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Gifu hotels by the station and the Nagara River: 5 picked from 53
Approximate, at the rate on 2026-10-02. You pay in yen.
- Where to stay in Gifu: two station hotels, a river onsen, a food inn
- Only Dormy Inn has a hot-spring bath within walking distance of the station
- Ishikin looks over the Nagara River and Mt Kinka; Uetou is the quiet food inn
The five
| Best for | Where to book | Score | Weeknight (per person) | Saturday |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nine-room food inn above Plum Park, private baths — if you can’t decide | Ryori Ryokan Uetou Check price |
73/100 | ¥8,000 | ¥9,000–10,000 |
| Two minutes from Meitetsu Gifu, with a shop downstairs | Daiwa Roynet Hotel Gifu Check price |
68/100 | ¥8,000–10,000 | ¥11,000–27,000 |
| Small onsen inn with Nagara River and Kinka views | Nagaragawa Onsen Ishikin Check price |
66/100 | ¥8,000 | ¥13,000–17,000 |
| Natural hot-spring bath and sauna, 8 min from JR Gifu | Dormy Inn Gifu Ekimae, Kinka-no-yu Check price |
64/100 | ¥10,000–14,000 | ¥16,000–25,000 |
| City hotel in Yanagase, with a sky lounge | Hotel Grand Vert Gizan Check price |
64/100 | ¥8,000–9,000 | ¥11,000–22,000 |
Prices are the cheapest per person found on Rakuten Travel for Wednesdays and Saturdays between 2026-11-04 – 2026-12-26, for 2 adults in one room (checked 2026-10-25). 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.
Nine-room food inn above Plum Park, private baths
Reviews: Rakuten Travel 4.07/5 (203)
- Long-established ryori ryokan on high ground over Plum Park
- Meals in a private room or the hall, at breakfast and dinner
- Check-in 15:00, check-out 11:00; free parking for 6 cars (Rakuten listing)
Why it made the five
- Tofu dengaku and seasonal kaiseki; a dinner score of 4.80 on Rakuten.
- Nine rooms, non-smoking throughout; two private baths besides the in-room bathrooms.
- About eight minutes by car from JR Gifu, or five minutes on foot from the Bairin-koen-mae bus stop.
- About ¥8,000 per person with breakfast on a weekday, ¥9,000–10,000 on a Saturday — the cheapest of the five on a Saturday.
Getting there: About eight minutes by car from JR Gifu station; five minutes on foot from the Bairin-koen-mae stop on Gifu Bus.
Language and payment: Rakuten’s listing says a few staff understand a little English. Visa, Mastercard, Saison, CF and JAL cards are listed. The baths are in-room units or two baths you use privately, so tattoos do not come up.
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Right for: Coming to Gifu for the food, and wanting a small, quiet inn.
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Not for: Not walkable from the station — it is a bus or a taxi. Prices shown are breakfast-only plans; check the dinner plans when you book.
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Worth knowing: Arrive by 19:00 if you are having dinner; the doors close at 23:30.
Score breakdown — 73/100
| Criterion | Stars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ★★★★★ | The categories Rakuten does show (room and others) average 4.80 |
| Value for money | ★★★☆☆ | ¥8,000 per person on a weeknight (Rakuten, breakfast) — 103% of the median of everything we compared |
| Easy to stay | ★★★★★ | Check-out 11:00; meals in a private room; about eight minutes by car from JR Gifu, or five on foot from the Bairin-koen-mae bus stop; an old food inn on high ground above Plum Park; two private baths; breakfast and dinner in a private room or the hall; non-smoking throughout; 9 rooms. |
| Trust | ★☆☆☆☆ | 4.07 across 203 reviews (Rakuten Travel 203) |
| Only here | ★★★★☆ | A long-established nine-room food inn serving its signature tofu dengaku and seasonal kaiseki, with a dinner score of 4.80. |
Two minutes from Meitetsu Gifu, with a shop downstairs
Reviews: Rakuten Travel 4.43/5 (5,166) · Agoda 8.6/10 (2,853) · 8,019 in total
- 203 rooms; renovated April 2024, with a convenience store on the ground floor
- Check-in 14:00, check-out 11:00
- Partner car park for 44 cars at ¥1,200 a night (Rakuten listing)
Why it made the five
- About two minutes from Meitetsu Gifu, seven from JR Gifu.
- About an hour from Chubu Centrair airport by Meitetsu limited express, no change.
- Convenience store downstairs; renovated April 2024.
- About ¥8,000–10,000 per person with breakfast on a weekday; 5,166 reviews averaging 4.43.
Getting there: About two minutes on foot from Meitetsu Gifu station; about seven minutes from the Nagaragawa exit of JR Gifu station.
