Maple Arima

The relaxing stay came with excellent service, multiple onsen pools, and wonderful meals. It’s up a small hill, around a 10-15 minute walk from the bus station. The classic layout reminded me of the first onsen hotel I ever visited.

A reasonably priced Arima hotel with pleasant hot springs and a sauna. There are two kinds of hot springs in the Arima area, and the hotel has one of them. It also gives guests a free ticket to a public bath with the other type. I used mine to visit. The hills around the area made for a nice walk, though the uphill trip back took about 10 minutes and felt tiring after a soak.

Loved this place, and I can’t wait to come back. The rooms are amazing, and they provide yukata to wear. There’s a silver onsen on level 1, plus a complimentary ticket for the gold onsen about a 10-minute walk away. The location is better than any other hotel in the area for me. I’ll stay longer next time.

Maple sits at the top of the hill east of Arima, away from most of the tourists but still within walking distance of both the Silver and Gold Onsens. It’s a good choice if you want fair prices. The rooms are Western style, simple, comfortable, and relaxing. They also have a shuttle to the train station, or it’s about a 10-minute walk uphill if you go on your own. Staff were polite, easy to deal with, and spoke good English. The hotel’s own extensive onsen was the highlight for me, and a great value for the time and money. It has the traditional hot and cold water baths and bathing area, plus a stone walking section that worked out the tightness and fatigue in my feet, hot-water waterfall, standing bubble jets, hot-water chair lounge, and UV Sauna. That variety made it a fun, refreshing, and unusual experience, more novel and enjoyable than the two famous ones.