Hatago AO in Kobe

Beautiful view onto the river and the forest from the rooms. Nice outdoor onsen. The rooms with a private onsen also worth it. Dinner and breakfast are okay but a bit boring and not exciting.

Excellent hotel ryokan built and with interior from the late 90's/ early 00's.

The hotel has great private baths (note that they are only hot water, not mineral water) and shared mineral water pools.

They provide yukata and a very good overall experience.

There is free wi-fi, which reaches to most places (not to the wine bath though).

Couple of nit picks that I had with my stay were:

-at exactly 6:00 AM my TV turned on out of nowhere. I have not requested a wake-up call nor have I set up an alarm. If such a thing normally happens, I have read that it is a disaster warning (North Korea rocket 🚀 passing by, earthquake warning, etc.) but no, apparently Le Bron James had done something with Nike (it was all in Japanese). It wasn't a very pleasant experience so I unplugged the feeding cables to the TV.

Another thing is - Japanese have these bizarre work windows for their restaurants, where you need to be in one between 6 and 8 o' clock, else you stay hungry as they will close at 9. The hotel doesn't have a room service option (based on the English facilities menu) which is a bit of a shame, as I would've loved to have something to eat as I normally go for late night dinners.

All in all great stay. Would revisit.

Arima onsen gekkoen was definitely worth visiting, you can request for the shuttle transportation to and from the main bus station. The hotel is relatively old. We chose the traditional room with tatami floors which was an experience, the toilet/bathroom seemed a bit outdated but ok overall. Yukata, sandals, socks are provided. They bring tea and set up the beds when you’re dining at the designated time. The buffet dinner was great, the desserts were exceptional..skip the deep fried stuffs. The breakfast was also a buffet and the food was delicious! There are 3 different baths locations. It was a quite pricey, close to $600 a night but worth visiting once. The negatives was that a maintenance personnel was working at 4am and hammering. There was a loud noise coming from under the room. It was very difficult to sleep as the hammering sound kept going for an hour or so. That was definitely not cool..may have just happened when we stayed.

My stay was perfect, the staff were very attentive from the start of my 2 day stay to check out.
I choose in in-room bath and meal service in the traditional Japanese room. Happy I did as everything was perfect.
As from my photos, the meals were lavish and over about 1 and a half hours. Presentation was perfect from the immaculately kimono dressed host.
The general access baths were also great, there are many options available. I did not have time to try all the private baths, so I guess I'll need to visit again.
The hotel is in a very private location, it's a bit of a hike the get up the hill, if not fit take the hotel bus.

It was raining in an April afternoon. We arrived at the hotel. Check-in was quick and detailed. The receptionist walked us to our room and explained how the facility work. Four hot springs, among them two open door ones. We enjoyed a great open door experience. Dinner was 怀石料理， served in main Japanese restaurant. Service was impeccable, food was okay, great looking presentation, taste was not to remember. Anyway, we came here for the hot springs, a great relaxed experience to unwind. We like this hotel.