Review: Hilton Niseko Village Japan

Niseko

Niseko is a small village in Hokkaido surrounded by pure nature and the mount Annupuri. Niseko is basically a base town for the popular ski resort Niseko Grand Hirafu. In winter Niseko is crowded with people but in Summer many places are closed as only a few hikers, cyclists and nature lovers usually visit at that time.

Ski trial map of Niseko only

One of the Gondolas near the Hotel

Mount Yotei View

Location

The hotel is located right next to the Niseko Gondola station which makes the location perfect for a ski trip. Besides that, nothing but an adventure park with a small complex including a couple of shops and one restaurant is within walking distance of the hotel. As the hotel shuttle to the towns around the resort runs very infrequently, you have to use your own car or a taxi if you want to leave the hotel and visit something else, like a restaurant to dine out.

Resort Building

Adventure park adjacent to the hotel

Room

Our room itself was very spacious. You have a nice big King size bed, a seating area, lots of storage room, a TV, all kind of amenities and probably the most wonderful view I ever had from a Hotel room.

But there was a very big downside which was the bathroom. As you can see in the pictures, the bathroom including a small sink, a bathtub and a toilet was tiny an also optically was not up to the standard of a 4 star resort. Especially considering the in-house onsen, I don’t understand why they didn’t install a walk-in shower. For a short stay like we had the small bathroom was no problem, but I can imagine when your are here a week for skiing it can become really annoying.

View from the room’s entrance

In-room sink

King bed

Tiny bathroom

In-room coffee machine

Room commands

Food & Drinks

The Hilton Niseko has a total of 4 different restaurants and 3 bars. However in summer only the main restaurant with the small bar is open. You still have a small selection of all the other restaurants available here, which is good enough. It would be a good idea to advise the guests that even with all the other restaurants closed you still have the possibility to choose from a variety of foods. We didn’t know that until arriving at the restaurant.

We dined and had breakfast at the main restaurant. As dinner we choose a 7 course japanese menu which was fabulous. The best thing however was their huge breakfast with all kinds of different items to choose from.It is nice to see that they offer such a great breakfast experience even in summer.

Dinner – Sashimi Course

Dinner – Crab

Staff

The staff was very friendly and attentive. Only the person checking us in seemed no to be up to date with all the information as he pointed out to us that the shuttle to Niseko station will no be available at our desired time but that a taxi is always waiting in front of the hotel. The day after, upon checking out, luckily the very competent concierge pointed out that in 10 minutes the shuttle will drive towards Niseko station and that a taxi would need around 15 minutes to arrive at the hotel. Thanks again to the helpful concierge who also gave us good advise on the available hiking tours around the hotel.

Upon arrival, due to the Hilton Gold status we got a one category room upgrade.

In our room, one of the drawers definitely was not cleaned because notes of a previously family were still lying around in it.

Other services

The hotel is offering free Wlan for all Honors members (so you just have to sign up for the program).

They have a small spa where you can book traditional japanese massages. We booked one, they are on the pricy side but we can highly recommend the experience.

A fitness center is also available. It is on the small side for such a huge resort, but everything is available. Only problem was that a lot of things were out of service, like all TV screens on the machines, the only available bicycle and one of the runners.

A small shop where you can buy amenities, souvenirs, food as well as all kind of drinks is also available.

As special touch they have karaoke rooms to rent during winter.

Fitness (2 machines out of service)

Conclusion

This conclusion is a little bit harder. What can be said is that the view of the hotel is wonderful, and the location of a resort adjacent to a gondola is certainly great to do some ski.

The downside definitely is the tiny bathroom and the distant location from everything else in the area. Basically, in winter you have to choose if you want to stay in a resort with all amenities but be bound to the hotel for dining and drinks. In summer, for a day to explore the nature around the hotel it is definitely fine, for a couple of days I would recommend a hotel closer to one of towns.