Soneka
A · 8.6 / 10anchor a leg
A four-villa private retreat opened in 2024 on 77,000m2 of forest and meadow near Kitahiroshima, 30 minutes from New Chitose Airport, where check-in, every chef-cooked meal and two baths of rare amber moor onsen all happen inside your own villa. At about 339,000 yen a night it is among Japan's priciest, and after one superb stay KI-NRT calls it his favorite ryokan in Hokkaido, ahead of Shiguchi, because the glorious water, airy villas and dining cooked for you alone are exactly what the rates buy.
Scores
Food 4.5 / 5
Every meal is cooked for your villa alone by a dedicated chef, wood-fired in your kitchen, charcoal robata at the hearth or kaiseki. Chef Kohei Oyama trained Italian before Japanese at Michelin-starred Mieda, and KI-NRT's standouts were a burger of fried Hokkaido corn millet on fresh brioche and Nebokke, smoked, grilled atka mackerel, which he ranks among the finest fish he has ever tasted. Breakfast is simpler but generous.
Bath 5 / 5
Every villa has an indoor and an open-air bath of moor onsen, a rare plant-derived spring drilled 1,500 meters down and used straight from the source: amber water rich in humic matter that works like a natural skin lotion. Nupu is the only villa where the outdoor bath overflows into an adjoining pool kept pleasantly warm, a gorgeous design, and the water is KI-NRT's main reason for preferring Soneka even to Shiguchi.
Service 5 / 5
With four villas and every meal served in-villa, the service was exceptional: Yasuo, the manager, and two hosts, Nanami and Mei, looked after KI-NRT throughout and were always available. Nanami, the trilingual activities coordinator, secured a hard-to-get strawberry-picking slot at Abe Noen, collecting the paper ticket in person that morning, and next day queued at the mochi shop Fuurin Chiriri for a ticket and went along with them.
Room 4.5 / 5
The four two-bedroom villas each have two onsen baths, an outdoor net bed, a kitchen and dining area, a fire pit and the same meadow view, but the layouts differ: Inkara is higher, with the best view, Nitai is wrapped in trees with a tented sauna, and Nupu (159 m2), KI-NRT's pick, is the lightest and least rustic. The one drawback is Nupu's wing layout, an open-air deck between bedroom and living room that Mrs. KI-NRT disliked.
Place 4 / 5
Soneka is a quiet rural retreat surrounded by farmland in Kitahiroshima, its four villas spaced well apart across a tall-grass meadow and no landscaped garden, reception desk or guest lounge; the only shared spaces are a group dining room, the Irori Terrace with its charcoal hearth, an apiary and a pond. KI-NRT found little reason to leave except that no lunch is served, and he and his wife were the only guests on both July nights.
Getting there
- New Chitose — 0h30, 0 transfers. ~30 min by car (32 km) from New Chitose Airport (CTS); ~40 min by train to Kitahiroshima + taxi. Free shuttle with advance booking.
- Sapporo — 0h35, 0 transfers. ~35 min by car (23 km) from Sapporo, or ~30 min by train to Kitahiroshima Stn + taxi.
Sources
FlyerTalk review #809 · Ikyu reviews · #810 (thread mentions)