Second Trip to Hokkaido Advice

[tmiddled 0]

Hi All,

 

I just got back from my first trip to Hokkaido. We stayed in Annupuri, and mainly boarded Niseko United, but did a couple of day trips to other close by resorts.

 

First of all, thanks all to who helped me plan this trip, I sought much advice from this forum. My trip awesome! My initial worry was that with the crowds at Niseko, I wouldn't be able to get many freshies. However, with fresh snow overnight 6 of the 8 days, and with my annoying persistance of getting first lifts every day, we got tonnes of fresh lines :-) Not to mention our day trips to other ski hills.

 

So, I'm (already) thinking about next year. I loved Annupuri, as it was less crowded than Hirafu on the slopes, and only a short cab ride to another awesome hill (not telling which one ;-), so we are likely to do the same thing again.

 

But, I am considering another option. Does anyone have experience of renting a small house/cottage out of town, and also renting a car/van for 4-6 people? Somewhere like Kutchan, or even in the countryside. If we have a car, I am happy to drive 20 mins to the slopes every day, and we don't need to be close to bars or anything.

 

My reasons for thinking of this are flexibility of going to Niseko, Moiwa, Rusutsu or Kiroro. I can gauge the wind and snowfall in the morning, and head to the most appropriate location. Outside of Hirafu, I couldn't find anywhere where this was possible without having a vehicle, and I didn't really like Hirafu. I also thought it might be cheaper to rent a house outside of the ski resorts (probably work out about the same with car rental though).

 

I have been looking on line without much luck. Can anyone recommend a site where we can find budget/mid-range cottages outside of the main ski hills for ~10 days?

 

I know it is ages away, but I like to prepare :-)

 

Thanks all

[SnowJapan 178]

tmiddled, glad you enjoyed it.

 

If you found the site to be of help to you, please share back a Resort Review or two and some photos.

 

--

 

And with that I'm sorry to be an instant spoilsport in this one respect, but asking people to recommend websites for booking places is asking for trouble, especially as we don't allow links. Sorry.

 

Thanks.

 

[Go Native 70]

There's not going to be many house rentals available for short stays outside of the resort base areas but there are some options available in Izumikyo, St Moritz, Kabayama and Hanazono. I don't know of any house options for short stay in Kutchan but there are some hotels.

[Alexander L 80]

What are you willing to spend?

[tmiddled 0]

Hi guys,

 

I'll make sure to write a couple of reviews when I get some time, cheers.

 

GN - Thanks for those town names, I'll see if I can have more of a dig around.

 

We don't need anything fancy, just clean, comfortable and warm. We spent around 350 000YEN for 5 people, 10 nights right on the slopes. From what I have researched, car hire will be around 100 000 YEN, and I don't want to spend more on a place further away from the slopes, so taking into account the car hire, we would not spent more than 250 000YEN for a cottage, less if possible.