10 Best Beppu Onsen Hotels — Japan's Hot Spring Capital (2026)

The list opens with Suginoi Hotel, the largest onsen resort in Beppu at 554 rooms, sitting up on the Kankaiji hillside with a full panorama over Beppu Bay. The whole place revolves around Tanayu — a bath laid out like a tanada rice paddy across 5 stepped levels: 1 indoor, 1 semi-open, and 3 outdoor pools dropping toward an infinity edge above the water. The new Sora-kan wing, opened in 2023, adds a Sky Onsen on top at 250 metres above sea level, while Aqua Beat — an indoor water park running 365 days a year — keeps kids busy regardless of weather. Dinner is an 80-dish kaiseki buffet at Shosenkan. Rates start around $165 a night. This is the pick for families who want every onsen type in one spot without bored kids.

ANA InterContinental Beppu Resort & Spa is the most luxurious hotel in Beppu — a 5-star IHG resort that opened in 2019 with just 89 rooms, which keeps it genuinely exclusive. It sits up on the hillside above town, looking down at Beppu Bay and the onsen steam drifting off the city below. The draw is the infinity pool that spills toward the sea, a spa that pipes in Beppu's mineral water, and three restaurants — Atelier (French), Element (teppanyaki) and the Spice Lab bar. A free Mercedes-Benz V-Class shuttle runs the 4 km up from JR Beppu Station. It scores 9.0/10 and starts around $400 a night, climbing past $1,500 for the top suites. Best for honeymooners and luxury travelers who want full InterContinental service rather than a hot-spring town base.

Ranked #3, Hoshino Resorts KAI Beppu is the local outpost of Hoshino Resorts, one of Japan's top luxury ryokan groups. It opened in 2022 next to the red Beppu Tower, right in the heart of town, and pulls a 9.0/10 from real guests. The signature space is the 8th-floor Sky Lobby — wood floors and tatami with a panoramic view over Beppu Bay — backed up by a rooftop onsen fed by Beppu's own sulphate spring water and a kaiseki dinner built around Bungo-gyu beef from Oita. The 70 rooms run minimalist with local Beppu bamboo craft worked into the lighting and details. Rates start around $280 a night including the kaiseki dinner and breakfast, which makes it a strong pick for couples who want a Hoshino ryokan without leaving the city.

Coming in at #4, Yufuin Sansou Murata is a luxury ryokan in Yufuin Onsen, about 30 minutes by car from Beppu, scoring 9.2/10. Locals rank it among the three best ryokans in Yufuin, alongside Tamanoyu and Kamenoi Bessou. There are only 12 villas here, each a traditional Japanese house that was dismantled somewhere across the country and rebuilt on this 4,000 sqm property — decorated in a wabi-sabi style mixed with classic European furniture. Every villa has its own private open-air onsen you can soak in at any hour. On-site you also get the Theomurata craft-chocolate atelier, Tan's Bar, a soba restaurant, and the Artegio art museum, all linked by wooden walkways through a Japanese garden. Rooms start around $800 a night with a multi-course kaiseki dinner and breakfast included — built for honeymooners and anniversary trips where the price buys a night you genuinely won't forget.

Kannawaen is a traditional ryokan built in 1929, sitting in the Kannawa Onsen district right in the heart of Beppu's 7 Hells (Jigoku Tour) — it's a 5-minute walk to Umi Jigoku, the cobalt-blue Sea Hell. The building has been restored several times but still keeps its Showa-era bones: low wooden ceilings, tatami corridors, and a small Japanese garden. Of the 19 rooms, roughly 12 come with a private sodium-chloride onsen bath fed straight from Kannawa's springs. The signature feature is the mushiyu steam bath — a Hinoki-lined room where mineral steam rises from underground through stone pipes, the same bathing style Kannawa has used since the Kamakura period. Rates start around $240 a night including a multi-course kaiseki dinner and breakfast. Best for couples who want an authentic old ryokan and plan to walk the Hells.

