HOSHINOYA Taketomi Island

One of the best places I have been in Japan. Excellent rooms and sensational food. Staff were very efficient and the bus shuttle to various sites very handy. The place is nice and quiet and allows you to relax in peace. The surrounding villages, beaches and islands were all worth a visit. You can only find this in Japan. The water buffalo rides were certainly a highlight.

If you ever wanted a Robinson Crusoe experience, this hotel is for you, and you never thought you can get such a tropically exotic holiday in Japan! First up the location – it’s very secluded as getting here means you need to go through both a boat and domestic plane transfer, but I assure you that everything is worth it, and you can seriously recharge your mind and escape from everything and just snuggle up in this beautiful resort and experience amazing island life when you’re here! The island itself is very small and beware because during typhoon season the boats do not run to mainland Ishigaki at all - Ishigaki connects to Naha in mainland Okinawa, but you can also fly here from other cities in Japan, like Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka, so it really isn’t THAT secluded with such air connectivity! The hotel does provide a bus shuttle that brings you around the island and the beautiful beaches with crystal-clear waters and amazing fine sand – there is even a beach call “star sand beach” where you can see sand speckles that are actually shaped like stars! The hotel itself is beautiful and all rooms come in individual Ryukyu-style ‘villa’ with your own dedicated porch and entryway. Inside your room, you will find generously spaced living areas, bathroom, shower, and the very comfortable Hoshinoya bedding! The hotel, being a Japanese hotel, will also provide you with a set of pajamas for the night, and also Yukata, which you can wear and wonder around the resort, such as going to The Lounge, where local snacks are served alongside coffee and a tea cabinet comprising local herbs like Ryuku Mugwort and Okinawan bitter melon! Every evening there is also a happy hour where you can indulge in delicious local Okinawa liquor - Awamori! I also highly recommend you to have dinner in the restaurant as the food was amazing! I actually prefer the menu here more than that of Hoshinoya Tokyo, as I find the presentation and ingredients here to be more spectacular, especially those that they sauce from the Okinawa Islands! Facility-wise, the hotel is not beachfront, but, as mentioned earlier, the shuttle bus does bring ypu to the beautiful beaches on this island, and on-site, there is a huge pool that’s almost like a lagoon or a pond where you can swim under the beautiful skies. There is also a spa here which gets booked out quickly so if you want a treatment, you should get it as soon as possible when you reach the hotel. Overall, I spent six amazing nights here and I found it to be so recharging for my mind and soul that I will not hesitate to come back here again.

I have wanted to stay at this hotel for years, thinking it would be like the Maldives in Japan. However, I was disappointed to find that the beach featured on the hotel’s website is not only off-limits for swimming but also littered with garbage and plastic. The air conditioning in our room was leaking water, which was inconvenient. There is only one fine dining French restaurant on-site, and aside from the set breakfast, the other meal options consist solely of Okinawa-style room service with no snacks or side dishes available. The lounge offers activities like folk singing and arts and crafts, but also doubles as a bar with a very limited menu—just honey and scones as the only snacks. While the pool is beautiful, no drinks are allowed there. This hotel, which has been around for 14 years, is well-maintained and has withstood typhoons, but it does not provide a luxury experience and isn't worth the time and effort to visit. Though there is a shuttle to a nearby town with about 6-7 restaurants open from 6:30 to 8:00 PM, the hotel staff were unable to inform us which ones would be open. We ended up ordering room service our first night because we weren’t told we needed to reserve a restaurant in advance, and many options were either full or closed. We also booked a snorkeling trip through the hotel, but were disappointed to find ourselves on a crowded boat with a large group from other tour agencies. If you’re looking for a weekend escape from Tokyo, it might work for you. However, if you're traveling from afar, I would not recommend it. The service does not meet the standards of either good Japanese or Western hospitality.

Such a wonderful resort. The staff were excellent. Everyone spoke English which was convenient for me. The rooms were spacious and very comfy. The dinner was divine. My wife and I had an excellent time. We made a shisa one morning which was also a lot of fun. Hard, but a lot of fun

Really pretty and wonderful resort. Heads up, this is not your traditional brassy resort, it a a much laid back and quieter luxury resort nestled in traditional ryukyuan culture. As westerners, we were a little taken aback bit it because usually when we stay in a resort in the Caribbean or similar, they usually are filled with things to do and such but here not so much. It was very quiet. There is one main lounge which serves drinks and allows you to craft your own traditional herbal tea which I liked and snack on some things. There is also a wonderful restaurant with a French tasting menu, and a pool. That’s all great but here are my suggestion to the company to make it better: 1. The pool and pool loungers seemed quite dead. It seems counterintuitive when you have tables and chairs around the pool but you don’t allow guests to take stuff from the bar to the pool. A pool bar or service of some sort would see the pool to be better used. 2. The dinner was great, but if you stay here for more than 2 nights, you no longer can do the tasting menu because there are only 2 tasting courses and you then have to eat in your room. This isn’t good for long term travelers who also like the tasting menu. I would suggest adding a couple more menus or rotations similar to hoshjnoya Kyoto to give more time to appreciate the djning. 3. The lounge music needs more variety. It’s literally the same sound being played over and over the whole day.

We were very pleased with our stay and beyond appreciative of the attentive staff. This destination is truly something unique and unlike anything else. Per the hotel, the amenities were great, the staff does everything they can to make sure you feel special, and something very secluded. The wifi situation is probably one of the strongest we have had anywhere in Japan, but only in your room or the club / lounge space. The food all around the island is pretty much the same, and there is no convenience stores or much to stock up on things, so I highly recommend you grab all the snacks and other food you would like to have during your stay in Ishigaki before you take the ferry over. **Room service is basically your main source of dinner, unless you want to sit through an extensive fine dining experience they host in the restaurant during dinner hours. That said, I think it's an incredible experience that you only need a weekend to do. We did more than that on our stay, but I would only recommend that if you want to be away from everything and somewhere that holds true to its routes. Definitely spend time at Kondoi beach while there, and enjoy the large pool.

