Dorogawa Onsen — photo: 伊勢雷堂2 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The 3 best onsen in Nara
If you want one onsen in Nara Prefecture, the three to look at are Dorogawa, the three springs of Totsukawa, and Nosegawa. All three are reached by train and a bus, and of the 17 onsen in Nara in our data they are the best known. None of them is in or near Nara city with its deer and temples: they are all in the Kii Mountains to the south, and the bus is the long part of the trip. Dorogawa is the easy one; Totsukawa is the one with hot water.
Why these three, in one paragraph
We did not pick by taste. We took every onsen in our data in Nara Prefecture, ranked them by how often each town's Wikipedia article is read, as a measure of how established a place is, and kept only the ones you can reach without a car. The three springs of Totsukawa village sit a few kilometres apart and share a bus route, so we counted them as one place. The full method, with numbers, is at the end.
Nara in numbers: one well-known town, and hot water in one village
Most visitors to Nara see the city, the park and Tōdai-ji, and leave the same day. Nara city has no onsen town in our data. The prefecture's onsen are almost all in the mountains of the south, in the Yoshino and Totsukawa areas, and the gap between the best known and the rest is large: Dorogawa is about 28th in Japan in our count of Wikipedia readership (1,660), and the next one in Nara, Totsukawa, is at 340.
The water splits the same way. Of the 17 Nara onsen in our data, 12 have a source temperature on record, and only three reach 42 °C, the point where a bath is hot without heating: Totsukawa Onsen (78 °C), Kamiyu (76.6 °C) and Tōsenji (60 °C). All three are in Totsukawa village. Everywhere else in Nara, including Dorogawa, the water is under 40 °C and the baths are heated. Across Japan, about half the onsen with a temperature on record reach 42 °C (573 of 1,167), so Nara is on the cool side. Heated spring water is normal and still spring water; our guide to onsen temperatures explains the labels you will see.
1. Dorogawa: the mountain town below Mount Ōmine
Why it made it. Dorogawa Onsen is the best known in Nara by a wide margin, at 1,660 in our count. It is about two hours from Osaka in our travel data, by train and a bus that ends in the town.
The place. A single street of old wooden inns about 800 m up in Tenkawa village, cool in summer, which is when most Japanese visitors come. It grew up as the base for pilgrims climbing Mount Ōmine (Sanjōgatake), whose mountain temple, Ōminesan-ji, is about 5.7 km away. The upper part of the mountain is still closed to women by the temple's rule; the town, the onsen and the trails around it are not. There are limestone caves and walks along the valley close to town.
The water. Recorded at 26 °C and listed as a simple spring, mild and low in minerals. Cool at the source, so the baths are heated. You do not come to Dorogawa for the water; you come for the town.
Getting there. The Kintetsu line from Osaka Abenobashi to Shimoichiguchi, about an hour, then a Nara Kōtsū bus to the "Dorogawa Onsen" stop at the end of the line. Sources give the bus as 60 to 80 minutes. Not a JR line, so the JR Pass does not help. Buses are few; check the last one back if you are visiting for the day.
Good for: an old mountain-town night, cool summer air, walking. Watch out for: it is quiet from late autumn and cold in winter; many places close early in the evening; plan the bus both ways.
2. Totsukawa: three hot springs deep in the mountains
Why it made it. Totsukawa Onsen is second in Nara at 340, and with Kamiyu (136) and Tōsenji (135), the other two springs of the same village, it is the only place in Nara where the water comes out hot. All three are marked in our travel data as reachable by bus.
The place. Totsukawa is the largest village in Japan by area, almost all forest and steep valleys, at the far south of Nara near the Wakayama border. The three springs are small: Totsukawa Onsen has 8 inns in our data, Tōsenji 6, and Kamiyu 1, up a side valley. The village is known in Japan for saying that every bath in it uses the spring water as it flows, without recirculating it.
The water. The three are different:
- Totsukawa Onsen: 78 °C, chloride and bicarbonate.
- Tōsenji: 60 °C, sulfur.
- Kamiyu: 76.6 °C, pH 8.3, bicarbonate and sulfur, 124 litres a minute.
So you can bathe in two kinds of water in one village. See sulfur onsen if you want to know what the smell and the colour mean.
Getting there. This is the hard part. The Nara Kōtsū Yagi–Shingū bus runs from Yamato-Yagi on the Kintetsu line to Shingū on the coast of Wakayama. It is the longest regular bus route in Japan, 169.8 km with about 168 stops and about six and a half hours end to end, and it runs only three times a day. Totsukawa is well past the halfway point. Our travel data says about two hours from Osaka; that is far too short, so plan on most of a morning or an afternoon. Mountain roads here are sometimes closed after heavy rain. For Kamiyu, ask your inn how to cover the last part from the main road.
