SanDiego1K

Has anyone stayed at the Hilton Niseko Village? I understand that it joined the Hilton family in 2008. If so, what did you think of it? And how did you get there?

SanDiego1K

Anyone?

kats

I have never stayed there, but I found some information from some sites in Japanese.

30 minute free shuttle ride from JR Kutchan Station.

Gold and Diamond members usually get upgraded to a deluxe room from the lowest rate room. You get offered free internet connection only if you book a deluxe room. You have to pay 1,500 yen for internet connection when you are upgraded. You can choose to have complimentary breakfast (for G and D members) either at the restaurant on the 2nd floor or another restaurant on the 3rd floor. I'd assume you get to choose either international buffet or Japanese set menu breakfast.

They also have hot spring baths indoors and outdoors within the hotel premises. I do not think there is anything around the hotel except beautiful nature and wild life.

PedroNY

I been reading up a lot about the property, I will be staying there in January of 2010 for 3 nights -- ski vacation. My wife and I are taking a vacation trip to Japan, and this is one of the destination that we decided to visite due to the fact that Hilton has this amazing property. Also it is listed as Category 4, I have no clue why because the average rate for the time we stay is $700/room. Maybe they are new so that is why they have lower category. We are excited to use 90,000 points for 3 nights. (Hopefully will get an upgrade due to being a Diamond at that point)

My understanding, you can take a bus from Sapporo airport directly to the hotel, it is about $35/person and takes 2 1/2 hours. Otherwise, you can take a train and take the shuttle.

The place is 75 feet away from the ski lift, that is the best part about it. If you are going in the winter, you can ski-in and ski-out to your hotel. Supposedly they have an area for hotel guests where you can change, store skis, enjoy lunch and get back on the slope.

Also, you can take a shuttle to neighboring "village" and enjoy restaurants there, etc. I read that Australians come and stay here a lot, so supposedly the staff is very good with English speakers.

I would love to hear from anyone who stayed at this property or is planning to stay, and help would be great. Please post if you know anything about the property!

Thank you.

PedroNY

just trying to get a bump on this thread to see if anyone has anything to say abou this hotel. I will be here in a month, I'll post a review afterwards, but was hoping to hear something in the mean time.

PedroNY

I just came back from his hotel. Mrs. PedroNY and I spent 3 nights there, for a ski trip. The hotel is located right at the gondola so it is definitely a ski-in and ski-out location. The weather was perfect for skiing, and the location is certainly the best for that reason.

The location is very remote, you need to take a bus from Chitose airport (Sapporo) for 2 1/2 hours to get to this hotel. It is not located in the main village area, but an outpost all by itself. As for Hilton standards it is category 4 (probably going up to 5 with devaluation) and it was worth the points use. As a diamond we received an upgrade to a bigger room, we received free breakfast, free 2 bottles of water every day and in general a very good treatment by everyone at the hotel.

There are 4 restaurants on site and a bar at the entrance. The prices are definitely high as they know you don't have much of choice. However, the Izo pub is reasonable for burgers/pizza/snacks and you can have a dinner for about $20 a person. Other restaurants are $45+ per person, there are buffet options and traditional Japanese cuisine. It felt a bit like a cruise as you were always at the hotel and could not go anywhere else. There is a shuttle bus every 30-60minutes that runs to a bigger town, but it is a 25 minute ride each way and it stops at 9PM, so not very convenient to go for dinner in the town.

The skiing was the best I ever had, the powder was on par with the Rockies if not better. The prices for the ski lift can be charged to your hotel, so if you are a diamond you and use your AMEX Surpass you get 29 points per $1 spent, which is a good rate. I would imagine in the summer you can charge the horseback riding and golfing to your room as well.

All and all great hotel, but nothing special or spectacular. Rooms are not big, but good size for Japanese hotels, bathrooms are tiny. There are hotsprings onsite, a nice touch and you can use it all day long. You will get charged $3/day for the use regardless of your use, so you might as well try them out. There is also a spa onsite, the prices seemed to steep for us, but we were there to ski not to get pampered.

Best,

PedroNY

NorthOrSouth

Thanks for the update. This has been really helpful as just before the points changes we booked 4 nights on points in late February.

Wondered if you could help with a couple of things? Did you get the hotel to arrange your bus travel from Chitose? There seem to be several bus operators and I didn't know whether we should try to prebook.

Also looking at the ski village website there seems to be a 'points' option (not HHonors points!) for the lift passes. This might work better for us if it's one point per lift trip rather than buying a day pass. Not sure if that's how it works though.

Glad you'd a good time and thanks again for the report.

PedroNY

I know this is incredibly delayed post. I used the hotel to tell me which bus company to use. There is a company where you can pay for the 8-hour ski ticket + bus ticket for the price of a day ticket ($50). It is the best deal, all around. We also bought 8-hour tickets for the next day. The point system did not appeal to us, as you have to pay 3 points to get up the mountain, so for 12-point pass you will only get 4 total lifts; it is worth it to pay for the 8-hour or all day pass. We also got all mountain pass, to be able to come down to other sides of that mountain.