Ranked #6, the Grand Mercure Beppu Bay Resort & Spa (formerly the Beppuwan Royal) is a 13-storey Accor 5-star standing right on the water in Hiji-machi, about 20 minutes by free shuttle from JR Beppu. It scores 8.6/10 from over 3,000 reviews, and the headline draw is the Rose Bath — a women's outdoor rotenburo with fresh roses floating on the surface, swapped every morning and famous across Japan's onsen magazines. All 240 rooms face Beppu Bay at a full 180 degrees, there are 6 restaurants spanning Japanese, Chinese, French and a steakhouse, and Sanrio Harmony Land — the Hello Kitty and Kuromi theme park — sits just 450 metres away. Rates start near $137 a night, the lowest of any 5-star in the Beppu group, which makes it the obvious pick for families, Sanrio fans and anyone collecting Accor ALL points.

Coming in at #7 is Hotel Shiragiku, a 4-star ryokan that has stood in the centre of Beppu since 1957 and has been renovated several times since. It sits a flat 550 metres — about a 7-minute walk — from JR Beppu Station, and just 200 metres from Takegawara Onsen, the original sand bath. The 98 rooms mix Japanese tatami and Western styles, but the real reason people remember the place is the service: 4 in-house restaurants (kaiseki, buffet, steakhouse and bar), an outdoor rotenburo looking onto a Japanese garden, and free afternoon tea plus a fresh pudding handed out every night. Rooms start around $150 a night, which makes it the practical pick for first-timers who want a ryokan in town, close to the trains and within walking distance of the Takegawara sand bath. Score 8.5/10.

Coming in at #8, Hotel Umine is a small 4-star boutique with just 20 rooms, parked about 200 metres from the red Beppu Tower and a 3-minute walk from Matogahama Beach. It scores 8.7/10, and the hook is simple: every single room has a large in-room spa bathtub and a sea view over Beppu Bay, with a separate toilet and rain shower. The look is modern Japanese minimalist — pale wood, clean lines, no clutter — and there's a sea-view lounge bar on the ground floor pouring Yufuin whisky and Beppu sake from 6pm. Rooms start around $177 a night (about THB 6,200). It suits couples who want something exclusive and quiet over the noise of a 500-room resort. One honest note: the in-room tubs are warm tap water, not real mineral onsen — though there's a shared mineral bath downstairs if you want the genuine thing.

Coming in at #9, Hotel New Tsuruta has been part of Beppu since 1917 — that is over a century, and it has been renovated several times without losing the old character. It scores 8.6/10 from past guests. The headline feature is the rooftop rotenburo onsen on the 7th floor, facing due east over Beppu Bay, where you can watch the sun come up every morning from 05:00. The 49 rooms mix Japanese tatami and Western beds, and a handful keep a Taisho-era fireplace as a heritage touch. You are 150 m from Takegawara Onsen (the original 1879 sand bath) and right on the Beppu Ginza shopping arcade. Rates start near $108 a night — the lowest in the top 10 — which makes it a solid pick for backpackers, budget travelers, and anyone who likes a classic ryokan over a polished resort.

Closing our list at #10 is the Kamenoi Hotel Beppu, the Kamenoi group's flagship and the most historic name in town. It was founded in 1911 by Kumahachi Aburaya, the man often called the father of Japanese tourism — the figure who first marketed Beppu as the country's onsen capital, ran sightseeing boats across the bay, and built the Mt. Tsurumi cable car. The building was renovated after 2018 but keeps its heritage feel, and at 320 rooms it is the second-largest hotel in Beppu after Suginoi. You get a top-floor rotenburo looking over Beppu Bay, two indoor onsen baths, a 60-dish kaiseki buffet at Shokuraku, a free Kumahachi Aburaya museum in the lobby, and a free shuttle to the 7 Hells. Rooms start around $120 a night, and it sits just 450 m from the station — ideal if you want a large central hotel, a fair price, and a real slice of Beppu history. Score 8.5/10.