cards are listed. Tattoo rules are not published; the family bath may let your party bathe alone, so ask. Non-smoking throughout; barrier-free rooms and wheelchairs to borrow.
-
Right for: Hearing the river from the bath, or arriving late off an evening flight.
-
Not for: Wanting to choose your own dinner time — there are two fixed sittings.
-
Worth knowing: Dinner is at 17:30 or 20:00, with no advance booking of the time. Call if you will check in after 20:00. A ¥300 bathing tax and an accommodation tax are charged on top. The TV gets satellite channels only.
Score breakdown — 69/100
| Criterion | Stars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ★★★☆☆ | Room, bath and dinner average 4.51 on Rakuten Travel |
| Value for money | ★★☆☆☆ | ¥23,000–25,000 per person on a weeknight (Rakuten, dinner and breakfast) — 118% of the median of everything we compared |
| Easy to stay | ★★★★★ | Check-out 11:00; about an hour by car from Kushiro airport; an inn that calls itself ‘just a forest with a river and a hot spring’; open-air bath, large bath, family bath and sauna; last check-in midnight, call if after 20:00; dinner in two fixed sittings at 17:30 and 20:00, no advance booking of the time; a few staff understand a little English; satellite TV only. |
| Trust | ★★★☆☆ | 4.42 across 838 reviews (Rakuten Travel 838) |
| Only here | ★★★★☆ | In the forest on the Akan River, with the latest last check-in of the eight (midnight), so a late arrival from the airport still works. |
Know before you book
- This is driving country. The inns’ own listings give car times — about an hour from Kushiro airport to Akanko Onsen and the Akan River, and 50 minutes to an hour from Memanbetsu airport to the Kawayu and Lake Kussharo side. Only a couple of them offer any way in without a car.
- Lake Akan is the best-known stop: the hot-spring town of Akanko Onsen on its shore, the lake’s marimo moss balls, and the Ainu Kotan, the Ainu village quarter of the town. Akan Yuku no Sato Tsuruga is in the town itself; La Vista Akangawa is in the forest along the Akan River.
- Kawayu Onsen, further north near Lake Kussharo and Lake Mashu, is known for strongly acidic, sulphurous water from the volcano behind it. Both Kawayu inns in our eight are runners-up; Auberge Tinkuru, out near Lake Kussharo, is the closest of the five to that side.
- Tsurui, north of Kushiro, is the village of the red-crowned cranes, which gather in the open around the village in winter. Hotel Green Park Tsurui is there. The Kushiro Marsh, Japan’s largest wetland, lies between Tsurui and the JR Senmo line.
- Yuyado Daiichi is the outlier, in Yoroushi near Nakashibetsu, about 30 minutes from Nakashibetsu airport — the one to pick if you are flying into that airport or heading on towards Shiretoko.
- Japanese shared baths are nude and you wash at the taps before getting in. None of these eight publishes a tattoo rule, so ask before you go. Prices here are per person with dinner and breakfast, for two sharing. A bathing tax of ¥150–300 comes on top at most of them, and several also add the accommodation tax charged in Hokkaido since April 2026.
How we chose: theme, conditions, scoring
How we chose
- Candidates: every property in Akan, Kawayu and Kushiro listed on Rakuten Travel — 40
- Passed the review filter (counts and averages on Rakuten Travel, the one site that lists every property in the area): 27
- Met every condition below: 8
- Kept: five, each the best at something different
Where the facts come from
- Facts: Rakuten Travel property information (in some articles, each hotel’s own site too)
- Prices: Rakuten Travel live availability, Wednesdays and Saturdays over eight weeks
- Reviews: the count and average on Rakuten Travel, as given in each hotel’s Trust row. Agoda’s reviews are shown under each hotel name for reference only and do not count towards the score
Conditions (all of them, not most of them)
- In Rakuten Travel’s Kushiro, Akan, Kawayu and Nemuro district of Hokkaido, with a hot spring
- At least 30 reviews on Rakuten Travel, averaging 4.0 or better
- The cheapest rate falls between ¥10,000 and ¥40,000 per person per night
- An open-air hot-spring bath, counting the outdoor part of the large bath; private and in-room open-air baths are noted in the text as a bonus
Scoring
Five criteria, one to five stars each, weighted to one hundred points. Every star says where the number came from.
- Quality25 pts
- The average of the scores Rakuten Travel publishes for the room, the bath and the food.
- Value for money20 pts
- The cheapest rate with dinner and breakfast against the median of the inns we compared.
- Easy to stay30 pts
- Drive times and pick-ups, the baths, meals in a private room or your room, language support, and check-out time.
