Shuzenji Onsen — photo: 663highland · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The 3 best onsen towns on the Izu Peninsula
If you want one onsen town on the Izu Peninsula, the three to look at are Atami, Shuzenji and Izu-Nagaoka. All three are reached by train without a car, and of the 35 onsen on the peninsula in our data they are the best known. Atami sits on the Shinkansen at the top of the peninsula. Shuzenji and Izu-Nagaoka are inland, on a small private railway down the middle, and the JR Pass does not take you there.
Why these three, in one paragraph
We did not pick by taste. We took the 35 onsen in our data that are in the Izu towns of Shizuoka Prefecture, from Atami in the north to Shimoda and Minami-Izu in the south, checked which ones you can reach by train or local bus without a car, and ranked them by how often each town's Wikipedia article is read, as a measure of how established a town is. The full method, with numbers, is at the end.
Izu in numbers: hot, salty, and no sulfur
Izu is a volcanic peninsula and most of its water is hot. Of the 35 onsen, 21 have a source temperature on record and 19 of those reach 42 °C. The hottest is Atagawa on the east coast, recorded at 100 °C.
What Izu does not have is the milky, egg-smelling water many people picture. Of the 34 with a water type on record, the common ones are sulfate (17), chloride (16) and simple springs (11). Not one is a sulfur spring. If that smell is what you are after, go to Hakone next door or read our sulfur onsen guide. Izu water is mostly clear.
The other thing to know is the railways. The JR lines stop at Atami and Itō on the east side. Everything else is on two private lines, the Izu Kyūkō down the east coast and the Izuhakone Railway inland from Mishima, and the west coast and the far south beyond Shimoda are bus country.
1. Atami: the big resort on the Shinkansen
Why it made it. Atami Onsen is the best-known onsen on the peninsula, at 1,227 in our count. It is also the easiest to reach: in our travel data it is under an hour from Tokyo and about two hours from Kyoto and Osaka.
The town. Atami is a seaside resort city of large hotels stacked up a steep hillside above a bay. It is a city first and an onsen town second, with a shopping street by the station, a beach, and fireworks over the bay on many evenings through the year. Kinomiya Shrine, with its huge old camphor tree, and the MOA Museum of Art are both short bus or taxi rides from the station.
The water. Chloride and sulfate: salty water that leaves a film on the skin and keeps you warm afterwards. We have no temperature or pH on record for Atami.
Getting there. The Tōkaidō Shinkansen stops at Atami, and the JR limited express Odoriko runs direct from Tokyo. The hotels are a short walk or a short taxi ride from the station, though the hills are steep. The JR Pass covers the trip.
Good for: a first night out of Tokyo, a stop between Tokyo and Kyoto, anyone who wants the sea. Watch out for: it is a busy, built-up resort, not an old street; weekends and summer are crowded; the walk up from the station to many hotels is a climb.
2. Shuzenji: the old temple town in the hills
Why it made it. Shuzenji Onsen is second at 910. It is in the hills in the middle of the peninsula, about two hours from Tokyo in our travel data.
The town. Shuzenji grew up around the temple it is named after, and the old centre follows a fast river through a narrow valley, with red bridges and a short bamboo-lined path along the water. The riverside rock bath in the town's founding legend, Tokko-no-yu, is now for looking at rather than bathing in. It is the quietest of the three and the most like an old onsen town.
The water. A simple spring, recorded at 65 °C and about 600 litres a minute. Simple water is mild and low in minerals, which makes it an easy first onsen.
Getting there. Take the Shinkansen to Mishima, then the Izuhakone Railway's Sunzu Line to the end at Shuzenji Station, then a local bus into the old centre. Some Odoriko limited expresses run direct from Tokyo to Shuzenji. The JR Pass covers you as far as Mishima only; the Izuhakone Railway is a private line, so pay the fare from Mishima.
Good for: a quiet night in a traditional inn, walking, a first onsen with gentle water. Watch out for: the station is not in the old centre; there is no sea view; the town is small and goes quiet early.
3. Izu-Nagaoka: the alkaline water one stop up the line
Why it made it. Izu-Nagaoka Onsen is third at 832. It is on the same railway as Shuzenji, a few stops closer to Mishima, and also about two hours from Tokyo in our travel data.
