Karatsu hotels

Pros: Ryokan Yoyokaku is located a bit outside the city center of Karatsu which, however, is not a disadvantage at all. The beach is just about hundred meters away from the hotel offering a good view to Takashima island. You can also see Karatsu castle from the hotel’s main entrance towering over the town of Karatsu. Ryokan Yoyokaku offers authentic Japanese atmosphere and flair. We stayed in a spacious room with a wonderful view to the Japanese garden in the backyard of the hotel (the rooms are by far bigger than they appear on the pictures at booking.com). The hotel offers free bicycles and it’s fun to travel to the city center, Karatsu castle or to the close Niji No Matsubara Pine groove by bike. Inside Ryokan Yoyokaku you can find the permanent exhibition of a famous Karatsu stoneware pottery artist. The breakfast offers local specialties and next time I would like to try the kaiseki menu offered for dinner.

Cons: Absolutely nothing to complain about :-).

Pros: It was an authentic Japanese Ryokan experience. The staff, the gardens, the Onsen and the food were amazing! It was expensive but worth it.

Pros: A beautiful old Ryokan building with a wonderful garden in the back. Very stylish interior with pottery and pieces of art of the family. The owner was so kind to show us his ney built house in the back of the garden. Beautiful woodwork. The Kaseiki dinner in a private dining room was excellent. We stayed in three different Ryokans during this trip and this was the best in terms of traditional building and service. Close to Karatsu castle.

Cons: Nothing

Pros: The owner and his wife were just lovely, and have a pottery collection that is just amazing. Tamie-San was so kind to us and so welcoming, we just loved her! The garden was beautiful and they are right by the sea and the castle so lots to walk around and do. It was great to walk around in robes (ukata) our whole visit. They set up the garden room with table and chairs for dinner to accommodate our Western sitting style.

Cons: The bath is not a hot springs and is very basic. It is not laid out in the same lovely way the rooms and grounds are.

Pros: Beautiful traditional facility with excellent architecture, top class ryokan.

Cons: Nothing

Pros: Friendly, cosy and warmth. Very family oriented. Staffs are very polite and efficient. Nice place to go

Cons: NA

Pros: Staffs were kind and the facility was roomy.

Cons: Price. I paid little less than 80,000 yen for 4 adults and 1 child including breakfast only. I understand it was in Japnese New Year holidays but I still felt that it wasn't reasonable price.

Pros: beautiful facilities and setup, attention to detail, friendly/helpful hosts

Pros: Best ryokan I have ever stayed in. Lovely owners, very attentive and friendly, they took care of us like special guests. Our maid, Miku, was superb, special thanks to her for being so nice. The meals were delicious and there was attention to every detail. Thank you so much since the bottom of our hearts for everything.

Pros: This ryokan is incomparable. The warm colors and textures of wood, tatami and shoji contrasted against the monochromatic shapes of rocks and pine trees in the garden. All are pleasing to the eye. Tasteful artwork - wood block prints, paintings, textiles, freshly cut flowers and beautiful Karatsu pottery are all breathtaking. Breakfast was nourishing and delicious. The friendly and welcoming staff greet you and treat you like family.

Pros: sea view (apparently true for every room and this means a full view of the ocean!); very clean; very helpful and friendly staff (who also helped carry our luggage to the car and lent us umbrellas for our visit to the castle on the morning after our stay), very old, traditional and well established "ryokan" (has been visited by members of the Imperial household also), spacious room, very quiet, excellent food for both dinner and breakfast (you should spend the extra money on dinner!) - but be open minded and aware that not all food served here could be served like this in a western restaurant, the atmosphere of ancient Japan.

Cons: - the bathrooms are well maintained and very clean, but they are getting a bit old, - the "ofuro" is a normal bathtub and not an onsen (but there are plenty of other onsen-baths in Kyushu if that is what you are looking for), - this luxury comes at a price. However, if it was a cheap stay, would we be able to value it as much as we currently do?

Pros: We absolutely loved the location and the staff.

Cons: But we were unpleasantly surprised by the 'life-sashimi' and Shirouo, live fishes in a bowl. If we would have known, we would have let the staff know

Pros: Best accommodation experience in Japan ever. I came with my husband and family for a resting trip without crowds in big cities like Hanghai, and Mizuno Hotel has provided everything we expected and supervised us with beautiful sea view traditional Japanese rooms, delicious dinner, and great service. This is my mother’s first visit to Japan and she’s really impressed by it. We’ll definitely come back again.

