ESPACIO The Hakone Geihinkan Rin-Poh-Ki-Ryu
unscored · Ikyu 4.5 / 5no first-hand write-up in the thread
Espacio is nine villas at the bottom of a private cable car in Hakone's Dogashima river valley, with undiluted source onsen piped to every villa and saunas in most. At $2,100–$3,500 a night it is one of the most expensive stays here. Ikyu guests rate it 4.49 across a thin sample of 13 reviews, praising the arrival, the butler service and the bathing, while the two weakest reviews both question whether it is worth the price.
Scores
Food
Takahiro Yamagishi of Kyoto's Tominokoji Yamagishi, a kaiseki restaurant that has held a Michelin star every year since 2017, supervises the kitchen. There is no restaurant on the property, so dinner and breakfast are served in your villa, and the courses are finished on the spot so they arrive hot, which guests notice and appreciate. Even the two harshest Ikyu reviewers found the food delicious, and Ikyu guests put it at 4.54.
Bath
Every villa has its own bath fed with undiluted, free-flowing Dogashima spring water, five of the nine add a sauna, and the flagship TAKUMI villa adds a plunge pool and a hot-stone bath. Nobody has complained about the water, and bathing is the highest of the Ikyu marks at 4.69, though from only 13 reviews.
Service
A butler is assigned to your villa for the whole stay, and most of what you see of the staff happens at your own door, since there is no restaurant, bar or lounge to go out to. Four of the five sampled Ikyu reviews call the service excellent or very good, and the praise holds even where the same guests are unhappy about the interiors or the price. Ikyu guests put service at 4.54, level with the food and the rooms.
Room
The nine villas are each a house of their own, standing behind their own gates along the monorail line, with undiluted Dogashima source water running to each villa's bath and a sauna in five of the nine. The flagship villa, Takumi, adds a plunge pool and a hot-stone bath. Guests call the villas clean and very nice, with touches like choosing your own key-card design and souvenir chopsticks, and Ikyu guests put the rooms at 4.54.
Place
The inn lies at the bottom of Hakone's Dogashima river valley below Miyanoshita, reached by its own cable car dropping a hundred metres, and then a mini-monorail runs past the garden to each villa's gate. There is no restaurant, bar or library, so you spend the whole stay inside your villa.
Getting there
- Tokyo — 2h10, 1 transfer. Odakyu Romancecar Shinjuku→Hakone-Yumoto (~85 min), Tozan railway→Kōwakudani (~35 min), 5-min inn shuttle (reserve).
- Kyoto — 3h, 1 transfer. Reverse of: Direct Tozan BUS Gōra/Sengokuhara→Odawara (~45 min — one seat; Tozan rail adds a Hakone-Yumoto change), then Tōkaidō Shinkansen→Kyoto (~1h50 on the ~2-hourly Odawara-calling 'Hikari'; 'Kodama'+change or ~2h40 all-Kodama otherwise).
- Osaka — 3h25, 2 transfers. Midōsuji hop Umeda→Shin-Osaka, Tōkaidō 'Hikari' Shin-Osaka→Odawara (~2h05 — the same ~2-hourly Odawara-calling 'Hikari' the hakone>kyoto leg uses at ~1h50 to Kyoto, plus the ~15-min Kyoto–Shin-Osaka segment; 'Nozomi' skips Odawara and all-'Kodama' is ~2h40), then the direct Tozan BUS Odawara→Gōra/Sengokuhara (~45 min, one seat; the Tozan rail adds a Hakone-Yumoto change).