Gero

Gero is a small hot spring town in the mountains of Gifu Prefecture, strung along the Hida River in central Japan. It has ranked among Japan's three finest onsen since the Edo period, and its smooth alkaline water, nicknamed the water of beauty, is the whole reason the town exists.

Public footbaths dot the streets, so you can soak your feet as you wander between the bathhouses, and ryokan line the river with indoor and open-air pools. At Gassho Village on the hillside, thatched farmhouses relocated from Shirakawa-go form an open-air museum of mountain life.

Stay the night in a riverside ryokan and order Hida beef at dinner; a bath-hopping pass lets you sample several bathhouses. The JR Takayama Line reaches Gero through a river gorge that rewards a window seat, and the town pairs naturally with Takayama further north. Winter soaking, with snow falling, is the classic scene.