Good for: water that is hot at the source, a slow trip through the mountains, a stop on the way to the Kumano shrines (the same bus continues to Hongū; see Yunomine). Watch out for: too far for a day trip from Osaka; there are only three buses a day; few shops, so eat at your inn.
3. Nosegawa: the quiet one next to Kōyasan
Why it made it. Nosegawa Onsen is next in our count among the onsen you can reach without a car, at 102. Our travel data gives about two hours from Osaka and a bus of about 50 minutes from Kōyasan Station.
The place. One inn in our data, in a small mountain village in the far west of Nara, next to Kōyasan, the temple town on Mount Kōya in Wakayama. It is the opposite of a busy onsen town: no street to stroll, just forest.
The water. Recorded at 22.5 °C and listed as a sulfur spring. Cool at the source, so the bath is heated.
Getting there. The Nankai line from Osaka Namba to Gokurakubashi, the cable car to Kōyasan Station, then a bus. Here the sources do not agree: one lists a Nankai Rinkan bus to the village office and then a village bus, and the inn offers a pickup from Kōyasan Station that must be booked ahead. Ask the inn before you go.
Good for: adding a quiet onsen night to a Kōyasan visit. Watch out for: it is a single inn, not a town; the public transport is thin and changes, so confirm the transfer when you book.
Which of the three?
- Easiest trip from Osaka: Dorogawa.
- Hot water from the ground: Totsukawa. It is the only one of the three, and the only place in Nara.
- With Kōyasan: Nosegawa.
- An old onsen street to walk: Dorogawa.
- On a JR Pass: none of them. All three start on Kintetsu or Nankai, not JR.
The places that only just missed
Shionoha (152) is better known than Nosegawa, but our travel data has a taxi for the last part from the bus, so it did not pass the test. It is worth knowing about: recorded at 39 °C, pH 6.6, chloride and bicarbonate water, flowing at 500 litres a minute, by the Ōsako dam lake on the Yoshino River, with one inn.
Okukōchi (79), on the eastern edge of Nara near the Mie border, is a 40-minute bus from Nabari on the Kintetsu Osaka line and then a 15-minute walk, with one inn and bicarbonate water. Tennokawa (63) is in the same Tenkawa village as Dorogawa, about an hour by bus from Shimoichiguchi.
If you only have an afternoon from Nara or Osaka, two small ones sit by famous sights: Yoshino Onsen (28), a short walk from Yoshino Station on the cherry-blossom mountain, and Hasedera Onsen (28), about 15 minutes on foot from Hasedera Station, near the temple. Both are about an hour to an hour and a half from Osaka in our data. They are not onsen towns, and the water is cool.
How we picked these three
- Starting pool: all 17 onsen in our data in Nara Prefecture.
- No car needed: 9 of the 17 are marked in our travel data as reached by train and a bus or a short walk. Three need a taxi from the station (Shionoha, Nishiyoshino, Miharu), one has a long last stretch on foot (Kodokoro, about 90 minutes on a mountain trail), one has no answer on whether a car is needed (Kamikitayama), and three have no travel data (Shigisan, Higashiyoshino, and the group name "Totsukawa Onsen-kyō"). We kept the 9.
- One place, not three: Totsukawa Onsen, Kamiyu and Tōsenji are the three springs of Totsukawa village, a few kilometres apart on the same bus route. We counted them as one, named after the best known, Totsukawa Onsen (340).
- Known: we ranked what was left by how often each place's Wikipedia article is read. Dorogawa 1,660, Totsukawa 340 (Kamiyu 136, Tōsenji 135), Nosegawa 102, then Okukōchi 79 and Tennokawa 63. Shionoha (152) was not in the 9.
- Not used: views, inn quality, price, tattoo policy, food or private baths. We have no data that ranks those fairly, so we did not pretend to.
- About the water: 12 of the 17 have a temperature on record, and only the three Totsukawa springs reach 42 °C. The water did not decide the ranking.
- Travel times are rough estimates from our data, and the one for Totsukawa is too short. Check the current timetable before you go.
For every onsen within reach of Kyoto and Osaka, see onsen near Kyoto and Osaka and our guide to onsen trips from Kyoto and Osaka. Want the best three around Kyoto and Osaka as a whole? See the best onsen near Osaka and Kyoto. Going on to the Kumano Kodo? See Yunomine and Shirahama. Other prefecture picks: Gunma and Chiba. What do "simple", "chloride" and "sulfur" mean? 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.