Where to stay in Gifu

Three kinds of nightWhere to stay in Gifu

The choice is really about what kind of night you want. A hot-spring inn feeds you twice and stops you moving. A city hotel is the right answer if you are arriving late or leaving early.

A ryokan or hot-spring inn旅館・温泉宿

Dinner and breakfast brought to you, a bath, and floor bedding laid out while you eat. The price is per person and includes both meals.

Includes 2 meals Book ahead

See ryokan and onsen inns › How an onsen works

A city hotelホテル

Clean, small, reliable and priced per room. Right for early trains, late arrivals and anyone travelling with a large suitcase.

Per roomNear the station

See hotels in Gifu › Getting around

A guesthouse or minshuku民宿・ゲストハウス

Family-run, cheaper, and often the only option in the countryside.

Ask about cashRural areas

See guesthouses and minshuku ›

Our first choice in Gifu is named below.

Looking for a room in Gifu tonight?

MAP How an onsen works

BookingSix things worth asking before you pay

Ask about these

Meals: Whether dinner and breakfast are included, and what time dinner is served. Inns often serve at a fixed time and will not wait
Tattoos: Ask whether the bath admits them, and ask about a private bath
Private bath: Kashikiri. Many inns have one, and it removes the question of bathing with strangers entirely
Payment: Card or cash. Rural inns are often cash only
Arrival time: Tell them. Inns lock up earlier than hotels
Luggage: They will hold it before check-in and after check-out. Just ask

What a night at an inn is like

Shoes: Off at the entrance. Slippers inside; nothing on the straw matting
The robe: A cotton yukata is provided and is worn to dinner and to the bath. Left side over right
Dinner: Many small dishes, often in your room or a dining room at a set time
Bedding: Laid out on the floor, usually while you are eating
Bathing: Before dinner and again before bed is normal here
Breakfast: Rice, fish, egg, pickles. Ask the night before if you need it early

How an onsen works

Our first choice hereThe one we would book

Suimeikan水明館 — Su-i-mei-kan

This is the one to aim for in Gifu. It opened in 1932 and has been run as a hot-spring inn ever since, on the bank of the Hida river. It is not a small inn — four buildings, 264 rooms, and grounds of more than ten thousand tsubo (about three hectares) — and yet the reason people come back is the garden and the quiet rather than the size.

A Japanese garden inside the grounds, with a tea house, a gallery and a stage built for Noh theatre. There is a tour of the building itself, because the corridors are hung with paintings and ceramics by named artists.
Four separate buildings — Rinsenkaku, Hisenkaku, Sansuikaku and the detached Seiranso — so the room you book changes the stay completely. Say what you want when you book rather than taking the cheapest and hoping.
Three large baths, so you can move between them without leaving the building. There is an open-air bath and a bath with a view.
It has been first in its class in this prefecture in the jalan.net guest awards for eleven consecutive years (101–300 room category).

Where: Gero Onsen, Gero city — a three-minute walk from Gero station, with a free shuttle as well
Address: 1268 Koden, Gero, Gifu 509-2206
Telephone: 0576-25-2800
Booking: Through the official site, or the booking services below

Worth knowing

Day visitors are welcome in the baths. The open-air bath and the view bath are open to day visitors, so this works even if your route only gives you an afternoon in Gero. Times and the day- — telephone first, because day bathing is sometimes closed when the inn is full.

Checked 2026-08-17

MAP Call Official site

Where to stay & onsen