Language and payment: Rakuten’s listing says a few staff can handle everyday English. Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express, Diners Club, UC, Saison and UnionPay cards are accepted. No shared bath, so tattoos do not come up.
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Right for: Arriving by train from the airport or Nagoya and wanting to drop your bags by the station.
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Not for: No bath house, and the river and the castle are a bus ride away.
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Worth knowing: Payment is taken in advance, at check-in.
Score breakdown — 68/100
| Criterion | Stars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ★★☆☆☆ | The categories Rakuten does show (room and others) average 4.41 |
| Value for money | ★★★☆☆ | ¥8,000–10,000 per person on a weeknight (Rakuten, breakfast) — 100% of the median of everything we compared |
| Easy to stay | ★★★★★ | Check-out 11:00; about two minutes from Meitetsu Gifu and seven from the Nagaragawa exit of JR Gifu; about 60 minutes by limited express from Chubu Centrair airport to Meitetsu Gifu; a convenience store on the ground floor, renovated April 2024; a few staff handle everyday English; UnionPay accepted; 203 rooms. |
| Trust | ★★★☆☆ | 4.43 across 5,166 reviews (Rakuten Travel 5,166) |
| Only here | ★★★☆☆ | Its 5,166 reviews are the most of any candidate, and it is two minutes from Meitetsu Gifu, reached from the airport without changing trains. |
Small onsen inn with Nagara River and Kinka views
Reviews: Rakuten Travel 4.26/5 (327) · Agoda 9.0/10 (84) · 411 in total
- Spring water runs straight from the source into a large bath and an open-air bath
- Dinner is kaiseki made from local produce
- Check-in 15:00, check-out 10:00; free parking for 50 cars (Rakuten listing)
Why it made the five
- Free-flowing natural hot spring, with a large bath and an open-air bath.
- Views of the Nagara River and Mt Kinka.
- Fourteen rooms; local-produce kaiseki in your room or a private room.
- About ¥8,000 per person with breakfast on a weekday, ¥13,000–17,000 on a Saturday.
Getting there: About fifteen minutes by bus from JR Gifu (Gifu bus terminal, stands 12 and 13); three minutes on foot from the Ukaiya stop. The listing mentions a shuttle bus; ask for details when booking.
Language and payment: Rakuten’s listing says a few staff understand a little English. Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express, Diners Club and Discover are accepted. The baths are communal and nude in the Japanese way; tattoo rules are not published, so ask first.
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Right for: One night in Gifu, in a river-side onsen inn with a Japanese dinner.
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Not for: A bus from the station, and a small inn rather than an easy-going hotel. Check-out is 10:00.
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Worth knowing: Bathing tax of ¥150 and accommodation tax of ¥200 per person are charged separately.
Score breakdown — 66/100
| Criterion | Stars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ★★☆☆☆ | Room, bath and dinner average 4.32 on Rakuten Travel |
| Value for money | ★★★☆☆ | ¥8,000 per person on a weeknight (Rakuten, breakfast) — 99% of the median of everything we compared |
| Easy to stay | ★★★★★ | Shuttle bus; dinner in your room or a private room; 15 minutes by bus from JR Gifu (stands 12 and 13), then three minutes on foot from the Ukaiya stop; free-flowing natural hot spring with a large bath and an open-air bath; views of the Nagara River and Mt Kinka; local-produce kaiseki in your room or a private room; a few staff understand a little English; 14 rooms. |
| Trust | ★★☆☆☆ | 4.26 across 327 reviews (Rakuten Travel 327) |
| Only here | ★★★★★ | A fourteen-room onsen inn with free-flowing hot-spring water, views of the Nagara River and Mt Kinka, and dinner in your room or a private room. |
Natural hot-spring bath and sauna, 8 min from JR Gifu
Dormy Inn Gifu Ekimae, Kinka-no-yu
Reviews: Rakuten Travel 4.44/5 (2,495) · Agoda 8.7/10 (2,121) · 4,616 in total
- Hot-spring water in the large bath; sauna and cold plunge as well
- 149 rooms; buffet breakfast in the restaurant
- Check-in 15:00, check-out 11:00; no car park of its own, partner lot ¥1,000 a night (Rakuten listing)
Why it made the five
- About eight minutes from JR Gifu’s central north exit, ten from Meitetsu Gifu.
- Natural hot-spring bath house with sauna and cold plunge; bath score 4.52.
- Free self-service laundry; buffet breakfast scoring 4.50.
- About ¥10,000–14,000 per person with breakfast on a weekday, ¥16,000–25,000 on a Saturday.
Getting there: About eight minutes on foot from the central north exit of JR Gifu station; about ten minutes from Meitetsu Gifu.
