Overview
Stay in the centre of Yudanaka Onsen, around three minutes on foot from Yudanaka Station. Hotel Yudanaka places you close to the hot spring town’s restaurants and transport links, with easy connections to Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park, Shiga Kogen, and Ryuo Mountain Park.
After exploring the region, you can return to one of Yudanaka Onsen’s largest shared bathhouses. Natural water flows continuously from the source, while a dry sauna, cold bath, standing bath, and reclining bath give you several ways to recover after travelling, hiking, or skiing.
Accommodation
Most rooms combine Japanese design with tatami flooring and futon bedding. Standard Japanese Rooms have ten tatami mats and a wide enclosed veranda, giving you space to sit beside the window with tea. Mountain View Japanese Rooms look toward the peaks known as the Five Mountains of Northern Shinshu.
The Japanese-Western rooms provide a more spacious layout. Two rooms renovated in 2026 cover approximately 34 to 39 square metres and combine Japanese interiors with a raised sleeping area. A separate 38-square-metre Japanese-Western room offers a mountain-facing setting and a similar mix of tatami and Western design.
Larger Japanese rooms connect two tatami spaces and work well when you are travelling together. More compact ten-tatami rooms are also available without a private bathroom or exterior view.
Your futon is prepared before you arrive, and no one enters your room to arrange the bedding during your stay. Every room is non-smoking and includes heating and air conditioning, free Wi-Fi, a television, refrigerator, electric kettle, tea set, safety box, towels, toiletries, a yukata, and a feather duvet. Bathroom and shower arrangements differ between room categories.
Dining
Begin the morning with a complimentary light breakfast in the self-service café. Bread, waffles, coffee, tea, juice, and mineral water are available from 7:30 AM to 9:00 AM. You can eat in the café or take your breakfast back to your room.
For dinner, visit Kiraku, the izakaya located inside the same building. You can order Japanese dishes and drinks in an informal setting, whether you are dining alone or spending the evening together. The drinks selection includes Japanese sake and Engi, a local sake from the Yamanouchi area. Kiraku opens from 5:00 PM to 9:30 PM, with final food and drink orders taken earlier in the evening.
Onsen and Wellness
Yoshi no Yu is a large indoor bathhouse supplied with 100% natural water from Shin-Yudanaka Onsen. The hot spring flows continuously from the source rather than being reused, giving you the full character of Yudanaka’s mineral-rich water.
The spring contains sulfur, sodium, calcium, sulfate, and chloride. It is weakly alkaline, hypotonic, and naturally hot. The water is usually cloudy white, although its appearance can change and become clear according to the weather and natural conditions.
Bathing in the water is associated with relief from fatigue, muscle and joint pain, stiff shoulders, sensitivity to cold, bruises, sprains, minor cuts, and some long-term skin conditions.
Separate bathing areas for men and women include a large bath, standing bath, reclining bath, cascading bath, and a bath that changes on a monthly basis. You can also use a renovated dry sauna, temperature-controlled cold bath, and a wooden rest area for cooling down.
You can use the hot spring outside the daily cleaning period from 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM. On Wednesdays, maintenance continues until 3:00 PM. The sauna opens from 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM. All hot spring bathing takes place in shared indoor facilities.
Guests with Tattoos
You can use the shared indoor hot spring baths and sauna if you have tattoos.
Facilities
Hotel Yudanaka includes the Yoshi no Yu hot spring bathhouse, dry saunas, cold baths, the Kiraku izakaya, karaoke facilities, banquet rooms, vending machines, shared microwaves, and two coin-operated washing machines. The first-floor Nomad coworking space gives you a convenient place to work, study, or plan your journey and is complimentary during your stay, apart from the separate meeting room. Free Wi-Fi is available throughout the accommodation, luggage can be stored before check-in or after checkout, and complimentary parking is available when you arrive by car.
Activities
Travel to Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park to see wild Japanese macaques living in the mountain valley. Buses leave from Yudanaka Station, while the final part of the journey follows a forest walking trail. The monkeys are especially known for entering the park’s hot spring during the coldest winter months, although they live in the surrounding mountains throughout the year.
Shiga Kogen is around 20 minutes away by car and gives you access to skiing and snowboarding during winter. When the snow clears, you can explore forests, wetlands, ponds, mountain viewpoints, and trekking routes across the highlands.
Ryuo Mountain Park is also around 20 minutes away by car. A large ropeway climbs toward SORA Terrace, where you can look across the mountains from an elevation of approximately 1,770 metres. Depending on the conditions, clouds may gather below the viewing area.
Closer to the hotel, you can walk around Yudanaka Onsen or continue toward the traditional streets of Shibu Onsen. Small restaurants, temples, hot spring buildings, and local shops make the area enjoyable to explore without a fixed schedule.
Additional Features
Check-in begins at 3:00 PM, and check-out is by 10:00 AM. Yudanaka Station is close enough to reach on foot, so there is no station shuttle.
You can leave your luggage before checking in or after departure while you continue sightseeing. When driving during winter, you need snow tyres or suitable chains because snow and ice can affect the roads from the middle of December.