- Trust20 pts
- Review counts and averages published by Rakuten Travel.
- Only here5 pts
- What this inn has that the other seven do not.
What we dropped
| Property | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Kawayu Kanko Hotel | Runner-up (63/100) | 63/100, six points behind La Vista Akangawa. Its strongly acidic water at three temperatures is unlike anything else here and its weeknight price is the joint lowest of the eight, but room, bath and dinner average only 4.09 and reviews 4.13 across 786 — one star each for quality and trust. |
| Oyado Kinkiyu Bettei Suikazura | Runner-up (61/100) | 61/100, eight points behind La Vista Akangawa. The easiest of the eight to reach by train, but room, bath and dinner average 4.11 and reviews 4.14 across 542 — one star each for quality and trust — and its acidic sulphur water does the same job as Kawayu Kanko Hotel’s. |
| Lodge Shirarutoro | Runner-up (56/100) | 56/100, 13 points behind La Vista Akangawa. The only one of the eight with a stated station pick-up, and the canoe tours are unique, but room, bath and dinner average 4.27 and reviews 4.37 across 151 — one star for quality, two for trust — and no weeknight rooms came up in our search window. |
| Akan Tsuruga Besso Hinanoza | Outside the theme | 4.87 across 249 reviews and an open-air hot-spring bath in all 25 rooms, on Lake Akan — but its cheapest rate is over our ¥40,000 ceiling. |
| Sanko Onsen | Outside the theme | 4.80 across 181 reviews for a small inn on Lake Kussharo with a large open-air bath, but its cheapest rate is under our ¥10,000 floor. |
| Kirano Yado Subaru | Outside the theme | 5.00 across 36 reviews for a five-room free-flowing hot-spring inn 20 minutes from Lake Mashu, but its listing does not mention an open-air bath, so we could not confirm the condition. |
| Dormy Inn Premium Kushiro | Outside the theme | 4,871 reviews averaging 4.40 and a top-floor natural hot spring, ten minutes on foot from JR Kushiro station — but it is a city hotel whose cheapest rate is under our ¥10,000 floor. |
Questions visitors ask
Which one would you book?
Hotel Green Park Tsurui, the top score of the five at 85/100: a moor-water hot spring with an open-air bath, dinner in a private room, 4.61 on Rakuten, and about ¥14,000 per person with two meals on a weeknight (¥15,000 on a Saturday) — the cheapest of the five. If reviews matter most, Yuyado Daiichi has the highest average of the eight, 4.73 across 276, at about ¥22,000 per person on a weeknight.
Do I need a car?
For almost all of these, yes — the listings give drive times from Kushiro, Memanbetsu or Nakashibetsu airport and little else. Akan Yuku no Sato Tsuruga runs a paid shuttle bus from the Sapporo, Chitose and Otofuke areas, booked at least five days ahead, and Green Park Tsurui lists a shuttle bus without details. Of the runners-up, Lodge Shirarutoro picks you up at JR Toro station, and Bettei Suikazura is eight minutes from JR Kawayu Onsen station. If you drive in December or later, expect snow and ice on the roads.
Which ones are on Lake Akan?
Akan Yuku no Sato Tsuruga is in Akanko Onsen, the hot-spring town on the lake shore, about an hour by car from Kushiro airport. La Vista Akangawa is in the forest along the Akan River, also about an hour from the airport. The other three are elsewhere in eastern Hokkaido: Tsurui, Yoroushi near Nakashibetsu, and the Lake Kussharo countryside.
Do any of them have English-speaking staff?
Rakuten lists a few staff who understand a little English at Green Park Tsurui, Yuyado Daiichi and La Vista Akangawa, and a little English and Chinese at Akan Yuku no Sato Tsuruga. Chiisana Auberge Tinkuru’s own notes say ‘Japanese Only’ and that it cannot handle foreign languages, so it is not the one for you unless someone in your party reads Japanese. None publishes a tattoo rule.
Can I pay by card?
All five list Visa, Mastercard, JCB and American Express. Of the runners-up, Lodge Shirarutoro does not take cards when you pay at the lodge, and Bettei Suikazura also lists UnionPay.
When were these prices checked?
We searched Rakuten Travel availability for Wednesdays and Saturdays between 31 October and 23 December 2026, taking the cheapest room with dinner and breakfast for two adults and showing it per person (checked 24 October 2026). Weeknights for the five ran from about ¥14,000 to ¥25,000 per person. A bathing tax of ¥150–300 per adult comes on top at most inns (Green Park Tsurui includes it), and several also add an accommodation tax. Prices move daily — the link on each inn shows today’s.
Changes
- 2026-10-29 First published. Scored from 40 candidates.