Japan
Beppu
Steam rising from every crack in the ground in a city that boils from below.
The city steams. Hot-spring vapour rises from drains, rooftops, hotel windows and cracks in the pavement. Beppu sits on the most prolific hot-spring field in Japan on the north-east coast of Kyūshū, and yields more hot-spring water than any other place in the country. The ground here is not quite finished cooling.
Beppu's eight hot-spring districts, the Beppu Hattō, run from the seafront to the hills. Its 'hells' are a circuit of pools too hot to bathe in — Umi Jigoku glows cobalt blue, Chinoike Jigoku runs blood-red with iron, and Oniishibōzu bubbles grey mud into shapes like monks' shaven heads. Sand baths bury you neck-deep in naturally heated sand, and in the Kannawa district you can cook your own eggs and vegetables in the jigoku-mushi steam ovens. Bathing here is democratic: neighbourhood baths are everywhere, and Takegawara Onsen, the grand old bathhouse that started the tourist trade in the Meiji era, still steams behind its curved roof.
Couple
Private open-air baths, the theatrical hell circuit, and sand baths by the sea give pairs more kinds of bathing in one town than almost anywhere in Japan.
Friends
The hell tour, the sand baths, and a city that steams from every surface — Beppu is a group trip with the entertainment built in.
Solo
Neighbourhood baths on every corner and a casual atmosphere make Beppu an easy place to onsen-hop alone, moving between neighbourhoods at your own pace.
- Eight hot-spring districts yield more geothermal water than anywhere else in Japan.
- The 'hells' are boiling pools of cobalt blue, blood red and churning grey mud, for looking at rather than bathing in.
- Sand baths bury you neck-deep in naturally heated sand beside the sea.
- Bathhouses range from Takegawara's grand Meiji-era hall to neighbourhood tubs run for the people who live around them.
Jigoku-mushi — eggs, sweet potatoes and seafood you steam yourself over the hot-spring vents in Kannawa.
Toriten, Ōita's chicken tempura, dipped in kabosu citrus ponzu until the batter goes soft at the edges.
Rye
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Cobblestoned lanes so steep and crooked even the houses lean in to listen.
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Ioannina
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Ali Pasha's lake fortress — silversmith workshops and Ottoman mosques on an island reached by boat.
San Miguel de Allende
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Colonial light turns pink at dusk, every doorway hiding an artist's courtyard.
Unzen
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A hot-spring town where Christians were martyred in the boiling pools and the earth still steams.
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Lanterns guiding pilgrims through two hundred thousand graves beneath centuries-old cedars.
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A harbour so intact that Miyazaki lived here two months and drew Ponyo's world from it.
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