Hakuba-Happo Onsen — photo: Soica2001 (talk) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
The 3 best onsen near Hakuba
If you are staying in Hakuba and want a proper onsen, the three to look at are Ōmachi Onsenkyō, Himekawa and Hakuba-Happō. Of the 8 onsen in our data in the Hakuba Valley, they are the three best known that you can reach without a car. One is in Hakuba itself, one is at the south end of the valley near Ōmachi, and one is at the north end, on the border with Niigata. All three are on, or a short bus ride from, the JR Ōito Line, the single railway that runs up the valley.
Why these three, in one paragraph
We did not pick by taste. "Hakuba Valley" is the name the three local towns, Ōmachi, Hakuba and Otari, use together for their ski areas, so we took every onsen in our data in those three towns, kept the ones where our travel data says you do not need a car, and ranked them by how often each town's Wikipedia article is read, as a measure of how established a place is. The full method, with numbers, is at the end.
A word about the hotel baths
Most people in Hakuba bathe at their hotel, or at one of the day baths dotted around the village after skiing. Many of those draw their water from the springs on this page, above all Hakuba-Happō. Our data is organised by hot spring town, not by building, so this guide tells you where the water comes from and how to get to the town; it does not rank individual baths. For those, ask at your hotel or the tourist office.
1. Ōmachi Onsenkyō: the planned resort at the south end
Why it made it. Ōmachi Onsenkyō is the best known of the car-free onsen in the valley, at 231 in our count, by one point.
The place. A resort of hotels and inns laid out in the woods west of Ōmachi city, built on purpose as a base for the mountains. It sits on the road up to Ōgisawa, the Nagano end of the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route, so it is a natural stop before or after that trip. Lake Kizaki and Lake Aoki are on the train line between here and Hakuba.
The water. Recorded at 63.6 °C and pH 6.9 to 7.6, close to neutral, and listed as a simple spring: clear, mild and low in minerals. The water is not from under the resort itself. It is piped down the valley from Kuzu Onsen, a small group of inns up the Takase Gorge that our data records at 80 °C.
Getting there. The JR Ōito Line to 信濃大町 (Shinano-Ōmachi Station), south of Hakuba on the same line. Our travel data marks the last stretch as a short walk, but that is too short: the resort is a bus ride of about 15 minutes from the station, on the buses towards Ōgisawa, getting off at 大町温泉郷. Our data puts it at about 3 hours from Tokyo. The JR Pass covers the train, not the bus.
Good for: a night on the way to or from the Alpine Route, a quieter base than Hakuba village. Watch out for: check the bus times before you go; a taxi from the station takes about 15 minutes.
2. Himekawa: the most water, at the north end
Why it made it. Himekawa Onsen is second at 230, a single point behind. Its sources put out about 1,500 litres a minute, the most of any onsen in the valley that has a flow on record in our data.
The place. A few inns on the Hime River, which is the border between Nagano and Niigata here, so the town is in both Otari and Itoigawa. It is 20.3 km north of Hakuba Station in a straight line. Hakuba Cortina, the northernmost of the big ski areas, is 11.6 km away, and Mount Amakazari 8.8 km.
The water. Recorded at 54.4 °C and listed under three labels: chloride, bicarbonate and sulfur. Sulfur water can smell of eggs and may tarnish silver, so leave jewellery in your room. Our guide to sulfur springs explains the rest.
Getting there. The JR Ōito Line north to 平岩 (Hiraiwa Station), then a walk of about 10 minutes. North of Minami-Otari the line is a quiet single track with about 7 trains a day each way, so you will usually change at Minami-Otari and should plan around the timetable. Our data puts it at about 3 hours from Tokyo. The JR Pass covers the train.
Good for: the strongest-flowing and most mineral water of the three, a remote feel, a stop on the way to the Sea of Japan coast at Itoigawa. Watch out for: few trains, few places to eat outside the inns. It is the hardest of the three to fit around a ski day.
3. Hakuba-Happō: the one in the village
Why it made it. Hakuba-Happō Onsen is third at 147. It is also the most alkaline onsen in our data: pH 11.5, the highest of the 596 onsen with a pH on record. Only 4 of them reach pH 11.
