When you look up things to do in Beppu, you’ll quickly notice that “visit the seven hells of Beppu” usually gets listed as a single activity, as if it were something you can check off in under an hour.
I think these geothermal landmarks deserve way more attention than that. The Hells of Beppu are a big deal here! In fact, I’d say they’re the main reason to visit Beppu at all.
The Hells of Beppu (or Jigoku Meguri in Japanese) are a collection of seven dramatic, naturally occurring hot spring sites that are all quite different from each other. They’re not for bathing, but for viewing, and they’ve become Beppu’s signature attraction for a reason.
Some look like pools of bright blue water, others bubble with red-hot mud, and a few feel like full-on geothermal theme parks with snacks, gift shops, and photo spots.
That said, there’s more to Beppu than just its famous hells. This city is indeed a city.
While it’s got a traditional side to it (onsen culture, DIY steam-cooked meals, historic bathhouses, and hidden corners that most travelers miss if they’re just passing through), it’s also got a city feel to it.
We stayed two nights in Beppu during our Northern Kyushu road trip, which gave us time to really dig into what this onsen city has to offer—here’s everything I’d recommend if you want to make the most of your time here.
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BEPPU: HOTEL SPOTLIGHT
Amane Resort Seikai
Wake up facing the ocean as you soak in your private open-air onsen. This is the perfect 5-star hotel to pair with your trip to Beppu.
If your motivation for staying at a ryokan is the food, this resort is ideal for gourmands. The meals included with your half-board stay? Immaculate.
Table of Contents
Visit Umi Jigoku (“Sea Hell”)
When in Beppu, make time to see at least one “hell”. Make it this one.
Umi Jigoku is the most famous of the seven hells—easy to see why, it’s photogenic as heck! The cobalt blue, steaming pond is beautiful in a way you don’t expect a geothermal site to be.
The bright red torii gates leading up to the hilltop shrine help to make the grounds oh-so picturesque, and the gift shop is packed with local snacks and cute demon-themed souvenirs.
Don’t skip the on-site café, where you can try a hell-steamed egg! When we went, we grabbed a few hard-boiled eggs and a soda float and just sat at the outdoor tables, taking it all in. Follow up your visit with a footbath by the entrance of the hot spring!
This site can get crowded around midday, so try to arrive early in the morning to avoid the tour bus rush.
Visit Chinoike Jigoku (“Blood Pond Hell”)
Chinoike Jigoku, or “Blood Pond Hell” is exactly what it sounds like: a deep, rust-red hot spring that looks like something from a sci-fi movie. It’s much less crowded than Umi Jigoku (“Sea Hell”), and that makes it more enjoyable to explore.
The gift shop here leans hard into the hell/demon theme and is genuinely fun to browse—there’s even a large structure inside showing just how deep the hot spring goes (over 30 meters).
Don’t miss the upstairs photo spot or the foot bath area. If you’re prone to bug bites like I am, you might want to try the famous Chinoike Ointment sold here. I sprayed some on a couple of fresh bites, and to my surprise, the itch resolved almost immediately!
Be aware that this site is a tad farther from the others (about 10-15 min away in Shibaseki District), so plan your transportation accordingly if you’re not driving.
Try a Hell-Steamed Cooking Workshop
Jigokumushikobo Kannawa is so much more than your average restaurant—in fact, they don’t even claim to be a restaurant.
Instead, they refer to themselves as a hands-on steam cooking workshop where you pick your ingredients (an assortment of vegetables, seafood, meat) and steam them yourself using natural geothermal heat.
It’s an authentic Beppu experience and a good meal rolled up into one! You’ll need to register at the counter and wait for your turn, so build in some buffer time.
We arrived about 30 minutes before closing and found the restaurant to be extremely empty with no wait at all. After paying for our ingredients, we placed our steamer baskets into the wooden steamers and waited about 15 minutes for everything to be cooked thoroughly.
We initially thought the steamed food would have no taste, but we were so wrong! The steamed chicken was already so flavorful, even without the complimentary dipping sauce that the restaurant provides.
Before leaving, sample a small amount of the hot spring water out front — it’s drinkable! Spoiler: it’s super salty.
I 100% recommend trying this spot out; the steam-it-yourself activity was a fun highlight of our Beppu trip.
Stroll through the historic Kannawa district
This atmospheric neighborhood is Beppu’s old district. You’ll find picturesque, narrow streets, traditional wooden buildings, and visible steam rising from the ground vents.
