Overview
Grand Mercure Nasu Highlands Resort & Spa gives you a highland resort stay with wide mountain views, fresh air, and plenty of space to relax. You stay in Nasu, a place known for open landscapes, family attractions, farms, cafés, and seasonal scenery. From the hotel, the Nasu mountain range feels close, and the mood changes beautifully through the day as the light moves across the highlands.
This is not a ryokan, but it still gives you a strong Japanese bathing experience. You can soak in the outdoor rock bath, enjoy the large indoor bath, spend time in the sauna, rest in the onsen lounge, and return to a roomy hotel room after a day outdoors. The resort also works especially well for families, with child-friendly rooms, indoor and outdoor play areas, a seasonal garden pool, and dining that keeps mealtimes easy.
Accommodation
Rooms at Grand Mercure Nasu Highlands Resort & Spa are spacious, with many room types measuring 36 square meters or more. You can choose from Superior, Standard, and Classic rooms, with layouts that suit couples, families, groups, and longer stays.
The Superior rooms were renovated for the April 2024 rebrand and feel bright, fresh, and family-friendly. Options include the Superior Twin, Family Superior Twin Kids Room, Family Superior Twin Baby Room, and Family Modern Japanese Room. The kids and baby rooms are especially useful when you travel with children, giving you more peace of mind and less to prepare before arrival.
The Standard rooms include the Standard Junior Suite with mountain views, Standard Safari Twin with mountain views, and Standard Forest Twin. These rooms give you a playful or nature-inspired feel, with enough room to settle in after a day around Nasu.
The Classic rooms include larger suite-style options, Japanese-style rooms, Japanese-Western rooms, family twin rooms with bunk beds, and an accessible twin room with mountain views. The Classic Deluxe Suite is the largest room type at 144 square meters, while the Classic Junior Suite offers 72 square meters. Japanese-style and Japanese-Western rooms give you a softer, more traditional layout with tatami elements.
In-room items include toothbrush, razor, hair comb, cotton set, yukata, TV, refrigerator, and standard bathroom items. Yukata can be worn throughout the hotel. If you stay in a Japanese-style or Japanese-Western room, futons are self-service, so you prepare them yourself when you are ready to sleep. All rooms are non-smoking, and smoking is available only in the first-floor smoking booth.
Dining
Dining takes place at Le Sensoriel on the 13th floor, where you can enjoy buffet meals with views across the highlands. The restaurant brings together Japanese and Western dishes, with a focus on local Nasu and Tochigi flavors. You can eat at your own pace, try a little of many dishes, and keep the meal relaxed whether you travel as a couple or with children.
Dinner highlights regional ingredients and local food culture. Recommended dishes include Nasu gyoza, Tochigi beef with eggplant in a shabu-shabu style, and fresh yuba, a Nikko specialty known for its soft texture and gentle flavor. The dinner buffet feels generous without needing to be formal, making it easy to enjoy after a bath or a full day outside.
Breakfast also follows a Japanese and Western buffet style. You can start with warm dishes, bread, Japanese sides, and customizable pancakes, then plan your day over coffee or tea. Baby food is available in several types based on age, and children’s tableware is placed near the kids’ menu area, which makes mornings smoother when you travel with little ones.
The resort does not offer lunch service, so daytime meals are best planned around nearby cafés, restaurants, sightseeing spots, or your travel route.
Onsen and Wellness
The bathing area is on the first floor and gives you several ways to reset. You can enjoy the outdoor rock bath, the large indoor bath, the sauna, and the onsen lounge. The outdoor bath uses Nasu’s hot spring water, while the indoor large bath uses heated water.
The outdoor rock bath is the main hot spring feature. You soak in a stone bath while feeling the highland air around you, with the seasons changing the atmosphere throughout the year. The hot spring quality is a sulfur-containing calcium-magnesium sulfate spring.
The indoor large bath gives you a more sheltered place to warm up, especially on colder days. Bath items include body soap, shampoo, conditioner, rinse, baby soap, and chairs for infants and small children. The bathing areas do not switch between men and women.
The sauna is available during the same morning and afternoon bathing periods. After bathing, you can spend time in the onsen lounge, where soft light, seating, and drinks help you cool down slowly before returning to your room or heading to dinner.
Bathing hours are from 6:00 AM to 11:00 AM and from 3:00 PM to 11:00 PM, with final entry 30 minutes before closing.
Guests with tattoos
If you have tattoos, you generally cannot use the large public bath. However, a small one-point tattoo up to the size of your palm may be allowed, but ideally it would be covered.
Facilities
Grand Mercure Nasu Highlands Resort & Spa has many spaces designed for families and relaxed resort stays. The indoor NASOBIBA kids area gives young children room to play safely, while the outdoor NASOBO area offers a more active space during the day. KINOHA – Family Lounge & Library is a wood-and-tatami lounge on the second floor where you can read, play, and unwind together, with picture books, children’s books, wooden toys, board games, digital drawing, and a large comic collection.
The seasonal garden pool opens outdoors during selected summer dates and includes a shallow kids area. You can use it before check-in or after check-out during opening hours. Inside the hotel, you can also use The Lounge for drinks during evening social time and nightcap hours, the shop on the first floor for local souvenirs and child-related items, the game corner, vending machines, water servers on room floors, free Wi-Fi, and a 24-hour coin laundry near the large bath entrance. Luggage storage is handled through dial lockers in the first-floor lobby.
The resort also has meeting and banquet spaces, making it useful for group stays and events as well as leisure trips. Pets cannot stay at the hotel or enter the building.
Activities
You can enjoy much of the stay without leaving the resort. Children can play at NASOBIBA, NASOBO, KINOHA, or the garden pool in season, while you move between the lounge, bath, sauna, and restaurant. The resort works well when you want a full day to feel easy rather than packed.
Around Nasu, you can visit family-friendly attractions, farms, cafés, nature spots, and highland viewpoints. Mount Chausu is one of the area’s major outdoor highlights, with wide views and a strong sense of volcanic landscape. Nasu Highland Park, Nasu Animal Kingdom, Nasu Rindoh-ko Family Farm, and local museums also fit well into a family trip.
If you come in winter, plan your travel carefully. Roads may freeze from December to March, and winter tires are recommended during that period.
Additional features
Check-in starts at 3:00 PM, and check-out is by 11:00 AM. Check-in procedures can begin from 1:00 PM, depending on the day, though room access follows the standard check-in time unless arranged otherwise.
The hotel is located at 4449-2 Takakuhei, Nasu-machi, Nasu-gun, Tochigi. By car, it is about 15 minutes from Nasu IC. From Tokyo Station, you can take the Tohoku Shinkansen to Nasu-Shiobara Station, then continue by car or taxi for about 30 minutes.
For public transport, you can use the bus free pass service for the Kanto Bus Nasu Line and the Nasu sightseeing loop bus on your arrival and departure days. Advance reservation is required by the day before travel.
