First time skiing in Hokkaido? Here is the most complete guide

Haha, I just came back from skiing in Niseko, Hokkaido. Before I forget it, I will write a short summary of Niseko skiing for my own memories and for friends who plan to go there. The whole article is divided into: Why go to Hokkaido for skiing? , how it felt, and the “so how do I prepare” strategy part. For the strategy part, Lao Wang has sorted it out super carefully, and the writing is really quite complete~



First of all, Why choose Hokkaido for skiing, and why choose Niseko in Hokkaido:

1. Close to the country.
More suitable for a short vacation, no jet lag, just go skiing~

2. Choose Niseko: world-class ski resort + smooth communication
Hokkaido is a famous ski resort, among which the most The famous one and officially ranked number one is Niseko. Niseko consists of four ski resorts, from south to north: Annupuri, Niseko Village, Grand Hirafu and Hanazono, catering to all levels of junior high, middle and advanced levels. Class requirements (30% beginner/40% intermediate/30% advanced). We are a group of 8 friends this time, and everyone’s skills and snow experience cover all levels, haha, so the diversity of Niseko just meets the needs of each of us~ (The snow trails are as shown below)



There are only five left, and the remaining three go to the hot springs

And because Niseko will receive ski enthusiasts from all over the world, there are many Australians resident here. People and Europeans, these people will ski here and do some ski-related work at the same time, so they can communicate in English very smoothly~ It is more convenient for reservations and subsequent check-in contacts~

3. Surrounding attractions, in addition to In addition to skiing, there are also some nearby small attractions, such as Sapporo, Otaru, and Hakodate, so in addition to skiing, you can also spend two or three days playing in the surrounding areas, and buy some facial masks, cosmetics, snacks, etc. Haha, maximize the money on air tickets Yeah~

So, How was your experience?


Comprehensive ski resorts I have visited before, including Banff and Whistler in Canada, Les 3 Vallees in France, Chongli in China, and this A trip to Niseko, Hokkaido. After non-professional comparison, we believe that the experience of skiing in Hokkaido has several small advantages worth remembering~

1. Food! food! food! Hahahahaha. If you like skiing and happen to be a foodie who loves skiing, then Hokkaido is the best gift God has given you! There are so many delicious foods in Hokkaido. You can eat something different every day, or you can eat the same thing every day and still remember it, such as Japanese ramen (although it is a bit salty), pork cutlet rice, sashimi, sushi, sukiyaki pot, and sea urchin. Rice and so on. After skiing, I made an appointment with friends at a tavern in the evening. I was so happy that I didn’t want to leave. The picture below is a hand-grilled restaurant that we quite like~



2. Powder Snow! Powder snow! Powder snow! Niseko is called powder heaven. We stayed in Hokkaido for seven or eight days, and it snowed most of the time. Every day when we went up the mountain, I felt that the snow-capped mountains had prepared themselves the night before, like hospitable friends, giving their best. He took them all out and showed them to his friends who had traveled thousands of miles to visit him. This must be the first time I have experienced powder snow in real life. My friends have been telling me about the powder snow here for a long time before I came here. The powder snow here is indeed well-deserved. If you don’t often travel through a small forest where few people skate, you will be able to slide on the foam. The silky smooth feeling keeps colliding with the little pleasure in my heart all the way down. Of course, if you fall, it will be like this, hahahahaha, but it won’t hurt at all~


Old Wang fell in the woods

3. Hot springs. The open-air hot spring is really great! The hot springs here are separate for men and women. Everyone has to strip off and wash themselves before entering. You can choose indoor or outdoor. I also recommend Hill’s outdoor hot spring. The outdoor temperature is about minus two or three degrees, and the water temperature is about forty degrees. , while the body immersed in the water feels the warm water, the face will feel a pure and refreshing feeling. The water vapor gently falls on the face when it is cold, opening the pores to breathe with the outside world. At the same time, you can quietly watch the snowflakes falling slowly, listen to the sounds of nature, and relax your body and mind. This is a great relief for those who have just finished skiing. (There is no picture here, because mobile phones are strictly prohibited)

Okay, the above is why we went.
  