Language and payment: Rakuten’s listing says a few staff can handle everyday English, and a few understand a little Chinese and Korean. Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express, Diners Club, UC, DC and NICOS are accepted. The bath is communal and nude in the Japanese way, and the hotel does not allow guests with tattoos to use it.
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Right for: Staying near the station and ending the day in a hot spring.
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Not for: The dearest of the five on a weekday, and the bath is closed to anyone with a tattoo.
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Worth knowing: Guests with tattoos cannot use the bath.
Score breakdown — 64/100
| Criterion | Stars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ★★☆☆☆ | The categories Rakuten does show (room and others) average 4.46 |
| Value for money | ★★☆☆☆ | ¥10,000–14,000 per person on a weeknight (Rakuten, breakfast) — 127% of the median of everything we compared |
| Easy to stay | ★★★★★ | Check-out 11:00; about eight minutes from the central north exit of JR Gifu, ten from Meitetsu Gifu; a natural hot-spring large bath with sauna and cold plunge (hypotonic, weakly alkaline); buffet breakfast in the restaurant; a few staff handle everyday English; free self-service laundry; 149 rooms. |
| Trust | ★★★☆☆ | 4.44 across 2,495 reviews (Rakuten Travel 2,495) |
| Only here | ★★★★☆ | Of the places that qualified and are walkable from Gifu station, the only one with a natural hot-spring bath; its bath score on Rakuten is 4.52. |
City hotel in Yanagase, with a sky lounge
Reviews: Rakuten Travel 4.21/5 (305) · Agoda 7.7/10 (121) · 426 in total
- 61 rooms, including barrier-free and wheelchair-accessible rooms
- Sky lounge and restaurant in the building
- Car park for 40 cars at ¥1,000 a night, first come first served (Rakuten listing)
Why it made the five
- In Yanagase, Gifu’s central shopping district.
- Sky lounge and restaurant; breakfast score 4.50.
- About fifteen minutes on foot from JR and Meitetsu Gifu, or five by bus.
- About ¥8,000–9,000 per person with breakfast on a weekday, ¥11,000–22,000 on a Saturday.
Getting there: About fifteen minutes on foot from JR Gifu and Meitetsu Gifu stations; about five minutes by bus or car.
Language and payment: Language support is not published, so ask when you book. Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express, Diners Club, UC and debit cards are accepted, and PayPay and au PAY can be used at the hotel. No communal bath is listed.
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Right for: Eating and wandering around the Yanagase arcades.
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Not for: A fair walk from the station, and no bath house.
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Worth knowing: Curfew at midnight; check-in from 16:00, check-out 10:00.
Score breakdown — 64/100
| Criterion | Stars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ★★☆☆☆ | Room, bath and dinner average 4.39 on Rakuten Travel |
| Value for money | ★★★☆☆ | ¥8,000–9,000 per person on a weeknight (Rakuten, breakfast) — 96% of the median of everything we compared |
| Easy to stay | ★★★★★ | About fifteen minutes on foot from JR and Meitetsu Gifu, or about five by bus or car; in Yanagase, Gifu’s central shopping district; a sky lounge and restaurant; barrier-free and wheelchair-accessible rooms; 61 rooms. |
| Trust | ★★☆☆☆ | 4.21 across 305 reviews (Rakuten Travel 305) |
| Only here | ★★★☆☆ | A city hotel in central Yanagase with a sky lounge and a breakfast score of 4.50. |
Know before you book
- Gifu has two stations a few minutes’ walk apart: JR Gifu, for trains from Nagoya and the Tokaido line, and Meitetsu Gifu, for the Meitetsu lines. Meitetsu limited expresses run straight from Chubu Centrair airport, about an hour, so you can arrive from the airport without changing.
- The castle, the river and the old Kawaramachi quarter are not by the station. They are on the north side of town, a short bus ride from the JR Gifu bus terminal. Staying by the station is easier for trains; staying by the river puts you next to the sights.
- Cormorant fishing (ukai) on the Nagara River runs in the evenings from 11 May to 15 October. Our price search covers November and December, after the season, so if you are coming for the boats, check summer prices separately.
- Yanagase, between the station and the river, is Gifu’s old shopping-arcade district. One of the five is in the middle of it.
- Nagaragawa Onsen is a hot-spring area on the river bank itself, close to the castle mountain. Several well-reviewed inns there could not be counted because their listings give only a bus ride, with no walking time.
- Prices here are per person with breakfast, for two sharing. At most of the five a Saturday costs noticeably more than a Wednesday.
