Fufu Kyoto
B · 7.3 / 10right inn, right place
A 40-room ryokan-hotel hybrid that mostly pulls the straddle off, with an in-room onsen bath in every room in an onsen-poor city, a superb creative breakfast, and a prime Higashiyama base for temples and foliage. KI-NRT enjoyed it without being blown away (the Nikko sibling is the one he adores), and the rough edges are on the foreigner-facing side (hard to reach by phone or email in English), with a steep drop-off in the rooms below the top suites.
Scores
Food 4 / 5
KI-NRT booked without dinner, an option most ryokans refuse and a welcome one in Kyoto, and had the Japanese breakfast in his suite, which he calls among the best he has had in a ryokan: a white miso soup with yuba in place of the usual red (very tasty, and he generally does not like white miso) and a sweet and tangy fruit jelly for dessert. Dinner he has not tried, and a member who stayed bed-and-breakfast found the food decent.
Bath 4 / 5
All 40 rooms have their own onsen bath, which KI-NRT calls a huge advantage in Kyoto, where most rivals offer no onsen and the few that do (Suiran, Aman) limit it to top rooms or a communal bath. The water is not kakenagashi though, since it is trucked in daily from the Fushimi area and reaches the rooms by circulation filtration, disinfected and reused. For a pure gensen kakenagashi soak he points you to Arima, Kurama, Kinosaki or Kaga.
Service 3 / 5
Reaching the hotel from abroad is where it falls short. There is no published direct phone line, and central reservations has no English option, which KI-NRT called woefully inadequate; a member's email went unanswered for over a week. Another member found no one at the door on arrival, his group's luggage randomly distributed among the rooms and a staff member showing the room who could not understand English. There is no laundry service.
Room 3.5 / 5
KI-NRT's 91 m² Luxury Premium Suite had a separate bedroom and living room, a view of the nearby mountains, Western beds and minimalist modern-Japanese decor. Room category matters a lot here: the 42 m² Comfort Twin had the onsen bath but no view (it faces the next building), and a member who took the cheapest suites found them dark and low-ceilinged, since the first floor is underground. He recommends at least the 73 m² Luxury Corner Suite.
Place 3.5 / 5
Fufu Kyoto is a modern boutique hotel as much as a ryokan, and the pretty garden is not a central feature as at the top ryokans. The address in Higashiyama is within spitting distance of Nanzenji, Eikando (a 10 minute walk, and among the top spots in Kyoto for autumn leaves), Heian Jingu and the Philosopher's Path, and under 10 minutes by taxi from Kiyomizu-dera and Gion, which KI-NRT finds decent for a Kyoto base. There is no gym or pool.
Getting there
- Kyoto Stn — ~0h20, 0 transfers (estimated). ~20 min by taxi from JR Kyoto Stn to Okazaki.
- Osaka — ~0h55, 1 transfer (estimated). Osaka to Kyoto ~30 min, then ~20 min taxi to Okazaki.
Sources
FlyerTalk review #46 · TripAdvisor 4★ (November 2022) · #142 · #143 · #722 · #723 (thread mentions)