Hotel New Tsuruta

The hotel's location is excellent, situated on Beppu's main street, surrounded by bustling shops, and offering beautiful scenery close to the sea. Since my mother is elderly and can't sleep on a tatami, we opted for a twin room. However, the bathroom's ventilation in the twin room wasn't good, and these rooms don't offer a sea view. Both the restaurant on the 8th floor and the onsen (hot spring) on the 6th floor boast lovely sea views.

Pros: City view, Mt. Tsurumi visible, great location. The indoor onsen is conveniently on the sixth floor. The room is incredibly spacious for Japan, with double and quad rooms being the same size. Cons: At 11:30 PM, when we were about to sleep, we realized that despite booking for two adults and one child, only two pillows were provided. The front desk staff spoke no English at all. Google Translate informed me that an extra pillow would cost money and wasn't included with breakfast, etc. Thankfully, Trip.com intervened quickly and got us an extra pillow. In the end, they even used Google Translate to tell me not to tell anyone and keep it a secret. It took me almost half an hour to sort out just one pillow.

For my winter break trip to Japan, I continued exploring Kyushu, specifically Beppu and Yufuin. In Beppu, I stayed at this established onsen hotel. It wasn't expensive, and when I booked, it was the last room available. I kept checking countless times to see if a larger room would open up, but none did. My husband, due to his state-owned company job, couldn't travel, so it was just me and my son, which ended up being perfectly fine. The hotel initially even set up three futons for us in the tatami room. The onsen was very relaxing. There were a lot of Korean guests at the hotel; I noticed them all at breakfast. Our room had a sea view, which I really liked. For housekeeping, they only offer free cleaning on the third day if you stay for three consecutive nights. Otherwise, it costs 3000 yen per cleaning. We figured it wasn't worth it since we didn't have much trash anyway, and I didn't bother making the bed. The hot springs also offered sea views, though we only used them at night. Soaking in them before bed was incredibly comfortable and relaxing. Breakfast was a buffet with a good variety of local Kyushu dishes. I ate there for two days straight and didn't get tired of it. In terms of transportation, it's about a 100-meter walk from the Beppu bus terminal if you're coming from Fukuoka. The JR station is also only about a 10-minute walk away, which is very convenient. Overall, I think it offers pretty good value for money.

The hotel room was very spacious with a great location and sea views. There were many dining options nearby, and the service was excellent. The bathhouse was comfortable, and the breakfast was delicious. The cleanliness was also top-notch. I had a really good night's sleep on the floor in the Japanese-style room.