Rusutsu Ski Resort | Things You Need To Know | Plan Your Trip

Rusutsu Ski Resort | Things You Need To Know | Plan Your Trip

Hit a stick Ethan Ahh.. Japan Japan… Why do you consistently give us such a fantastic holiday from beautiful scenery to those delicious food the convenience store
that has better fried rice than some my local Michelin star restaurants
it’s rated number #1 your toilet is far more interesting than my living room and of course your ski resort never
fails to deliver powder snow in fact you even have a different name for your snow the champagne snow given just how soft and fluffy compared to even
the fluffiest snow you can find in any other country this year we picked a ski resort on the famous island of Hokkaido known as
Rusutsu Ski Resort for the  average tourist who’s new to skiing in Japan I wouldn’t blame you
if you never heard of Rusutsu That’s because Rusutsu is often overlooked for its much more famous neighbour Niseko which is bigger has all the high-end accommodation steeper slopes basically gets all the attention like the youngest child in your family as a result you might want to avoid it like me given uh a holiday there at Niseko will probably end up with you
eating a lot more instant noodle than you would like Rusutsu is every bit a first class destination
as any other ski resorts in Japan and I’m here to tell you why in this video we’ll talk about a few things
you’ll need to know before you there from where to stay where to ski what lift ticket you should buy where to eat and how to get around hopefully it’ll convince you to come to 
Rusutsu instead but first let’s talk about location Rusutsu is located at
the northern island of Hokkaido about 1.5 hour drive west of capital city Sapporo for most
International tourists however your journey most likely starts
at the new Chitose international airport which will take 
around 2 hours by either car or bus rental car or private taxi is the most convenient but will of course
be the most expensive while taking the bus is much cheaper but only works if it suits your 
flight schedule there are a ton of options to get to Rusutsu so it pays to do your own research as the price difference between the various options can be quite big depending on your choice of transport the resort has 18 lifts with about 1378 acres of skiable area this isn’t very big if you compare it to its neighbour at almost Niseko at almost double the size does it matter? it depends the average snowfall won’t disappoint however it’s the same as Niseko at about 14m or 45ft THAT
is a lot of snow and will keep even the most devoted snow ethusiast grinning all season long to break it all down the resort basically
has three separate areas West Mountain East Mountain and Mount Isola West Mountain is a
separate area perfect for beginners and intermediates it is directly attached to
Rusutsu Resort Hotel and Convention Center which has all sorts of 
fancy shopping dining options
from food court to higher end buffet onsen and even a carousel for um kids all your ski schools in various languages are here with dedicated areas for kids ski lessons It’s where all the higher end hotels are located one of which I will talk about later it’s a fantastic mountain
for families with younger  kids for a convenient
integrated all-in-one ski holiday East mountain and
Mount Isola on the other hand is best thought of as a separate connected ski area it’s where the serious intermediates and advanced ski snowboarders go apart from a few
restaurants and ticket office it’s pretty much all business uh I mean fun on a clear day the top of Mount Isola offers fantastic view of Mount Yotei which um many of you were mistaken it
for Mount Fuji unfortunately but on a good powder this area is where many skiiers
and snowboarders will rush to for its tree runs we’ll talk about this in more detail later if you’re driving keep in mind there’s two car parks
depending on where you intend to go for the day one is located on the West Mountain side basically the car park for Rusutsu Hotel and Convention Center good if you want to start your day at West Mountain and then there’s a car park at East Mountain this is the car park that Google Maps will send you to and is the car park intended for day trippers or those that want
to start the day on the East Mountain there is no direct access to Mount Isola meaning the only way to get to Mount Isola is by skiing there either way the two sides are interconnected by both a gondola and a monorail as well both of which you can take for free anyway enough about location let’s talk about accommodation next Rusutsu Resort may be a smaller ski resort but it doesn’t lack range in accommodation from lower-end hostels to five-star hotel so where should you stay? this is ultimately going to come down to your own priorities whether that’s convenience perhaps a kitchen for home cooked meals or perhaps you just want a bit of luxury the places we suggest here are mid-range accommodations that will suit families each have their own advantages and disadvantages but both served us very well in their own way so here we go the first option is what I would call give me luxury with a kitchen please by that you want ski in ski out facility you want that new building smell you want access to hotel facilities shopping
restaurants onsens and be able to just walk to access them all and you want to be able to
press the “makeup my room” button and watch your room all cleaned up for you every day you want a concierge you can call up at any time and abuse someone to get what you want whether that’s restaurant reservations in room dining airport shuttle bookings clean underwear whatever and you want a view