It’s a great place to grab snacks, browse local shops, and try onsen manju—sweet steamed buns filled with red bean paste. We enjoyed just wandering here in the late afternoon when the steam was most visible in the cooler air.
For a postcard-perfect view of Beppu, head to the Yukemuri Observation Deck. This view is especially pretty at dusk/night; you’ll see lots of steam coming out of all the chimney tops!
In 2012, the view at Yukemuri was selected as an Important Cultural Landscape by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, and the night view from the observation deck was certified as a Japanese Night View Heritage in 2010.
Soak in an onsen
You can’t visit a hot spring town and not soak in hot spring water at least once.
Bathing culture is deeply rooted in Japanese daily life, not just for cleanliness but for relaxation, social connection, and health—many believe the mineral-rich waters can help with everything from muscle pain to poor circulation. Experience it for yourself at either a public bathhouse or at a ryokan!
If you’re staying in Beppu overnight, book a ryokan with a private onsen—many of them offer private baths or in-room baths that provide all the privacy you need (and work great if you happen to have tattoos).
If you’re only visiting for the day, there are plenty of public bathhouses (sentō) you can use instead. Most of the time, you’ll need to bring your own towels and toiletries (or buy it from them).
We usually opt to bathe in the comfort of our own room at a ryokan whenever we visit onsen towns. If you’re hesitant about communal bathing, a private onsen is well worth the extra money!
Try a sand bath at Takegawara Onsen
With over 130 years of history, Takegawara Onsen is one of the symbols of Beppu. Takegawara Onsen is one of the oldest and most iconic bathhouses in town, famous for two things: its traditional architecture (so Ghibli, right?) and its unique hot sand baths.
At this nostalgic bathhouse, you’ll change into a yukata, lie down in a shallow pit, and have an attendant shovel warm sand over your body up to your neck—don’t worry, it’s much more relaxing than it sounds.
Be sure to hydrate before and after; it gets surprisingly warm under there!
Amenities such as body soap, towels, and hair dryers are available for a small fee.
Pro Tip: If you want a milder sand bath experience, check out Hyotan Onsen, the only onsen that currently touts a 3-Michelin-star award. The sand is steam-heated rather than thermally direct—making it easier to stay in longer without getting dizzy.
Try Jigoku Pudding
You’ll find this at many of the hells (especially Chinoike and Umi Jigoku) and at cafés around town. It’s not wildly different from your average flan, but the novelty of knowing it was cooked by volcanic steam makes it a fun snack.
The texture is slightly firmer than usual and it pairs really well with a coffee from one of the nearby cafés. If you see a café selling it warm, definitely try it that way—the texture and flavor really come through more.
Visit Beppu’s Local Souvenir Shops
Beppu’s gift shops are so much fun. They all lean into onsen/bathing products and demon-themed merchandise, from snacks to cooking ingredients to keychains.
Even if you don’t usually shop for souvenirs, these are worth checking out for their quirky packaging and locally made goods, such as bath salts, spices, and cosmetics. At Chinoike Jigoku’s gift shop, we saw everything from demon-branded dried fish snacks to red-dyed cloth products—it was all so fun to see!
Many of these products are exclusive to Beppu, so if something catches your eye, buy it then—it’ll be hard to find in any other city.
Relax at a public foot bath
There are free footbaths all over Beppu—some right outside the hells, some in the middle of town. Pack a small towel in your day bag so you can stop and soak without committing to a full bathhouse visit.
These make for a great pit stop, especially if you’re doing a lot of walking and sightseeing.
One of our favorite spots was the one inside Umi Jigoku—it had plenty of benches and was perfect for a quick reset before exploring the rest of the town. You can also head to the basement level of the YouMe Town Beppu mall — they have a public footbath down there.
Get dinner and drinks near Beppu Station
Beppu’s downtown area near the station is surprisingly lively at night, especially if you’re looking for a casual spot to grab dinner, browse souvenir shops, and maybe even catch a live show.
Within Beppu Station itself, you’ll find a solid souvenir shop stocked with regional snacks, beauty products, and hot spring-themed gifts.
Just outside the station, you’ll find no shortage of yummy restaurants as well as Sol Paseo Ginza, an old shopping street about 300 meters long housing restaurants and local bars tucked between nostalgic storefronts.
One dinner spot that stood out to us during our exploration was Beppu HITPARADE CLUB, a retro-themed dinner show venue offering all-you-can-eat and drink and live music performances for just ¥3,500.
After dinner, visit a few bars and izakayas to keep the night going with a drink or two.
