What to do in Yufuin

Activities, attractions and tours

Yufuin
Yufuin
Yufuin
Yufuin
Yufuin

Yufuin Attractions

Let Expedia help you experience the best that Yufuin has to offer! If you’re looking for fun itinerary ideas, we can provide you with a list of the top sightseeing attractions, as well as helping you to find unmissable activities. Whether you’re travelling with your family, planning a romantic trip with your loved one, or visiting on business, we’ll make it easy to plan an unforgettable holiday that checks all the boxes.

Activities and Tours

Yufuin is crammed with must-see places to visit and things to do. We can help you decide where to stay, and make it a breeze to explore the surrounding areas with our guides on where to go, what to see and when to see it. No matter how long your stay, it’s easy to find places of interest in Yufuin to make sure that you enjoy your experience to the fullest and don’t miss a thing. Leave the local knowledge to us and leave the hassle behind.

If you’re planning a visit, why not check out our handy guides to places of interest in the area? You can browse lists of things to do, learn about the most popular attractions, and get help with planning the details of your trip. Expedia makes it easy for you to check out all the top sights.

Yufuin Attractions

Expedia has something for everyone, so whether you’re planning to get active on a summer holiday, put a spring in your step with a romantic rendezvous, or pamper yourself with a leisurely winter trip, you’ll find plenty of attractions to keep you entertained. In addition to scheduling local tours, booking reservations and scoring advance event tickets, Expedia makes it easy to book your flight, hotel and rental car in advance, all on one consolidated travel itinerary, making for hassle-free travel and freeing you up to explore the sights of Yufuin.

Looking for things to do can be time consuming, but we can take the hassle out of planning your holiday. Whether you’re looking to get active in the great outdoors, sample the cuisine or catch up with the vibrant local culture, our guides to Yufuin attractions ensure that you’ll have a successful trip, whatever the season.

Explore thousands of activities with free cancellation and no added fees.

Design your experience with airport transfers, excursions, day tours & more.

Get an insider's look in what to book before you travel.

Top places to visit

1. Kinrin Lake

When mist creates a cloud over the surface of the warm water, Kinrin Lake seems like a portal to another world, suffused with a potent magic. Fed by a volcanic spring at its base and other springs whose cooler streams pour in, the lake stays warm year round with the same geothermal energy that feeds the onsen baths throughout Yufuin. Knowing how it works doesn’t make it any less magical in early morning, when the contrast between hot water and cold air creates the lake’s signature fog. Start the day here to be full of the relaxing energy that makes Yufuin such a popular destination.
Learn more
The picturesque emblem of Yufuin, this geothermal lake has a remarkable beauty that is best appreciated when the air is chilly.

2. Yufuin Stained Glass Museum

Everything in the Yufuin Stained Glass Museum, from the bricks to the furniture, was imported from Europe. Japan’s first full-scale stained-glass museum is a celebration both of this distinctly European art form and of European culture more generally, perfect for a town modeled on the continent’s spa towns. Visit for the art and the pleasing cultural dissonance.
Learn more
Soft light streaming through colored windows suggests the north of England, but this museum is in the thoroughly Japanese neighborhood of Yufuin.

3. Showa Retro Park

Although the Showa Retro Park is a blast from the past, in many ways it celebrates change. It is seemingly dedicated to the entire Showa Period, during the reign of Emperor Hirohito, from 1926 to 1989. In particular it celebrates the Showa 30s (1955-1965), an era of radical shifts in Japanese history.
Learn more
Japan of the 1950s is reproduced in remarkable detail in a museum celebrating the daily life of a recently passed era.

4. Yufuin Retro Motor Museum

The founder of Yufuin Retro Motor Museum, a town local, has amassed quite an impressive collection of motor vehicles. With a collection of 70 cars, 30 motorcycles, tricycles, small airplanes and retro buses, he is one of the region’s biggest amateurs and opened the museum in 1988. Get a sense both of his own idiosyncratic tastes and the history of Japan’s mechanized transport at a museum right off Yufuin’s main street.
Learn more
Examples of some of the world’s best-known sports cars appear alongside motorcycles, a bus and even a few small planes in this private collection.

