日光ガーデンホテル

Every one of the hotel's nine rooms has its own semi-open-air hot spring bath, so there's no communal bathhouse to walk to and no schedule to work around. You can soak whenever you like, day or night. The water is salty and clear, the kind that keeps the warmth going long after you get out and leaves your skin feeling smooth. Tubs are Shigaraki-ware ceramic with a hinoki-wood surround, and most rooms look straight out over the river gorge below. Only the top-floor Deluxe Twin and Deluxe Family rooms draw the water straight from the source; the rest is diluted and reheated first. Because every bath belongs to a room, day-use bathing isn't offered here at all. It's a small, quiet hotel built for longer stays, in Shiobara Onsen, a hot-spring area said to date back to 806.