Highland Resort Hotel & Spa: #1 Best Views of Mt Fuji
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If you’re looking for the best hotel in Fujiyoshida with views of Mt. Fuji (and an amazing theme park), then look no further than Highland Resort Hotel & Spa! We had a jam packed two week Japan itinerary, so when we were trying to squeeze in Mt. Fuji, we realized that we would only have time for one overnight stay in the area.
With that in mind, we wanted to choose the best hotel for our short stay. That meant we were looking at convenience, location, and amenities. Price was also a factor, but since it was juuust one night, we figured we could have a little more allowance if the hotel ticked all the other boxes.
Sorry if this was a spoiler, but we landed on staying at the Highland Resort Hotel & Spa! We chose it because it was in Fujiyoshida, which is a little town at the base of the mountain with a lot of great restaurants and easy access to Fuji attractions. But the Highland Resort was specifically attractive because there was a bus stop from Tokyo to Fujiyoshida that stopped right in front of the hotel!
There was no beating that convenience!
This isn’t a very in-depth post or anything, just gonna real quick go over why we loved our stay at Highland Resort and honestly its the only Fuji hotel I want to stay at in the future!
Table of Contents
Getting There
So getting to the Highland Resort is pretty simple, especially if you’re coming from Tokyo! My recommendation is to take Highway Buses from Tokyo (Shinjuku Station) to the bus station right outside the hotel called “Fuji-Q Highland.” You can see a more in-depth tutorial on how to get to Fujiyoshida on my blog post all about taking a day trip to Mt Fuji, but that’s the gist of it!
Once you get off the bus, you’ll see the hotel literally RIGHT THERE.
Again, super convenient. If you arrive before check-in, the staff is more than happy to hold your bag and will even drop your bags off in your room for you if you choose to head out and about for the day! The lobby has public restrooms (really nice ones at that) as well as free wifi and a restaurant so you really could just hang out until check out time if you want!
The Room
There are a few elevators that go up to the rooms, so you usually don’t have much of a wait for elevators. Hotels in Japan are notoriously small, but rooms at the Highland Resort were some of the largest rooms of the hotels we stayed in. We had a standard room, which came with a fairly large queen, bordering on king sized bed. We had a total of five suitcases (we do not pack light lol) and even then the room didn’t feel too cramped.
The bathrooms were the cherry on top though, with a super nice shower/tub combo and of course – the smarter-than-me Japanese toilet! The in-house soaps and shampoo provided smelled amazing! The towels were all plush and they also had a few toiletries (toothbrush, face wash, disposable towelette, etc) to help make your stay even that much more comfortable.
A feature that I wish I could take home with me was the mirror coated with an anti-fog agent so…well, so it wouldn’t fog and you could use the mirror immediately after showering. Japan is seriously living in the future.
There are rooms that face Mt. Fuji, but sadly we did not get one of those. Ours faced the theme park (Fuji-Q), which wasn’t bad though. At least it was a pretty view at night. You CAN occassionally hear the screaming from roller coasters, haha, but one I’m a heavy sleeper so it didn’t bother me, but also the park closes at 7pm so it shouldn’t be too much of a bother at night.
The Hotel
The hotel itself is very nice, but also very kid friendly. Probably because of the theme park right next door haha. I would say about half the groups staying in the hotel were families with children, and then the other half was pretty equally split between couples, solo travelers, and then other groups like us (either friends or like family members without kids). I think the decor does a good job of accommodating both!
In the lobby, they had lots of seating so it was nice if you were waiting on other members of your party to get ready and meet up downstairs. They also had various board games out if you retire to the hotel early but aren’t quite ready for bed. There is a small shop selling souvenirs and other Mt Fuji goodies, but it’s not a convenience store. Don’t worry, there is a 7-11 just outside the hotel near the Fuji-Q park entrance!
Although I did not use this feature, I did see that the Highland Resort offered their own group tours! We were only there for a day, but if we had stayed longer it would have been a great perk because the public transportation in Fujiyoshida is not as convenient as in Japan’s bigger cities. Plus, you don’t have to plan anything out. Not sure on the price, but definitely worth looking into in my opinion.
The Highland Resort Onsen
And now, possibly the biggest perk to staying at the Highland Resort Hotel & Spa is the on-site onsen Fujiyama Onsen!!! Technically, you don’t have to stay at the hotel to use it, but if you do you have free (or rather included) access to the onsen! And, for those who may not know, an onsen is a Japanese hot spring/bathhouse. While there are private onsens, traditionally they are large public bathhouses, which is the case for Fujiyama Onsen.
Yes, you are expected/required to get fully naked.
With that in mind, obviously there are no pictures allowed. But to give you a gist if you’ve never visited one, the areas are separated by gender, though I admit I wouldn’t know how to navigate for those who are transitioning/ed, 2 Spirit, intersex, or any gender that doesn’t fall on a “man/woman” binary.
From there, you dress down to your…well, skin, fully naked. If you can grab a towel for modesty as you walk between the baths, but most people walked around the bathhouse naked. There are little booths to shower off and wash yourself, then you are free to use the tubs at your leisure. At this particular onsen, there were lots of different baths, from large soaking tubs of different temperatures, to a cold plunge, and even a very cute outdoor bath.
I am not the most comfortable being naked, even in my own house I don’t like it. I don’t even like being barefoot honestly. Sooo the onsen experience was definitely…an experience haha. But I do recommend at least trying it while you’re in Japan! And since we stayed at the Highland Resort, we didn’t have to pay extra! Normally, prices on the weekday are 1,600 JPY and 2,000 JPY on the weekends.
Nearby Attractions
The biggest attraction to Highland Resort, aside from the convenient bus stop, is Fuji-Q amusement park! I’d say it’s a big draw to Fujiyoshida in general. As a guest of the hotel, you get a discount on admission, but I couldn’t find how much of a discount on the website. And we didn’t stay long enough to check out the park. So if you know how much the discount is, let me know in the comments!
Other than that, Fujiyoshida is of course popular for folks wanting to try their luck at seeing Mt Fuji! Instead of checking out the theme park, we went to check out the mountain since we visited on a clear day. If you want more insight on where to go and what to eat, I wrote up a post all about our limited one day trip to Mt Fuji!
Conclusion: Highland Resort & Spa
Long story short, I wish I had stayed longer in Fujiyoshida. It had way more to offer than we imagined, and the Highland Resort Hotel and Spa was the perfect home base in Fujiyoshida. But alas, we only had so much time in Japan – there’s always future trips! If you couldn’t tell by this review, I HIGHLY recommend staying at the Highland Resort. I’ll link a few sites to book them.
Are you planning a trip to Fujiyoshida? If you’ve already visited the area, where did you stay?
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