SEN.RETREAT CHIKATSUYU

outstanding once you figure out check in. pay attention to instructions in advance!

The stay was surprisingly comfortable and the location is great. The snacks — dried orange was so nice that we kept looking for similar ones after we left the hotel, but seems couldn’t not find in the supermarket. Would you mind share with us the brand of the snacks and where can we get it? Thanks

Really appreciated this stop on our Kumano. Conveniently located across from a grocery store. Lots of food included, pizza oven. We had Room 5 which had a private balcony and our own laundry machine and shower. All amenities included. Loved it.

It was a lovely stay. We had concerns about the noise being on a main road, but it was not an issue. The team provided us with lots of complimentary drinks and food which was awesome because everything closes at 6pm and the only option for food were snacks from the vending machines across the road. If you want something different I would highly recommend a stay here.

I will start by saying that the retreat is beautiful and if travelling for a few days to relax, I would definitely recommend. If travelling for the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage as we were, definitely not. The retreat is a 10 minute walk from the center and located in front of a supermarket. It is composed of what seem like bungalows, not rooms as per the description. There doesn't seem to be any staff at the property and you have to check in via qr code. It also asked for a pin or reservation code but the ones I had from Agoda were not accepted. There is an option via qr code to check in in a different way and that is how we managed. You have to take and upload a photo of your passport and when you are done, call via WhatsApp the "front desk" where someone in a call center will approve your identity and provide a code for your room. The whole process was confusing and took time to sort out. After completing the first day of the Kumano Kodo in pouring rain, it was just frustrating. Anyway, we asked the "front desk" via WhatsApp regarding the including dinner and breakfast as we were leaving very early the next day and was advised this would be delivered to our room between 5 and 6pm. Surprisingly, when entering our room/bungalow, we found our dinner and breakfast in the fridge uncooked. I cannot find anywhere that says we would have to cook the food ourselves and honestly this is very deceiving. Again ,after being soaked for 7 hours walking, the least I want to do is figure out how to cook food I am not used to in a kitchen with appliances I do not know. It took us about two hours to make the minimum of dinners (beef, chicken and pizza) and we did not have the breakfast as did not want to wake up even earlier to cook it ourselves. We tried to use the washing machine to dry our clothes and after two dry cycles of 1 hour each, the clothes were still very wet. When we booked, this was one of the last rooms available in chikatsuyu which was family sized and although lovely, did not provide the two basic things we wanted which was prepared food and dryer so it definitely was not worth the money in my opinion. It should be made very clear regarding the food situation when booking and also the "front desk" should also be providing this information when asked (which did not happen in our case).