I would go back to ski here in a heartbeat. It did take us 24 hours from leaving the hotel, to catching the bus, to catching a plane, to changing planes in NRT, then making it to JFK, and finally driving home from JFK... probably worth it if you going there for a week or more.

Best,

PedroNY

mnredfox

Any recent reports? I can't believe there isn't a bigger thread than this. For ski junkies this has got to be on the top of the Hilton Ski Resort list along with Whistler.

Heading here for 3 days in about 2 days. This past weekend it dumped over 2m of snow, and it's still snowing. Any recent reports from the hotel here?

http://www.powderlife.com/niseko-snow-report

SNA_Flyer

I just got back.

Flew into CTS, and took Skybus to the hotel (about 2.5 hours). Quick checkin, was given upgrade to a Panorama room. There are only one of these per floor. You don't get the view of Mt. Yotei (the big cone volcano), but you do get a great view of Annupuri (the mountain you will ride/ski). Breakfast was at Melt with a great selection of Western/Japanese/Korean dishes.

Gondola is right outside the door, and you can buy your lift tickets there. Bought a 2-day all mountain pass. You can charge this to your room, but you do need 1000 yen in cash to pay the (refundable) deposit for the pass card. They also have a board/ski/boot valet downstairs to keep your stuff overnight. I recommend getting the all mountain pass as Niseko Village is one of the smaller parts of the mountain (although it does have the only double diamond run on the entire mountain) - Grand Hirafu has a lot more variable terrain and was my favorite part to board (as well as terrain parks). Annupuri was OK as well.

The hotel has a few different restaurants, although we only ate breakfast at Melt and had some snacks/drinks at Ezo Pub. A bit pricey (although not outrageous), but no other options around the hotel unless you want to go to the town of Hirafu. Hirafu is about a 15 minute bus ride away on the Niseko United Shuttle bus (free with an all mountain pass). There are plenty cheaper food options in Hirafu - due to the amount of gaijin here English menus are very common.

Didn't use the spa or onsen (if you are going to use the onsen, just like anywhere in Japan, make sure you know the proper custom for doing so).

Overall the hotel is in great condition, staff are friendly and speak good English (with several westerners working various positions as well).

We rode for two days - got the best of both worlds - bluebird the first and a really nice powder day the second. I'll definitely be back.

mnredfox

SNA_Flyer, thanks for your review, here are some questions:

1. I booked a Yotei room. Do you think the UG with Annupuri view is the way to go?

2. I take from your post that there is no exec lounge right? And therefore the "breakfast" at Melt was the Diamond/Gold benefit correct? Any other benefits as a VIP?

3. Is the Skybus the way to go from CTS? I assume you can just buy tickets at the airport and at the hotel?

4. Are there cabs around other than the free shuttle?

Any other tips? I'm looking forward to it, have a 4 night GLON stay and planning on doing the 3 day pass. Pretty excited that for over $500 USD/night I'm only paying 29.7K HH pts. Probably my best redemption yet.

SNA_Flyer

1 - I think all of the rooms are pretty much the same size. The views are what changes the category. The Panorama room is the same as the other rooms, however, since it's at the end of the building, a large long window replaces what would be the wall to the adjoining room. This looks straight at Annupuri (which is pretty darn close!).

2 - No Exec Lounge. The Gold/Diamond breakfast coupons are for Melt. There is also Yotei Restaurant upstairs, which seems to serve the same food (accidentally went there the first day), but the finish isn't quite as nice. Seems to be where they send all of the package guests. You will get free Internet (although it was having some issues while I was there). Nothing else was offered above and beyond the usual Diamond benefits.

3 - Skybus is more expensive than some of the other scheduled buses, but they matched our arrival and departure times better. I booked online in advance on their website. http://skybus.co.jp/en/ - they were waiting for us right after baggage claim.

4 - There are cabs as well to supplement the local buses. Good since the shuttle stops running around 9PM, and they are not very frequent.

I think it's a great use of points. I just did a standard 3-night award, and for the rates shown during our stay, it certainly was a great deal.

mnredfox

Bummer to hear no special privileges outside of the UG and breakfast certs. I sent a fax to the GM hoping for a nice UG. Thanks for the skybus link too, more expensive indeed but probably the way to go. Looking at options for booking now.

Any other tips? I read online have to go to Hirafu for good restaurants and things to see, Milk Kobo for desserts, and have to try the Onsen on sight (is it free)? Anything else?

BKKLEE

Onsen was free last 2 years I was there.............

SNA_Flyer

Correct, the onsen is free. Well, sort of. You get charged a 300JPY/night onsen tax. Regardless if you use it or not. But this goes for all hotels in Japan with onsen.

What are you expecting?