Can a ski concierge solve all of your Japan ski trip dilemmas?

Planning a trip to Japan can be overwhelming, especially if you have a group or a family with different needs.

Questions that often come up when people are planning a trip to Japan are:

What’s a family-friendly resort where I can take my family to learn but I can get some challenging runs in?
Where can I get English-speaking group lessons?
How can I get away from the crowds and see the real Japan?
I want to go to these resorts but I don’t want to drive. Are the buses reliable?
What’s a good resort in Japan where non-skiers have other things to do?
I’m going to Japan in two weeks. What’s a good ski-in ski-out hotel?

It’s normal to try to plan a trip to Japan in the same way that you usually plan. You naturally look for things like ski-in-ski-out and try to avoid the normal pain points like driving and parking. You might also ignore things that are a given in the US, Australia and Europe, but aren’t in Japan, such as group lessons.

It’s important to realise that Japan doesn’t work the same way. There are resorts that are great for families and have English-speaking instructors, but lessons can be shockingly expensive or the resorts are in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to do when you aren’t skiing or snowboarding. Or, they have very limited terrain to keep other members of the family entertained. You might be looking for a cultural experience and find that a resort was purpose-built in the 1990 and has no real history.

Even when you find the perfect resort that meets all of your needs, you then discover that it’s fully booked 11 months in advance because everyone else is looking for the same things.

Because of their experiences in Europe and the US, many people I talk to with a family feel like their only option in Japan is to pay for ski-in-ski-out luxury and stay as close as possible to the slopes in Hakuba, Niseko, Kiroro or Nozawa Onsen. Otherwise, they fear the trip would become a logistical nightmare. But dropping tens of thousands on a Japan trip isn’t necessary. You can book a trip that’s value for money and ticks all the boxes. You just need to give up on the idea that closer is better when you’re in Japan.

One solution to this problem is to hire a vehicle and stay in a town away from the resorts, but I understand why people are resistant to this. It can become more hassle than it’s worth if you’ve got kids in tow. You might be worried about traffic, being forced to park miles from the base area, difficult driving conditions, getting lost on mountain roads, and even getting stuck or putting your family at risk if you aren’t used to snowy conditions. Driving is actually fine in Japan, and I fully recommend it for groups of friends who want to make the most of their trip, but for families, it’s not always the best choice.

A better solution is a ski concierge. This little-known service is when a ski school company takes care of all of the ski trip logistics for you. They organise your rentals, pick you up from your hotel, take you to the resort, conduct your lessons or take you on a backcountry tour, then take you back to your hotel in the evening. You get all the convenience that comes with a full-service, all-inclusive resort, but you get to spend your evenings in a real Japanese city rather than being trapped in a mega-hotel complex and the limited terrain of one resort. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice for a few days, but it can be a little over-sanitised, and it keeps you away from the interesting family-owned businesses, local people and a wider variety of ski resorts.

Otaru – the “real Japan” in western Hokkaido

I’ve covered using Otaru as a base for exploring the nearby ski resorts before here. In this article, I want to show why it’s such a great choice for saving money on a multi-generational family trip and a great way to experience more of the real Japan.

Otaru Adventure is the only company in Otaru offering a ski concierge service. They solve all the common problems I discussed above. You don’t have to commit yourself to a single resort and ski-in-ski-out accommodation just because you have kids. You can ski at a different resort each day, and your kids can use the same rental equipment and continue their development with the same instructors. You could even fit in a few backcountry laps while your kids are taken care of, then meet up afterwards for some family skiing.

Then in the evening, you can enjoy the city, stay in a bigger hotel room for a fraction of the price, eat at different restaurants, do some shopping and pay local prices instead of resort prices. You could also skip dedicated time in Tokyo or Sapporo and enjoy days off between skiing days if you want.

Otaru Adventure can also organise activities like a farm visit to Margo’s Garden where you can do horse riding, goat petting, snowshoeing and other activities. Of course, lessons with a ski concierge are a significant cost, but lessons are very expensive in Japan anyway. With a concierge service, you’ll save money on resort accommodation and food or car hire. If you add up the savings, a concierge quickly makes sense. You also get to delegate the often stressful responsibility of planning and enjoy your trip. You just get up, eat your breakfast and someone else with local knowledge has already got the plan mapped out for the day to find the best powder or avoid the winds. You can’t really put a price on that.