Cons: If hosts could speak more efficient English, we might could have learn more local cuture.

Pros: The staff were very friendly and helpful. The room was spacious and had an amazing each and sea view. The food was extraordinary! Great place which is a bit out of the way but great if you want to go to pottery towns in Kyushu!

Pros: We initially planned to stay at one of the ryokans which will be further away from Fukuoka but then we wished to go Osaka too so we ended up finding one that's nearer to fukuoka to save time. Mizuno Ryokan is located in Karatsu (about 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours by train). After getting off train station it takes around 10 minutes to walk there. But of course if you have luggage with you you might want to catch a taxi. (There's a taxi area just outside the train station) Location wise this is quite convenient. There are shops and restaurants in Karatsu area not far from the hotel if you just to hang around in the area. The 2 nights we stayed there have been superb. Staffs are all very professional. Some of them speak simple English and we don't have much problem communicating with one another. Breakfast and dinner are wonderful. Portions might seem small but since there are many courses throughout a meal and by the last you usually already full. They might not be using the most expensive ingredients but they truly are very fresh and they put a lot of heart when preparing the dishes. Room is spacious (we have the deluxe room I believe) and very very clean. Futons are very very comfy, I fell asleep in literally 30 secs everytime I laid down. We have ocean view room, there are not many people on the beach (once a while someone walked past by). Maybe it'll be more crowded during hot seasons. With that we can enjoy a nice relaxing view without worrying that people passing by can see us. They have 2 public indoor onsen baths (notice this is not bathroom). We do have our own private bathroom too inside our room (make sure you know which one you are choosing when selecting a room). If you wish to use them make sure you let them know first. From the room to the food to the staffs Mizuno Ryokan sure is one of the most amazing hotels I've every stayed in. Should I ever be visiting Karatsu again I definitely would come back to stay.

Pros: Everythig was perfect. Nice view and food. Breakfast was so beautiful like a work of art. It was not only delicious but healthy. And I love to experience wearing Japanese traditional clothes, yukata. Also, Hot spring is cooooool

Cons: None.

Pros: An amazing surreal setting, very tranquil. Beautiful but simple decor. I would come again . The staff were friendly and discrete

Cons: I liked it all

Pros: Comfortable, thoughtful Japanese hotel, the details show: notes, rental yukata, shortcut from room to the bath, etc. Very nice stay.

Cons: Communication is challenging for non-Japanese speakers. The staffs tried hard to understand.

Pros: Our stay is excellent, the free use of the Bar from 6 pm~11pm is a wondeful bonus. The 28-dish breakfast is the best Japanese breakfast I ever have in the past 30+ Japan trips, fresh and delicious. Staff are very helpful and polite. Would definitely come back.

Cons: If the outdoor onsen area can be larger and I could stand up to have the seaview. I though understand the nearby environment issue.

Pros: The proximity to the ocean is great for the natural mineral baths and the walking path but the beach itself is not why you would go to this property.

Pros: Very attentive front desk and dining staff, amazing breakfasts, beach location and views, design of the facility, open air bath with ocean view. We thought we would be disappointed not to be on the ocean view side, but the garden view side was quieter and very beautiful.

Cons: They offered a thousand yen certificate usable within the hotel for, we thought, not replacing towels and sheets during our stay. But it turned out to mean total hands off by staff, no help with the futon, no cleaning. We were sorry we took the option, and the certificates were hard to use.

Pros: Beautiful garden and nice beach view. Relax and quiet.

Pros: This was one of the most beautiful hotel experiences I have had. The location of the hotel is excellent-- right next to the beach and a very short walk to the train station. Finding the place is very easy. The room itself is impossibly comfortable. I stayed in the Ocean-View room which is totally worth the extra price. The open-air bath is easily the best, most relaxing onsen I've been to in Japan and has epic seaside views. The salt water is great for your health. All in all, I really hope I will have the chance to go back to Naginoto again!

Cons: I don't know what could have been better. Perhaps I would have liked to have an easier option to get to Karatsu? It is somewhat rural so the train is infrequent. Overall, the hotel has no real problems.

Pros: Comfortable, staff manner nice. Food very good.

Cons: If the beds had been arranged when we check in will be excellent.