The town. Our records list 36 inns, so it is a proper resort town, spread over two old hot-spring villages at the foot of the hills. The Katsuragiyama ropeway goes up from the edge of town, and the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace, an iron-casting furnace from the 1850s on the UNESCO World Heritage list, is in the same city.
The water. Recorded at 59 °C and pH 9.2, strongly alkaline, which gives the water a smooth, slippery feel. It is listed as a simple spring and as an iodine spring, and it is the only iodine spring among the 35 onsen in Izu. Our unusual onsen water guide explains why iodine water is rare.
Getting there. The Shinkansen to Mishima, then the Izuhakone Railway to Izu-Nagaoka Station, then a local bus of about five minutes. As with Shuzenji, the JR Pass stops at Mishima.
Good for: a resort night that is easier to book than Atami, the alkaline water, pairing with Shuzenji. Watch out for: the inns are spread out, so it does not have one walkable street; nights are quiet.
Which of the three?
- Short on time, or on a JR Pass: Atami.
- An old town, a river and a quiet night: Shuzenji.
- Slippery alkaline water and a big choice of inns: Izu-Nagaoka.
- Two nights: Shuzenji and Izu-Nagaoka are on the same short railway line, so you can stay in one and visit the other.
- On the way between Tokyo and Kyoto: Atami, which is a Shinkansen stop. See the best onsen stops between Tokyo and Kyoto.
The towns that only just missed
Atagawa came fourth at 681. It is on the east coast on the Izu Kyūkō line, with chloride water recorded at 100 °C, the hottest in Izu; you see the steam rising from the town as the train comes in. If you do not count Atami as part of Izu, Atagawa is third.
Itō was fifth at 609. It is the end of the JR Itō Line, so it is the furthest south the JR Pass takes you, and its water flows at about 34,000 litres a minute in our records; only 12 of the 425 onsen in Japan with a flow on record pass 10,000. Yugashima was sixth at 586, a small valley town above Shuzenji at 45 to 50 °C, known as the setting of Kawabata Yasunari's story The Izu Dancer.
The south and west, where many of the sea views are, did not reach the top. Shimoda is at 177 and Dōgashima at 148, and the west coast is reached by bus. They are good places to stay; they are just less known as onsen towns.
How we picked these three
- Starting pool: 35 onsen in our data located in the Izu towns of Shizuoka Prefecture: Atami, Itō, Izu, Izunokuni, Shimoda, the Kamo district towns (Higashi-Izu, Kawazu, Minami-Izu, Matsuzaki, Nishi-Izu), Kannami, and Heda in Numazu. Several of these, including Atami, have no map position in our data, so we went by town, not by distance.
- No car needed: we went down the list from the best known. The first six (Atami, Shuzenji, Izu-Nagaoka, Atagawa, Itō and Yugashima) are all marked in our travel data as reached by train and a short walk or local bus.
- Known: ranked by how often each town's Wikipedia article is read. Atami 1,227, Shuzenji 910, Izu-Nagaoka 832. The next ones are Atagawa at 681 and Itō at 609. Six of the 35 are above 500.
- Not used: sea views, Mount Fuji views, inn quality, price, tattoo policy or food. We have no data that ranks those fairly, so we did not pretend to.
- About the water: of the 35, 21 have a temperature on record and 19 reach 42 °C. Shuzenji is recorded at 65 °C and Izu-Nagaoka at 59 °C and pH 9.2; we have no temperature for Atami. None of the 34 with a water type on record is a sulfur spring. The water did not decide the ranking.
- Travel times are rough estimates from our data. Check the current timetable before you go.
For every onsen within reach of Tokyo, see onsen near Tokyo and our guide to onsen trips from Tokyo. Want the best three around Tokyo as a whole? See the best onsen near Tokyo. Next door to Izu: Hakone and the best onsen near Mount Fuji. For towns you can reach by train, see onsen you can reach without a car and onsen on the JR Pass. Want to know what "sulfate" or "chloride" means? See onsen water types. New to this? Start with how an onsen stay actually works and onsen etiquette. Tattooed? Read going to an onsen with tattoos before you book.