Family-Friendly Hotels in Lake Ashi: A Highland Lake and Forest Resort

When you are choosing a family hotel around Lake Ashi, it can be hard to know what to judge it by. Within Hakone, the area around Lake Ashi sits at high elevation, ringed by lake and forest, and it feels quite different from a hot spring town like Hakone Yumoto. The upside is a calm, unhurried stay. The trade-off is that there is no dense cluster of children's attractions in a town center nearby, so how much you can comfortably do inside the hotel itself makes a big difference to how the trip feels.

One defining feature of hotels here is how many of them offer Japanese-style or Japanese-Western rooms. Of the 6 properties we list, 4 have Japanese-style or Japanese-Western rooms, so families with a baby still young enough to roll off a bed can lay futons side by side on the floor and sleep with real peace of mind. On tatami you can also set a crawling baby down safely, which means you are not rushing while you unpack after check-in, and that is something guests mention often in their reviews.

Meals are another area where you have real choice. 4 hotels serve a toddler meal menu and 4 accommodate food allergies, which lowers the hurdle of eating out with a small child considerably. Some properties, such as Odakyu Hakone YAMANOHOTEL, serve meals in your room or in private and semi-private dining spaces, which suits families who would rather sit down to dinner without worrying too much about the people around them. Ryuguden offers Japanese-style and Japanese-Western rooms as well as rooms with their own open-air bath, so even families with a baby who is not yet ready for the large communal bath can still soak.

Bathing options are a strength of this area too. Hakone Hotel Kagetsuen has private baths you can reserve at no charge, so siblings can be lively without disturbing anyone. The Prince Hakone Ashinoko lends out cribs and bed guards, offers late check-out, and runs kids' programs and activities, which makes it a natural fit for families who want to build the whole day around the grounds. If you would rather spread out, a whole-house rental such as the Hakone-en Cottages is another way to go.

Kanagawa Prefecture includes the wider Hakone area, and the Lake Ashi shore is the part of Hakone that leans most heavily toward nature. Getting there takes a little more travel, but in exchange it is quiet, and for families who want a place where children's voices do not carry, that trade is exactly the right one to make.