The place. The hot spring of Hakuba village itself, around the Happō area at the foot of the slopes. Its water supplies public day baths, the best known being 八方の湯 (Happō-no-yu) near the Happō bus terminal, and many hotel baths. Hakuba Iwatake is 2.4 km from our map point for the town and Happō-one 3.1 km.
The water. Recorded at 50.7 °C, a simple spring, and at pH 11.5 it is strongly alkaline. Water like this feels smooth, almost slippery, on the skin, and the floors around the baths get slippery too; walk carefully, especially on wet tiles after skiing.
Getting there. The JR Ōito Line to 白馬 (Hakuba Station). Our travel data marks it as a short walk; our map point for the town is 3.9 km from the station in a straight line, so how short depends on the bath. Local buses and taxis run between the station and Happō, and in winter many hotels run shuttles. Our data puts it at about 2½ hours from Tokyo, the shortest of the three. The JR Pass covers the train.
Good for: a bath on the evening of a ski day without a trip, smooth alkaline water. Watch out for: the day baths are busy in the ski season, straight after the lifts close.
Which of the three?
- After skiing, no travel: Hakuba-Happō.
- The hottest water on record: Ōmachi Onsenkyō, 63.6 °C, piped down from Kuzu.
- Most minerals, most remote: Himekawa.
- With the Alpine Route: Ōmachi Onsenkyō.
The places that only just missed
Otari Onsen (114) would have been fourth: about 30 minutes by local bus from Nakatsuchi Station, recorded at 44 °C and pH 6.9, chloride and bicarbonate, with one inn high in the hills below Mount Amakazari. Bunō Onsen (28) is about 23 minutes by bus from Minami-Otari, a cooler 31.2 °C.
Two of the best-known onsen in the valley did not pass the car-free test for a different reason: you walk. Hakuba Yari Onsen (365, the best known of all 8) is a mountain hut with an open-air bath high above the village, about five hours on foot by our data, and only open in summer. Yumata Onsen (195), up the Takase valley, is also reached on foot and has no travel data with us. Our guide to hiking to an onsen covers both kinds of trip. Kuzu Onsen (147), the source of Ōmachi's water, is a taxi of about 20 minutes from Shinano-Ōmachi Station.
Just outside the valley, over the border in Itoigawa, Renge Onsen (312) is a high mountain lodge reached by a summer-only bus from Hiraiwa. Coming from Nozawa? Our Nozawa Onsen guide compares it with Hakuba, and the best onsen ski resorts looks at the whole country. For the wider mountains, see onsen in the Japanese Alps.
How we picked these three
- Starting pool: every onsen in our data in Ōmachi, Hakuba and Otari, the three towns of the Hakuba Valley: 8 in all, counting Himekawa, which straddles Otari and Itoigawa.
- No car needed: 5 of the 8 are marked in our travel data as reached without a car: Ōmachi Onsenkyō, Himekawa, Hakuba-Happō, Otari and Bunō. Hakuba Yari is reached on foot, Kuzu by taxi, and Yumata has no travel data. We kept the 5.
- Known: we ranked the 5 by how often each place's Wikipedia article is read. Ōmachi Onsenkyō 231, Himekawa 230, Hakuba-Happō 147, then Otari 114 and Bunō 28. Hakuba Yari (365) was not in the 5.
- Not used: views, inn quality, price, tattoo policy, food, private baths or which bath is closest to which ski lift. We have no data that ranks those fairly, so we did not pretend to.
- About the water: all 8 have a temperature on record, from Bunō at 31.2 °C to Kuzu at 80 °C. The water did not decide the ranking.
- Correction: our travel data marks Ōmachi Onsenkyō as a short walk from Shinano-Ōmachi Station; it is a bus ride of about 15 minutes, and we say so above.
- Distances are in a straight line from Hakuba Station or from the town's map point; travel times are rough estimates from our data, not a timetable. Check the current route before you go.
For every onsen you can reach by train, see onsen on the JR Pass and onsen you can reach without a car. Coming from Tokyo? See the best onsen near Tokyo. What do "simple" and "chloride" 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.