How we chose: theme, conditions, scoring
How we chose
- Candidates: every property in Gifu listed on Rakuten Travel — 53
- Passed the review filter (counts and averages on Rakuten Travel, the one site that lists every property in the area): 19
- 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 Gifu and Kakamigahara district of Gifu Prefecture
- At least 100 reviews on Rakuten Travel, averaging 4.0 or better
- The cheapest rate falls between ¥4,000 and ¥30,000 per person per night
- The listing gives a walking time — from a station, or for the river-side places from a bus stop
Scoring
Five criteria, one to five stars each, weighted to one hundred points. Every star says where the number came from.
- Quality20 pts
- The average of the scores Rakuten Travel publishes for the room, the bath and the food.
- Value for money25 pts
- The cheapest breakfast-inclusive rate against the median of the hotels we compared.
- Easy to stay30 pts
- Minutes from the station, a bath house, and check-out time.
- Trust20 pts
- Review counts and averages published by Rakuten Travel.
- Only here5 pts
- What this hotel has that the other seven do not.
What we dropped
| Property | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Miyako Hotel Gifu Nagaragawa | Runner-up (60/100) | The best-reviewed of the eight, but it scored 60, four behind Hotel Grand Vert Gizan’s 64. The deciding factors were quality and value: its room, bath and dinner average is pulled down to 4.29 by a 3.99 dinner score, and about ¥9,000–13,000 per person on a weekday is 111% of the median, with a twenty-minute bus ride from the station. |
| Gifu Castle Inn | Runner-up (60/100) | Cheap and right by Meitetsu Gifu, but it scored 60, four behind the fifth place at 64. The deciding factors were quality and trust: its published scores average 4.03, the lowest here, and its reviews 4.07, which outweighed the best value score here. |
| Nagaragawa Onsen Juhachiro | Could not check | 4.64 across 1,881 reviews, the highest average in the district that cleared our review floor, with an onsen bath — but its listing gives only a bus of about fifteen minutes from Gifu station to the Nagarabashi stop, with no walking time. |
| Nagaragawa Onsen Gifu Grand Hotel | Could not check | 4.37 across 2,837 reviews, a hot-spring resort hotel on the Nagara River, but the listing gives a twenty-minute bus ride from Gifu station and no walking time. |
| Shin-Gifu Sauna Capsule Hotel | Outside the theme | It met our conditions with 4.18 across 161 reviews, but it is a men-only capsule hotel, so it cannot serve every reader. |
| 34 hotels | Below the floor | Fewer than 100 reviews, or an average below 4.0. |
Questions visitors ask
Which of these can I walk to from Gifu station?
Three. Daiwa Roynet Hotel Gifu is about two minutes from Meitetsu Gifu and seven from JR Gifu; Dormy Inn Gifu Ekimae is about eight minutes from JR Gifu’s central north exit; Hotel Grand Vert Gizan is about fifteen minutes on foot, or five by bus. Nagaragawa Onsen Ishikin and Ryori Ryokan Uetou need a bus or a taxi.
When can I see the cormorant fishing?
Ukai on the Nagara River runs in the evenings from 11 May to 15 October. Nagaragawa Onsen Ishikin is on that side of town, three minutes on foot from the Ukaiya bus stop, with views of the river and Mt Kinka. Our prices were checked for November and December, after the season ends, so summer rates may be different.
Is there a hot spring?
Two of the five have one. Dormy Inn Gifu Ekimae has a natural hot-spring bath house with a sauna, eight minutes from JR Gifu — but it does not allow guests with tattoos. Nagaragawa Onsen Ishikin has free-flowing hot-spring water in a large bath and an open-air bath by the river; its tattoo rules are not published, so ask first. Ryori Ryokan Uetou has two baths you use privately.
How do I get here from Nagoya or Chubu Centrair airport?
From Nagoya, the JR line to JR Gifu takes about twenty minutes. From Chubu Centrair airport, the Meitetsu limited express reaches Meitetsu Gifu in about an hour without a change, and Daiwa Roynet Hotel Gifu is about two minutes from there on foot.
How much do these cost?
The table shows the cheapest price per person with breakfast, for two sharing, from Rakuten Travel’s availability search for Wednesdays and Saturdays between 4 November and 26 December 2026, checked on 25 October. Weekday lows are about ¥8,000 at four of the five and about ¥10,000 at Dormy Inn. Saturdays cost more everywhere; Ryori Ryokan Uetou moves least, at about ¥9,000–10,000.
Which one would you book?
Ryori Ryokan Uetou, which scored 73, the highest of any place we scored: nine rooms, tofu dengaku and seasonal kaiseki, and a dinner score of 4.80. It is a bus or taxi from the station, though. If you want to walk from the train, Daiwa Roynet Hotel Gifu is two minutes from Meitetsu Gifu with 5,166 reviews behind it.
Changes
- 2026-10-29 First published. Scored from 53 candidates.