So what should you plan if you go? Strategy strategy strategy strategy! Here I must affirm Lao Wang’s thorough arrangements. Although this trip to Hokkaido was also his first time, he still arranged it very well. The following is his statement, unabridged~

Accommodation

1. Where to live. Niseko consists of four ski resorts, from south to north: Annupuri, Niseko Village, Grand Hirafu and Hanazono. Among them, Hirafu is the largest ski resort, and the ski resort town has the most complete facilities, including hotels, restaurants, supermarkets and shops. Therefore, if you don’t rent a car, it is very convenient to live in Hirafu. You can walk to supermarkets, banks and cable cars. Friends with a larger budget can stay at the Hilton Hotel in Niseko Village. The cable car is very convenient as soon as you step out, and the open-air hot spring is great (the Hilton Hotel's hot spring is only open to hotel guests). Of course, where you live also depends on how many days you want to stay and which ski resort you mainly ski, which will be discussed later.
  
2. How to book. During the peak winter season in Hokkaido, accommodation is very expensive. A standard room in a three-star hotel costs 3,000 yuan per night. The way to save money is to book early and book a small villa with a few friends. Not only does this save money, but you can also sit in the living room to drink and chat together at night, and you can also cook in the villa. We booked the small villa through an agency. We recommend Holiday Niseko and Niseko Company here. The service attitude is friendly, the white people employed speak English well, and the service range is complete (not only accommodation, but also booking ski buses, ski tickets, and renting ski equipment. , sign up for ski lessons, etc.). If you are booking a hotel, it is best to book through Booking.com, because the hotels on there are more comprehensive.
  
3. Transportation
Among the 8 of us, 3 of us went directly to Niseko from Sapporo New Chitose Airport, and 5 of us went to Niseko from Sapporo. Whether you are departing from the airport or Sapporo, the most convenient way is to take the special Niseko Ski Resort bus. It usually takes 2-3 hours to drive. You can rest assured to sleep on the bus, and the scenery along the way is very good. There are many bus companies. You can book a bus through the agency mentioned just now, or go directly to the bus company's website (we booked the Hokkaido Resort Liner). It is best to book the bus two or three weeks in advance, because there may be no tickets.
  
The picture below is the timetable of the Hokkaido Resort Liner bus (the specific time may be subject to change, please refer to the official website). It can be seen that the bus will stop at almost all ski resorts:



Hokkaido Resort Liner bus timetable

· If the villa/hotel you booked is in Hirafu, then please book it in Hirafu Get off the bus at Welcome Center. If you tell the agency/hotel in advance the time your bus will arrive at the Welcome Center, the agency can arrange a free van to pick you up and drop you off at your accommodation.
  
· If you have booked a hotel in Niseko Village, please get off the bus at Hilton Niseko or Green Leaf Niseko.
· If you have booked a hotel in Annupuri, please get off the bus at Niseko Northern Resort Annupuri.
  
If you don’t take the ski bus, but take the train, there are three possible stations, namely Kutchan, Hirafu and Niseko. Generally, if you take a train from Otaru direction and enter Niseko from north to south, please get off at Kutchan. After getting off the train, it is closest to Hirafu. You can take a taxi or ask the agency to arrange free transfer to Hirafu. If you enter Niseko from south to north from Hakodate (which is rare), it is more cost-effective to get off at Hirafu or Niseko.
  
4. Selection of ski resorts

What the four ski resorts in Niseko have in common is that there is faint snowfall almost every day, and a lot of powder snow is added every day. The four ski resorts actually slide down from different directions on the same mountain, each with its own characteristics. If you are skiing in Niseko for several days and are not a beginner, it is recommended to buy an all mountain pass (not much more expensive than a single ski resort), so that you can ski in all four ski resorts, and in You can take free buses between the four ski resorts.
· Hirafu Ski Resort: The advantages are 1) There are many ski trails, and there are ski trails for people of all levels and preferences (such as groves and snow packs). 2) During the peak winter season, Hirafu has a nightclub, where you can skate until 8pm. The lights at night match the ski slopes, and with Mount Yotei in the fog in the distance, the scenery is really beautiful. 3) In Hirafu, it is easy to walk to the Niseko Village ski resort through the Ace Pair Lift #3 cable car at the top of the mountain (it is indeed a 10-minute walk), or to ski to the Hanazono ski resort through the Swing Monkey cable car + Parallel red trail. The disadvantage is: there are more people, because many people live in the small town of Hirafu. Another disadvantage is that although the greenway is relatively wide and gentle, it is not suitable for beginners to practice due to the large number of people.
  


· Hanazono Ski Resort: Hanazono does not have its own ski pass, but is common with Hirafu, because the ski trails are indeed few and relatively single (only 3 cable cars). The greenway SilverDream is relatively gentle, with one or two slightly steeper places, making it suitable for beginners and children with no basic knowledge. Hanazono also has a lot of groves and wild snow.
  