I recently stayed at the HOSHINOYA expecting a luxurious experience at a 5-star establishment. Unfortunately, my experience fell far short of expectations. Firstly, the beds and pillows were incredibly uncomfortable, not at all what one would anticipate from a hotel of this caliber. Additionally, the rooms were uncomfortably warm and stuffy, with the thermostat set at a minimum of 23 degrees Celsius, leaving little room for comfort. The lighting in the room was inadequate, leaving it dimly lit and lacking in brightness. As for the food, it was disappointingly mediocre, failing to meet the standard expected from a high-end hotel. During my massage, I had to repeatedly request more pressure from the therapist, only to be met with limited success. It became so frustrating that I couldn't wait for the session to be over. Furthermore, for a resort located on an island, the absence of loungers outside the room was a glaring oversight. Being on the beach, one would have expected a nice little area where one could relax on the beach on a lounger with some umbrellas to enjoy the views, but instead only encountered washed-up plastic bottles littering the shoreline. This stark contrast to the serene beach experience I had hoped for was disheartening and highlighted a lack of attention to detail and environmental care by the hotel management. The surrounding greenery and abundance of butterflies was however thoroughly enjoyable. Regarding activities, we booked a kayaking tour through the hotel. However, upon waking up to torrential downpours, we expressed our discomfort with the idea of kayaking in such weather. Despite our objections and concerns, we were informed that the tour would proceed as planned, with the threat of a cancellation fee looming over us. This lack of flexibility and consideration for guest comfort was unacceptable. To add insult to injury, upon check-out, we were unjustly charged for the canceled tour. The hotel grounds are extremely confusing and not very well mapped out. Navigating the premises was a challenge, as there seemed to be a lack of clear signage or directions, leading to unnecessary frustration and wasted time. One should not be expected to carry a map with them at all times. This is impractical. Lastly, although the staff have always been courteous and polite communication was an issue, with staff members struggling to communicate effectively in English. Overall, my experience at Hoshinoya was far from satisfactory. I would advise travelers to consider other destinations such as Bali or Thailand, where true 5-star hospitality can be found.

I am an American in Japan for the second time -- sharing my experience at Hoshinoya Taketomi so other Western visitors will know what to expect. This is a lovely place in many regards and it fulfilled our desire to get away from the Tokyo/Kyoto urban circuit and see a remote corner of Japan, but it falls short of the hotel/resort experience you might expect for this price tag based on prior international travels. I stayed for 4 nights with my husband in August. The property is beautiful (though without sea views/ just a path to a littered, unswimmable beach), the rooms are gorgeous, and the pool capacious. The ferry & hotel shuttles worked well and there were some thoughtful touches (eg providing "island shoes" to navigate the dirt roads and coral beaches). But meals, though high- quality, were expensive and repetitive. We wish we had known before arriving that you need to reserve everything in advance and they often can't seat you in the restaurant (presumably due to staffing/supply rather than space constraints as there were always plenty of empty tables). The island itself doesn't offer more than a half day's worth of sight-seeing and the town is sleepy -- too sleepy to sustain a long stay. Only a couple lunch spots were open when we visited, and those had long queues of day-trippers. There was nowhere else but the hotel to have dinner or drinks. We tried several times to book dinner outside but were told the only option was in-room dining, at odd times dictated by the restaurant (5:30, 8:20). We grew tired of the limited food/drink menu and they had no bottles of wine under $100, though several were listed on the menu. Our last night, after protracted negotiation with the staff to avoid a third night in a row of eating in our room, we paid again for the same $100 set "island terroir" menu we had enjoyed the first night, but my husband was unexpectedly called away for a business meeting midway through the meal and they wouldn't let me bring him the rest of his food, nor would they deliver it to the room or offer a partial refund. I understand that it's difficult to deliver supplies to an island, but this and other arbitrary rules (eg around takiing drinks outside the lounge) seem petty and unwelcoming for a place that is aiming for high-end service. I also wish I had realized that due to local rules and strong currents, you can't swim anywhere on the island but one beach in the west. There are no real shops (so be sure to bring your own provisions - snacks, sunscreen, insect repellant, drinks, smokes, books - or venture back to Ishigaki as we did). But you can't go there for further evening meal/entertainment options because the last ferry is around 5:30 pm. The hotel was good for some deep R&R but a bit of an island unto itself. I would have loved just one option for lounging in view of the sea or the sunset, rather than by the hotel pool. We did book one day of scuba diving but had concerns about the safety of the operation the hotel works with. I've done almost 200 dives around the world and was shocked that in this otherwise meticulous and rule-bound culture, nobody checked our licenses, did basic briefings or safety checks before we entered the water, etc. One person on the boat had issues with his mask causing injury to his face, but the two dive guides did not offer help (possibly due to English constraints); the hotel did later hear our concerns (thank you Moē!) and take extraordinary measures to help him reach the only hospital, on Ishigaki, after the ferries stopped running. But the diving here frankly wasn't good enough to justify the risk. In short, this place is lovely, the staff do the best they can, and we don't regret our visit. But despite the seductive website, Hoshinoya has limitations, overelaborate protocols, and procedural issues that make me unlikely to give my business to this chain in the future. Japanese visitors seemed mostly happy but other Westerners we met ran into similar issues as us, issues that seriously compromised the value we got for our money and time.