Originally Posted by
mdevans
If you like the Niseko area I'd recommend staying in Hirafu instead. We've been staying there annually for about 7 years. There are a few (almost) ski in / out places and the mountain access is much better than in Niseko village (though we do like the hot chocolate at the Hilton :-) )
The main ski schools are NISS, NBS and GoSnow. We have used all three at various times and have had good experiences. This year we will be going back to Go Snow, in part because of their flexibility for our schedule and partly due to pricing.
Our boys have progressed up through the various kids programmes which seem well organised
Thanks for the recommendation on Go Snow. After thinking I would go to Hakuba this year, I changed course last minute and just booked tickets to Sapporo. Was leaning towards Rusutsu, even though they only offer private lessons for English speakers, but will now take another look at Hirafu and the options for group lessons (would much rather spend JPY15k per day than JPY50k on lessons!). Spent a day at Hirafu last season and found the slopes and lifts to be a lot more crowded than Niseko Village, but I want to avoid going back to the latter again.