Kid-Friendly Hotels in Hachinohe: Hot Springs and Tatami Rooms

When you look for a place to stay in Hachinohe with children, all you seem to find is a row of business hotels in front of the station, and it is hard to tell whether any of them have rooms a family can actually share. Hachinohe is a port city served by the Tohoku Shinkansen, and it is the gateway to the Tanesashi Coast, to Kabushima Island where black-tailed gulls nest, and to the Hasshoku Center with its stalls of fresh seafood. One thing to know is that Hachinohe Station, where the shinkansen stops, sits well apart from Hon-Hachinohe Station and the downtown restaurant district, so which one you base yourself in changes how you choose a hotel.

Most of the 8 properties listed here are within walking distance of either Hachinohe Station or Hon-Hachinohe Station. JR-East Hotel Mets Hachinohe is connected directly to the east exit of Hachinohe Station, and one preschool-age child per bed sleeps free, so a twin room can take two. Comfort Hotel Hachinohe lets children through elementary school age share a bed and eat breakfast at no charge, offers cribs for a fee with advance reservation, and has a microwave in the building for warming up baby food you have brought along. Toyoko Inn Hachinohe Ekimae is also right by the station's east exit, with one child of elementary school age or younger sleeping free. 6 properties offer plans with a later checkout.

If you want tatami floors or a big communal bath, 3 properties have Japanese-style or Japanese-Western rooms. Grand Sunpia Hachinohe draws natural hot spring water from its own grounds for its large indoor bath and open-air bath, and it also has a private bath you can reserve so your family can bathe on its own. In the Japanese-style and Japanese-Western rooms the staff lay out the futons for you, and dinner plans include a menu for preschool-age children. There is a free kids' corner inside the building; 2 properties here have somewhere for children to play indoors. On the downtown side, Hachinohe Grand Hotel also has a kids' corner inside its guests-only lounge, which requires registration to use.

Dormy Inn Hon-Hachinohe (Nambu no Yu Natural Hot Spring) has a top-floor bathing area with an open-air bath and jar-shaped tubs, and the nightlife district is a short walk away. One child may share each bed: ages 0 to 2 stay free, while ages 3 through elementary school are charged. The double and queen rooms have shower booths rather than bathtubs, so if you want to bathe a baby in your own room, a twin is the safer choice. For families who would rather be quiet by the sea, there is Michiru Tanesashi on the Tanesashi Coast, three stand-alone villas each rented to a single group. The natural lawn running down to the shore is right there, the living room has a tatami area, and the restaurant has children's chairs and private dining rooms.