The Best Hotels in Yufuin

Vast windows frame Mount Yufu so completely that the line between inside and outside becomes negotiable, which is more or less the point of this botanical resort at the edge of Yufu city. Rooms come with their own greenery, a spring-fed onsen and spa handle the unwinding, and the restaurant runs on produce from the hotel's own farm, the chef having trained at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. The Michelin Guide awarded it 2 Keys.

A 1920s villa at the foot of Mount Yufu, restored into a 17-room ryokan where Danish furniture sits alongside traditional local crafts without anyone seeming embarrassed about it. Gardens and forest press in from every side, rooms come in tatami or Western styles, and dinner is Japanese while breakfast gives you a choice. The Michelin Guide awarded it 2 Keys.

Zen monks used to retreat here, and the property hasn't entirely let go of that energy. Yufuin Tamanoyu is a ryokan-style resort in the wooded hills above one of Oita's most visited hot-spring villages, with low-lying villas connected by footpaths and rooms that come with tatami, a sitting area, and a private wooden tub fed by the onsen. The tea room and bar look straight into the forest. It holds a Michelin Key.

Five suites, a butler for each one, and an en suite soaking bath that competes with the volcanic peak visible from the window. Gekkoju Yufuin is a villa-scale retreat on the quiet edge of Yufu, close enough to the town's streets to explore but tucked away enough to ignore them entirely. The cuisine fuses Japanese and French traditions, and the furnishings lean Western and quietly lavish in a way that stops just short of absurd.