Otaru City

Otaru has a lot going for it. It’s a seaside port, and the former administrative capital of Hokkaido, so it has history and old-world grandeur. It’s close enough to Sapporo for a day trip (40 minutes on the train), it’s surrounded by ski resorts, but it hasn’t really been fully discovered (or overrun) yet by the international ski crowd. It’s busy enough to feel alive in the evenings and there’s definitely competition for restaurants at peak season, but it’s a big enough city.

Otaru Canal. Image: Hoshino Resorts

It’s not a ski town as such and it has plenty of year-round residents who don’t care about skiing or snowboarding. Although Otaru does have OMO5 Otaru by Hoshino Resorts – an excellent skier- and snowboarder-friendly hotel with staff trained to give advice on the local resorts, a drying room and waxing station.

Large rooms with two kingsize beds at OMO5 Otaru by Hoshino Resorts. Image: Hoshino Resorts

It’s a proper Japanese city with all of the restaurants, bars, onsen, ryokans, karaoke, temples, museums, artisan stores, ¥100 shops and everything you expect from Japan, including amazing fresh sushi at very reasonable prices. If you’ve ever stayed at a ski resort in Japan or a tiny town near a resort and found yourself in bed by 8pm because there’s nothing to do, you will know that the things that you expect to find in Japan aren’t always available in ski towns. A real city is much more fun.

Our Tour

We gave Otaru Adventure a bit of a logistical challenge. A group of seven, including a child, adult beginners, as well as more experienced skiers and snowboarders. We wanted to visit the farm, then spend an afternoon at Kiroro resort, with lessons for the beginners and a day on the hill for the rest of the group, followed by dinner back at the farm before returning to our two different hotels in Otaru.

We were picked up early in town and brought to Margo’s Garden farmstay, a 35-minute drive south along the 393 on the way to Kiroro. We were greeted in the car park by the staff with a group of friendly horses and ponies. Five of our group set off for a very leisurely ride through the snow-covered forest, with the horses stopping to hunt for green shoots of grass buried within the snow.

Margo’s garden has ponies for kids and horses for adults

Margo’s garden has ponies for kids and horses for adults. Image: Jamie O’Brien

We then all met up to visit the goats. It’s a working farm and the goats milk is used to drink and make cheese. They also produce plum wine, rear chickens and grow vegetables, making every effort to be self-sustainable. They call it “the snowiest farm in the world”. The goats are very cute, and it’s well worth a visit even if you don’t have children.

Goat petting at Margo’s Garden is a unique experience on a ski trip

Goat petting at Margo’s Garden is a unique experience on a ski trip. Image: Jamie O’Brien

After, we were whisked off to Kiroro ski resort, just a 10-minute drive away. Those who needed hire equipment were set up with gear that had been brought along based on providing our sizes over email, and after a light lunch, we were all on our way.

Lessons are usually provided on a private group basis, so if there are vast differences in ability, then you’ll need to book multiple instructors. We had two beginners, but it was clear that one was learning much quicker than the other. After some group tuition, one adult learner was left to work on their basic skills on the baby slope while the other lapped the green runs with the instructor.

Our instructor was super-friendly and happy to do whatever it took to look after our little one while the others enjoyed the resort. Kiroro is an amazing resort, but in my opinion, it’s better not to stay there. You can read my full review of Kiroro here: Why Kiroro is Probably the Best Destination Resort in Asia for a Day Trip.

Deep untouched powder in backcountry at Kiroro. Image: Aron Tarjani

As the sun started to go down, we were taken back to the farm for a look around the farm store, drinks by the fire and a wonderful dinner made with produce from the farm. We also had a tour of the farm’s accommodation. It’s a unique place to stay. They have hotel rooms in the barn as well as freestanding yurts and tiny homes.

Otaru Adventure offers private lessons for up to six people per instructor, backcountry tours, powder guiding, and adult snowboard group lessons (which are very hard to find in Japan with English instructors). They cover Kiroro, Otaru Tenguyama, Kokusai, Asari and Onze, but some services are restricted to certain resorts. The concierge service is included in the price and subject to availability. Check their website or get in touch for full details.

We had a great day with Otaru Adventure and it was the perfect way for our group to spend part of the day together rather than spread out on a mountain doing our own things. If you’re planning on splurging on an all-inclusive family ski trip to protect your sanity, before you do please check the numbers against an Otaru Adventure’s ski concierge service and a stay in Otaru.