Photo: Han Sen / PexelsTimed shore plans, measured from your gangway · port-of-japan.com/beppu/ · Verified August 16, 2026
Everything here is a round trip from the gangway, with the 60-minute margin already set aside. Tap what you want.
Do · 8h round tripThe hells in the morning, then over the hills to Yufuin’s boutique onsen village under Mt. Yufu. The full Oita day, clock-managed, for long calls only.
~8hBookable · 5.0★ (14) · from US$565See the detail →Book it on Viator →
Do · 2h round tripAn hour of brush, ink and quiet in an old machiya near downtown — Beppu’s highest-rated small experience, and the rare one that fits a short call.
~2hBookable · 5.0★ (21) · from US$32See the detail →Book it on Viator →Round trips are measured from the gangway and include getting back. Two stops in the same direction overlap, so a real day usually comes in under the total you see, never over it.
Booked before you sail — Japan has no pier-side tour desks. Booking through these links supports the site; walking still costs nothing.
5.0★ · 12 reviewsFrom US$486 per person.
See dates and book →
5.0★ · 8 reviewsFrom US$62 per person.
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5.0★ · 6 reviewsFrom US$78 per person.
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5.0★ · 6 reviewsFrom US$78 per person.
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5.0★ · 5 reviewsFrom US$292 per person.
See dates and book →Each one is a finished day, timed from the gangway and back. Read it, or ignore it and pick your own stops above.
2–3 hours ashore · ~3h door to doorShort calls — the 1879 grand dame and a toriten lunch
Read the route →
4–6 hours ashore · ~5h door to doorThe volcanic circuit plus the lunch the earth cooks
Read the route →
8 hours or more ashore · ~7.5h door to doorLong calls — the circuit, the ropeway, the mineral hills
Read the route →
Rainy day ashore · ~4h door to doorWet weather — this is the most rain-proof port in Japan
Read the route →Route 26 also reaches Kannawa but loops the long way round (¥460). From Beppu Station instead: routes 1/2/5/7/41 from West exit stop 3 (~¥390).
Phones auto-switch to local time; all-aboard runs on ship time. Write both if they differ.
The hells (Kannawa): ① Kamenoi Bus route 20 from the "Sunflower Terminal Beppu-mae" stop on the main road outside the port — northbound to Kannawa Fare ¥280. ~1 per hour.
Beppu Station & Takegawara: ① Route 20 southbound (or the 26A inner loop) to Beppu Station ② Takegawara Onsen: ~8–10 min walk from the station area Fare ¥210. 2–3 per hour combined.
| Please take me back to the cruise ship (Beppu port) | クルーズ船乗り場までお願いします |
| The Hells of Kannawa | 別府地獄めぐり |
| Takegawara bathhouse | 竹瓦温泉 |
| Mt. Tsurumi ropeway | 別府ロープウェイ |
Point at a line. Taxis are metered and honest; tipping is not expected in Japan.
The hells. Beppu has around 2,200 hot spring vents and discharges more hot water than any other town in Japan — a volume second in the world only to Yellowstone. Steam comes out of drains, gardens and the gaps between houses, and the local word for the seven most violent springs is "hells."
Beppu Hatto. Beppu is not one hot spring resort. It is eight — each with different water chemistry, a different character and a different price, ranging from a marble-floored hotel spa to a tin-roofed neighbourhood shed that costs a hundred yen and has no attendant.
Aburaya Kumahachi. Beppu had hot water for a thousand years and was a minor bathing village. Then one man arrived in 1911, decided this town should be famous, and invented most of the techniques Japanese tourism still uses — including the bus tour with a singing guide.
Cooked in the ground. Oita eats things the rest of Japan does not: chicken as tempura, cold noodles served in hot soup, and vegetables cooked in a hole in the ground by steam that comes out at a hundred degrees and tastes faintly of salt.
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