Hotel Gujo Hachiman

The onsen are a must, got a really good traditional dinner and breakfast. I really enjoyed my stay in this hotel. Staff was very kind and nice.

The area around Gujo-Hachiman is staggeringly beautiful and is absolutely worth the effort to get there. The staff at Hotel Gujo-Hachiman are were exceptionally kind, generous, and helpful. Ryokans are an interesting experience. This one was pretty worn out and had not been updated in a couple decades probably, so you need to be mentally prepared to look past a lot of things. We stayed two nights with half board. If you are an adventurous eater then I'd recommend taking meals. If not, it is not worth the added expense. The food is very high quality but a lot of it is raw and/or not easily identifiable to a foreigner (and the servers are not able to explain the preparations accurately). For example, I was told several things were chicken and they were most certainly not chicken. There was no coffee at breakfast, only tea. There is a cafe across the street that sells coffee though. As a bit of caution, it is not practical or lawful (apparently) to walk to/from the hotel and Gujo and the main transportation hubs. You do need to either take a taxi (1400 yen / 2 people) or the bus (400 yen / 2 people). It is a little confusing to navigate but it all worked out great — everyone here was so helpful and kind. If you are in doubt, first and foremost it is worth getting to Gujo-Hachiman. When we visited this was the only hotel with availability. If you find yourself in a similar situation it will be fine, but will require a bit more effort with local transportation.