Pros: Price and location

Pros: Highly recommended! Staff is helpful, breakfast very good and plenty, service highly professional. The spacious room had a wide window from ceiling to floor with a river view, the location on the whole is very beautiful. Hotel staff even gave us a free ride to the train station because it was raining on the day we left. Would definitely come again if we had the chance!

Pros: Staff and the location.

Pros: We loved the warm welcome, all the help during our stay, the lovely breakfast which was complete with a perfect view of the castle. We would love to come back.

Pros: Hospitality is awesome, they treat you as family, and have details during your stay. They have an excellent traditional Japanese breakfast and it’s people there is simply great!!! The rooms are really nice and the view to the Karatsu Castle and the town, wooow, amazing. I will definitely come back.

Cons: Nothing, my whole family loves this place!!

Pros: Everything

Pros: Convenient place and friendly owner who help us to carry our heavy luggage to the room

Cons: Nothing

Pros: Room has the view of the karatsu bay, so amazing it's the japanese cozy style Staff is really nice and helpful They have bikes for rental The karatsu castle is very close You can walk up there with the view of the city You can experience Sakura or Wisteria at the castle

Cons: Nothing

Pros: There is a good location, good perfect view, clean, very near The Karatsu Castle. And the staff is very helpful

Cons: We rest here for 3 people for 2 nights have a private restroom but the restroom so small and old.

Pros: This was one of the lovliest Japanese Minshukus we had on our trip. The rooms are really nice with river view and separate toilet. From the breakfast room you can see the Karatsu castle. The Japanese breakfast was one of the best we had on our trip. The guesthouse is in walkable distance to the castle and town center. The train station is a bit further away, but there is an hourly bus which stops in front of the guesthouse. We can definitely recommend this accommodation.

Cons: -

Pros: the room had amazing views. the futons provided were very thin and not very comfortable. breakfast was okeish but it ended at 930 on the dot. They gave us very generous voucher to purchase cosmetics. The overall atmosphere was a bit strange

Cons: futons were very thin

Pros: Full sea view rooms Swimming pool

Cons: Too many spiders outside balcony and window

Pros: The hotel is new and the room is big. Nice view and nice food.

Cons: It is quite far away fro the town.

Pros: The hotel is right at the entrance of pine Forrest and seaside. You can enjoy beach and Forrest walk easily. Hotel design is elegant and comfort. Staff are very helpful . Seawater Hot spring is special and well managed .

Cons: The size of hotel as holiday resort is small . The buffet of morning and dinner are averaged in terms of food choices .

Pros: big room with great seaview

Cons: car park on site was a bit far

Pros: The room is big and well designed.

Pros: We enjoyed the Japanese experience, the style and the simple design. The lounge areas were very comfortable. The breakfasts were an opportunity to experience many different tastes.

Cons: Living at floor level in the room may be comfortable for Japanese people but we did not find it so.

Pros: We got our room upgraded, with a spacious sitting room area and a large bathroom with a sea facing bath tub and balcony. The room was very nice with superb sea view. The room and facilities are clean and tidy. We had dinner in the hotel japanese restaurant and was pretty good.

Cons: The outlook of the hotel is too ordinary and looks like a random building and does not look like a hotel. We did miss it the first time when we drove by.

Pros: Staff are very friendly and helpful. Tasty breakfast. We are also upgraded to a bugger room. Everything us fine except that we got.onlu buffer dinner but not Japanese set meal, which is disappointing. Buffer dinner is just soso, worse than breakfast.

Cons: Buffer dinner

Pros: The front desk gave us the corner room which has the wonderful sea views. The breakfast was good too. The onsen bath is convenience located on the 3rd floor but the spring bath is not hot enough.

Cons: I wish the staff can speak more English instead of doing the body language. The hotel should train the staff with more English skills as this will be an international hotel with so many travelers around the world. The onsen spring bath water is not hot enough.

Pros: Ryokan Uohan is located dierctly at the beach and very close to the beautiful Pine Grove. It is however good having a car to get there. Our room was just great! Spacious, great view with our private outside tub. Staff is super friendly and helpful and we needed some help with the japanese breakfast for sure. We would come here again.

Cons: Room is very cold. And dinner is so bad.

Pros: very comfortable hotel, intelligent design

Cons: seaview and the room size

Pros: Breakfast is amazing, I'm very appreciated the BBQ Fish.

Pros: The staff is very nice and helpful.