of the ski slope as well well I think you’re going to like Vale Rusutsu very much the room itself isn’t very big but that’s pretty much true of most newer hotels anyway the bed is comfortable and a nice bonus is that it does come with a kitchen too which means if you’re bored of the restaurants on offer you can easily cook up your own meals good thing is there is both 7-Eleven and Seicomart just a short walk across the road and I can assure you some of the meals you can get 
there is better than you think Vale Rusutsu is attached
to the main Rusutsu Hotel and Convention building so you will have access to all its
shopping, restaurants, bars, medical facilities, rental shops basically everything the downside? not a lot really I mean the room could be a bit bigger I suppose I could do with a bit less email
coming from them constantly telling me about their offers and add-ons that I would miss out on the ski and ski out
is a little further from the ski lift than I would like but manageable overall Vale Rusutsu is a sensible option if convenience is everything
and you want the resort experience the second option is what I would call I drive and I want a big home option by that I mean you have a big family or you just want lots of room hotels are just way too expensive for 
your family size and besides you want to feel like you’re living in a home
away from your real home anyway you want a full-size kitchen with a fridge that opens
without needing to touch the door high-tech toilet that lifts the toilet lid on its own a big dining table where you can actually sit 
down as a family to enjoy a meal together a giant modern TV with channels that you don’t understand and a fancy heated rack for all your ski snowboard gear to dry overnight well I think you will really
like Experience R it is more like an Airbnb style accommodation and it’s really only suitable for 
those who’s driving unless you don’t mind paying the um taxi fare of about 4,000 yen each way to go 
to ski resort every day it is located in an area about
10 to 13 minutes drive away from Rusutsu Ski Resort called Kimobetsu where there’s a lot of
other similar style accommodation like this as well driving to the ski resort is very manageable given the short distance the downside? there is no reception desk for this one all communication with the homeowner is via WhatsApp the check-in process is a bit clunky relying on an iPad and requires following a lot of instructions not to mention no one’s going to make up your room for you but you know what there’s not a lot of places where 
you can fit 12 people in a single accommodation oh get this there’s a Lawson convenience store 
just behind for some extra convenience if you don’t drive the owner promises that he will be 
offering some sort of shuttle services in the near future it’s a home that’s in many ways
better than my own home anyway I hope that gives you  an idea of the sort of accommodation on offer at Rusutsu let’s move on and talk about where to ski next as mentioned earlier there are three mountains at Rusutsu if you take a look at the trail map you might get the impression 
that this results mainly for intermediate skar given it’s pretty much dominated
by red (intermediate) runs from my own experience I would say this is actually quite a well balanced mountain for all three levels of skiers let me break it down for you first the beginners Well there’s really two kinds of beginners the beginner beginner like you’re just starting out and you’re not sure 
how to put your skis on type of beginner if that’s you you will enjoy yourself a lot more 
by sticking with West Mountain the green runs themselves aren’t very long but more than enough to get you up and running the two green runs along with some red runs here will prepare yourself well for other mountains on offer if you decide to give up well you don’t have to go far to access
Rusutsu shopping, onsens, restaurants, cafes and so on or if you decide skiing isn’t for you there’s also kids park
where you get to go sledding tubing etc etc but if you’re doing well
congratulations you’re now the  second type of beginner the advancing beginner making to the top of Mount Isola is your goal for that famous photo in front of the sign post to announce to the world
I’ve made it to the top but you’ll want to start with East Mountain first if you’re starting to link turns and can control your speed well you will want to start hitting
those red runs over at East Mountain first now take it easy however those long red runs will take a toll on your legs if you’re planning to make your way over to Mount Isola just keep in mind that there is no way to quit once you’re there you will need to ski your way back to the East 
Mountain even if you don’t have the legs left for it there isn’t an all green run back to East Mountain so keep this in mind my advice? if your fitness level isn’t quite there yet like you go only skiing a couple of days a year I would  suggest not going over there just yet until 
you’re very comfortable on intermediate runs if you don’t take this advice well keep in mind you may lose confidence and have to walk slide down struggle a bit like our friend here to eventually make it back to the base of East Mountain let’s just say it takes a while and I’m sure you guys will remind me on YouTube for the intermediates and advanced well here’s the truth you’ll find the main red and black runs a bit boring yes, it’s long but really you didn’t come here for groomed runs did you? chances are you already know that
Rusutsu is famous for its off piste tree runs unlike many ski resorts in Japan Rusutsu is one of the few resorts that does not 
require going through a troublesome registration process nor do you need to go through controlled
gates only open on good days like at Niesko at Rusutsu you can go off piste into these three runs anytime in fact Rusutsu even provide you nicely highlighted trail maps
