Boutique Hotels in Izu Peninsula

The Izu Peninsula divides, broadly, into the developed east coast, the quieter south, and the green interior. It is an easy place to reach but a deliberately slow one to stay, built around its onsen and its ryokan, so the choice of base is really a choice of pace.

The east coast is the peninsula's most accessible and most developed stretch, a string of hot-spring towns — Atami, Ito, Izu-Kogen — within easy reach of Tokyo by train, backed by the forested hills and fronted by the Jogasaki cliffs. It is the classic Izu, where the onsen-and-ryokan tradition runs deepest. Near Ito, ABBA Resorts Izu — Zagyosoh by its Japanese name — is a long-established luxury ryokan on a wooded site, with private open-air hot-spring baths, kaiseki and French dining, and a museum-worthy collection of Japanese swords.

Beyond the east-coast towns, Izu grows wilder and quieter. The south of the peninsula, around Shimoda and the Kawazu valley, trades development for beaches, early cherry blossom and the famous Nanadaru waterfalls; the green interior climbs into the Amagi range, with its wasabi farms, hiking and remote hot springs, and the old literary onsen town of Shuzenji at its heart. These are the parts of Izu for travellers who want scenery and solitude over convenience, reached best by car, as the peninsula's railways thin out the further south you go. They are also the areas our collection will grow into as it expands across Izu.