Itoigawa Otelleri

The hotel is located in Xiaogu Village, and it is very convenient to enter and exit the ski resort. However, you need to transfer multiple times to get to the hotel, so it is a good choice to stay for a few more days once you arrive and feel comfortable before leaving. It's very convenient to stay with the whole family, and the large bathhouse is also very good. There are relatively few choices in the hotel's restaurants, and you will get bored after eating there for a few days.

We stayed here as part of a Tripadeal Aus package and it was a classic - “you get what you pay” for experience. Hotel is definitely mid range but room sizes were ok. We stayed in a fusion Western / Japanese room with 2 singles and 2 futons on tatami mats which was fine. Smoking and smell of smoke was a bit of an issue as doors to the smoking room and karaoke lounge were left open most of the time.. so the whole place smelled. Hotel staff tried to help by offering us some scented spray and were friendly and accommodating enough (shout out to Otomo San who was very helpful through our whole trip) but the cigarette smell was bad. Being on the northern side of the valley, the hotel backs onto Hakuba Norikura Onsen and the trails were great for young ones and beginners and being ski in and out, was ideal. But you are bus rides from everything and other parts of the Valley like Happo, Tsugaike (next village) or Cortina Limited food but hotel breakfast buffet was ok but Japanese style with some mix of Western (croissants and sweet bread). We chose to eat Dinner at a local family run place instead (see other review) which was not far from hotel - walkable. Lunch at the Snow drops cafeteria outside the hotel was cheap and locally exceptional.. one of the positives. Our passes as part of the hotel deal was limited to Norikura and didn’t allow us to ski across to Cortina (fine print stuff - where as a normal Day pass should allow you to ski both of you bought it locally) or buy a Hakuba Valley pass which gives you access to all the resorts. In hindsight, we should’ve just invested in a Epic pass in Oz in 19/20 which would’ve gave us 5days skiing. Ski gear rental offered by the hotel was also pretty average with very old gear (I’m talking 10-15+ yrs old) and definitely not up to scratch if you’re expecting new-ish stuff.. we ended up organising our gear through another place in the Echoland village (see separate review) which was great. There is a luggage delivery service which was helpful to send our bags back to the airport without having to lug them around all over Japan and the trains. Hotel onsen was the saving grace and great to have it just “upstairs” after the end of the day and is segregated. All in all probably just ok.. but we stayed here for the “value” deal and local experience.

The guest house suited next to the Jade coast where u can find different types of rocks and minerals include Jade! for using train, u need to change from Tomari station, limited schedule during afternoon. But prefect for those love quiet! The host couple very very nice even cannot speak English, they use google translate to communicate with me. The dinner and bfast an absolutely surprise! The dinner set with sushi crab hot pot rice tempura ….. The room is traditional Tatami with ocean view. Love this and sure come back!