I really couldn’t get Hyatt Regency Hakone Resort and Spa off my mind since I first read about its soft opening on a travel magazine a few years ago. Despite not being a fan of hot spring hotels, I was somehow tempted to check this place out personally. Of course, its proximity to Tokyo (just an hour’s drive) provided additional incentive cuz maybe, just maybe we could do this as part of our Tokyo trip altogether.
We didn’t waste any time once we arrived at Narita International Airport. Following some diligent work at the car rental company, we finally got our rental car and ready for our one-hour drive up to Hakone. But with some extreme conditions from mother nature, our drive would end up taking much longer than we thought (almost 3 hours!).
We were exhausted after our flight and drive up to Hakone but thankfully, check-in was really fast and we were quickly given keys to our room without breaking a sweat. We even got the quiet room we were looking for too!
But sadly, the condition of the room wasn’t what we have expected. It’s a bit dated and worn out despite just opening for a number of years. The room was also much smaller than what we have imagined from a resort hotel.
There’s a covered balcony facing the back side of the hotel with views to the hills and valleys in the area but nothing more.
But we didn’t get to enjoy it until the next morning…
The bathroom was smaller than the one we had in Osaka. That really came as a surprise. After all, it’s a resort hotel.
A bath tub and separate shower, pretty standard.
The toilet was clean but would we expect anything less!?
Because we arrived so late, we decided not to hit the hot spring pool and instead, went for our scheduled dinner at Kaiseki Kadan (強羅花壇), which turned out to be very nice.
One thing I noticed from our brief stay at the hotel was that, the (relatively small) hotel lobby and lounge were always full of people (except dinner time). And there’s a tremendous amount of noise that you would rather stay in your room!
I’m not sure if it’s a fair assessment (based on my short stint) but our experience was totally not worth of the heavy price tag. It's definitely going to be a few more years (or decade) before I ever consider staying at another resort hotel again.
Rating: ❤❤❤
Price: ￥￥￥￥
Address: 1320 Gora, Hakone, Kanagawa 250-0408, Japan
Tel: +81 460-82-2000
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