Cons: The toilet water is very weak. The food in the morning is not sufficient for all customers. No milk provide for children.

Pros: It was beautiful and the staff was lovely.

Cons: Very very expensive for what you got. The area surrounding is a bit of a dud. Would not go back to the area but the facility itself was nice.

Pros: Stay for 2 nights and feel cozy, location is good just walk-in to the beach and easy to find the way from the JR station. Dinner and breadfast are really delicious and we enjoyed a lot. There’s a bathtub outside the room, a little bit cold in May but should be perfect in summer.

Pros: It is by the sea, beautiful view from the room. We love the hot spring and food.

Cons: It happened during the breakfast the waitress explain to us in Japanese how to enjoy the breakfast (which we do not understand Japanese), as soon as she left we found no rice on the table, so we thought we shall help ourself from the self service table, when we back to our table we found an English instruction saying waitress will serve us on the rice, at the same time waitress appeared and with a blaming way saying why are you taking rice, I have serve you all the rice then took away the bowl of rice We have taken from the self service corner. This wasn’t pleasant at all. it is quite rude.

Pros: Room&food.

Cons: Nothing.

Cons: Staff is not friendly.

Pros: a very traditional/old-style Japanese house with hot spring bath (they are small but good enough). Very nice dinner and breakfast with full of the old Japanese tastes. lovely and helpful old ladies are running this old hotel

Cons: some facilities are old (but for me, who love history, this is not a kind of "dislike" at all)

Pros: Staff were really friendly and room was spacious and hot spring was nice.

Cons: not really

Pros: Hot spring very nice

Cons: Nothing

Pros: Food was excellent. Both breakfast and dinner.

Pros: The room is big and traditionally decorated.

Cons: The onsens are a bit too small. No heating at toilet and the bathroom.

Pros: The family room we stayed in was clean and comfortable though a little dated. The Onsen on Level 2 was large and well catered for with plenty of lockers and bathroom extras Reception staff were helpful and provided a free hotel shuttle service back to JR station

Cons: Pillows were hard

Pros: nice view and room size was big enough for 2. cannot use public bath because of my tattoo but its normal thing in Japan. If you travel by walk and public transportation, the location is not that good (cuz its far from bus station or train station.) but it doesnt matter for me.

Cons: nothing special. everything was fine.

Pros: Beautiful new lobby and super friendly staff make this an excellent economic choice in Karatsu

Cons: Room is a little tired. But big so that helps.

Pros: room was very good and comfortable, spacious 4-room family style overlooking sea and bridge view was good

Pros: Excellent breakfast with great view, hotel have lots parking space! The restaurant is also nice too!

Pros: Quite large room but a bit old facility. Still good for stay with fair price . Good breakfast.

Cons: A bit old facility in room

Pros: Nice and clean =) As we came by foot they fetched us up at the train-station and they found us a dinner-table even without reservation, big thanks to a lovely English speaking employee - arigatogozaimasu. We loved to have a walk in the pine groove just next to the hotel and to visit the Karatsu Castel.

Cons: Their breakfast restaurant up at the 7th floor was a bit tired, but the food was good and rich in choice. Their ping-pong table was too small and pushed under their central stairway and too close to the babies space. A huge disappointment that the closest beach was that dirty, filled with plastic and scrap =(

Pros: The hotel was close to Karatsu Castle

Pros: The location of the hotel is near to the Karatsu Castle and it only takes 5-10 minutes walk.

Cons: The air-conditioner is quite old and the warmer didn't work really well.

Pros: Regular business hotel. Cheap rooms, basic service. My room had a good view of the castle.

Cons: They have like 3 parking spots. I had to park my car in a bank parking lot nearby. Very inconvenient. No English spoken.

Pros: The staff were super friendly and helped me a lot during my stay.

Cons: The room had a bit of a cigarette smell

Pros: The room was comfortable if small (as is usual), the wifi was good and the view of the castle from our window was lovely, especially when the moon rose near the castle.

Cons: No breakfast available and no facilities to cook anything ourselves. The room was getting a little tired but fine for the price.

Pros: Amazing value. Has everything you can expect for a price as cheap as this.

Cons: No problems really, but the wall to the adjacent room was pretty thin, which could lead to problems if there are noisy neighbors.

Pros: Good quiet location with view of castle

Cons: The bathroom was quite small, even by Japanese standards. Smoking smells in corridor.