Our family of four adults ventured to Hakuba in February to find a tonne of snow, some great skiing and a couple of crazy hidden bars. Japan is fast becoming the go-to destination for Australian (and American, Chinese, Russian, and Malaysian) skiers and for snow quality and ski ticket price it is hard to beat. We had been to Niseko, in off season a few years earlier and loved it (see my post on this trip here) and thought we’d give Hakuba Valley a try to celebrate a special family birthday.

Hakuba highlights

• Hakuba has long been lauded as an amazing ski destination as you get ten different resorts with 135 lifts and over 200 runs between them. So, for variety it certainly gets a big tick
• The fresh snow is another bonus – you’re pretty much guaranteed to get some fresh while you are in Hakuba Valley – especially at Cortina.
• There are some cute quirky Japanese things like the foot onsen as you walk to the gondola at Tsugaike, the snow sculpture trail at Iwitake, and the bakery with insane views and cinnamon scrolls.
• The sit-on-the-floor-and-cook-your-own-meal experience at O.B Okonomayaki in Echoland
• The ubiquitous vending machines selling everything you can imagine (one of which is the entrance to a secret bar !)

Hakuba low-lights

• Accessibility is an issue at Hakuba. The ski resorts, the onsens, the supermarket, the train station are all spread out along a 25-kilometre-long highway and the only way to reach them is a very long walk, booking a pick up or catching a bus.
• Hiring a car is an issue as you have to pick it up a long way out, fix chains, be happy to drive in blizzards and to dig your car out most mornings.
• There is no real ski village.  Echoland comes closest, but it is very small and not near a ski mountain. The ski mountains each have a resort at their base, but little vibe.
• There are three different bus lines, you have to buy tickets from different places, then queue for a long time to squeeze onto a tiny minibus in all your ski gear – we barely fit.

Where to stay in Hakuba Valley

We stayed at Hakuba Brownie Cottages, a 2 Bedroom Villa with a bunk room with 4 beds in a roof Loft. It was super cosy and quiet and had a sauna with ice-barrels perfect for getting the ache out of skier’s legs.  It was only a short walk to the centre of Echoland, which is Hakuba’s most lively village. There’s the ubiquitous hidden bar here – Hint: you’ll find it if you have a hankering for a pack of ciggies from one of those old-fashioned cigarette vending machines!

There’s also a couple of good restaurants – our fav was the tiny but delicious B.O.S Okonomiyaki – which as the name suggests serves the best Japanese pancakes which you fry yourselves on a hot plate. We also like the Cherry Pub. As with all things in Hakuba, you have to book your restaurants a week or more ahead.

Our friends based themselves at Happo-One (which held the 1998 winter Olympics) which is a god option as you can walk to the lift to ski Happo One and you get fairly quick access to Hakuba 47 but there’s very little in the way of a village here and only a couple of restaurants. They do have a massive, 1,000-year-old sacred Japanese cedar located at the Hosono Suwa Shrine. We walked up to see the tree after dinner with our friends and gave the gentle giant a gentle nod of respect.

You can also stay at the base of the Cortina in the famous green, red and white hotel or at an upscale chalet in Wadano-no-mori. Both are fairly isolated and very quiet at night.

Hakuba Ski areas

We had the Ikon pass so we could ski at any of the resorts for 5 days without buying a ticket which was great value. Whilst Japanese ski tickets are a lot less than Australia or America – we always try to go to a place on our current pass.

Our favourite ski area was Cortina – we had two massive dumps and despite the 45+ min bus ride each way, it definitely had the best snow.  I also really liked Iwatake for the bakery and Happo One for the views.

• Happo One – (Pronounced Happo Onay) biggest resort, longest runs, sweeping views
• Iwatake – bakery with views, igloos, cute vibe and some great 360-degree views, a more relaxed atmosphere, and underrated tree skiing.
• Cortina – massive red, green and white hotel at the base plus the best powder snow and tree skiing
• Hakuba 47 – closest to Echoland and some good, advanced runs up top and some great north facing powder runs
• Tsugaike Mountain Resort: Renowned for very wide, gentle slopes, making it a paradise for beginners.  As you walk up to the base of the main gondola lift, there is a free, steaming hot ashiyu (onsen foot bath) located right at the entrance.

And these 5 which we didn’t get to:

• Able Hakuba Goryu: – shorter more beginner runs but holds the snow late and has night skiing 
• Hakuba Norikura Onsen Snow Resort: Next to Concertina, this is a quieter place with good beginner-intermediate terrain.
• White Resort Hakuba Sanosaka: Known for its beautiful lake views and gentle slopes.
• Kashimayari Snow Resort: Located further south, it provides good family options.
• Jigatake Snow Resort: A small, low-angle resort, ideal for absolute beginners

Getting to Hakuba

There’s two ways to get from Tokyo airport to Hakuba – the bus (6 hours must book ahead) or the train (3 hours) or if you’re happy to splash some cash you can get a Nagano Snow shuttle – which takes about 5 hours.  We took the train because the bus was booked out and it was a nightmare with ski bags, boot bags and luggage to negotiate the three different connections required to get to the bus that takes you into the last part of Hakuba.