Kyushu With a Baby: Onsen Stays With Private Baths and In-Room Dining

Traveling with a baby under one means the worries pile up before you have even booked: how early is too early, will the baby cry the whole way, will they sleep once you arrive. Kyushu has an airport in every prefecture, and in Fukuoka, Kagoshima, and Miyazaki the airport sits close to the city center; from Honshu you can also come in by shinkansen (bullet train). Because it is easy to keep the journey short, Kyushu is a natural choice for a first family trip.

When you choose a hotel, it comes down to three things: the room, the bath, and the meals. A Japanese-style room or a Japanese-Western room lets you lay out futon (floor bedding) side by side, so there is no bed to roll off. If there is a private bath you can reserve, the family can enjoy the hot spring together even before your baby is old enough for the large public bath, and a hotel with a baby bed in the changing room gives you somewhere to dress them. For meals, room dining (heya-shoku, meals served in your own room) or a private or semi-private dining room makes it easy to step away to nurse or change a diaper. Some hotels prepare baby food, and others will warm up what you bring.

We list more than 190 hotels in Kyushu, ranging from small onsen ryokan with a private bath and room dining to large resorts where you can happily spend the whole day on the property. Summers here are hot, so a hotel with plenty to do indoors cuts down on going out in the middle of the day.

For this collection we looked at how well each area is stocked with the amenities that matter for a baby under one, and put them in a sensible order to search. Loan items are often limited in number, and the ages each hotel can cater to with baby food differ. If a hotel interests you, please check the notes on its page and the information on its official site before booking. The same way of looking at things, Japanese-style rooms, a private bath, and baby or toddler meals, still works when your child turns one or two, so you can search in the same order.