Children studying with the instructor in the garden

· Niseko Village Ski Resort: This is the ski resort where the Hilton Hotel is located. Take the Gondola cable car up the mountain and you can have a long Sliding down the greenway is very enjoyable. Halfway down the mountain, there are two or three cable cars, all of which are green trails and are suitable for beginners to practice. At the top of the mountain, if you take the Wonderland Chair cable car, you can go up to the top of the mountain, and there are two red trails that you can slide down. It is suitable for friends who are of average skill and do not dare to challenge the black trails, but want to check in at the top of the mountain to see the scenery.
  


· Annupuri Ski Resort: It is highly recommended for beginners with zero knowledge or timidity to come here to practice. There are spacious and gentle green lanes and very simple groves, which are suitable for Beginners can start to experience the speed and pleasure of skiing. We regret not bringing our friends with zero basic knowledge to practice here on the first day. The disadvantage of Annupuri is that if you live near other ski resorts, you need to take a bus to get to Annupuri. Although the top of Annupuri is next to the top of Niseko Village, there are no standardized ski trails to connect them. I saw some wild trails taken by experts to shuttle between the two ski resorts, but we really didn't have the courage. (An unrelated picture, this is a small cafe we ​​like very much on Annupuri Mountain. The fried fish & chips are quite delicious)


Bears Cafe

One more word of advice. Skiing is a dangerous sport, safety comes first and you must wear a helmet. In addition, in foreign ski resorts (including Niseko), the difficulty of junior green trails is higher than that of domestic green trails, and some are even equal to domestic intermediate trails; foreign intermediate trails are generally equivalent to domestic gangster trails. If you have zero basic skills and your friends in the same industry don’t have the patience to teach, you can sign up for ski school in Niseko. The price of a group lesson for a whole day is only 1,000 yuan, which is really cost-effective. When practicing in Niseko, you can wrestle a little. It didn't hurt either, because I would just fall into the thick powdery snow.
  
4. Finally, let’s talk about the budget

Although we firmly believe in the principle of a poor family getting rich, after all, the budget is limited, so we still try to save money as much as possible. The prices listed here are only for your reference (the yuan here refers to RMB, and the exchange rate when we played was about 1,000 yen = 62 yuan).
  
· Air tickets: We are traveling from Beijing to and from Sapporo New Chitose Airport. The round-trip air tickets booked 4 months in advance cost 5,000 to 6,000 yuan. Our skiing time was after the New Year's Day holiday. Although it was not the peak season, it was not considered the off-season either.
  
· Bus from New Chitose Airport/Sapporo to Niseko: Different bus companies have different prices, and the most expensive one will not exceed 300 yuan/person/trip.
  
· Accommodation: We booked a villa in Hirafu six months in advance through agency Holiday Niseko, which cost eight to nine hundred yuan per person per night (some houses have two beds and need to accommodate two people). If you book late, the price of a standard room in a small hotel is generally more than 3,000 yuan/night.

· Snow pass: It is really cheap. The all mountain pass can ski in four ski resorts. A three-day ski pass only costs 1,200 yuan. In comparison, the price of ski tickets in Chongli is really too expensive. Warning everyone! There is a deposit of 1,000 yen for the ski pass. When you finish skiing on the last day, there are deposit refund machines next to each major cable car to get the 1,000 yen deposit back. Even if you lose your ski pass, you can get a replacement ski pass as long as you took a photo of the pass card and left the receipt when you purchased the pass. The only loss is the 1,000 yen deposit.
  
· Ski rental: If you rent it near the cable car base, it will be more expensive. We rented the ski equipment through an agency, which had the advantage of being cheap. The disadvantage was that we couldn't find a place to store the ski equipment at night, so we had to carry the ski equipment for five to ten minutes and put it back at the store where we rented it for the night. If you rent snowboards + snowshoes, the total price per person for 3 days is 800-900 yuan. Warning everyone! If you are a ski player and have your own skis, don’t bring them with you. Go directly to Niseko to rent skis. Because Niseko is full of powder snow, the skis you bring will easily sink in, making it very tiring to slide; the skis rented locally will be wider than ordinary skis.
  
· Eating: Lunch and dinner can basically be had at a price of 100-300 yuan per person per meal, which is not much more expensive than eating out in first-tier domestic cities. Breakfast is simple, just go to the supermarket and buy some hot spring eggs and rice balls. It tastes pretty good.
  
· Massage: Although I started practicing squats regularly one or two months before skiing, my legs would really be overwhelmed if I skied for three or four days in a row. At this time, you have to find a massage. The price is still much more expensive than domestic massage. The price for half an hour is generally 400-600 yuan.