What are the mountain slopes like? How does it compare to Rusutsu (a different ski town in Japan)?
- There are 4 main zones that make up Niseko United: Grand Hirafu, Annupuri, Niseko Village, and Hanazono. This guide will describe our experiences skiing in each one.
- Niseko is all modern, has faster lifts, better maps, more upscale places to eat at, and is generally more well maintained. Rusutsu has much more open space to explore and is less about the groomed runs. Rusutsu, being less modern, has slower lifts. If you’re familiar with ski resorts in Tahoe, Niseko is like Northstar whereas Rusutsu is like Kirkwood, in regards to moderness and open spaces vs. groomed runs.
- When the lifts at the top of the mountain are closed, due to wind for example, you must rely on the shuttle to get to the other regions. Shuttles during the day are about 30min apart, and the ride itself can take some time too.
- Unless an area says strictly “Do not go here since you can’t get back”, all the ropes are just guidelines so cross them at your own risk. From my experience, you can always get back to the lifts going under the ropes.
- Most lifts have a shield that you can bring down to protect you from the wind, amazing.
How many days should I spend here?
We spent 4 days skiing here. Since there are 4 regions, we thought we’d do one region per day. Although for me, I think 3 days would’ve been enough; I don’t have that kind of stamina 🙂
How do I get here?
Airport
- We flew to New Chitose Airport. It has plenty of dining and shopping and feels like a mall. You can get prepaid SIM cards here.
Transportation from airport to Niseko
- Options from the airport –
- About $40/person
- Make sure to get tickets ahead of time
- There’s not 24/7 availability, so be ready for that
- We didn’t get tickets ahead of time and they were sold out, so we got a taxi, $275, about an hour ride?
Lodging – the Hilton in Niseko Village
- The 3 main resorts are Grand Hirafu, Niseko Village, and Annupuri. There are also a handful of smaller resorts.
- We chose to stay at the Hilton in Niseko Village. We liked that there is a lift right by this hotel for easy mountain access. Other things we really enjoyed here were the breakfast and onsen.
- The onsen has an indoor and outdoor pool, shower cubicles, vanity mirrors, and nice lotions and shampoos that I really liked. The outdoor bath faces an idyllic pond surrounded by trees, for you to contemplate life as the snow gently falls, like they do in anime. A tip: your robes are in your hotel room drawers.
- We loved the breakfast buffet that is included with staying here: congee, miso soup with house made tofu, pastries, etc.
- It’s possible to fit two people on one bed but it’s a bit small, wouldn’t recommend it if anyone is 6 ft.
- Food inside hotel is mostly all expensive, $100, $150, even $240?, make reservations at a dedicated table in the hotel. A handful of other options are an 11min walk away.
- When we tried going during Christmas time, they were fully booked out (like a giant party reserved the entire store)
Gear – rentals & storage
- Ski rentals are in multiple regions, prices are roughly similar except Annupuri was much cheaper? But less options?
- Ski valet (overnight ski equipment storage) is connected to the hotel, right by the lifts, included in the stay. Rental is adjacent to the hotel, also by lifts, and was $200 for 4 days.
- They didn’t have any demo boards/skis when I tried getting them.
Food in Niseko
- Really not that many options, and it adds up, especially in the Hilton
- AYCE shabu shabu, $50/person, in Hilton
- This was probably the most worth it and best meal, lamb was great
- There is a ton of variety (fruits, vegetables, meat, seafood, desserts, snow crab legs too!)
- Also no limit on how long you can stay (unlike many of the others)
- AYCE BBQ, $33/person (Annupuri region of mountain)
- A little bit of a walk
- A ton of selection, seafood (shrimp, scallops, mackerel), veggies, and meat (beef, lamb, pork, chicken). Beef was really good, was just so well marbled.
- There is a time limit, but not sure how strict they are.
- There’s also a place you can put your snowboard boots inside too, and lots of places to hang your ski jackets.
- Rera sushi, $40/person, AYCE in 60min., in Hilton
- The sushi quality was ok, not sure if it was worth it to be honest. Helps scratch an itch though. The service was incredibly slow, so it’s hard to actually do AYCE, it’s more like AYCO (all you can order)
- Izakaya food
- This place is located pretty close to the hotel and we were planning on just hopping across a couple of these places. So we tried to not order too much here, some potstickers, skewers, and katsu curry. The best were the skewers by far. They exceeded my expectations given the food on these resorts had been ok so far. After our initial samples we tried for some other spots….and they all let us down by being fully reserved or too expensive
- Friends tried some premium options like Sisam ($200+/person, in the hotel) and they said it just wasn’t worth it.
- On many days, we just ate a lot for breakfast and skipped lunch. More friendly on the wallet! Breakfast -> ski -> onsen -> dinner
Getting around Niseko United (i.e. the main resorts)
- Shuttle is free with ski pass, and goes to all the different villages
- Shuttle info (route, times, how to use): https://www.niseko.ne.jp/en/news/niseko-united-shuttle-bus-2019-20/
Skiing experiences in the 4 main zones:
Grand Hirafu
- Why ski here?
- Good for advanced folks- multiple black runs to explore
- Also has green and red (aka blue) runs so less advanced skiers can still meet friends at the bottom
- Lots more runs and potential routes to explore here. It keeps you interested, as opposed to doing the same run over and over again in the other regions
- Ski-in/ski-out from Hilton is right next to the gondola for this region, i.e. the Hirafu Gondola
- Has plenty of off trail trails that get you a lot of powder and trees that are decently long. When you’re on the lifts, pay attention to skiers directly underneath it as they are off trail
- Things to consider
- While there are many black runs, most of them are just very short sections between other less advanced runs
- Personal opinions
- This was Victor’s favorite region, and we spent the most time here. I’m a fan of nice groomed runs where I can just low-effort coast, and there was a lot of that here.
Annupuri
- Why ski here?
- Beginner friendly – predominantly all green and red (aka blue) runs
- More powder, and more opportunities to go off trail to enjoy that powder
- Cozy cafe with light food options at the top of Jumbo Quad Lift
- Handful of restaurants around here, ~10min walk from base of Annupuri Gondola. Provides more options for dinner if staying for several days
- The snow here seemed to be a bit better than other parts of the mountain, more powder in the off trail locations. This might be due to the fact that this looks more beginner friendly and thus new skiers are less likely to traverse on those trails.
- Things to consider
- Annupuri Gondola can take 15, even 20min to ride up when it’s windy
- It’s a 22min shuttle ride to get here from the Hilton. We had to because the top of the mountain lifts were closed due to wind. So although there’s great powder here, it’s quite the investment in time to get to this side of the mountain from Niseko Village.
- Map of runs: https://www.niseko.ne.jp/en/map/annupuri/
- Lots of annupuri info: https://annupuri.info/winter/english/
Niseko Village
- Did this on day one, along with Grand Hirafu
- This looks super appetizing as someone that likes blacks, but this run was closed for us our entire duration for some reason. Maybe something to do with the wind? Given that scenario, would not recommend this area.
Hanazono
- Come here for the terrain park, leave because of how bad it is. Not a lot of rails, jumps or anything. Not worth making the trek here at all.
How to get from Niseko to Rusutsu (a different ski town)
Take a bus. It’s 1200 JPY/person (~$12). Pay cash on the bus. Book via the concierge at Hilton.