TKP Hotel & Resort Rekutore Hakone Gora – A hotel review

Location

Located in the Hakone-Gora region, the hotel lies a short way away from the centre. The quiet location is only a 900m walk from the funicular station along a relatively flat road, from here you can easily reach Owakudani and Lake Ashi for beautiful views of Mount Fuji. It is 25 minutes walk to the gora train station where the hydrangea train begins and ends, really worth riding on if you visit between mid-June and August.

Hakone-gora is a very sleepy town with a beautiful river running through the centre. Although there isn’t a great deal to do here, it is a great place to go if you want to escape the hustle of Tokyo.

The Room

I stayed in a massive room which I could have easily filled with 5 dinosaurs. The wardrobe itself was big enough for my photographer to throw a party in, ironic really because I had posted my suitcase to Tokyo and this was the only hotel in Japan where I found a wardrobe.

Officially the room was a small twin room but there was nothing small about it, in Europe I would have classed the room as family or superior. I had two sofa chairs next to the window which were the size of a sofa bed each. I loved having a comfortable area to sit because some other Japanese rooms can feel quite claustrophobic after a while. In room facilities also included a kettle with coffee and green tea, a fridge, a huge flat screen TV, a safe and air conditioning.

The hotel booking website told me I would have two single beds in my room. However, I arrived to find out this information was wrong and the beds were more like 3/4 size doubles (a huge bonus). They were very comfortable and I had the most relaxing nights sleep. The hotel was extremely quiet and had black out blinds in the room so I could relax fully without being woken with the 4am sunrise.

The Bathroom

Once again I had the joy of another super tiny bathroom, this one wins the award for smallest. To turn on the sink tap, you used the shower tap because there wasn’t enough room for two taps. My photographer didn’t need to do any steps to get from one end of the room to the other.

The bath was so tiny we didn’t even try to get in and trial it. However, the powerful shower made up for it (if you ignore having to hurdle the side of the bathtub to get in. Sadly, this was the worst part of the hotel because I found the bathroom to be inaccessible even for healthy humans (maybe the bigger rooms had better bathrooms).

Dining

I was very lucky to have breakfast and dinner included in my stay, and the staff went above and beyond to ensure my dietary needs were catered to. Upon arrival, I received a welcome drink which was delicious and made up for Hakone-gora being closed for the evening.

Dinner was a traditional Japanese affair, similar to the food I enjoyed in the Monastery. I had boiled veggies, a giant salad, boiled rice and something else which was delicious but rather bland because everything in Japan is flavoured with Daishi (fish stock). The meal was served along a huge table with the other travellers and I enjoyed finding out where they had been, travelling alone can get lonely during dining times and this was a great change.

Breakfast was a similar affair and I really enjoyed the traditional Japanese delicacies. Rice for breakfast is something I don’t think I will ever get used to but it is a nice change to cereal every day. It did make me laugh watching my photographer westernise breakfast by adding a strong coffee to the table. I on the other hand have been enjoying the green tea a lot because it is less bitter than what I am used to in Europe. I ate so well whilst I was staying in this hotel I almost forgot about the challenges of being vegetarian in Japan.

Indoor Facilities

The hotel has so many facilities you don’t even need to leave during your stay. I tried out most of the facilities but didn’t have time to explore them all. My favourite activity, which wasn’t really an activity, was trying on a Yukata the outfit you often seen Japanese people wear at the summer festivals. I chose a white yukata with red flowers and a red obi to tie around the middle, this was paired with slippers because the hotel has a no shoe rule.

I was lucky enough to have my choice of either a public bath or private Onsen during my stay. As a dinosaur, I chose to treat myself to a private bath because I’m not sure which gender I am. The private onsen was rather large and could easily be used by two people. I had a room to get undressed in and a separate room to shower and bathe in. My bath lasted 45 minutes but I couldn’t sit in the water for more than 5 minutes at a time because it was 40 degrees and I had gotten used to only taking cold showers during my time in Japan. Massages are available as well but I was so relaxed after my Onsen, I realised it was all my aching legs needed to recover.

Relaxation is at the heart of this hotel and I found many hidden corners with seats in, perfect for whiling away an hour with a book. Though my favourite area was the manga corner but it was all in Japanese so I couldn’t understand any of it. For younger humans, board games are available in the lobby. This hotel really focusses on enjoying spending time with family or friends and totally forgetting about screens.

Outdoor facilities

The hotel is set in gardens which feel really wild and are great to explore. My photographer disagrees because of the gigantic spiders that live in Hakone, so we left the spiders in peace and headed to the roof.

The roof terrace was my favourite place in the hotel and I sat up here for hours, looking out over the forest covered mountains made my soul happy. One side of the roof terrace had views over towards the Pacific Ocean and Yokohama in the distance, the other direction had views of greenery for miles but sadly Mount Fuji was just out of sight.

The roof terrace was the perfect escape from the busy experience of travelling across Japan in such a short period of time. I sat enjoying the last of the afternoon sunshine whilst the cicadas sang loudly in the trees, when the sky became dark stars covered the sky in the most beautiful pattern I have ever seen. There is no light pollution in the area so it is perfect for a night of stargazing.

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