Take a day trip to Yufuin
Yufuin had been on my list for nearly a decade—my cousin recommended it to me years ago, knowing I’m a sucker for lush greenery and peaceful, small-town vibes. I finally made it during our Northern Kyushu road trip, and it totally lived up to the hype!
If you have time to spare, Yufuin is about an hour away and offers a more laid-back, artsy hot spring town experience. There’s a charming shopping street, a very picturesque lake to sip coffee/tea in front of, and plenty of shops, traditional inns, and restaurants to experience.
We drove there in the morning and were back in Beppu by early evening—we even had enough time to fit in some private onsen time. Despite how touristy Yufuin has become, we genuinely loved the area’s cuteness and walkability.
Ideally, we would’ve loved to stay overnight in Yufuin, but since we planned our trip a little late, most of the accommodations were already booked. That’s how we ended up basing ourselves in Beppu instead.
Between the two, Yufuin is definitely the pricier option when it comes to lodging, so if you’re traveling on a tighter budget or booking last minute, Beppu might be the more practical choice.
The drive from Beppu is super scenic, but if you’re not renting a car, trains and buses also run frequently and are very easy to navigate for first-timers.
Coffee and breakfast at Cafe Kumonomine
We’re early risers, and in smaller cities in Japan, it can be hard to find coffee shops open early in the morning before 11am.
Because there weren’t a ton of coffee shop options at 7-8am, we found Cafe Kumonomine on a whim–so glad that we did, because we ended up visiting two mornings in a row because of how much we loved the food and the coffee!
The mentaiko egg toast and their muffin selection–all of them are musts!
Kijima Kogen Park
We didn’t make it here ourselves, but Kijima Kogen Park sounds like a solid pick if you’re traveling with kids or just want a break from all the hot springs and scenery.
This amusement park is set high up in the mountains and has Japan’s first wooden roller coaster, Jupiter, which was built with 60,000 southern yellow pine trees imported from the United States. There’s also a Toy Kingdom for younger kids!
If we had more time (and a bit more energy after all the onsen-ing), this would’ve been a fun way to mix up the Beppu itinerary. I’d been to Fuji-Q Highland before, so I know exactly how amazing it is to be in a theme park surrounded by iconic scenery and greenery!
Beppu Ropeway
The Beppu Ropeway takes you up to Mount Tsurumi and is supposedly one of the best views in the area—especially if you’re in Beppu during cherry blossom season or peak fall foliage.
The ride to the top only takes about 10 minutes, and from what I’ve seen, the view of Beppu Bay and even parts of Shikoku on a clear day would’ve been worth it.
If you’re visiting outside the hotter summer months or just want to get above the steam, it could be a peaceful way to see Beppu from a different angle.
African Safari
This was actually on our list, and I still kind of regret not making the time for it…
African Safari is one of the largest safari parks in Japan, and you can either drive your own car or hop on a themed jungle bus to see animals like lions, bears, and giraffes up close.
You even get to feed some of them, which feels wild (pun intended) given how close you can get. We heard from a couple of other travelers that this experience was way better than expected—it’s definitely not your average zoo!
Where To Base Yourself: Beppu or Yufuin?
If budget were no concern, I’d absolutely choose to stay in Yufuin over Beppu.
Beppu has a city-like feel, whereas Yufuin is more compact, more pedestrian-friendly, more scenic, and has that cozy onsen village charm that makes it feel like a proper escape.
That said, Yufuin accommodations tend to book up quickly and are generally more expensive since many of the accommodations are ryokan (traditional inns).
Since we planned our trip a bit last-minute, most of the Yufuin stays were already full, which is how we ended up basing ourselves in Beppu. And honestly? It worked out fine because we had a rental car with us.
Beppu is much larger, has a ton of food and onsen options, and is a great home base for exploring both towns. It’s also better connected for day trips. With that said, it just lacks that quintessential onsen village feeling.
If you’re someone who values convenience and doesn’t necessarily need to stay in a ryokan, Beppu is the more practical choice. However, if you’re after a slower, more picturesque setting and are willing to splurge, go with Yufuin.
Planning Your Trip To Japan?
Here are a few other useful travel guides to help you plan the perfect trip to Japan.
Kyushu Region
- 10 Reasons Kyushu Is Japan’s Best-Kept Secret: Volcanoes, Onsen, and More!
- 7 Best Ryokans In Beppu, Japan (With Private Onsen)
- 10 Amazing Onsen Towns In Japan To Visit On Your Next Trip