with yellow shades on their gondolas and ski lifts to show you exactly where you can sort of safely go off piste basically you can go off most
of the main groomed runs into the trees provided you do not cross these signs the one area you want to be extra careful of
is to make sure you don’t end up in in this area which is amazingly easy to do going to this area will mean eventually needing to make the painful trek 
on your own back up the mountain which can take hours if a trail is too quiet
or doesn’t have a lot of tracks left by others chances are you’ve gone down the wrong path well I did for failing to listen to my son but fortunately my senses kicked in
and this is what son had to say so we’re lost in the woods because someone didn’t listen to their son that this was the wrong way so now we’re stuck here pretty much what time is it anyway so here’s the thing if you’re not exactly confident about going off piste Rusutsu International ski school actually does offer an experienced moutnain 
guide service as well it’s not cheap by any means but at least you’ll be taken to tree 
runs that will better suit your skill level without running the risk
of going into areas with no return we tried it and can vouch
for the quality of their instructors and guides oh if you’re looking for that famous powder well let’s be realistic you’re not going to get powder snow every single day especially with global warming drastically changing the usual weather patterns quite a bit sometimes snow arrives very early sometimes very late in the season you just can’t tell but if you hang around long enough you will no doubt get days where there’s so much snow you can’t see your skis or board at all while skiing in it just make sure that 
you have plenty of leg energy left to enjoy it so pace yourself so that
you can enjoy good days like this lastly here’s a fun fact Rusutsu actually has a
full amusement park operating in summer only for winter well the park isn’t open but you can actually ski or snowboard your way over there to get a surreal photo of yourself with the snow covered rides anyway enough about skiing let’s move on to the next topic uh guys do you know what time it is it’s time for before you head there here’s a few extra tips
to help plan for your trip to Rusutsu number one lift tickets Rusutsu’s website has many 
options for lift tickets but the most unique one is probably the one that is
based on hours rather than day namely the 5-Hour ticket and the 25-hour ticket the 5-Hour ticket is a day only ticket time starts ticking when you tap it for the first time on the day say you tap it at 9:00 a.m. in the morning your ticket will be valid until 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon you can’t use it again the next day the 25-hour ticket however is a multi-day ticket meaning you can use those hours
over as many days over the entire season as you need one major advantage of the 25-hour ticket is that it is deducted in 1 hour increment meaning your first tap of the day
will result in just 1 hour deducted off your ticket and in that 1 hour you can basically 
use as many lifts as you want within that 1 hour pricing wise the 25h hour makes sense if you’ll be spending three or more days at Rusutsu mind you it’s actually pretty hard
to use up the whole 25-hour ticket for us even with 5 days of skiing we weren’t able to finish the 25h hour ticket averaging 4 hours of actual deduction each day number two other things to do Rusutsu ski resort does have listings on their website for a range o
non-skiing related activities that you can do like snowmobile, horse riding, ice fishing, snow rafting etc.. we tried snowmobile which is quite fun actually provided you can keep yourself on the track if you do intend to try dog sledding we’ve been told it’s extremely popular
so you probably want to book it well in advance number three should you drive this will highly depend on whether
you’re comfortable driving on snowy roads good thing is most main roads are generally cleared of snow every day so driving on snow is fairly trouble-free however there will be days when you walk to your car and you see this rental car snowed in this morning be prepare to spend at least half an hour to dig out those snow
just to be able to get into your car to drive away it is however a fantastic option if 
you aren’t here just to ski and want to do plenty of side trips we did for example we went to Noboribetsu if you feel like
smelling a bit of stinky air visit a bear park watch a duck race visit an ice festival to conclude Rusutsu probably isn’t 
the most budget friendly option if that’s what you’re after but you’re after the famous Japan 
powder snow with trees or maybe you’re starting out
and want the convenience of a all-in-one ski resort then Rusutsu is a fantastic option it may not be the biggest but it certainly will not fail
to put some pretty big smiles on most people’s faces until the next video have a great holiday

Join us to take a look at Rusutsu Ski Resort, where we stayed at 2 different accommodations and skiied all areas including their famous off piste tree rus.

VIDEO Timeline
0:00 Epic Intro
1:19 Why Rusutsu?
3:26 Where is it?
7:20 Where to stay?
12:38 Where to ski?
18:42 Last Tips + Conclusion

HOTELS WE STAYED AT
Vale Rustsu – https://www.thevalerusutsu.com
Experience R – https://www.experiencesapporo.com/expr/en/

USEFUL LINKS
Rusutsu Trail Map – https://rusutsu.com/en/trail-map/
Non-Ski Related Activites – https://rusutsu.com/en/winter-activities/
Ski School – https://rusutsu.com/en/international-ski-lessons/

DRIVING DESTINATIONS
Noboribetsu – https://g.co/kgs/d4bmhdp
Noboribetsu Bear Park – https://g.co/kgs/STs4qqN
Chitose and Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival = https://www.sapporo.travel/en/event/event-list/lake-shikotsu-ice-festival/