5. Bussanji Temple

With its heavy thatched roof, Bussanji Temple announces its heritage at first glance. Though the history is hazy, legend says that a monk founded the shrine more than a thousand years ago after receiving an oracle at Kirishima Shrine, at the southern end of the island. He carved a statue of Kannon bodhisattva and placed it on Mount Yufu, where a monastery grew up around it. There it remained until the late 16th century, when an earthquake brought the statue down to the valley and the people of Yufuin built a temple where it fell. Sense the deep spirituality of the space, which has been a center of religious life in the village for a very long time.
Learn more
Set in a shaded forest, this 16th-century temple with a long history offers relaxation and meditation to visitors of any faith.

6. Norman Rockwell Yufuin Museum

Yufuin may not be the most obvious place to celebrate midcentury American illustration, but the Normal Rockwell Yufuin Museum serves this role quite nicely. The art here is made up of private works owned by several Yufuin families, who saw captured in the illustrations a common sensibility.
Learn more
Best known for his covers of the Saturday Evening Post, a great American illustrator is the subject of this small but enthusiastic collection in Japan.

7. Yufuin Trick Art Meikyukan Museum

Riding a flying carpet may be impossible in real life, but after a visit to Yufuin Trick Art Meikyukan Museum, you’ll have pictures proving you did. The museum was created by Masashi Hattori, a Japanese artist who specializes in optical illusion paintings. On a gloomy Yufuin day, when outdoor activities offer only sodden jeans, spend an hour going from painting to painting, letting the tricky techniques warp your understanding of space.
Learn more
Mind-bending optical illusions offer opportunities for photos, special events and good fun on rainy days right off Yufuin’s main tourist street.

8. Sueda Art Gallery

Husband-and-wife duo Ryusuke Sueda and Shiori Sueda have been emblems of Japan’s artistic life for decades. There is no better place to get close to and understand their work than the Sueda Art Gallery. Housed in a building designed by the famous modernist architect Hiroshi Hara, it is an immersive experience. Walk past many iterations of work by the two both inside the building and outside, in a well-maintained garden whose landscaping is set off by the almost impersonal forms of the art.
Learn more
Works of two of Japan’s best-known modernist sculptors and artists fill this private museum, making it feel a bit like entering their home, full of an easy intimacy.

Recommended things to do in Yufuin

Number of things to do
21
Cheapest thing to do on Expedia
Bamboo Lantern Workshop: CA $47
Top 5 things to do
Half-day tours
With kids

What to do in Yufuin

Discover the most popular places to visit in Yufuin

Kinrin Lake

Kinrin Lake

4.5/5(6 reviews)

The picturesque emblem of Yufuin, this geothermal lake has a remarkable beauty that is best appreciated when the air is chilly.

Kinrin Lake
Mount Yufu

Mount Yufu

4.5/5(4 reviews)

A long hike up the volcano pays off, both from the beauty of the walk and the stunning sea and valley views from the peak.

Mount Yufu
Yufuin Stained Glass Museum

Yufuin Stained Glass Museum

Soft light streaming through colored windows suggests the north of England, but this museum is in the thoroughly Japanese neighborhood of Yufuin.

Yufuin Stained Glass Museum
Showa Retro Park

Showa Retro Park

Japan of the 1950s is reproduced in remarkable detail in a museum celebrating the daily life of a recently passed era.

Showa Retro Park
Yufuin Retro Motor Museum

Yufuin Retro Motor Museum

Examples of some of the world’s best-known sports cars appear alongside motorcycles, a bus and even a few small planes in this private collection.

Yufuin Retro Motor Museum
Bussanji Temple

Bussanji Temple

Set in a shaded forest, this 16th-century temple with a long history offers relaxation and meditation to visitors of any faith.

Bussanji Temple
Norman Rockwell Yufuin Museum

Norman Rockwell Yufuin Museum

Best known for his covers of the Saturday Evening Post, a great American illustrator is the subject of this small but enthusiastic collection in Japan.

Norman Rockwell Yufuin Museum
Yufuin Trick Art Meikyukan Museum

Yufuin Trick Art Meikyukan Museum

Mind-bending optical illusions offer opportunities for photos, special events and good fun on rainy days right off Yufuin’s main tourist street.

Yufuin Trick Art Meikyukan Museum
Sueda Art Gallery

Sueda Art Gallery

Works of two of Japan’s best-known modernist sculptors and artists fill this private museum, making it feel a bit like entering their home, full of an easy intimacy.

Sueda Art Gallery

 

Looking for fun things to do nearby? Check things to do near me to find and book the best things to do, fun activities, and top attractions wherever you happen to be.

 

 

Day trip destinations from Yufuin

Beppu

Beppu