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

Traveling with a baby under one brings a pile of worries before you even book: how old should they be, will they cry on the way, and will they be able to sleep at the hotel? Kyushu, Japan's southwestern main island, has an airport in every prefecture and can also be reached by shinkansen (bullet train) from Honshu. Because it is easy to keep travel times short, it is a good choice for a first family trip.

When choosing a place to stay, you can narrow it down to three things: the room, the bath, and the meals. In a Japanese-style room (washitsu) or a combined Japanese-Western room, you can lay futon mattresses side by side on the floor and sleep next to your baby without worrying about falls from a bed. For bathing, a private bath (kashikiri-buro, a bath you can reserve just for your family) lets you enjoy the hot springs together even when your baby is too young for the large shared baths, and a hotel with a baby cot in the changing room makes getting dressed much easier. For meals, in-room dining (heya-shoku) or a private or semi-private dining room makes it easier to step away for feeding or diaper changes. Some hotels prepare baby food, and others will warm up food you bring.

We list more than 190 hotels in Kyushu, ranging from small onsen inns with private baths and in-room dining to large resorts where you can spend the whole day on site. Summers are very hot, so a hotel with plenty to do indoors helps you cut down on midday outings.

In this collection, we looked at how well each area covers the amenities that matter for babies under one and organized the order in which to search. Rental items are often limited in number, and the ages each hotel caters to for baby food vary. Before booking, check the notes on the hotel page and the information on the official website.

Even at 1 to 2 years old, the same three things remain a good guide: a private bath, in-room dining, and sleeping on futons side by side in a Japanese-style room. If you are staying with a toddler who has just started walking, it helps to look first at hotels that allow children who are not yet potty trained to use the baths (which baths and under what conditions varies by hotel), and at hotels with Japanese-style or combined Japanese-Western rooms.