Highly recommend this place. I arrived into Beppu station and walked outside, you'll see the Beppu Onsen hand bath and the Shiny uncle statue. Once you leave beppu station head to the right of these statues and you'll arrive at the information point where you can buy a bus pass, 7 hells of Beppu tickets and so forth. I recommend buying the bus pass for 1000 yen this gives you unlimited travel in the local area on buses all day. Purchase the pass for the 7 hells here too. I believe it cost ¥2100. The bus (3 I believe) takes you to the first hell (Umi Jigoku). Which is where the giant Lillypad room is, and Umi Jigoku sea hell. The rest of the 5 hells are within walking distance from this location. Oniishi Bozu Jigoku the mud hell is cool to see as well, there's a free footbath there. I'd recommend all hells, but my favourite hell was Oniishi Bozu Jigoku where you can try steam cooked food (which is delicious) it's pretty cheap too. I was really surprised. The last two hells are about 2.7km. This took me 15 minutes to walk. It was a nice walk. I wouldn't really recommend the bus pass, but it's a life saver taking the bus from the station to the sea hell and then from the 7th. If you don't like walking much definitely buy this pass. Overall I had a great experience. I really enjoyed here. I don't like beppu much, but seriously loved this place. Highly recommended. I've seen countless reviews of people slating the hells, but personally I had a lot of fun.

We came in via a MSC cruise ship. We did our homework ahead of time. we did not pay the $12 going to the nus terminal. We sent to the bus station 200 yards from the ship going to the Hot Springs. Make sure you have change for the bus. The driver does not have change. There are two groups of springs, 5 spring on one and 3 on the other one. You have to catch the bus going from one group to another. These springs are unique. They are all different. It is the main attractions there. So go for it.

Our first stop once we disembarked on the island of Kyushu from the ferry was to visit this unique attraction in Beppu. On approach, there are plumes of smoke from different places, but the biggest plumes lead us here. There is an admission charge to see more than one hot springs, but, in retrospect, I don't think it's worth it to pay more than the basic fee. Besides the plumes of smoke, the acrid sulfur smell hits our sensory organs. The steam vents remind me of the lava tubes on the Big Island's Volcano National Park. There are many tourists, many Chinese speakers from Taiwan, China, or Singapore. I found this attraction worthwhile if you don't pay extra.

Pretty good place, views are nice. There is a souvenir shop too. Only downside was, you either have to use bus or taxi to go there. The bus can take a while. We stayed there until the place was closed, so we had to ask the staff to call a taxi for us and they did more than just calling us a taxi, the staff waited with us until the taxi arrived! Wow such a service! Overall this place really is beautiful.

Beppu Onsen is one of the most famous hot spring towns in Japan. It produces more hot spring water than any other place in the country, and the view of the townscape with plumes of rising steam is striking. Beppu is especially famous for its “hells,” (jigoku), hot springs that reach over 100 degrees Celsius. Although they are too hot to soak in, each has a different character. The hells are located in the hills north of the main town. Within the districts, you can walk to the other nearby hells, but the two areas are 3km apart. The most beautiful hell is Umi Jigoku, or “Sea Hell,” a pool of cobalt blue water, shrouded in steam. It was formed 1200 years ago from the eruption of Mount Tsurumi. The visitor centre had the usual shop full of knick-knacks but on the upper floor there was an exhibition of Japanese Royal Family and other overseas visitors to the site. The waters are too hot to be tried. Another spectacular hell is Chinoike Jigoku or “Blood Pond Hell”, which is bright red, thanks to the high levels of iron and magnesium in the water. The red clay produced here is used to make ‘chinoike nanko’ an ointment that is effective against skin conditions (what kind? Lost in translation). The temperature of this spring is 780 C so bearable, so we had a foot bath. The water was hot but did not burn. After about 5 minutes you were warm all over. The warmth in your feet remained for the rest of the afternoon. No towels or drying material was provided, but being forewarned we took our own tissues. Hot water flowed from a tap at one end of tub and drained away, pomellos floated in the water. You can have lunch at Kamado Jigoku, (Cooking Pot Hell), where you can cook a basket of eggs and vegetables in the hot spring's steam. At each of these place, needless to say, there were a great street food eating places as well as full restaurants and stalls for souvenirs. Interestingly, they had a map of all the eight thermal spring spots which was offered only to visitors who paid to go to them all. This map had a circle for each of the spots at where one could mark a stamp of the spot. When complete it was a special souvenir which many Japanese tourists queued up to complete.