Breezbay Lake Resort Kawaguchiko

The lake view from our room was great, and the food was good. When my brother and I asked about a vegetarian option for the hot pot dinner, the staff were able to accommodate us. They were friendly and did their best to understand and help despite our limited Japanese. The shower pressure was amazing, like showering in a car wash. Our room felt dated in the neglected sense, as if things hadn’t been updated or fixed for a while. Having to leave our key cards at reception also made it inconvenient to come and go during the day. On our first night we chose to eat out instead of dining at the hotel, and staff knocked on our door twice later to ask about it. That gave us a chance to ask about vegetarian options, but we’d never experienced that at another place we’d stayed. We enjoyed our time here overall.

The onsen was the one real highlight, beautiful and with a nice view. The location is good too, with great bars and restaurants nearby. The rooms are spacious and the lake view is nice, but mine wasn’t clean, and the bathroom was small and very dated. The odd benzine and cigarette smell in the hallway was appalling, and the entrance hall felt dull. The dining and breakfast area has a nice lake view, but lacks a cozy atmosphere. Dinner wasn’t great, while breakfast was okay. I stayed in April, and this was by far one of the worst hotels I visited. I’d eat elsewhere rather than have dinner at the hotel.

The views of the Mount Fuji mountains and the lake are amazing, and the location is great. The rooms are spacious, with big windows. At the lobby entrance, guests have to leave their shoes and use the hotel’s flip-flops. They enforce this rule strongly, and I hadn’t seen that elsewhere. The staff seemed more focused on enforcing rules than providing service. Breakfast was okay, though I had trouble figuring out which foods were halal.

The location is perfect, but the hotel feels very old-fashioned. There was a bad smell they seemed to be trying to cover up. Breakfast wasn’t very good, and the room carpet was covered in spots. The bathroom was so small that everything got soaked when I showered.