Family hotels and homes in Tsubame

My brother and I were looking to experience a traditional Ryokan whilst we stayed in Japan. We stayed in a modern Ryokan in Kyoto and were quite dissapointed by our experience so we changed our travel plans to stay here for a night in the last week of our three week trip. It was the best decision we could have made! Koshi no yado Takashimaya offer a service of collecting you from the local shinkansen station and then also returning you there upon your depature. Without this service we wouldn't have been able to stay as it was a 30min drive each way and would have required a car to get there. The communication to staff of our arrival times and responses were exceptional. I believe this location had been recently listed on Booking.Com, as the there was little English and the staff commented that had had very few foriengers stay previously. Google translate was super helpful in this instance. This is 100% a hidden gem and well worth the visit! We enjoyed a lovely dinner service of 9 courses in our room, where we got to try puffer fish, with a friendly waitress delivering each course. Then the a staff member made our futons after dinner, for us to sleep on the floor with pebble pillows. The onsen was fantatsic! Amazing to be able to experience this, and there were rooms with private onsens for those who wanted them. We then had a traditional breakfast the next day in the dining room, again amazing food. Only thing to be aware of is that the drinks in the fridge are not complimentary, and will be charged to your room. The value for money for this experince was incredible! It was well worth spending a bit more and venturing out to the country side to enjoy this inn which had lots of character and lovely staff. We were given Japanese socks complimentary upon departure. Plus they had a cute gift shop at the inn as well. If you are thinking about making the trip to stay here - do it! It is only an hour and a half from Tokyo via train. One of the highlights of trip!

The photos dont do the rooms justice. It's nicer than on the photos. Staff were very keen to help even though we can't really understand japanese and needed to use the translator app to communicate. Onsen is clean and not crowded when we went so we have the whole place to ourselves. The dinner is fantastic! And there are also free drinks available to guests during the day at the lobby lounge.

A family friendly onsen ryokan with great Japanese hospitality. Staff are very accommodating towards children. The meals (breakfast and dinner) are great - as per Niigata standards, they had 3 kinds of white rice for breakfast. They had a adequate sized outdoor bath and a big garden, which are really pretty. There are even 2 sheeps in the garden for petting. The kids had a great time here.

Relaxing time away from big cities

Really enjoyable time at Suehirokan! Would recommend to anyone looking for a lovely, authentic experience.