AWAZU GRAND HOTEL HOKAN

I stayed here because I was interested in the three-star buffet. The food was the only thing I was impressed with, and everything else was half-baked. The hallways were extremely cold. I've never stayed in a hotel like that before. I won't be returning.

My husband and I stayed at this onsen hotel for our 2025 year-end winter trip, from Tuesday to Wednesday during the year-end holiday. I suggested this hotel after seeing it on TV, where it was featured for its delicious and impressive buffet dinner. We booked both the hotel room and the shuttle bus online in advance. The shuttle bus from 加賀温泉駅 (Kaga-Onsen Station) to the hotel took about 25 minutes. After checking in and choosing our 浴衣 (yukata, Japanese robe), we went up to our room on the 4th floor. The hotel offers many activities, most of them clearly designed for children, such as a large kids’ play village, a game room, table tennis, karaoke, and more. After settling into our room and resting for a bit, we decided to enjoy the onsen first. The onsen was very nice, with one indoor bath and one outdoor bath. The changing room was spacious and looked quite new. After that, we wanted to use the massage chairs together, but after waiting more than 15 minutes and seeing that the lady before us was still using one, we decided to give up and walk around instead. We had reserved a karaoke room before dinner, so we went there and enjoyed ourselves. Unfortunately, one of the two microphones did not work very well. Our buffet dinner was from 6.30pm to 8pm. We chose a booth seat. There was a wide variety of food, including sashimi, sushi, beef steak, wagyu sukiyaki, and more. For me, the highlight was the steamed seafood corner. Each table had its own steamer, and there were crab legs, oysters, abalone, scallops, shrimp, clams, and turbo sazae (turban shell). My favourites were the steamed crab legs with crab vinegar and the wagyu sukiyaki. The other dishes tasted fine. Food was replenished at a good pace during the first half of the buffet, but later on, refills slowed down and some items looked a bit scarce. I wanted to have soft-serve ice cream for dessert, but unfortunately the machine was broken, so I had Häagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream instead. The room itself was nice and clean, but when entering the room, the first thing you see is the bathroom sink, which looked old and somewhat disappointing. Also, our neighbour’s child was very loud and kept stomping on the floor until midnight, then woke us up again around 6am the next morning. Breakfast was from 9am to 10am. Surprisingly, the sashimi selection was better than at dinner, and it tasted fresher and more delicious. Combined with the freshly cooked rice, it was absolutely heavenly, and I ended up eating three bowls of rice. The small croissants were crispy and delicious, and I really liked them. The scrambled eggs were very good, and both my husband and I loved the fresh milk. After breakfast, we checked out and took the shuttle bus back to the station. Overall, it was a great experience. We enjoyed the food, although the buffet time felt a bit short, and we enjoyed our stay except for the noise from the neighbouring child. This is a very family- and kid-friendly onsen hotel, highly recommended for people travelling with children and for seafood lovers. However, if you are looking for peace and quiet, this might not be the right place for you, hahaa.

We chose this hotel for our trip to celebrate our grandson's Shichi-Go-San celebration because it has plenty of play areas that kids will enjoy! I wasn't expecting much from the rooms... I was disappointed that they weren't properly cleaned. There was a lot of dust. 😢 But the premium buffet, baths, and play areas were great! My grandson loved it, and it was a fun trip.