Hotel New Tsuruta

Rooms and decor

The mixed Western-Tatami room runs about 22 sqm at roughly $130 a night. Half is timber floor with twin Western beds, the other half is a 4-mat tatami area, and the standout is a genuine Taisho-era fireplace kept as decor rather than working heat. Add an old tansu chest and an LCD TV and the room reads more heritage than hotel. The bathroom is small, with a shower and a Toto Washlet but no tub, so the shared baths are where you actually soak. Bedding is clean, with a yukata and slippers laid out, and the free Wi-Fi is only moderate, a fair trade in a structure this old.

Food and amenities

Breakfast is a buffet on the 2nd floor at 1,800 yen (about $12) per head, with Bungo-gyu sausage, toriten fried chicken, grilled saba, miso soup, Yufuin pickles, croissants, and Kyushu fruit. It is a lot of value for the money. Beyond the rooftop onsen there is no spa or pool, which keeps the focus on the bath and the location. For lunch, guests point you to Toyotsune, an original toriten shop about a 5-minute walk away at roughly 1,200 yen a plate.

Location and getting there

You are in central Beppu, a 10-minute (800 m) walk from JR Beppu Station East Exit, and the route runs through the Beppu Ginza arcade lined with toriten and reimen shops. The big draw next door is Takegawara Onsen at 150 m, the original 1879 sand bath, where you wear a yukata and lie in warm 50C black sand for 15 minutes. The cream-and-brown 7-storey building carries the Tsuruta kanji on an old wooden sign, and the small lobby greets you with green tea.

Things to know before booking

This is a 100-year-old building, so the lift is slow and the bathrooms are small. Rooms start near 20 sqm, tighter than the rest of this list, and there is no spa or pool. The fireplaces are decorative only, not a heat source, and Wi-Fi can be patchy in the older sections. If you want a sleek modern resort, look elsewhere. If you want a real old ryokan at the lowest price in town, this fits.

Our take

Hotel New Tsuruta is the best-value ryokan in Beppu: a 1917 legend with a rooftop sunrise onsen, Takegawara's sand bath next door, and the Beppu Ginza arcade at the door. It scores 8.6/10 from past guests, and at $108+ it costs roughly half what KAI or Suginoi charge. Book it for the history, the early-morning soak, and the location, and accept the small rooms and dated edges as part of the deal.