Hotels in Hakone

Hakone is Japan's classic hot-spring escape, a mountain onsen town in the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park about 80 km south-west of Tokyo and the country's favourite overnight break from the capital. The ritual is the ryokan: a traditional inn, a long soak in mineral baths and a kaiseki dinner in a yukata.

Beyond the water, the sightseeing loop takes in Lake Ashi and its mock-pirate boats, the steaming volcanic valley of Owakudani — where you eat black eggs cooked in the sulphur springs, said to add years to your life — and the sculpture-filled Hakone Open-Air Museum with its Picasso collection. It is popular and can be busy, weekend traffic clogs the valley, and Mount Fuji itself is often shy behind cloud, so treat a clear view as a bonus. Stay in a ryokan around Hakone-Yumoto or Gora for the baths, the scenery and the Hakone Free Pass loop.