四季亭 Shikitei

Very close to Nara Park, we chose to dine at the hotel on our first day of stay. However, it must be said that every sauced dish was overly salty, and the Wagyu steak came out ice-cold in the middle. Hotel dining is not recommended.

Perfect location, very good service. Staff were amazing. We were in a rush in the morning and didn't have time to take coffee, the lady brought coffee to our room short after we left the breakfast. The shushi place hotel recommended was also good.

Had an amazing stay there. It's located right on the edge of the Nara park. You do need to walk 15 minutes from the Kintetsu station through the park and tourists fiercely defending their crackers from deers… but that has a charm of its own. The rooms are immaculate, and the tatami experience was super nice and new for westerners. The service was also amazing, and the public bath was nice to rest my legs from the previous few weeks of walking. One thing to note is that the dinner consists of multiple courses of what I assume to be a "fancy" take on traditional Japanese cuisine. What I mean by this is multiple small portions of very well presented dishes. These dishes were mostly composed of fishes, kelps, and pickled vegetable. If you do not like these flavors, maybe it isn't for you, but if you're willing to try them, it's an amazing experience.

Had an amazing time at this Ryokan in the middle of the Nara deer park. Location is great. I’d highly recommend going here for a night in the middle of your trip to rewind and relax. We picked the traditional dinner and breakfast which was a unique experience. The food was indeed very Japanese as mentioned in some reviews, and with that I don’t mean fried katsu or loaded ramen. You need to have a bit of an open mind for different foods as the flavors and textures can be very unusual to Westerners. But I really liked the experience! Staff is extremely friendly and calm, the bath was nice, the public bath allowed for tattoos and the room and sleeping on the tatami was also very cozy! This was a highlight of our trip.

Such a beautiful and relaxing stay in Nara… The facility is stunning, and the onsen was a great way to start each morning. Incredible access to downtown/Deer Park. Highly recommend for anyone looking for a relaxing stay while in Nara!

We couldn't have imaged a better stay in Nara. Everything was perfect — from the check-in with the complimentary matcha service and the sweets, to the hot springs and the breakfast. The hotel is very traditional, beautiful and clean and the staff really makes sure that you are well taken care of.
If we were to come back again, we'd for sure stay in Shikitei again.

Hospitality at its finest. We loved our stay here. Friendly staff and service. Greeted with sweets and matcha. Dinner was an amazing 9-course meal (Toro, uni, caviar, abalone, gold flakes, ebi, to name a few of the ingredients, along with delicious vegetables). Love the Tatami sleeping arrangements. We didn't end up using the public baths but next time. And talk about location! It's right next to the deers (literally a 3-5 min walk north to the museum). We visited the deers right after check in and the next morning and that was sufficient. Getting here is easy (via taxi from Nara station or a bus). Highly recommend this Ryokan especially if you're here for the deers. What an experience!

It's situated right next to Nara Park. Superb location. Deer could be seen even at the entrance.
Japanese style breakfast and dinner were served at good quality. I enjoyed each and every courses except some food was a bit too salty for me. My husband was a European who didn't quite fancy the bite size cuisine.
The room was clean. Welcome drink and snack served everyday. Free Internet. Free parking.
The only unsatisfactory thing was no blind for complete blackout. Also, the.
Staff entered the room right after a knock. It's embarrassing that we were not prepared for any visits.

We, a family Europe, stayed here 1 night and left with mixed feelings. The hotel and service were impeccable. Staff was friendly and spoke English. The place is beautiful clean spacious. The public bath was great… 5 stars!
However we had booked the room with dinner and found the dinner quite disappointing. We can't judge for sure if they made little effort that day, given that we were the only guests that night, we were just unlucky or if the food was just "too Japanese" for us. But much of it was just very pale in taste and comparing it to the photos here and our experiences through the whole rest of the trip I would have expected better. Two dishes of 9 were great (the beef and the sashimi) the rest not so much. The same goes for the breakfast.

I researched a ridiculously long time to find a comfortable authentic ryokan experience in Nara so we could enjoy a more relaxed time in Nara as a family vs just a typical day trip. My husband was VERY reluctant to spend such a large amount on a one night stay where we'd be sleeping on the floor in the room with the kids but I assured him this was a not-to-miss experience, and for the price it was definitely going to be a comfortable night sleep on the floor with lots of padding under the futon mattresses. I was wrong. Not only did it feel like camping out on a hard floor, but the rice paper on the windows did absolutely nothing to block out the bright streetlight outside the window. Between the hard floor and the bright street light glaring into the room, it was a very uncomfortable night of sleep, to say the least.
"Don't worry, this will be an unforgettable Japanese kaiseki meal! It's worth paying so much! " Again, inwas wrong. While the staff was incredibly thoughtful with any pre-discussed food options, and the service was delightful, the food was hit or miss. Some courses were lovely, both as a piece of art in their presentation and also delicious! But aggressively overcooking fish and seafood is just beyond unacceptable. Also, I was disappointed to discover that dinner was served in the dining room, not in our private room, as I had assumed. We chose the western option for breakfast. It was pretty terrible, I have to admit.